The Samsung Rugby Smart from AT&T: A Rugged Android Phone Review

As I held the Samsung Rugby Smart from AT&T, I couldn't help but notice its solid feel. The phone feels hard and durable, with a rugged design that's perfect for outdoor enthusiasts or anyone who wants a phone that can withstand rough handling. But let's take a closer look at this phone to see if it lives up to its promise.

As we'll go over the phone in just a second again, inside you have the standard paperwork and your USB charger and cord. So, we'll push that off to the side for now and focus on the phone itself. All right, here we are with the phone - it's just booting up. You've got a 3.7-inch Super AMOLED screen, which is a bit of an odd size considering the current trend towards larger screens. The resolution is 800 by 480 pixels, which isn't bad but feels a bit cramped compared to some other phones on the market.

But what really caught my attention was the camera - and not just because it's a five-megapixel camera. You've got these nice sort of hardware buttons that are actually pretty good quality, feeling like rubber as they click into place. And let's not forget the five-megapixel camera on the back, which is a bit disappointing considering the camera market has moved on to better things. There's also a little screwdriver kind of hole that locks the thing in place or the actual battery cover - once you remove that, you can pop out the battery.

As we take a closer look at the phone, we've got a plastic shell with a tough button underneath it. The battery is relatively small, with no milliamp hour rating on it, but I believe it's a 1650 milliamp hour battery - not too bad. However, I didn't find the battery life to be that great during my testing. And if you look closely, there's a little water that seemed to snuck into the phone - not good.

Moving on to some of the software, we'll just unlock the phone now and see what we're working with. It's running Android 2.3 Gingerbread, which is a bit old by now but still functional. The processor is pretty snappy, and the screen is responsive. However, I found the screen to be a bit too small for me during my test - mainly because I would do things like play games on it, and found that it was actually hard to draw on the screen accurately as opposed to on even the iPhone or other devices.

In terms of photography, the five-megapixel camera took okay photos with some bluish tint. The actual HD video it shoots 720p HD video didn't turn out too great either - but hey, at least it's better than nothing! And the galaxy S2 which shoots 1080p video is still a better option for me. But what really sets this phone apart is its rugged design.

Let's take a quick look at the Samsung Rugby Smart from AT&T in action. Okay now we've got the rugby smart back here in the backyard - let's see if it uh survives a couple drops again. See ya, we'll do a little pavement around looks like it's still good a little scuffed up but uh let's see what we can do in other tests.

What's up guys? I took a trip down to the Jersey boardwalk that's the fun town pier to see if the Rugby Smart can withstand the sand and water as a sometimes surfer that's pretty important. Where to go, let's dig it up - it's like uh so far so good a little sandy but it's not getting in the keys at all I'll get it wet here's the water - okay now the rugby smart can withstand up to three meters of water for a half hour. So something like this shouldn't be a problem at all for it.

Dunking the phone into some water, into a water glass, and everything, really it had no problem other than that little amount of water we saw when I took off the battery cover - not sure how that got there but you know overall the phone has held up very well. So anybody looking for a really solid rugged phone that doesn't sacrifice too much in terms of features this is definitely a solid choice.

