ROUGH AND TOUGH PHONEZ

Face it: most smartphones, with their big, glass touch screens just aren't that durable. I see plenty of shattered iPhone 4s around New York City. And feature phones aren't much better. Ever drop one? I have. And I spent the next few days waiting for the hinge to give way completely before moving to a phone with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. I dropped that one in a swimming pool a few months later. Needless to say, it wasn't the high point of my summer vacation.
Luckily, that has been the extent of my bad luck with cell phone damage. But if I had been using one of the rugged phones below, these slips wouldn't have such a big deal. A drop to the floor? All of these phones can take that—easily. A dip in the pool? Well, not all of these phones are waterproof, but many of them are, and a lot of them can withstand complete submersion for far longer than I can hold my breath.
These rugged cell phones are solid choices for the accident-prone, for those who work in rough environments, or outdoorsy types. And while being tough is a top-line feature, these phones can do a lot more than just make calls and survive falls.

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The Rugby II is made mostly of high-impact matte plastic. It measures 4.0 by 2.1 by 0.9 inches (HWD) and weighs 3.5 ounces. It's pretty chunky, and full of plastic ridges and soft-touch accents. It's lighter than it looks, though. The external, passive-matrix, 1.3-inch color display shows the current time and notifications. Inside, a 2.2-inch, 240-by-320-pixel LCD had good color, but poor contrast and just average brightness even at the highest setting. Flip phones of this size usually have excellent numeric keypads and control keys, and the Rugby II is no exception. Controlling this phone one-handed was a cinch in testing

The Rugby II is a quad-band EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) and dual-band HSDPA (850/1900 MHz) device. There's no Wi-Fi. RF reception was rock solid. Voice quality was really good, with a clear, bright tone in the earpiece. It didn't go very loud, though, which could be a problem in noisy environments. Transmissions were clear and free of background hiss and static, and reception was solid. Calls sounded clear through an Aliph Jawbone Icon ($99, ) Bluetooth headset, and voice dialing worked fine over Bluetooth without training. The huge speakerphone on the front sounded full, loud, and powerful, and a nice big shortcut button on the right side toggles it. Even the volume buttons are big. Battery life was excellent for a 3G phone, with 6 hours, 52 minutes of talk time.
This isn't really a messaging or Internet phone, but the Rugby II still has a few useful tricks. Fitness fans will like AllSport GPS, which acts as a portable trainer for cyclists and runners. AT&T Navigator offers voice-enabled, turn-by-turn directions for $9.99 per month. Ignore Where, Loopt, AppCenter, and all the other preloaded bloatware; sadly, it's all typical for an AT&T phone these days. AT&T's mobile e-mail and IM clients are aboard, but they're not worth paying extra for without a keyboard. The Opera Mini browser delivered quality WAP and HTML pages over the 3G connection.

The Rugby II has 70MB of free internal storage. The microUSB headphone jack was a downer, and the microSD card slot is inconveniently located underneath the battery. Between the two of them, they mean this isn't an ideal music phone. My 16GB SanDisk memory card worked fine. You can buy tracks from Napster or eMusic, and sign up for streaming radio. MP4 and AAC tracks sounded bright and a little grungy over Motorola S9-HD ($149.99, ) Bluetooth headphones. WMV, MP4, and 3GP videos played smoothly, though the small screen and narrow viewing angle means this isn't really the Rugby II's mission.
A 2-megapixel camera sensor flips forward with the phone open. There's no auto-focus or LED flash. Test photos were well balanced both indoors and outside, with a somewhat soft focus. Shutter speeds were on the quick side. Recorded 320-by-240-pixel videos were also well lit and played smoothly at 14 frames per second.
For being virtually the only feature phone in AT&T's lineup that's a great voice phone and reasonably priced per month, the Rugby II earns our Editor's Choice. We consider the push-to-talk functions gravy, though they're tasty gravy. If you're looking for a phone that will take a beating and still complete that critical call, the Rugby II is our pick.
The Rugby II has 70MB of free internal storage. The microUSB headphone jack was a downer, and the microSD card slot is inconveniently located underneath the battery. Between the two of them, they mean this isn't an ideal music phone. My 16GB SanDisk memory card worked fine. You can buy tracks from Napster or eMusic, and sign up for streaming radio. MP4 and AAC tracks sounded bright and a little grungy over Motorola S9-HD ($149.99, ) Bluetooth headphones. WMV, MP4, and 3GP videos played smoothly, though the small screen and narrow viewing angle means this isn't really the Rugby II's mission.
A 2-megapixel camera sensor flips forward with the phone open. There's no auto-focus or LED flash. Test photos were well balanced both indoors and outside, with a somewhat soft focus. Shutter speeds were on the quick side. Recorded 320-by-240-pixel videos were also well lit and played smoothly at 14 frames per second.
For being virtually the only feature phone in AT&T's lineup that's a great voice phone and reasonably priced per month, the Rugby II earns our Editor's Choice. We consider the push-to-talk functions gravy, though they're tasty gravy. If you're looking for a phone that will take a beating and still complete that critical call, the Rugby II is our pick.