A couple of months back I met with John Chier, who is the director of corporate communications at Kyocera. John was nice enough to let me play with a brand new Hydro Elite, probably a little longer than he expected. If you are not familiar with the Hydro Elite, it is a waterproof smartphone from Kyocera.
It comes in on the smaller end of the spectrum. We have been seeing some smartphones grow into phablets, but that is not the direction the Hydro Elite headed in. It has a 4.3 inch display, so you could say that it is on the “petite” side, but don’t let size fool you. There is a lot packed into this smartphone.
I tend to be a rather “touchy, feely” kind of guy. I will know and understand something better if I can see, hold it and touch it. The first thing that I have to say is that I really like the way this smartphone feels in my hand. It is designed to be a rugged device and you can tell that right away once it’s in your hand.
There is another thing that makes this a very rugged device. It is waterproof. We are talking IPX7 rating waterproof. The IP or Ingress Protection Rating classifies and rates the degree of protection provided against the intrusion of dust and water.
An IPX rating of 7 means that you can drop the Hydro Elite into one meter of water, or for people like me, that would be 3.28 feet of water, for up to 30 minutes and the device will remain dry and usable. You simply need to shake off any water droplets that are still on the device and you will have absolutely no problem with it. How do I know this? I did say that I was a touchy, feely kind of guy, so of course I tested this out. Several times in fact!
I do not want to over simplify this, but it is accomplished by the simple use of rubber gasket attached to the back cover at the proper location. This completely seals the inner workings of the smartphone.
In fact, if I’m not mistaken, I believe that the Hydro Elite earned the Bear Grylls seal of approval. Bear Grylls is the star of television’s hit new series “Get Out Alive” and the father of three active boys. So you know he’s someone who knows what he’s talking about.
Another very smart method of waterproof is to seal all of the additional openings such as the audio jack and power port with a thin rubber membrane. This completely seals the openings while at the same time allows for all the connections to be made unhindered. Eliminating the need to caps and covers over all the openings not only makes it easier but it also ensures that the device does in fact stay waterproof.
You may be asking yourself, “How many times do I drop my phone in a bathtub or sink full of water?” but keep in mind that those are the only areas with liquid. Several years back I was at my favorite bar and someone spilled a pint of Guinness on my BlackBerry Curve. Two terrible things happened that day. First, the keys on my phone stopped working and second, it was my Guinness that she spilled! So there are other instances when having a completely waterproof phone is handy. If you are not completely familiar with Kyocera, it has its origins in ceramics. It was originally the Kyoto Ceramic Company. It has not forgotten this. Instead of a traditional speaker the Hydro Elite uses Kyocera Smart Sonic Receiver technology. What exactly does this mean?
Sound is transmitted as vibrations that go directly into your eardrum. Basically this means that the entire smartphone is a speaker. Smart Sonic Receiver has been around for a while. It is a ceramic piezoelectric actuator that replaces the speaker. This allows you to hear every word of your conversation even in the noisiest of places.
While playing around with another product that I was testing, which involved wearing something along the lines of a bicycle helmet, I had no problem listening to a conversation on the Hydro Elite. The sound quality was such that I could easily carry on a conversation without having to remove the helmet.
If you want to know that the device has an eight megapixel camera with a 1.3 megapixel front camera or that it can record video at 1080p HD, you can look that up at Kyocera’s website. What I will tell you is that the quality of the pictures is outstanding and that it is very easy to take pictures.
This is a smartphone that does exactly what it is supposed to do, while feeling good at the same time. The overall phone itself has a very rugged feel to it. The back case sits very comfortably in my hand and the rounded edges add to the support.
I was impressed with the economy or Eco mode. It did actually increase the battery life. I had to charge my regular smartphone twice as often as the Hydro Elite. This is due to the fact that Eco Mode with MaxiMZR extends performance automatically by powering down noncritical functions. Considering how quickly I seem to be able to go through a battery, that is a great feature to have.
If I have one complaint it is that I would have liked the display to be a little larger. As time marches on for me, I find that I need larger things to look at so that I can still feel good about myself. But then again, that’s just me!
If you are really interested in all of the specs, then here you go:
Talk Time: Up to 13 hours
Standby Time: Up to 9.84 days or 236.21 hours
Battery Type: 2100mAh Lithium ion (Li-ion)
Display: 4.3 inch impact-resistant, capacitive touchscreen,
HD 1280 x 720 pixels
Operating System: Android™ 4.1 (Jelly Bean)
Chipset: MSM8960 dual-core 1.5GHz, QUALCOMM Snapdragon processor
Radios: CDMA 1xRTT, CDMA 1xEVDO, LTE, GSM, EDGE, UMTS, HSPA+, GPRS
Memory: 16GB ROM, 1.5GB RAM, MicroSD™ memory card slot (supports up to 32GB)
Size: 4.82 x 2.38 x .43 inches
Weight: 4.51 ounces
Media Formats:
Audio: AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, MP3, QCP(13KQCELP, EVRC), MIDI, OGG, WAV, WMA ProPlus
Video: H.263, H.264, MPEG4, WMV
Image: JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP
Edited by
Cassandra Tucker 
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