Category: Gear | Cell Phones

In the past, rugged gadgets were huge and rubbery, making them totally unusable to the normal person. Things have changed, though, and now you can get gear that's tougher than you are without looking like your dad who always has seven gadgets clipped to his braided leather belt.

Casio Exilim EX-G1 Camera

There was no shortage of rugged cameras to choose from this year, but Casio has a heritage of being bad-ass. Their rugged phones and watches have gained a lot trust from those who abuse their gadgets and their slim-line camera is just as burly. It has a 12.1 megapixel sensor and the whole thing is shock-resistant, waterproof, freezeproof and dustproof. That means you can kick off your underwater photography career during this year's meeting of the Polar Bear Club. Actually, maybe you should wait until summer. $299.

Sonim XP3 Quest

If there's a tougher phone out there, we haven't found it. This burly goon has a screen like the one you'd find on a phone seven years ago, but it's almost impossible to kill. So, while it's bad at updating your Twitter page, it can withstand more shock, dust, water and extreme temperature than any other phone in its class. It meets several military standards for durability and will work just about anywayere, which will come in handy when you're buried under an avalanche. $599.

Japan Self-Defense Force Sunglasses

Don't let the picture fool you, these glasses won't be able to block a gunshot, but they are a lot tougher than those fake designer ones you bought from that pagoda in the mall. Each lens can withstand an impact from a .3-inch object traveling at over 100 mph. While that scenario is unlikely, it does make us think that these might last a little longer than our other shades, all of which have been crushed by us sitting on them at some point in the past. $300.

Dell Latitude XT2 XFR

Netbooks are great for dicking around, but they last about as long as a five-year old on a construction site. Dell's burly tablet PC is as rugged as they come. It has an "IP54 level of Ingress Protection," which means even dust and moisture won't be able to take this sucker down. The screen is a 12.1-inch multitouch LCD so you can use all sorts of touch-sensitive apps on it. One important note: While it could survive a small explosion, giving it to your old-ass aunt will still probably destroy the OS within a week. You have been warned.

Otterbox Defender for Blackberry

If you work in a tough environment and want a phone that can actually, you know, do stuff aside from making calls, you can always throw your precious Blackberry into one of Otter's ultra-tough cases. You retain all the functionality of your keyboard and screen, but you'll make your handset impervious to the elements as well as drops. It's great for those who work in construction or those who like to get a little wasted and drop their phone out of a cab every Friday night. $60.

With the Droid launching to critical and commercial acclaim, there's finally a phone that can back-up its claim as "the iPhone killer." But, while the War of Apps may be on most consumers' minds, most people use their phone for the silliest of things, like using its web browser to settle arguments at a bar or capturing a night's debauchery in photos and videos.

But, what's better, the Droid's 5-megapixel camera or Apple iPhone's 3-megapixel camera? More isn't always better, so we decided to put both phones to the test. We took both phones and shot the most annoying thing we could find laying around in the office (other than Bobby, the IT guy): Our deskside singing Christmas tree.

Methodology
1 - Set-up phones for optimal shot. (iPhone's "auto everything screen tap," Droid's white balance and camera settings).
2 - Record in landscape one song from stupid Christmas tree.
3 - Transfer video file to PC.
4 - Upload to YouTube. (Can be done directly from the phone, but for the sake of not compressing the file, we did it this way.)

The Results... (Click on HQ for best video quality)

DROID


iPHONE


Who Wins?
First, take note that the Droid has a wider shot and accurately captured the color of the office furniture (we have pristine white office chairs, not yellow ones, thank you very much).

Also, maybe less noticeable on the video compressed on YouTube, but, according to the raw video files, Droid's audio recording had the clear advantage. The shooter's voice levels were sufficient and didn't sound muffled.

Lastly, the picture is much clearer on the Droid, allowing us to even see the texture of the tree's hat. The iPhone blurred the image a bit, making the colors seem washed out.

So, if taking quick videos on-the-go is your thing, the Droid eats the iPhone's lunch.