Dewalt has now entered the mobile phone biz with their own “Tough” smartphone the MD501. I’ve seen other manufactures make some seriously tough phones from the likes of Casio and Caterpillar, but this is Dewalt’s first attempt. The new Dewalt phone has many of the conveniences you’d expect from a modern smartphone such as a large 5″ display, android operating system, front & rear cameras, 2 gigs of ram, NFC, GPS, and wireless charging, but what makes this a tough phone is it’s rugged construction and it’s MIL810G rating meaning it can withstand drops from 2 meters onto concrete, it’s touch screen can be operated with gloves, it’s dust resistant and waterproof up to 30 minutes if submersed in 2 meters of water, and can be charged wirelessly on Qi charging pads so no need for wires to charge.
This new phone has a lot going on for it with many modern features and tech. It has specs that would’ve qualified it as a high end phone several years ago but with today’s fast moving mobile tech world, it stands strong in mid-range phone territory.
Specifications
- IP68 Waterproof: 30 min. up to 2m, impervious to dust and particles
- MIL810G Drop-protection, withstands 2m drops onto concrete
- Operating range from -20 °C to 60 °C
- For use with gloves
- Android 5.1 Lollipop
- 5″ (12.7cm) HD Bright View Gorilla Toughened Glass 3
- Processor MT6735 1.3 GHz Memory 16 GB ROM/2 GB RAM
- 13 MP rear camera & 5 MP front camera
- Size: 156 x 82 x 14 mm Weight: 245 g
- External memory microSD up to 64 GB
- Dual micro SIM
- GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz WCDMA 850/900/1900/2100 MHz
- LTE-FDD Band 1/3/7/20/28, LTE-TDD Band 39/40/41
- IEEE 802.11 b/g/n
- Near Field Communication, mobile data collection in real time
- 3020 mAh batt. Standby 450 hrs. Talktime 2G/3G: 480/420 min.
- G-sensor, gyroscope, pressure, magnetic, light & range sensors
- GPS, AGPS, GLONASS, BeiDou
- Amplified loudspeaker
- Bluetooth® 4.0
- Radio, MP3 Player
- Wireless charging: QI standard
- USB OTG
It has some interesting features such as it’s dual sim card capability meaning you can use 2 plans on your phone. Benefits of this are having 2 lines on your phone at the same time. This is great for having your work number and your personal number on one phone instead of lugging around 2 separate phones, and is also good for having a backup roaming plan where one carrier picks up the reception where the other carrier has poor reception.
The use of sim cards means this is a GSM only phone, which means you can only use this on carriers that use sim cards like AT&T and T-Mobile. This also means you can’t use this on CDMA carriers like Verizon and Sprint. I learned recently that Verizon is using sim cards however I don’t know how that works and if it would work on this phone (full compatibility wise). It might however if I were you I’d double check all the radio bands they use and see if it’s fully compatible with Verizon’s.
Before you guys get your panties in a bunch and get all excited, I hate to burst your bubble but this phone has been announced in the UK. Great news for those of you guys in the UK but those of us in North America are left in the dark at the moment. No word on when or if it will ever make it’s way over here in the states.
i was so hyped! until the end, where you hammered me with the news of it not being announced in north America. I’ve gone trough so many phones 🙁 plus im a dewalt fan.
Why can’t we get it in the U.S. this sucks very disappointed
This needs to be in America immediately. Or someone is getting fired.
I want one too
was ready to buy 2 then it said no Verizon customers…why?
GSM phones require sim cards. Verizon doesn’t use sim cards because they use a CDMA network.
Billysinclair39@gmail.com you are full of it I have one Verizon phone with a SIM card and one without
Don’t get your panties in a bunch bro. From my understanding, Verizon for the longest time was only CDMA and no sim cards. I didn’t know Verizon had recently started using sim cards, EXCUSE ME!