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AT&T Samsung Rugby Smart Review
Our friends over at Samsung Mobile have sent us the AT&T Samsung Rugby Smart for us to review. We have already give you a hands-on with the Rugby Smart and now it comes time for our full review. AT&T and Samsung have decided to come out with a device that is both smart and rugged. This could be compared to the Verizon Wireless Casio G’z One Commando. (See Our Review By, Clicking Here.) No 4G LTE on this device, but it does have access to HSPA+ 42. It is running Android, and has some other great features. But should you go out and get this device, you will find out in our full review which begins now!
Design
The AT&T Samsung Rugby Smart is designed to be tough. The device is either rubber or plastic, being that rubber makes up the sides and the rest of the device is textured plastic. Keep in mind that the material on the outside of the device is waterproof, that is up to a certain extent. In the past tough and rugged device’s are mostly big and bulky, well the Rugby Smart changes this. It comes in at just .48 inches thick, so it is really not that bad all. It only weighs 4.4 ounces, I am very happy that they kept it light and thin. All of the ports have a sealed cover for it, be sure to close them in case you are going into the water with the device. They can be at times difficult to open, but this not a bad thing necessarily. On the top of the device you have a headphone jack that is hidden under a cover. On the left hand side you have a volume rocker, but it does have a second use as well. Holding down the part of the rocker that increase volume will turn on the LED flash. This way it can be used as a flashlight. To turn it off simply hold down the part that make the volume go higher again. This is a very cool feature, that I would love to see available on most if not all smartphones. This way you don’t have to download a separate flashlight application. On the bottom of the device you will find the micro USB port that is hidden under a door. The right hand side is home to the power/sleep button. On the back you have the 5 mega pixel camera with LED flash, speaker, Samsung logo, and the special lock and unlock key. This is used for taking the back cover, it opens easily when you use a coin like a penny or a quarter. Remember that if you ever take the back cover off, be sure to lock it again. Under the cover you will find the 1650 mAh Samsung battery and the AT&T Sim card. Above the screen you have the earpiece, AT&T logo, and a 1.3 mega pixel front facing camera. Under the display you have the 4 waterproof Android buttons, those being menu, home, back, and search. They are physical buttons, no touch buttons on this rugged smartphone. Overall, the design of the Rugby Smart seems fitting for a built-tough smartphone.
Hardware
Now, onto the hardware of the AT&T Samsung Rugby Smart. As we confirmed way back when AT&T and Samsung unveiled the device, inside it has a Single Core Application 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S2 Processor. And this device is fast and an average user will be fine with the speed. It is not as fast a Quad-Core device, but it gets the job done. It also has 512MB of RAM and HSPA+42 Speeds from AT&T. It does have a 3.7 inch Super AMOLED display, with a resolution of 480 X 800. One thing about this screen that is not good, is the fact that if it is very sunny outside, you cannot see the display at all. This may be due to the extra sheet of scratch resistant glass, that was put on top of the regular display. It has 4GB of internal storage and a micro SD slot that can hold up to a 32GB micro SD card. It has a 5 mega pixel back camera with LED flash. The camera quality is pretty good, however after being submerged in water the quality can be less than great. So, you may want to wipe off the lens before shooting after submersion in water. On the front you have a 1.3 mega pixel camera, that is perfect for taking “selfies” or video chatting on the go. The hardware in the Rugby Smart is pretty good, but if you want a top of the line device you may want to go with a higher end device.
Software
As expected the AT&T Samsung Rugby Smart is running Android 2.3 Gingerbread. I have a feeling this guy won’t be getting upgraded to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Most users will enjoy the Samsung Touch Wiz user interface. It gives you some nice new widgets, cool backgrounds, and much more. In terms of pre-loaded applications you get a good amount of applications out of the box. You get AllShare, Amazon Kindle AT&T Code Scanner, AT&T FamilyMap, AT&T Navigator, Google App Suite, Featured Apps, Facebook, Kies Air, Live TV, Media Hub, Memo, Messages, Mini Diary, Movies, Music, Music Player, myAT&T, Photo Editor, News & Weather, Qik Lite, QuickOffice, Social Hub, Task Manager, YouTube, Yellow Pages, and Voice Recorder. There is a good amount of applications out of the box, but some of the will come in handy depending on what you want to do on the phone. Particularly Media and Social hub always come in handy for setting up a way to enjoy your social network and of course for entertainment on the go. Overall, Android 2.3 Gingerbread was nice choice for the operating system on the Rugby Smart.
Toughness
The AT&T Samsung Rugby Smart is meant to be tough, it is dust proof, can survive in up to 1 meter of water for 30 minutes, handle extreme temperatures, and can handle bring dropped. We couldn’t test the dust proof feature in New Jersey, as we don’t have sandstorms. However, it is getting hotter here in Jersey and it did survive that, as well as a water test and being dropped. While in the container of water we were able to keep a phone call going, although AT&T does not guarantee service underwater. Watching a YouTube video in the water worked as well. We have dropped it a good amount of times, and it has come back working. However, we did not through it off of a 3-story building, no word on if it will survive that. This does do a lot more than a regular smartphone can do, as we know smartphone tend to break easy. The Rugby Smart is not your ordinary smartphone.
Bottom Line
If you are looking for a smartphone that is built-tough and you are on AT&T or considering the move, the AT&T Samsung Rugby Smart is a great choice. However, if you are not looking for a built-tough smartphone, I think you should look elsewhere. This way you can get a better device fit for your needs. Some of it’s best features would be the speedy 1.4GHz Dual-Core Processor, 4G HSPA+42 speed from AT&T. Android 2.3 with Samsung Touch Wiz, easy access to the flash light, and more. Now, the AT&T Samsung Rugby Smart will cost $99.99 with a 2-year contract or $449.99 with no contract. You Can Get The AT&T Samsung Rugby Smart, By Clicking Here. We would like to thank Samsung Mobile for providing us with a copy of the “AT&T Samsung Rugby Smart”.
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