
Samsung M110 Solid rugged phone
Well 'ard handset for the rough 'n' ready
Review Take a look at the specifications of the new Samsung M110 and you could be forgiven for thinking that you were looking at the details for a handset made a decade ago rather than something fresh off the drawing board.
For all concerned, playing tunes and taking great snaps is absolutely not what the M110 is about. The clue is in the name, Solid. And the features reflect this: it sports a 1.5in, 128 x 128 CSTN screen, dual-band GSM/GPRS, a 0.3-megapixel camera and no music player.
Still, modernity hasn't been altogether run out of town: you do get Bluetooth, an FM radio and 2MB of on-board memory.

Samsung M110: available in 'take-a-beating black' and 'grueling green'
Built to something called Global Certification IEC 60529, the M110 is designed to be seriously dust- and water-resistant. Hence the GI Joe rubber casing, one piece keypad, rubber bungs over the power and headphones sockets, and lockable battery cover.
In the hand, the 109 x 48 x 18mm, 95g M110 does indeed feel solid and tough. The rubber coating feels durable and provides genuine impact absorbency judging by our test drops from a second story window. We were impressed that the battery cover stayed in place during this needless abuse highly scientific test.
All that matt rubberised plastic - or plasticised rubber - means the M110 can start to look a bit scruffy after a few days of hard use and it doesn't really 'polish up' too well. It also seems to attract fluff, lint and other microscopic 'curiosities', so if you're looking for a handset that keeps it's box-fresh aesthetics, this probably isn't the phone for you.
We are happy to be able to report that the M110 is most certainly more than splash-proof. One of our staff dropped it mid-conversation into a 2in-deep puddle during a downpour of near Biblical proportion. He didn't even lose the call.
COMMENTS
Good to see someone hitting this segment
I remember way back Ericsson had a phone, the R250s which was pretty rugged and integrated a PMR radio which was a nice touch.
JCB Tough Phone
JCB "Wimp Phone" more like...
I saw this phone compared to the JCB on Channel 5's "The Gadget Show"; in a series of tests they managed to destroy the JCB, but the Samsung was still working.
I'm not an outdoorsy type, nor a builder
but I still buy phones with a resistant build.
Anything else breaks the first time I throw it at something/one.
@Sam - Technical oversight
I don't follow. A campbell is 231lg and is a measurement of length.
A better question would be how many Norris can it withstand before the screen cracks or the casing breaks?
Technical oversight
The article didn't say how many Campbells it could withstand.
