What's good
- Water and dust resistant
- Easy and comfortable to use for extended periods
- Decent battery life
What's bad
- Poor viewing angles
- Slow internal and 3G speed
- Poor photo quality
As the fifth in Kyocera's Hydro line, the Hydro Plus boasts the IPx5 and IPx7 dust and waterproof ratings. These ratings mean that when the ports are properly sealed, the phone should last 30 minutes when submerged in up to 1 meter of water. Aside from this feature, the rest of it is purely a budget offering. Not surprisingly, it is made entirely of plastic with a ribbed rubber coating on the plastic cover. The textured back along with the relatively small dimensions of 4.53 x 2.44 x 0.5 inches made it easy for reviewers to grip and use one-handed.
The 3.5-inch HVGA IPS screen has a very low resolution of 480x320 and, unsurprisingly, a low pixel density of 165ppi. As expected, experts di d notice that images looked very coarse and whites appeared speckled and grainy. Viewing angles were also sub-par and critics noticed that it was worse in direct sunlight, washing out colors with even the slightest tilt.
Performance-wise the Hydro Plus only offers the most basic specs: 1 GHz single-core processor, 512MB of RAM and 2GB of internal storage. As expected, it isn't the fastest phone on the market. While reviewers had no issue doing basic tasks like opening the app drawer, they noticed significant delay during other tasks like launching the camera or play games. The major disappointment for them, however, was the slow download speed on the 3G network. It took them over half an hour to download a game over 3G and nearly 30 seconds to load basic web pages. The battery, while relatively small, managed to last experts around a day of moderate usage due mainly to the low resolution screen and weak processor.
In the same vein, the rear 3.2MP camera understandably yielded unimpressive results. Experts experienced a fair amount of digital noise, graininess and blurred edges though they add that objects were easy to make out and sharper in good lighting. Video was equally mediocre as they struggled with focusing issues while recording.
Despite its low price experts still have a hard time recommending it to consumers. It's waterproof feature might attract potential buyers, but CNET states, "its slow internal and data speeds make it a drag to operate…you'll still get a device that performs better than the Hydro Plus and still have money left over."
What the Critics Are Saying...
- Lynn La, CnetThough the Kyocera Hydro Plus is an inexpensive water-resistant phone with an included music service, skip it for better and even cheaper splash-proof alternatives.
Prices (Where to Buy)
Common Questions
We've got you covered! Download a free PDF copy of the Kyocera Hydro Plus user manual here.
Kyocera backs up the Hydro Plus with a 1 Year parts & labour warranty.
If your Hydro Plus has problems and is still within its warranty period, you could contact Kyocera support or the retailer you purchased the phone from. You'll find Kyocera's contact information here. If your phone is off warranty and needs repair for a physical problem such as a broken screen or bad battery, you should visit an authorized service centre or a local phone repair shop. You can also connect with others in The Informr Community Forum to find and share answers to questions.
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