Hands-on with the rugged NEC Terrain

Not long ago we unboxed and showed off the hardware of the NEC Terrain for AT&T. But you weren't content with just that, you wanted to see us abuse it.

Some people might call me "soft". I have a desk-job. I drive a Prius. Other than the goatee, on the outside I'm not what most people would call "rugged". While that may be what most people see, I also build stuff. I get my hands dirty. While I won't claim to be as rugged as others who do really hard work every day, I can certainly value the benefits of a good, durable smartphone that I won't have to worry about breaking. Luckily, the NEC Terrain lives up to its motto: "Made for hard work".

The NEC Terrain is a water-resistant, rugged device that sports a keyboard, and considering that its primary purpose is to be rugged and durable, it's a pretty nice nice phone.

The Terrain is rated IP-67 for dust and water immersion; and Military 810G for shock, extreme temperatures, and salt fog; yet it still manages to cram a push-to-talk button and QWERTY keyboard inside its rugged shell.

On the inside, the NEC Terrain is a little on the light side. Although is has a dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 8960 processor, it only has 1GB RAM and a 3.1-inch, 640x480 screen, this smartphone isn't going to win any performance contests. It's running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, which seemed a little out of place to us, but overall the device is pretty snappy, and we didn't notice any hanging or lagging -- except when it took us two or three times to tap a somewhat small on-screen button.

If your job has you in "the field" more than in an office, and you want a phone that's a little more durable than the relatively fragile flagship devices from the major OEMs, the NEC Terrain is a great mix of performance, specs, and durability.

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