Samsung B2700 review: Tough and geared

Samsung may be flying high on INNOV8 but they sure have at least a toe on the ground. Just recently they spilled the low-to-mid-end bag, so we don't forget a flagship is only as good as the fleet behind it. No handset in the handful they just recently dropped is likely to top the food chain but what a massive landing it was.

Quite duly, the first in the dozen to make it to the GSMArena shore is the B2700 toughie. The latest rugged handset by Samsung has the same level of dust and water splash resistance as the toughest of phones Sonim XP1. The feature set is the great difference.

We're yet to see how hard it is to break the B2700, but a compass, pedometer, altimeter and a flashlight do make it harder to resist. Significantly cheaper than the Sonim XP1, Samsung B2700 is making a good go at the rugged phone market.

Samsung B2700 official photos

Key features:

• Shock, splash and dust resistant (IP54 certified)
  
• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE phone, UMTS 2100 MHz
  
• Very nice and responsive user interface
  
• 2 MP camera, secondary video call camera
  
• 1.9" 256K-color TFT display, 176 x 220 pixels
  
• Flashlight, Compass, Altimeter, Pedometer
  
• Good MP3 player, MPEG4/3gp video player
  
• FM radio with RDS
  
• SMS/MMS/E-mail/RSS Reader
  
• Bluetooth and USB v2.0
  
• 30 MB flash memory, microSD card slot
  
• Comfortable keypad, strong and even backlight
  
• Very loud speakerphone
  
• Li-Ion 1300 mAh battery
  

Main disadvantages:

• Display could've used a higher resolution
• No autofocus in camera
• Poor video recording

Samsung B2700 all around

B2700 is actually the second heavy duty phone of the house, topping the Samsung M110 rather trimmed down spec sheet with quite some extra features.

Samsung B2700 is the hot offer but it still has a few competitors to keep off its back: Sonim XP1, Sony Ericsson C702, and Nokia 5500 Sport. Rough and sporty they all are, but the tough phone looks are obviously less prominent in the C702 and 5500 Sport. Quite understandably, ruggedization is not their top priority. In C702 you get Cybershot imaging and GPS, while the Nokia 5500 Sport is Symbian-powered.

So, the Sonim XP1 and Samsung B2700 are set apart: durability is their line of business and they look it. Now, the XP1 goes a long way of torture testing. We are now to see if what the Sonim handles as a mere practical joke won't be lethal to the Samsung.

Just bear in mind that unlike the Sonim XP1 there's no unconditional warranty this time, no keypad testing to half million presses and no commitment to operational range from sub zero to scorching hot so you better not try this at home. And no, we doubt it there will be hard-boiled Destroy this Phone marketing with the B2700. However there's a bunch of features instead that might just give it the right kind of edge.

Still being among the first to het their hands on the B2700 we just couldn't stand the temptation of attempting to break it down too. You can take a peek at our murder attempts towards the end of this article.

OK then, here's where we stand: there's a toughened body and a bunch of niceties worth protecting. Take this jump to give it a shot.