JCB builds Android blower for brickies
Construction gets tough
JCB has dabbled with mobile phones before, generally offering rugged handsets with limited capabilities. But with the world cementing interest in smartphones, the company has finally chiselled its first Android blower, the Toughphone Pro-Smart.
While the digger maker did team with Motorola for a JCB version of the Defy Plus, it ventures into the market alone this time, taking smartphone ruggedness to the max with iP67-rated waterproofing, shock protection, and resistance to both dust and dirt.
Ah, the joys of working on a building site.
The Toughphone Pro-Smart runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread on an 800MHz processor. Fairly standard specs follow, including a 3.2in touchscreen display and 5Mp camera, although with a 2000mAh battery, users should be able to pick up the phone and wolf whistle their friends and family all day.
If that's something you dig, then the JCB Toughphone Pro-Smart is available unlocked on Clove for £310. ®
COMMENTS
If you can't wash concrete off the touch screen under a tap, this won't last long in many brickies arse crack.
IP67
If it really is IP67 then you will be able to wash it under the tap.
A large section of the smartphone market ignored
Anyone who has been caught in the deluges in Singapore, Malaysia or elsewhere in the Indochina region that they call monsoons but in reality have more in common with a shower turned on full blast will appreciate this type of handset / cell.
With 'cheap' iPhone replacement Motherboards damaged by water costing the best part of $400, anything that offers protection against rain is welcome. I remember a Panasonic water proof unit along with one from Sony-Ericson that sold very well out here.
There's something detracting about someone fishing a iPhone out of a plastic bag to answer a call, and that's when you have found shelter to do even that it.
The soaking quality of these downpours that can happen without notice, means that almost all clothing is useless for protection of personal electronics.
Perfect for gigs!
My mate bought one for when go to heavy metal gigs in London clubs! It's perfect when you find your phone accidentally being kicked around and covered in beer on the floor of some dingy live music dive!
