First Look: The tough Taho

These are challenging times for basic cell phones, what with smart and feature phones garnering all the attention. But the new Sanyo Taho, made by Kyocera, is one tough cookie. Available from Sprint for $100 with a two-year contract after rebates, Sanyo claims the phone is built to a military standard called 810G, enabling it to withstand dust, shock, vibration, extreme temperatures, blowing rain and up to 30 minutes of full immersion in water up to one meter (3.28 ft.) deep.

Measuring 4.0 in. x 2.0 in. x 0.9 in., and weighing a hefty 4.9 oz., the Taho is on the chunky side for a phone. But it fits comfortably in the hand, and it's hard to lose your grip on the phone's rubberized edges.

This phone reminds me of the Samsung Convoy, another toughie flip phone in our cell phone Ratings (online subscription required) available on Verizon for $70 with a two-year contract. Like the Convoy, the Taho is designed for rugged terrain but lacks some niceties we've seen on other hardened phones, such as Casio G'zOne Brigade, which has a built-keyboard and an LED flashlight. Tough phones often cost twice as much as standard flip phones. Here are my first impressions:

It really is waterproof. I put the Taho though its paces in my shower, and, despite being blasted for up to 10 minutes by a steady stream of hot water, it remained functional. I was able to dial numbers and the display remained easy to read. Even open, with the keys facing the water. On the downside, the volume level of phone's speakers dropped significantly when wet. This problem seemed to persist until several minutes after I dried the phone with a paper towel. All of the phone's seals seemed to hold up, including the back cover and USB flap.

It's tough. The Taho has a rubberized skin that seemed to protect it even from drops that would easily shatter a lot of other phones. I dropped it several times from a height of about 4.5 feet onto a ceramic tile floor. I tried this while the phone was in different modes, such as camera, or contacts, and the phone didn't lose its place.

Great keypad. Taho's backlighted keypad as well as other buttons protrude distinctively and are well spaced, which makes dialing numbers and accessing key functions quite easy. Several convenient shortcuts include dedicated camera and speakerphone buttons, and you can go directly into voicemail by holding down the "1" key.

Slow camera. The Taho comes is equipped with a 1.9 megapixel camera that has a flash, which I found quite slow. For example, it took over two seconds for the camera to take snap and store a picture on the included 1-gigabyte microSD card. The Taho's 2.0-in. QVGA display (240 x 320 pixels) is a decent size for the camera, but in video mode, the viewfinder shrinks to 1.5 in. x 1.75-in. And while it's easy to access most of Tahos camera options, the phone's rudimentary menu system makes jumping to the gallery app a bit of a chore.

Bottom line. With its large, well-spaced buttons and self-protecting flip design, the Taho seems like a smart choice for any basic phone user. And even if you aren't a rock-climbing, mud-munching "Survivor" finalist, having a phone that you can count on even when you slip up is always a good thing.

—Mike Gikas