Kyocera Hydro Icon Black (Boost Mobile)

I have read all the negative reviews, and I can only think either these are just the people who got a defective phone, or they are just troll reviews I had the original Kyocera hydro, I used it right up until getting this phone a few weeks ago. That phone went through 3 motorcycle accidents, one of them it hit the ground on its own and bounced across 2 lanes (yes it was in a case) It survived being soaked, not just wet. Everything from florida rains to dunked in the pool. While it was never a fast multi core phone, it did what it was designed to do. The only issue I ever had with it was it soft bricked during an update once, and I contacted kyocera, and they said send us the phone and we will fix or replace it. And they did exactly that, with no hassles. I bought that phone in like 2011. Now fast forward, and time marches on, phone apps expect higher end hardware, so the original hydro was slowing down. Still working just fine, but the software was outpacing it. I ordered a Hydro Icon After looking at the other hydro offerings, I decided the others were actually stepping down from the icon. I imagine in order to meet a specific price range dictated by the carriers, since these are absolutely carrier oriented phones. So I looked on amazon and found a new still sealed in box hydro icon and ordered it. My girlfriend has an S7 galaxy edge to compare it against. I found the icon to be extremely fast compared to my original hydro, and I could not tell much difference speed wise comparing it to her S7. Not enough in my usage to justify 700 dollars VS under 100 dollars Activate phone, it did 2 updates and was running KitKat. Let playstore reinstall my apps and poof, I was back in business. The phone had very little bloatware, so was not much to remove The wireless charging was great, just stick it over a charging coil, and the near field was a nice addition, just tap and give someone a file, webpage etc, and it beams to a wireless monitor and other capable devices. The phone picks up excellent signal, it actually gets 4g way out where I live. If you get bad signal with this phone, I would say to check your coverage map, it isn't the phone, its the towers. If it's a boost phone, it uses sprint network. GPS is a lot faster than my old phone, gets a position fix very fast The FM radio is nice for those cellular dead zones, though I mostly use Pandora. While this phone isn't some new bleeding edge S7, I found it to be at least a poor mans s3/s4. and for my phone uses I really do not need anything more than that. Camera takes great pictures compared to what I had, they even looked good beside my girlfriends S7. If I want the bleeding edge of photographic art, I have german 35mm SLR's for that. Battery life to me was great, when I first unboxed it, I ran it for half a day on 5% charge Phone call quality seemed fine to me, no echoing or anything. I could hear and be heard fine. I am not sure why it had such a short production life, I would have to guess carriers dictation price points, and Kyocera having to redesign to meet them. If you need a rugged and water proof non contract phone, don't have a lot to spend, and can find one of these new sealed in box, I would buy it. I don't regret mine at all

This phone has been through hell and high water with me, VERY durable! Plus it works like a charm, AFTER dropping it in water and multiple times on the floor, accidentally of course. Sound and Video are good as well.

This is my second Hydro Series phone from Boost Mobile with my first being a C5170 first generation Hydro. First off I have to say that there is no learning curve from upgrading from Ice Cream Sandwich to KitKat. So that was one headache I avoided like when I upgraded to ICS from Gingerbread. The main reason I bought the Kyocera Hydro Icon was because I dropped my first generation Hydro from a rooftop and the volume buttons popped out, but I was wanting to upgrade for the 4G capability anyway. I live in Tulsa, Oklahoma which has great 4G coverage, at least when you are outdoors. I live in a basement apartment which faces away from the cell tower, and the lobal effects from that tower means I only get one or two bars of signal strength in my apartment. One thing that upset me about the Sprint/Boost Mobile 4G coverage maps is that they show total 4G coverage for a county that only has one or two 4G towers. So while visiting my father in rural Cherokee County I was left with a very weak 3G coverage that is set up for the Oklahoma Highway Patrol cruiser laptops. Other than that, I love this phone. Pros: A great phone if you cannot afford an iPhone or Galaxy. Is wireless magnetic induction charging capable with PMA chargers, and the induction coil is already built into the rear case of the ICON. Amazon sells a very cheap Duracell Double PMA charger. The Smart Sonic Receiver sounds a little tinny, but is very audible in noisy environments. Has a few built in apps like a flashlight timer/stopwatch and an Accuweather widget so you don't have to worry about downloading unsecure apps. The phone has an unlocked FM Radio chip and comes with the NextRadio app that doesn't eat up data. You will need a wired headset or headphones to act as an antenna for the FM Radio chip. Unlockable SIM chip. I guess that may come in handy if you travel overseas. Four gigabytes of internal storage, so you can fill your SD card with music and movies and not full of apps. Water Resistant. Kyocera says waterproof, but I say waterproof does not come with a depth limit nor time limit Cons: Sprint/Boost Mobile bloatware. The worst offenders are Connection Optimizer, Mobile ID, Boost Zone and the Lumen Toolbar. You can disable Connection Optimizer and the Lumen Toolbar, but they re-enable themselves when you restart the phone. But at least the Lumen Toolbar is not compatible with Firefox Browser.

