PHOTOS: JCB phones that float

Hands on with the hardest mobiles that money can buy

3 November 2010 17:10 GMT / By Dan Sung

Fresh from success in 2008, Peter Jones and JCB have brought forth four JCB toughphones for outdoor workers and leisure pursuitists to not be able to break. Starting at £100 and topping out at £250, these military grade handsets can withstand drops from a height of 3m, being jet washed, having a tonne of rubble dropped on them and even surviving for a minute inside a cement mixer as well.

They also have within their number the JCB Tradesman which enters the Guinness Book of Records for being the world's first floating phone. If you don't believe that, then take a look at our image gallery.

Along with what we saw on paper, Pocket-lint and assorted journalists got to test the metal, or rubber as it is, of these mobile at the launch event in London town's Brick Lane - appropriately enough. While the JCBs Tradesman, Sitemaster, Pro and Pro-Talk all sport an OS looking more primitive than the eldest of Symbians, these units are mighty good at smashing crockery to smithereens while staying absolutely pristine. Unlikely you could do the same with an N8.