Most of us depend completely on mobile phones for the numbers of our relatives and friends. So in case they get damaged and unusable we are left stranded. More so in case of smartphones as they perform many functions and we therefore miss them more.

Here are five phones that are already available or are going to be launched soon. They can withstand water, dust and shock, and will serve you even in adverse conditions like floods or any other natural calamity or accident.

Motorola Defy+

Despite its good looks this Android phone not only provides security against water and dust but is also shock proof. The phone was launched in early 2010 in India in its earlier avatar. A new version has just arrived with much better features but it retains the tough character of the first version. In India, Defy+ is still not available but is soon going to be. Meanwhile, Defy is available for Rs 16,000.

Defy and Defy+ both come with 1540 mAh batteries.

Defy+ is based on Android 2.3; while Defy had version 2.1. Defy+ improves on the original in a number of ways, which includes a better 1 GHz Processor compared to the 0.8 GHz processor in Defy. Additionally, the camera has been improved with auto-focus and flash.

The new version is likely to be price slightly higher than the current version is. If you are on the lookout for a rugged phone, even the current version of Defy makes good sense. However, if you can wait a bit more, Defy+ should be arriving soon.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Active

Another sturdy phone is the Sony Ericsson Xperia Active. It is rugged and looks like a designer phone. This Xperia from Sony Ericsson is aimed at people who lead very active lifestyles.

Xperia Active, which is based on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, is powered by a 1 GHz processor. The phone has a 3 inch reality display with Sony’s Mobile Bravia display technology, and a 5 Megapixel camera with HD video functionality. It is a dust and water resistant phone, and incorporates wet finger tracking which means that it works perfectly even when the screen or the user’s fingers are wet.

Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Active is for health conscious people and comes pre-loaded with sports apps that enable consumers to easily track their fitness levels. Users can set their ideal training route using the built-in GPS, barometer and compass. The user’s heart and pulse rates can be monitored on the screen in real time (enabled by ANT+ wireless networking technology), while the iMapMyFitness App can monitor day to day performance. In addition, Facebook inside Xperia allows consumers to share their progress and experiences with their friends.

The phone is yet to come to India, but is expected to be available soon at close to Rs 17,000-18,000. It comes with a very youthful design that is different from the other Android phones in the market. The only problem with it is that it comes with a measly 1200 mAh battery which is very small compared to what other Android phones use.

Samsung Galaxy Xcover

The Samsung Galaxy Xcover is yet another Android 2.3 Gingerbread smartphone (with Samsung TouchWiz UI) which is not only dust and water resistant, but can also withstand shock. It comes with IP67 standard certification.

Samsung Galaxy Xcover has a 3.2 megapixel camera with LED flash that doubles as a flashlight. It has WiFi, GPS, HSDPA up to 7.2 Mbps and a 3.65 inch scratch-resistant display of tempered glass. The phone can stay as deep as 1 meter under water for 30 minutes.

Samsung Galaxy Xcover is powered by a 1500 mAh battery and weighs 116 grams. It is powered by an 800 MHz processor. Considering its features, it is expected to be priced at around Rs 18,000. The device will be available in Germany in October but we can’t say when it will come to India.

Samsung Marine

Well, not all of us want a costly smartphone, and for those looking for an inexpensive alternative, Samsung Marine is a perfect device. It costs only Rs 4,300. Along with being waterproof, it also has other features like a 1.3 megapixel camera, music player, FM radio, Bluetooth (with A2DP support) and a Memory card slot that supports up to 8 GB. There is a handy flashlight built in as well.

It also supports internet access through GPRS. The screen though is very small at 1.8 inches.

The phone is compliant with MIL-STD-810F and IP57 (Ingress Protection) standard. It is said to withstand blowing rain, dust, shock, salt fog, humidity, water, immersion, solar radiation, vibration, and extreme temperature (-20 to +60 degrees Celsius). And in spite of all this, the device is light at 108 grams.

iBall Floater

iBall Floater is a GSM mobile that is waterproof, dust proof and drop proof &#151 it can be dropped from up to 1.6 m. This phone too is certified dustproof and waterproof, grade IP57. It comes with Internal Memory of 32 MB and also has an external Memory card slot option, FM radio and some pre configured basic games.

It has a torch and supports Hindi apart from English. iBall Floater comes in black, green and grey colours. The screen is extremely small at just 1.44 inches, and the phone is only good for basic calling and SMS. At Rs 2,500 it is perfect value for money for those looking for a basic but durable handset.

Research In Motion (RIM) plans to launch the BlackBerry Curve 9350 and 9370 smartphones in India in conjunction with CDMA carriers.

Currently, the company is in talks with Tata Teleservices (TTSL), RCom and MTS to offer these handsets bundled with their services.

“We are hopeful that by year end we will be able to announce the details of tariff plans and the name of the selected operator for launching Curve smartphones,” Krishnadeep Baruah, director of marketing at RIM India, told The Mobile Indian.

