Rugged Motorola Titanium to Offer Sprint Direct Connect

If you're a fan of push-to-talk (PTT) capabilities and are in the market for a rugged smartphone, we have some good news for you: Sprint has officially unveiled its Motorola Titanium smartphone.

The successor to last year's Motorola i1, the Titanium is built tough and is certified to Military Specification 810G for dust, shock, vibration, low pressure, solar radiation, high temperature, and low temperature. It is intended to stand up to the rigors of the job site without needing a case.

The Titanium, which will run Google Android OS 2.1 (Eclair), will sport a full QWERTY keyboard and a 3.1-inch Touchscreen display. Other features include a 5-megapixel camera with flash, Sprint 3G, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth connectivity, GPS, and a microSD card slot that supports up to 32 GB of memory (a 2 GB card comes included).

Aimed at business users, the Titanium also marks Sprint's move towards phasing out its iDEN network and shifting to its new Direct Connect network. iDEN was initially acquired by Sprint during its merger with Nextel back in 2004, but is expected to die off by 2013 as it is replaced by the new PTT setup, Direct Connect. The Titanium will be the first device available that can access Sprint's Direct Connect service, which is available on the carrier's broadband CDMA network.

Pricing and availability information for the Motorola Titanium have yet to be revealed by Sprint, and will be announced at a later date.