Samsung's Galaxy Xcover 2 Smartphone: Rugged With A Jelly Bean Twist

While ruggedized, waterproof smartphones have been largely contained to enterprise and field use scenarios, things are beginning to shift. More and more, average consumers are demanding high-quality, powerful mobile devices that can also take something of a beating. Sony and Motorola have dabbled in this new universe before, and companies like Liquipel exist simply to waterproof existing hardware like the iPhone. But Samsung's now joining the former foray with the Galaxy Xcover 2. It's a new smartphone that's built to survive some serious abuse, including blasts of dust/sand, and drops in the ocean. It's IP67 certified, meaning that it's water resistant to a depth of one meter for up to 30 minutes.


Users can snap photos underwater, and pre-downloaded Google map data can be used with the enhanced GPS + GLONASS equipment. A 1700mAh battery is included, as is a 4" WVGA touch panel, 5MP rear camera, VGA front-facing camera, Bluetooth 4.0, and a 1GHz dual-core CPU. Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) is included, making it one of the first truly rugged smartphones to ship with Google Now right out of the box. Sadly, there's no price, but we're sure a price premium will be applied given that you probably won't need to buy extra insurance.