But again, this is Todd Hazelton with Technobuffalo.com

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's up everyone this is todd hazelton with technobuffalo.com today we're going to check out the samsung rugby smart i've actually had it for about two weeks now i took it tested it and now i'll actually do the unboxing so you can see the phone and the cool part about this part is that i'm actually going to show you the phone after i went through the rugged tests you'll see there's not too much damage done to it quickly let's get started quick look at the box it's a hspa plus device not actually 4g lte as you might imagine 5 megapixel camera here's the phone itself again it's already been through the rugged test so not too bad looking it's got this nice kind of etched back it's not metal but uh it's definitely hard feels solid and then you get this rubbery sides we'll go over the phone in just a second again inside you have the standard paperwork and your usb charger and cord so we'll push that off to the side let's get into the phone itself all right here we are with the phone it's just booting up you've got a 3.7 inch super amoled screen there it's got a 800 by 480 pixel resolution and get this a camera adjusted for you you've got these nice sort of hardware buttons actually they're really clicky and they feel like rubber so they're actually pretty good quality right there we've also got the five megapixel camera on the back and that little screwdriver kind of hole that locks the thing in place or the actual the battery cover so once you remove that you can pop out the battery little tough button so plastic shell there there's your battery uh let's see no milliamp hour rating on it but i believe it's a 1650 milliamp hour battery not too bad although i didn't find the battery life to be that great here there's a little water that seemed to snuck into the phone that's not too good on the top you've got a hatch for a micro usb port always keep that closed when you're going in the water and then a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack there let's go through some of the software now all right so here we go we'll just unlock the phone now it's running android 2.3 gingerbread so it's not running 4.0 ice cream sandwich not the best i found the processor to be pretty snappy the screen was just a little too small for me during my test mainly because i would do things like draw free that awesome game that i'm very addicted to and found that it was actually hard to draw on the screen accurately as opposed to on even the iphone or stuff and i'm not sure exactly why but i'm guessing it has something to do with the pixel density or something like that so generally it took okay photos with that five megapixel camera but not amazing i also had a little water on the lens after dunking it so that could have been a partial reason but the the actual hd video it shoots 720p hd video did not turn out that great it had some bluish tint to it so i wasn't too impressed would rather have the galaxy s2 which shoots 1080p video or the galaxy s2 skyrocket which has a 4g lte connection again um not the best phone overall on atc especially when it comes to data speeds but i really did like the rugged form factor you'll see in just a moment that i was able to throw it in the water throw in the sand kick it around on the dirt and you can see that there's not too much of anything scratches or anything on the phone which is pretty surprising there we go quick look at the samsung rugby smart from at t okay now we've got the rugby smart back here in the backyard let's see if it uh survives a couple drops again see ya we'll do a little pavement around looks like it's still good a little scuffed up but uh let's see what we can do in other tests what's up guys i took a trip down to the jersey boardwalk that's the fun town pier to see if the rugby smart can withstand the sand and water as a sometimes surfer that's pretty important where to go let's dig it up it's like uh so far so good a little sandy but it's not getting in the keys at all i'll get it wet here's the water okay now the rugby smart can withstand up to three meters of water for a half hour so something like this shouldn't be a problem at all for it dunk it around get it real wet there it is all sandy let's see how it does it's buzzing a little bit we'll be right back my feet are wet all right so those tests were a little scary uh i thought the phone wasn't turning on outside it turns out that was actually just the screen i couldn't see this screen uh outdoors under direct sunlight so it was buzzing to let me know if i wanted to turn off the phone or not but right when i got indoors i saw that nothing was wrong again i dunked it into some water into a water glass and everything and really it had no problem other than that little amount of water we saw when i took off the battery cover not sure how that got there but you know overall the phone has held up very well so anybody looking for a really solid rugged phone that doesn't sacrifice too much with uh you know with android in terms of features this is definitely a solid choice so again this is todd hazelton with technobuffalo.comwhat's up everyone this is todd hazelton with technobuffalo.com today we're going to check out the samsung rugby smart i've actually had it for about two weeks now i took it tested it and now i'll actually do the unboxing so you can see the phone and the cool part about this part is that i'm actually going to show you the phone after i went through the rugged tests you'll see there's not too much damage done to it quickly let's get started quick look at the box it's a hspa plus device not actually 4g lte as you might imagine 5 megapixel camera here's the phone itself again it's already been through the rugged test so not too bad looking it's got this nice kind of etched back it's not metal but uh it's definitely hard feels solid and then you get this rubbery sides we'll go over the phone in just a second again inside you have the standard paperwork and your usb charger and cord so we'll push that off to the side let's get into the phone itself all right here we are with the phone it's just booting up you've got a 3.7 inch super amoled screen there it's got a 800 by 480 pixel resolution and get this a camera adjusted for you you've got these nice sort of hardware buttons actually they're really clicky and they feel like rubber so they're actually pretty good quality right there we've also got the five megapixel camera on the back and that little screwdriver kind of hole that locks the thing in place or the actual the battery cover so once you remove that you can pop out the battery little tough button so plastic shell there there's your battery uh let's see no milliamp hour rating on it but i believe it's a 1650 milliamp hour battery not too bad although i didn't find the battery life to be that great here there's a little water that seemed to snuck into the phone that's not too good on the top you've got a hatch for a micro usb port always keep that closed when you're going in the water and then a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack there let's go through some of the software now all right so here we go we'll just unlock the phone now it's running android 2.3 gingerbread so it's not running 4.0 ice cream sandwich not the best i found the processor to be pretty snappy the screen was just a little too small for me during my test mainly because i would do things like draw free that awesome game that i'm very addicted to and found that it was actually hard to draw on the screen accurately as opposed to on even the iphone or stuff and i'm not sure