Kyocera releases rugged Android smartphone with sapphire display

The Kyocera company has released a smartphone that features a sapphire-layered display. This should make the screen extra sturdy. There are rumors that Apple is also planning to start using sapphire.

Kyocera released its new smartphone, called Brigadier, in the United States with telecom provider Verizon Wireless. It is still unclear whether a release in Europe is also planned. The device stands out in particular because it has a layer of sapphire over the display. The Brigadier is one of the few available smartphones that has this. The layer of sapphire should make the screen extra sturdy and ensure that it can take a beating. By the way, Kyocera has also made the rest of the smartphone sturdy: the Brigadier has certification for ip68 and the US military standard 810G, making it resistant to dust, water, shock and extreme temperatures.

The screen of the Kyocera Brigadier measures 4.5 “in diagonal and has a resolution of 1280×720 pixels. The housing is built with a Snapdragon 400-soc and there is 2GB of ram. The storage capacity is 16GB and can be expanded with micro SD cards The battery has a capacity of 3100 mAh. Photos can be taken with an 8-megapixel camera. The software is based on Google’s Android 4.4 operating system. In the United States, the Brigadier is sold for 400 dollars, converted almost 300 euros.

It is expected that more smartphones will be equipped with a sapphire screen in the future. Analysts predicted this last year based on falling sapphire prices. Earlier, the maker of luxury smartphones Vertu already came with a smartphone that has a sapphire screen, but this costs many thousands of euros. There are rumors that Apple is also working on a sapphire screen for its upcoming iPhone 6.