| Author | Message | ||
     Thumper74 |
My current phone rings when it wants to. The battery only lasts a few hours. My contract expires in a week. I'm looking for something more in a phone. I'd love a milspec/extremely rugged (waterproof or resistant, good if dropped, and able to do well in a dirty/dusty environment), GPS, bluetooth and MP3. This would be great as you could leave it in a tank bag, use the bluetooth to use the GPS and listen to music. Is there anything out there that matches this? What do you use? Do you like it? Why? | ||
| Corporatemonkey |
Rugged + GPS + BT is going to be very hard to come by. The only real rugged phones left are the nextel products. Sprint is slowly dismantling the iden network, so I would avoid them. Best bet would be to have 2 gsm phones. One full featured, and one cheap disposable phone. Whenever you head out and feel your quality phone would be damaged, just swap the SIM card into the cheap phone. If anything ever happens to the cheap phone toss it and get another. | ||
| Gentleman_jon |
Another approach that might work is to put the phone of your choice in a water proof case. Otterbox makes some highly regarded ones; Here is an armored case for the iPhone. http://www.otterbox.com/products/smart_phones/  | ||
| Thumper74 |
Actually, I was talking to MikeF5000 about the Otterboxes. The only problem that I have with them is that they have a pretty limited selection offered. Are there any other products that are as high quality as the Otterbox? | ||
| Mr1spd |
Yep double up a plastic bag. I have had good luck with razrs. My brother got a casio gzone from verizon it is a milspec phone. no mp3 player though. | ||
| Thumper74 |
Mr1spd, the gzone is what I was fondling this weekend, but the lack of an mp3 player was killing me. However, I can't seem to find one with Nav/GPS AND an mp3 player... I think flip phone portion of that one sucks, I'd like to be able to use the GPS with it stuck in my tankbag. I may end up with a BlackBerry/Palm type phone with an Otterbox. Man, I hate big phones... | ||
| T9r |
So Milspec doesn't mean w/out a camera? | ||
| Mikef5000 |
Mil spec just means it durable, and dust/shock/water resistant. It's what every cell phone should be if you ask me. My next phone will be a mil-spec phone. Hopefully there's a few more to choose from here in the next month or so. | ||
| Rick_a |
Wouldn't that be nice. My current phone blanks out if it is even slightly jarred and has pieces of broken crystal visible through the screen. I'd be happy with just an MP3 player and camera. | ||
| Djkaplan |
You can get a mil-spec cell phone... but you're probably not going to like it.  | ||
| Brumbear |
humping the old prc 25 or pricktwentyfive some of my most NONfun times | ||
| Thumper74 |
DJ, well... When I get my bags tonight, I won't have to use a backpack, I could use that. Does it have GPS and an MP3 player built in? | ||
| Smokescreen |
Mil spec just means it durable No it doesn't. It means made by the lowest bidder.  Smokescreen | ||
| Davefl |
http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/controlle r?item=phoneFirst&action=viewPhoneDetail&selectedP honeId=3405 Closest thing to what you are asking for that I know of. | ||
| Mikef5000 |
That's the phone I will be getting in a couple months. But Thumper was looking more for a PDA or bar type phone (Not clam-shell/flip-phone) with an MP3 player. | ||
| Ferris_von_bueller |
Nextel offers a Motorola phone that meets your criteria but Nextel service SUCKS | ||
| Diablobrian |
http://www.info4cellphones.com/rugged-cell-phones. html | ||
| Thumper74 |
I think I figured it out. It's more than I wanted to spend, but it seems like it would fit the bill. At first I wanted a Blackberry but there is a mandatory $30 a month fee(on top of your service provider fees) for acess to e-mail, etc. It wasn't worth it to me. I liked the Palm Treo 700wx, it's got a decent size screen, uses Windows Mobile so there's tons of support, plays MP3s, etc. In my search I stumbled on a Radio Shack employee who uses NavTech software on his phone which uses a GPS receiver mounted on the dash, where ever on the bike and relays that information to the phone via Bluetooth. We stood on the sidewalk in front of the store (6ft from road) and it was accurate enough to tell us to get to a main road before giving directions... The Palm Tero is also supported by OtterBox and they do not charge a mandatory service fee every month. |
