The Kyocera Rise Ready for Action August 19th
Is the messaging keyboard is back? Not really, but every time a new QWERTY slider with decent specs appears on the interwebs it makes me day dream of a time before screen based keyboards and slate style designs were king. Recently Q stands for QWERTY and a few good options have been surfacing. Take the likes of the Pantech Star Q, or the upcoming Galaxy S Blaze Q from Samsung, or even better that recently made official Motorola Photon Q. It seems that carriers and manufacturers have gotten carried away with slates of glass and realized keyboard options are still popular and a highly sought after request from the committee (consumers). The Kyocera Rise is back in the headlines making its official debut on the Now Network, but what’s a Kyocera Rise? Well, a QWERTY keyboard messaging phone of course!
The Kyocera Rise first made its appearance aside its cousin the Hydro earlier this year at CTIA. The Hydro since then has made its way to the likes of Boost Mobile while the Kyocera Rise plans to keep it all in the family by launching on Virgin Mobile and Sprint. The announcement hit the wire today making the device official on Sprint come August 19th and ready for Virgin Mobile on the 31st. Pricing is just what you should expect. Under the yellow clad now network you can expect a $19.99 price tag under the agreement of a new two year contact. Its free roaming cousin however will run you about $99.99 contract free with Virgin Mobile. The Kyocera Rise will most likely not win any prizes as the top end of smart phones, but what it lacks is made up for in ease of use and abilities. It comes with a 3.5 inch IPS LCD touch screen that offers up a 320×480 pixel resolution at 165 ppi. Internally the Rise gives its users functionality through the likes of Android version 4.0. Backed by a single core Qualcomm MSM8655 chipset you can rest assured Android will be silky smooth and ready for action. The Rise also packs in 512 MB of Ram, 2GB of internal storage and expandable microSDHC memory options. Around back you’ll find a 3.2 mega pixel camera with LED flash and video recording capabilities. Additional connectivity packs in Bluetooth version 2.1 + EDR, Wi-Fi 802.11 b, g, n, mobile hotspot functionality and a micro USB connection.
So is anyone interested in the new Kyocera Rise? Sound off in the comments below and let us know what you think of this awesome new phone. Oh and remember, the very best Kyocera accessories are available here.
Tags: Virgin Mobile Kyocera Rise, Kyocera rise, Sprint, QWERTY, Boost Mobile
Can’t let you know what I think of it because it’s not released. However, one of my first Virgin Mobile phones was a Kyocera V7 Slider, it was a good basic phone that was cheap and got the job done, which is what I look for in a phone. Paying over $100 for a communication device that can be easily damaged or lost just does not make good sense for me. Would I be interested in the Rise? Definitely, especially on sale. Right now though, the Chaser has my attention at 800Mhz and only $80, which might make it an even better deal than the HTC Wildfire S which is selling for a bargain basement $65 at Virgin Mobile’s website & $80 at Radio Shack. Their other slider, the LG Optimus Slider, has also been marked way down. Now, I’m not 20 and I’m not a texter, but as long as I have to dive in kicking and screaming into this decade of faceless communication I guess I’m going to risk losing my $6.99/mo-10¢/min plan for a new way of communicating with the world. The good news is that I can do so without incurring debt, which is important to me. To each their own.
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