Baruah further added, “In the CDMA space it makes sense to launch a handset bundled with operator services and in recent times we have seen MTS launching high end smartphones bundled with its connection.”

BlackBerry Curve 9350 and 9370 smartphones come with 2.44 inch touchscreens but do not feature touchscreen based displays like the older Curve smartphones did and the company has made both phones slim.

Both the phones are powered by BlackBerry 7 OS. Curve 9350 and 9370 come with 512 MB and 1 GB on-board memories, respectively. Both the phones have an option to expand memory up to 32 GB via a microSD card.

Curve 9250 and 9370 have 5 Megapixel cameras with flash, but can only record in VGA mode. They also have Near Field Communication chips which allow transactions, data exchange, and wireless connections between two devices in close proximity to each other.

With BlackBerry 7 OS the Curve series of smartphones have augmented reality, which is enabled with the digital compass and accelerometer. With the Wikitude World Browser it provides an exciting new way to interact and socialise with the world around.

The new OS also enables the smartphone to have voice-activated universal search, and with speech-to-text translation one can search for files, email, contacts, music and even search the web &#151 without typing a thing.

Nokia announced the first Symbian Belle devices &#151 Nokia 700, 701 and 600 in Mumbai two days ago. These are three devices with similar hardware and the same Symbian Belle update. At the launch we managed to quickly get our hands on the Nokia 700 and Nokia 600 while the Nokia 701 continued to evade us.

Nokia 700 and Nokia 600 together look like a good pair of smartphones with 3.2 inch displays. However, Nokia 700 offered a brighter display with vibrant colors. The reason was simple &#151 Nokia 700 has an Amoled touchscreen with ClearBack technology whereas the 600 has a TFT LCD display. Both devices offer the same 640 x 360 pixel nHD native Resolution and are claimed to be the smallest smartphones in the market.

The handsets kept for hands-on demos were prototypes rather than proper Nokia 700 and Nokia 600 handsets.

As told to us, the smooth polycarbonate chassis that the 700 and 600 handsets have are built using recycle-able bio-plastics and the inner components carry recycled metal. The smooth surface and compact form of both the 700 and 600 makes them quite comfortable to hold. Also, neither device is too heavy to carry around since the Nokia 700 weighs a mere 96 grams while Nokia 600 weighs 100 grams &#151 inclusive of battery.

Symbian Belle has six customizable homescreens to which one can drag and drop any widget. One can set different wallpapers for each screen. The widgets are resizable and also come with in-widget scrolling, something Android still hasn’t got. When you pull down the status bar the notifications tray brings up the notifications toggle switch interface. Though it appears inspired by Android, Nokia Software developers have done a commendable job with the icons and the blue highlight which indicates that the service is on.

Swiping between six different homescreens was a smooth experience as there were less or no widgets on most of the screens.

Nokia had also announced the Just Tap application that allows an NFC enabled device to exchange multimedia when it is tapped to an NFC transmitting chip.

After adding the NFC toggle switch to the homescreen we tried the Just Tap feature by tapping the device on a Ra.One NFC-enabled poster. Immediately a notification to open a link popped on the phone. On accepting the request, the phone downloaded music video content that worked very well on the native video player of the 700. Notably the speaker grill at the bottom of the Nokia 700 did give out some nice stereo-like output. At the same time the loudspeaker behind the 600 was literally screeching out audio and obviously drew the attention of other folks in the room.

Nokia 700 has a 5 Megapixel full focus camera with third generation LED flash. There was lack of proper lighting after the event and the camera captured images that appeared a bit washed out. Because it was a prototype we did not expect any more from it and found similar image results with the 600 as well. Let us hope the final versions of these phones do better.

The improved lockscreen that shares more information about the missed status of calls, texts or email certainly adds icing to the cupcake. The web Browser loads pages quickly on a full WiFi network, however there was a slight lag in Flash performance. That too was acceptable since both smartphones support Flash Lite 4.0 which has features picked from the full blown Flash Player 10. Nonetheless, the native browser is way quicker, more responsive and scrolls nicely compared to the ones found in previous generation (pre-Anna) Symbian software.

Nokia 700 was slimmer and displayed pleasant colours compared to the 600. Nokia had loaded both the smartphones with several apps but we did not get enough time to try all of them.

Both devices are meant for different audiences though each carries very similar hardware. Nokia 600 is more for the younger generation seeking a budget friendly smartphone with Symbian Belle UI, which does pretty much everything under the sun.

In terms of build quality, Symbian Belle and a smoother user experience both the smartphones are impressive.

Nokia 600 will be available from next month at Rs 12,999 while the Nokia 700 will be available for about Rs 18,099. These prices may drop by around Rs 1,500.

Note: Due to poor lighting post phone launch event, we were not able to capture phone images and when we found out that the display units were prototypes, we totally skipped the photography part.