14 DAY TRIAL // Major carrier AT&T has just announced the upcoming availability of the rugged Samsung Rugby III feature-phone. The clamshell will be available for purchase beginning December 14 for $100/€80 with new two-year agreements.
Business customers will be able to pick the Samsung Rugby III for free with a two-year Enhanced Push-to-Talk contract.
This rugged handset is the direct descendant of the Rugby I and Rugby II feature-phones and has nothing to do with the Galaxy Rugby Android smartphones.
According to the carrier, the clamshell is “the fifth generation device in the Rugby series from Samsung and is compatible with AT&T’s Enhanced Push to Talk (PTT) service, which enables business users to communicate faster, to larger talk groups, and across more types of handsets than ever before.”
Samsung Rugby III will be up for pre-order starting November 30. However, only business customers with an AT&T account will be able to pre-order the Rugby III through their AT&T account lead or through their Premier online account.
Specs-wise, the Rugby III is far from being impressive, though Samsung did not build this phone with that in mind.
The clamshell feature-phone sports a small 2.4-inch QVGA display, as well as a mediocre 3 megapixel photo snapper. Obviously, it features a dedicated PTT button on the phone for easy access and is built to military specifications (810G specifications).
It is also worth mentioning Samsung Rugby III offers one-touch access to GPS Navigation via AT&T Navigator. Furthermore, the handset comes pre-loaded with several mobile resource management apps from AT&T.
“Fifth in our line of rugged devices from Samsung, the Rugby III joins the Samsung Galaxy Rugby Pro in AT&T’s current portfolio. Since it launches with Enhanced PTT, the Rugby III helps make communicating even easier than before so businesses can operate more efficiently and effectively,” said Jeff Bradley, senior vice president Devices and Developer Services, AT&T.