QWERTY ICS on the Rise: Kyocera Rise

Kyocera announced the QWERTY-plus-touchscreen Kyocera Rise at CTIA Wireless.

Kyocera Rise offers an easy-to-use slide-out keypad and a high-resolution touchscreen running Android 4.0. A survey by Yankee Group earlier this year revealed that 69 percent of consumers called a QWERTY keypad a "must have" or "nice to have" feature on their devices.

The Kyocera Rise features a 3.5-inch HVGA capacitive 480x320 IPS LCD touchscreen, Android 4.0 ICS,  a MSM8655 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processos, 2GB ROM, 512MB RAM memory, microSD,  3.2 MP, EV-DO network, Wi-Fi,  Stereo Bluetoot, digital compass, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor and Kyocera's "Eco Mode" software to monitor and conserve battery power

The Kyocer Rise, with its slide-out QWERTY keypad, measures 4.44 x 2.38 x 0.56 in. (in closed position) and weighs 5.54 oz. It will be available nationally in the second half of 2012.