[Item Sold!] Samsung M110 Solid rugged phone

Samsung M110 Solid rugged phone

For all concerned, playing tunes and taking great snaps is absolutely not what the M110 is about. The clue is in the name, Solid. And the features reflect this: it sports a 1.5in, 128 x 128 CSTN screen, dual-band GSM/GPRS, a 0.3-megapixel camera and no music player.

Still, modernity hasn't been altogether run out of town: you do get Bluetooth, an FM radio and 2MB of on-board memory.

Built to something called Global Certification IEC 60529, the M110 is designed to be seriously dust- and water-resistant. Hence the GI Joe rubber casing, one piece keypad, rubber bungs over the power and headphones sockets, and lockable battery cover.

In the hand, the 109 x 48 x 18mm, 95g M110 does indeed feel solid and tough. The rubber coating feels durable and provides genuine impact absorbency judging by our test drops from a second story window. We were impressed that the battery cover stayed in place during this highly scientific test.

All that matt rubberised plastic - or plasticised rubber - means the M110 can start to look a bit scruffy after a few days of hard use and it doesn't really 'polish up' too well. It also seems to attract fluff, lint and other microscopic 'curiosities', so if you're looking for a handset that keeps it's box-fresh aesthetics, this probably isn't the phone for you.

We are happy to be able to report that the M110 is most certainly more than splash-proof. One of our staff dropped it mid-conversation into a 2in-deep puddle during a downpour of near Biblical proportion. He didn't even lose the call.

Basic navigation about the M110's keypad and menus will be familiar to anyone who has used a mid- or entry-level Samsung recently. It all works smoothly and intuitively enough, while the toughening-up process hasn't got in the way of keyboard usability.

The small, low-resolution screen is nothing much to look at, but it's clear and bright and only lets the side down when you need to scroll about a bit to read a long text. If your incoming missives tend not to be longer than "where r u?" this isn't much of an issue.

Action Man-esque functions include the ability to use the LED flash as a torch by holding the cancel button down, and to dial a pre-set SOS number by hitting the volume key three times. The M110 also includes a voice memo facility so you can leave a record of your last thoughts for posterity should you find yourself in a particularly grim situation.

On a more positive note, call quality proved to be excellent and the speaker was both loud and clear - helpful if you need to hear things like "You might wanna find a hard hat," over the sound of drills, diggers and dynamite.

Some may criticise Samsung for so ruthlessly shearing the M110 of peripheral functionality, but that would be to miss the point. To start with, more functions would equal a higher price and in the real world 'high price' and 'tough' are mutually exclusive. After all, who knowingly risks a high-cost item in a high-risk environment?

And let's not forget that every extra function has an impact on battery life and so makes the user more reliant on external power. A almost indestructible phone is no use if, when you extract it in an extreme situation the battery's as flat as a boulder-rolled mountaineer.