The number of phones that are actually durable is painfully limited in our market and to have durability along with elegance and a smartphone experience is a privilege we can only expect from SAMSUNG.The company has released a new Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) running XCOVER.

Time to roll

Quick Specs

• 3.65″ 16M-color TFT capacitive touchscreen, Gorilla Glass scratch-resistant display, 320 x 480 pixels resolution
• Marvell MG2 800 MHz processor, 512MB RAM
• Android OS, v2.3.4 Gingerbread
• 3.2 megapixel camera with geotagging; VGA video recording
• IP67 certified: dust and water resistant

Review

1) Every once in a while a smartphone comes and gives a distinct outdoorsy feel.Xcover is such a device.Its specs are awesome for such a durable device and Samsung havent compromised with build quality as well.

2) It’s a strongly built device with a textured back finish. It looks the part too with rugged, ribbed sides and a grippy rear panel with a massive lock screw to keep the battery cover in place.

3) The CPU is reasonably quick and snappy and the overall experience is bound to be almost lag-free.The 512 MB Ram is sure to give u memory for multi-tasking.

4) Android V2.3.4 (Gingerbread) is coated with Samsung’s own Touchwiz 3.0 UI.Its simple,inituitive and serene and full of functionality.

5) The 3.65″ HVGA (320×480) 16M-color capacitive touchscreen is multi-touch enabled and has a toughened Gorilla Glass up front for maximum scratch-resistance. The screen quality is questionable, with a dim and watery look.The touch is extremely sensitive though.

6) Below the screen are the three hardware Android buttons – Home,Back,and Menu.The right side of the phone has those grip-enhancing cuts in the rubberized plastic. There is a single control on this side: the power/lock button. It is reasonably big and has a good press.The left side of the phone is where the volume rocker is. There’s an etched flashlight icon suggesting you can use the LED flash at the back as a torch.Now thats a good addition.

7) Camera is a mediocre 3.2 MP Snapper which also supports VGA video recording.The photos are not as detailed as one would like them to be.Geo-tagging is and option and the camera is accompanied by a LED flash.

8) It’s an IP67 certified droid, meaning it can be immersed in one meter of water and last there for half an hour, on top of being dust-proof and shock-resistant.Its the same certification given to Motorola defy +.

9) The Galaxy Xcover takes connectivity a lot more seriously. It’s a worldwide ready phone with quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and tri-band HSPA with download rates of up to 7.2 Mbps and 5.76 Mbps of upload.It additionally offers Wi-Fi (b/g/n), stereo Bluetooth v3.0 and USB v2.0. The USB interface is standard microUSB, which makes finding a suitable cable a lot easier.

Verdict

XCOVER surely shows promise and if priced away from the DEFY BROS. It may well be the choice of the pack.It does lose some points on the poor display.But to make a rugged phone you have to compromise.