Sprint has recently released information concerning their new Android 4.0 smartphone, the Kyocera Torque, and its availability for purchase on the Sprint network.

Not only does this phone tote a 1.2 GHz Snapdragon processor, 4G LTE connectivity, 5-megapixel camera and 4 GB of storage, but its rugged safety features will guarantee that this smartphone lives through significant wear and tear. With water, dust, and even shockproof features, this phone can survive numerous different situations that an outgoing outdoorsman could put it through. In fact, you could dunk this phone in water for 30 minutes and it would still come out working just as well as when you first bought it.

However, this rugged design takes away from the outward appearance of the phone. Of course with the rugged design features of this phone, superficiality is a small price to pay when you are being rewarded with such a “life-proof” device. Adding to its already extensive list of incredible features, this smartphone sports a 4-inch WVGA screen, making for an easy to read display. Additionally, the phone features what is known as Smart Sonic Receiver Technology, allowing one to make phone calls and receive crystal clear sound even in the most noisy and disruptive environments.

It has not been revealed when this phone will come on the market, but some early estimates indicate that it will be released sometime in mid to late February. Needless to say, many are anxious to get their hands on this rugged and multifunctional device. Do you like the idea of having a near-indestructible device? Should more manufacturers focus on making devices with better structural integrity? Let us know in the comments below.

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As expected, Sprint is now offering the dual-screen Kyocera Echo to the Sprint customers in the US. The dual 3.5-inch WVGA touchscreens are obviously going to use alot of power, but when you’ve got two screens and your best bud has only one, who’s worried about battery life? Right? Although the specs say you should get seven hours of talk-time, that’s not going to be a whole lot of media and gaming action combined with that 1GHz QSD8650 Snapdragon processor.

Kyocera’s “Simul-Task Mode” is a feature that allows a seperate app to be displayed on each of the screens. Obviously since it’s still in its infancy, there’s not going to be a whole lot of support out there yet. But it’s nice to know the SDK is out in the wild and allowing developers to create dual-screen support for the apps. What kind of adoption this will get is a guess, and your guess is as good as mine. It may just be a novelty item, but Kyocera is definitely taking a shot at standing out in the crowded smartphone world.

You can grab an 8GB Echo with 5-megapixel camera, 720p video support for $199 on a two-year plan from Sprint.

[Sprint]

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Early last month, we caught the official word about the Kyocera Echo. It’s kind of like a Nintendo DS, except both displays are touchscreens and it just so happens to be an Android smartphone to boot. Now, you can preorder the device.

Sprint is now accepting pre-orders on the double-screened wonder and you should expect to have it in your hands on or around April 17. They’re calling for a cool two hundred bucks on a two-year contract, after you deal with that pesky $100 mail-in rebate too.

Given the push toward slim and sleek devices, I’m not convinced that people will want a double-screener like the Kyocera Echo, but the bigger (combined) real estate (4.7-inches) could help bridge the gap between smartphone and tablet. Too bad there’s no 4G and no Gingerbread for this, but at least you get some Snapdragon action.

[Read]

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The initial form factor will look familiar to many people. In its “closed” form, you get access to a single 3.5-inch WVGA touchscreen. The landscape slide can pop open, though, revealing not a hardware QWERTY keyboard or dedicated gaming controls, but instead another 3.5-inch WVGA touchscreen.

What’s interesting is that you can operate the two displays independently or you can combine them to make an oversized 4.7-inch “integrated display.” The former sounds like a cool idea for multitasking, whereas the latter is better suited to the “optimized mode” where you use an “optimized app” to fill both screens. Maybe the bottom screen can be a virtual QWERTY keyboard while the top screen keeps showing your Facebook or e-mail, for example.

Aside from the dual displayness, the Kyocera Echo is pretty middle of the road as far as specs. There’s Android 2.2, Sprint 3G (no 4G love yet), 5MP cam, 720hp HD recording, Snapdragon QSD8650 1GHz processor, 1GB memory, and stereo Bluetooth 2.1+EDR.