exactly why but i'm guessing it has something to do with the pixel density or something like that so generally it took okay photos with that five megapixel camera but not amazing i also had a little water on the lens after dunking it so that could have been a partial reason but the the actual hd video it shoots 720p hd video did not turn out that great it had some bluish tint to it so i wasn't too impressed would rather have the galaxy s2 which shoots 1080p video or the galaxy s2 skyrocket which has a 4g lte connection again um not the best phone overall on atc especially when it comes to data speeds but i really did like the rugged form factor you'll see in just a moment that i was able to throw it in the water throw in the sand kick it around on the dirt and you can see that there's not too much of anything scratches or anything on the phone which is pretty surprising there we go quick look at the samsung rugby smart from at t okay now we've got the rugby smart back here in the backyard let's see if it uh survives a couple drops again see ya we'll do a little pavement around looks like it's still good a little scuffed up but uh let's see what we can do in other tests what's up guys i took a trip down to the jersey boardwalk that's the fun town pier to see if the rugby smart can withstand the sand and water as a sometimes surfer that's pretty important where to go let's dig it up it's like uh so far so good a little sandy but it's not getting in the keys at all i'll get it wet here's the water okay now the rugby smart can withstand up to three meters of water for a half hour so something like this shouldn't be a problem at all for it dunk it around get it real wet there it is all sandy let's see how it does it's buzzing a little bit we'll be right back my feet are wet all right so those tests were a little scary uh i thought the phone wasn't turning on outside it turns out that was actually just the screen i couldn't see this screen uh outdoors under direct sunlight so it was buzzing to let me know if i wanted to turn off the phone or not but right when i got indoors i saw that nothing was wrong again i dunked it into some water into a water glass and everything and really it had no problem other than that little amount of water we saw when i took off the battery cover not sure how that got there but you know overall the phone has held up very well so anybody looking for a really solid rugged phone that doesn't sacrifice too much with uh you know with android in terms of features this is definitely a solid choice so again this is todd hazelton with technobuffalo.comwhat's up everyone this is todd hazelton with technobuffalo.com today we're going to check out the samsung rugby smart i've actually had it for about two weeks now i took it tested it and now i'll actually do the unboxing so you can see the phone and the cool part about this part is that i'm actually going to show you the phone after i went through the rugged tests you'll see there's not too much damage done to it quickly let's get started quick look at the box it's a hspa plus device not actually 4g lte as you might imagine 5 megapixel camera here's the phone itself again it's already been through the rugged test so not too bad looking it's got this nice kind of etched back it's not metal but uh it's definitely hard feels solid and then you get this rubbery sides we'll go over the phone in just a second again inside you have the standard paperwork and your usb charger and cord so we'll push that off to the side let's get into the phone itself all right here we are with the phone it's just booting up you've got a 3.7 inch super amoled screen there it's got a 800 by 480 pixel resolution and get this a camera adjusted for you you've got these nice sort of hardware buttons actually they're really clicky and they feel like rubber so they're actually pretty good quality right there we've also got the five megapixel camera on the back and that little screwdriver kind of hole that locks the thing in place or the actual the battery cover so once you remove that you can pop out the battery little tough button so plastic shell there there's your battery uh let's see no milliamp hour rating on it but i believe it's a 1650 milliamp hour battery not too bad although i didn't find the battery life to be that great here there's a little water that seemed to snuck into the phone that's not too good on the top you've got a hatch for a micro usb port always keep that closed when you're going in the water and then a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack there let's go through some of the software now all right so here we go we'll just unlock the phone now it's running android 2.3 gingerbread so it's not running 4.0 ice cream sandwich not the best i found the processor to be pretty snappy the screen was just a little too small for me during my test mainly because i would do things like draw free that awesome game that i'm very addicted to and found that it was actually hard to draw on the screen accurately as opposed to on even the iphone or stuff and i'm not sure exactly why but i'm guessing it has something to do with the pixel density or something like that so generally it took okay photos with that five megapixel camera but not amazing i also had a little water on the lens after dunking it so that could have been a partial reason but the the actual hd video it shoots 720p hd video did not turn out that great it had some bluish tint to it so i wasn't too impressed would rather have the galaxy s2 which shoots 1080p video or the galaxy s2 skyrocket which has a 4g lte connection again um not the best phone overall on atc especially when it comes to data speeds but i really did like the rugged form factor you'll see in just a moment that i was able to throw it in the water throw in the sand kick it around on the dirt and you can see that there's not too much of anything scratches or anything on the phone which is pretty surprising there we go quick look at the samsung rugby smart from at t okay now we've got the rugby smart back here in the backyard let's see if it uh survives a couple drops again see ya we'll do a little pavement around looks like it's still good a little scuffed up but uh let's see what we can do in other tests what's up guys i took a trip down to the jersey boardwalk that's the fun town pier to see if the rugby smart can withstand the sand and water as a sometimes surfer that's pretty important where to go let's dig it up it's like uh so far so good a little sandy but it's not getting in the keys at all i'll get it wet here's the water okay now the rugby smart can withstand up to three meters of water for a half hour so something like this shouldn't be a problem at all for it dunk it around get it real wet there it is all sandy let's see how it does it's buzzing a little bit we'll be right back my feet are wet all right so those tests were a little scary uh i thought the phone wasn't turning on outside it turns out that was actually just the screen i couldn't see this screen uh outdoors under direct sunlight so it was buzzing to let me know if i wanted to turn off the phone or not but right when i got indoors i saw that nothing was wrong again i dunked it into some water into a water glass and everything and really it had no problem other than that little amount of water we saw when i took off the battery cover not sure how that got there but you know overall the phone has held up very well so anybody looking for a really solid rugged phone that doesn't sacrifice too much with uh you know with android in terms of features this is definitely a solid choice so again this is todd hazelton with technobuffalo.com\n"