Motorola rugged phones are on the horizon following a new partnership with Bullitt Group

Motorola has announced that it is to get into the rugged smartphone game, thus possibly following on from the days of the Z2 Force and its supposedly shatter-proof screen. However, these devices are more likely to have the reinforced or rubbery extra outer casings, together with possible durability ratings such as IPXX or the MIL-STD-810 badge. 

This is because Motorola has officially licensed the Bullitt Group to make examples of this smartphone category with the same classic branding for which Lenovo paid Google some time ago. Bullitt is a UK company that also makes the toughphones sold through CAT and Land Rover.

It was also responsible for the once-upon-a-time Kodak phones. Bullitt Group’s co-founder, Dave Floyd, has noted that this latest partnership with Motorola "allows Bullitt to apply its expertise to [its] portfolio of products. Motorola invented the mobile phone and remains one of the most iconic brands in the world”.

The specs of the first upcoming Motorola rugged smartphone can only be guessed at, although they do often end up with generic attributes such as mid-range SoCs and displays.

On the other hand, some models launched as of late have additional "extreme" specs such as IR cameras, not to mention the impending Blackview BL8000, which is to launch with MediaTek's new Dimensity 1200 flagship processor.

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