[General Topics] Nitefire77:
I've had this phone for a couple months now as my daily driver, and after reading phonescoops review of it they posted today, i wanted to give a review that touches more on the strengths and weaknesses of the phone from the perspective of a average person.

While its nice to have a beautiful screen and great detail, but who really nitpicms over color tempature.

Kyocera Hydro Life: $129 T-Mobile, $29 Metro PCS

Specs:

Quad Core 1.2ghz Snapdragon 200 processor msm8212

Adreno 305 Graphics (official specs list Adreno 302, CPU-Z says 305)

1.5GB Ram

8GB internal Memory (5gb user)

5MP Front, 2MP rear camera. 720p video recording

4.5" qhd screen 540x960

MicroSD slot reads up to 32gb (would not read my 64gb no matter how i formatted it)

Android 4.3 Jellybean

Phone is IP67 waterproof & Dustproof

The phone is a great device for the price offered @ MetroPCS. The phone is lightly modified and is stock android for the most part. It boots up quick, and the display has rich colors that look great and come in crisp. The brightness is great and can be read pretty well in bright sunlight.

The performance of the phone is not bad for a budget phone, and for those of us that are on XDA is an easy remedy. It has a snapdragon 200 processor, however the msm8212 isnt a cortex A5 like they have been, its a cortex A7 core, and with the Adreno 305 i would just as well call it a snapdragon 400. The MetroPCS version has its fair share of carrier bloat. Its loaded with a ton of MetroPCS apps that most people would find useless and never use. The bloatware is the biggest drain of performance on the phone, with the majority of them running in the background at startup. The 1.5Gb of ram really helps a lot and is a nice bonus in a phone this price. I have had several apps open at once without any noticible hiccups or slowdowns.

The phone is 11mm thick, and has a textured matte plastic back that feels good in the hand, and underneath is a 2000mah battery that is removable, and needs to be out to access the microsim & microSD slot. The call qualitybis good and i have never had trouble hearing anyone voices come in clear. The single speaker on the back of the phone is not loud however, and unless the room us really quiet i wouldnt try using speakerphone with it.

The phone is incredibly easy to root, and can be done so using RootGenius. I used titanium backup to remove the bloat and the performance incfease was easily noticable. I kept a copy of the bloatware apps on my computer incase the OTA for Kitkat is ever released. I emailed Kyocera two months ago and they replied back saying they finished and released the kitkat update to T-Mobile/MetroPCS and that they are holding it back. Two months later still nothing. Xposed framework works great and most of gravitybox works like a charm.

The camera takes OK pictures but nothing to brag about. Its good enough to anap a quivk pic on a whim or for on the go use, but for pictures that you really want to look great i wouldng rely on it. The Front cam is about the same quality wise, takes a decent selfie in gppd lighting and most people wouldnt really know ghe difference vetween cameras on facebook

Overall for the price i think its a great phone and if you are wanting a good phone on a budget, or need a rugged phone for work i highly reccomend this one. I have an LG G2 but i havent used it since i bought this one since it performs so well and does everything i need it to without a hitch.