When it comes to a mobile for all seasons and environments there haven’t been too many around that actually managed to take things as far as the B2100 Marine has. This hardcore ruggedized handset seems to have set a new bench mark in the segment but here’s how it fared overall.

Form Factor
I say forget about its slightly bulky design (17mm in depth) and the slight bulge it tends it leave in your pocket. It’s a well designed handset and definitely has a feel good factor about it. The rubberized Urethane shell makes the handset very easy to grip so the chances of it actually falling are quite slim. I was concerned about the keypad being a bit of a problem i.e. the rubber keypad would make typing a real pain. But hey presto, it worked like a charm. It’s well laid out large and supple enough to use with ease. That goes for all the buttons.

What was a little bit of a disappointment was the 1.7-inch TFT display that has a low resolution of just 120 x 160 pixels and 256K colors and a 1.3MP camera loaded onto the rear. But at the end of the day that’s not such a bad thing especially if you’re one of the clumsy types or those who enjoy the outdoors a little more than others or both.


The port flap on the side for the handset’s proprietary all-in-one port is well designed to keep the elements out. The handsfree has a 3.5mm earphone socket adapter so you can use your own earphones. The rear panel has a large screw-system that you’ll find convenient to open only with a coin of something akin to it. It secures the battery panel and microSD card slot as well as the rest of the handset's innards very well. The gaskets and entire handsets on the whole is extremely well designed. Samsung has also included a small LED on the top that can be used as a flashlight. It may be just a single LED but believe me it’s very handy when you need it.

Features and Performance
Rugged-ity
This handset is truly hardcore. My initial test was to drop it in the deep end of the pool for a couple of minutes before fishing it out. It can sustain being under for about 30 minutes and at 1 meter. That worked out fine in a bucket, but in the pool I let it sit for about 15 minutes and it was perfectly fine.


We also ran a bike over it... a couple of times and not a scratch. The handset is rated to withstand blowing rain, dust, shock, salt fog, humidity, water, immersion, solar radiation, vibration, and extreme temperatures. I even dropped it a few times on marble and concrete floors and it didn’t seem to affect the Marine in any way. A few very minor scratches on the screen were negligible. You can't have everything right?


It’s perfect for the beach, outdoor sports like rafting, climbing and other such ‘manly’ stuff, not that the women don’t do it, so I’m going to say it’s universally appealing. However there will be times that you’ll find a little condensation on the inside of the display. It subsided in little while and didn’t seem to effect the handset’s working.


Interface
The UI is pretty standard and is funky in its own right with a few cool themes and the feature to create your own. Although the resolution of the screen is a little low it’s still very clear and easy to navigate. The B2100 is also equipped with a Noise cancellation set up for conversations so you’ll have no problems listening in while on the phone and the person on the other side will also find it relatively clear while hearing you as it keeps the ambient sounds at bay to quite an extent. A File system option allows you to access files stored on either your memory card or your phone's memory which is just about 7MB.