Kyocera announces military-grade Torque X01 clamshell

The smartphone industry has been quite unforgiving with clamshell phones. We're rarely in the position to report the launch of such devices these days, let alone talk about a good clamshell handset.

Kyocera is one of the companies that are not afraid to bring the past into our lives. The Japanese company has just announced the ultra-tough Torque X01 clamshell, which features Military Standard 810G certification.

MIL-STD-810G has been defined by the US Department of Defense, and the Torque X01 is compliant with 18 categories of the durability testing. On top of that, Kyocera's clamshell is certified as IPX5/IPX8 waterproof and IPX6 dustproof. Moreover, it has passed a proprietary Kyocera drop test from a height of 1.8 meters onto a steel plate and concrete.

The Torque X01 is not a smartphone, so don't expect any advanced features to come inside. The feature phone sports a rather small 3.4-inch FWVGA LCD screen, and packs a 1.1GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.

Unlike many dumb phones, Kyocera's Torque X01 comes with Wi-Fi support. It also features a 13-megapixel camera with PDAF (phase detection autofocus) and HD (720p) video recording. A microSD card slot that allows users to expand internal memory is available too.

Kyocera Torque X01 will be available starting this month in Japan, and customers will be able to choose between the silver and red colors. Since Kyocera sells its rugged handsets in the United States as well, there's always a chance to see the Torque X01 being picked by a US-based carrier.