Phones have, over the past ten years, been getting more and more attractive. Unfortunately, the leaps and bounds in product design generally haven’t been matched in physical toughness; you either treat your handset with pretty much kid-gloves, or take out expensive phone insurance that covers you in case you sit on/drive over/feed to a dog your precious mobile.

There have been a few rugged phones before, and many more pseudo-rugged who used lashings of rubber and “extreme” case stylings to give an impression of hardiness, but they’ve often been under-spec’d and just plain ugly. Sprint have obviously heard the plaintive cries of the clumsy and the dangerous, and so today they’re launching the Vision Phone SCP-7050; not only is it built to military specification 810F (which means it can withstand shock, vibration and dust) but it has onboard GPS and access to the Sprint Vision service of, amongst other things, internet access and email.
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