This is a great phone...if it worked. I have had a number of issues since purchase. Returning the phone to the factory for RMA service resulted in a software reset phone with the same problems. Out of frustration I did some of my own investigation and determined that the defect was in the battery. The top of the battery is not properly attached resulting in high mechanical sensitivity. Kyocera didn't discover this because THE BATTERY IS NOT SENT IN FOR REPAIR WITH THE PHONE. Think about that. If the problem is a crappy battery design and you send the phone in for repair without the battery they will NEVER FIND A PROBLEM. I am currently waiting for a response back on getting a new battery or new phone. So far (one month) no response. Surprise, there are no batteries available anywhere to replace the one for this phone. For all of those experiencing random shutdowns, weird battery charging faults, non charging etc. try the following. If you can get the phone to boot up, see if slightly bumping the top on a padded mat shuts it down or changes the level of battery charge. If it does, you probably have a mechanical problem related to the battery. There is no software problem I know of that has a mechanical component. If I get any response I will update this review. For now, I suggest staying away, far away, from this phone. UPDATE (1/26/15): I gave up on this phone. After the second RMA, waiting 14 working days, I was told it would be two more working weeks to get parts for the repair. While they agreed their quoted repair time is 6 - 10 working days, they would not agree to send a replacement phone. I tried calling their corporate office several times..no one home but an answering machine that doesn't return my calls. If you get a phone that works you are in luck. If your phone is defective or fails, good luck. There is no customer support beyond saying I am sorry. I just purchased another phone because I can't wait another month with no phone. If you do get stuck like I did, at least ask for reimbursement on the cell plan monthly charges. They claim they will pay that but I am no going to hold my breath. This is my last Kyocera phone. My experience with Kyocera sucks.

this is a cheap phone - dont get it wet, its actually not water resistent

There is not much I can say about this phone that has not been said. I have had it almost a year now with no issues at all. Pros: Nice display quality and size. Good amount of storage and RAM. Good processor. Waterproof and takes a beating. Good camera back OK camera front All the features you can think of less one. Cons: No USB OTG The camera is not great in low light. Even with the cons I still rate it a 5 due to the price point vs features. I really cannot complain. This is my third upgrade in the Hydro line and am pretty happy with the upgrade. Now if the Duraforce XD (or a version of) was only available on Boost I would be happy.

I've now had all 3 Hydro phones, the original, then the Edge, now the Icon. Of the 3, the original Hydro was the best. This one, the Icon, is by far the worst. It eats the battery for breakfast, lunch and diner. I uninstalled a bunch of apps and disabled most the others and this thing runs the battery down almost as fast as it takes to charge. I read some other reviews where people complained about the sound, I should have listened. Everybody I talk to says they hear an annoying echo. It also takes forever to open apps or download stuff. Very, very disappointed. I'm going to put it on Craigslist and re-activate my Edge.

I was hesitant to purchase a Kyocera, after reading mixed reviews, but I'm very happy I did! It's not exactly perfect, but it's holding up MUCH better than my previous phones (mostly LG). The only minor issues have been battery life (which is usually fine if I remember to close background apps and turn down brightness), call audio (occasionally choppy), and random sluggish apps (but that's been EVERY phone I've used). I haven't tested out the water proof feature yet, but I do often use it in damp conditions (rain, bathtub, pool) and it works fine as long as the screen is relatively dry. Quite the opposite of my LG Volt that was rendered useless in even the slightest dampness. Happy to find a phone that can keep up with me and handle my active lifestyle! ^_^