In a sea of Android smartphones that look stunningly similar to one another, it’s good to see someone brave enough to go way out there. The stumbling block, I’d imagine, is getting enough devs to fiddle with the SDK to create these “optimized” apps. That and a “Kyocera” is still a hard sell compared to Apple, HTC, or Samsung.

Look for it “this spring” for $199.99 on a two-year contract. More info can be found at EchoByKyocera.com.

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Not much is known about this phone aside from the fact that it’s coming to Sprint and it’s made by Kyocera. The smartphone depicted here is not the Echo; I believe it’s a Kyocera-branded version of the Sanyo Zio, which is already sold through Sprint. They are saying that this is an “industry first” announcement, though, so it’ll be interesting to see how the Echo differentiates itself from the Motos, Samsungs, and HTCs of the world.

A Sprint event is scheduled for later today in Times Square in New York and it’ll be accompanied by David Blaine. Maybe with some of his magical powers, he can help propel Sprint a little higher than third place nationwide?

[BWeek]

UPDATE: It seems that the Kyocera Echo will have dual 3.5-inch touchscreens, allowing you to drag items from one screen to the other.

UPDATE #2: The Kyocera Echo has been formally announced by Sprint. $199.99 on contract.

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Looking at these new Virgin Mobile plans, the $25 unlimited plan will give you unlimited text, unlimited email, unlimited data, and unlimited web. That’s a lot of Twitter updates and YouTube videos! The downside is that the $25 plan only comes with 300 anytime minutes.

If you’re the kind of person who tends to chat a little more than that, you can bump up to the $40 a month plan. It’ll give you the same unlimited features, but you get 1200 anytime minutes. For truly unlimited, there’s the $60 plan with unlimited minutes. BlackBerry users, for whatever reason, are on the hook for a $10 premium on any of these three plans.

I don’t talk much, so the $25 unlimited “Beyond Talk” plan sounds awfully appealing. I wonder if they’ll be offering anything similar to Canada.

On a related note, three new phones should be launching with Virgin Mobile soon too. There’s the LG Rumor Touch ($150), the Kyocera Loft ($70), and the BlackBerry Curve 8530 ($300).

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Kyocera Zio Android Smartphone

The phenomenon may have started with a single handset from HTC, but the world of Google Android has really started to hit the ground running with support from several other major manufacturers. Likely approaching the more affordable end of the scale is the newly revealed Kyocera Zio M6000.  No relation to an Italian uncle.

It has been some time since we have seen something from Kyocera, but it seems that the company who shares a joint venture with Sanyo is prepared to re-enter the smartphone market. In recent years, they stayed focused largely on budget-minded handsets for so-called “second-tier” wireless carriers in Canada and the United States. The idea was to offer decent features, but at an even lower price.

More likely than not, the Kyocera Zio M6000 will continue with this kind of trend, but it’ll toss in the smartphone goodness that Google Android brings to the table. The spec sheet includes a 3.5″ WVGA touchscreen display, 3G CDMA, 3.2MP camera, Qualcomm MSM7227 600MHz processor, Bluetooth, WiFi, and a Nexus One-esque trackball.

The phone will ship with Android 1.6, from what we can gather, but they note that it is upgradeable to Android 2.1. There is no physical keyboard, following in the touchscreen-only interface that we’ve come to expect from the iPhone, HTC Hero, and Samsung Galaxy.

The expectation is that the Kyocera Zio M6000 will sell for somewhere between $169 and $216, representing the lowest price point for a phone of this ilk. That’s the sans-contract price, folks. Subsidized, you could be looking at an Android phone for free!

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The interesting design of the phone is not the clamshell formfactor, but the mirrored keypad that glows backed by an OLED display. It has a full internal QWERTY keyboard, 2.6-inch display, 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, GPS and MicroSD card support for up to 16GB.

The $129.99 price is with no-contract and a $50 a month package (excluding taxes) and free shipping from www.boostmobile.com. Best Buy, RadioShack, Target and Walmart will get it in the next few weeks.

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