Sonim XP1 Blog

Australian IT: XP3 Enduro "A Surfers' Delight"

The below is snipped from a review of our new rugged, waterproof Sonim XP3 Enduro, you can read the full review here.

The Sonim XP3 is a plain vanilla GSM phone wrapped in a shell tough enough to take a 2m-drop on to concrete without ill-effect and waterproof enough to be submerged for 30 minutes at depths of up to 1m.

Those are the tough-enough-for-war-service claims that Sonim makes for the phone but we found you could push the macho-looking, yellow and black XP3 handset even further.

We doubled the drop on to concrete and the phone bounced a couple of times and then happily made a few calls.

It also survived being run over several times by the family Forester, a party trick the children took much delight in.

The phone is MIL-810f certified against fog and salt air as well as good to go in temperatures from -20C to 60C.

The waterproof keypad is claimed to be good for 500,000 presses.

When it comes to water torture the XP3 is a sadist's (or talkative surfer's) delight.

We left it submerged in the bath for an hour, made calls in the shower, left it under a hard-running tap for a few minutes and would have taken it for a surf if we weren't so afraid of sharks at Sydney beaches these days, although I'm sure the XP3 would have survived far better than I would in the jaws of a great white.

"Get a coffee, sit down and watch this…"

By popular demand, here's part 2 of Mobile Industry Review's torture-test of the Sonim XP3. Mobile Industry Review says: We popped over to the Sonim stand on the last day of Mobile World Congress and…. yes, we put Dan in charge of the interview. He has been fascinated with the Sonim indestructible handsets and couldn’t stop looking at the hammer on the desk whilst Christophe from Sonim was telling us about their new range. Annnd then we let Dan loose. With a hammer. And his HUGE boots. First, you’ll see him stepping and jumping on the Sonim XP3 packaging. Rumour has it, the material might even stop a bullet, although we didn’t get that verified. That in itself is worth a purchase. Then Dan couldn’t keep his hands off that hammer. WHACK. WHACK. WHACK. And then Dan spotted James walking along the corridor towards us. And promptly threw the phone at him. Then down the stairs. Then stamped on it and threw it down the stairs. And then engaged the bystanders (a bit of a crowd had formed) and asked them to stamp on it. And… (watch the video above to find out)

"Rambo would’ve been proud ... "

Bonus Stage, a tech program from Singapore's Straits Times Razor TV, has posted a video review of Sonim's newest rugged phone, the XP3 Enduro. Who wouldn't want to watch the lovely Eva 'Girl-Next-Door' Ellinghausen's cool review of the 'Toughest Phone in the World"? (Warning: depending on where you are in the world, the video feed can be a little wonky. click here for the direct feed. )

We discovered the video through a post on the excellent Singapore technology news site techgoondu.com, which had this to say about the XP3 Enduro:

Ruggedness has a new phone. This death-defying mobile is so tough; it tempts you to break it… if you can. Each XP3 is backed with an unconditional 3-year guarantee.

The XP3 can stay submerged in a metre depth of water for a full 30 minutes and still make calls. And it doesn’t matter whether you pick up a call in the Alps or the Sahara, this phone is sturdy enough to operate at both ends of the thermometer (-20 to 60 degrees Celsius). Rambo would’ve been proud.

Techgoondu's reporter Edvarcl appears in the Razor TV video too. Thanks, all, for a great review.

XP3 Enduro: A Smashing Phone

RegHardware ran a review on our new rugged, waterproof Sonim XP3 Enduro, which resulted in a great comment from reader Stu Reeves:

I take your girly, oh so cute touch screen phone and smash it with my Enduro....

Grrrr

Now I'm off to drink molten steel.

Grrrrrr

Thanks, Stu! We're still laughing over here in SonimLand.

The review was excellent too. Here's some snippets from the full article, which you can (and should) read here

Launched in November, but only just available in the UK, the Sonim Enduro is hard to kill - very hard. We know - we tried.

Stylistically, the handset has a sort-of 1980s cyberpunk feel: hi-tech, but built to outlast the owner. Assuming the user doesn't have tiny hands - and this is not the kind of handset people with diminutive digits use - then it fits well in the palm despite being larger than most modern handsets. In use, it feels solid as a rock - which is not an entirely inappropriate comparison.

We tried the usual throwing-the-phone-around-the-office tests, and then some slightly more challenging roll-down-the-stairs assays, before resorting to the tried and tested chucking-it-as-high-as-possible test and, when it survived that without a scratch, the throwing-out-of-buildings and jumping-on-it tests which were all we had left.

The boiling coffee pot was someone else's idea, and the phone had to remain there for half an hour while we waited for the coffee level to drop far enough to fish the still-working handset out, this was followed by a bout of vigorous stamping that saw a partial failure. But within ten minutes the phone was working again. Since then, it's been in the freezer and in the mud, and we even gave it to a three-year-old to play with, but nothing seems to phase the Enduro.

 

O'doo.TV, a German news site that evaluates the advertising promises of tools built for outdoor enthusiasts, has torture tested the new waterpoof Sonim XP3 Enduro to see if it is really a mobile phone that hikers, skiers, boaters and other outdoorsy types can really count on in extreme weather and tough conditions.

Noting that:"modern multimedia mobile phones must be treated with the same care as uncooked eggs in the shell ... dirt, shock, or water are toxic for these devices ..." O'doo went on to say that the Sonim XP3 Enduro is an "entirely different" sort of phone, one designed and built for "the rugged outdoor life."

Unfortunately we can't embed O'doo's excellent torture test video here, but if you're interested in getting a great overview of the Sonim XP3 Enduro's features, and see how it stands up to water, freezing conditions, mud, drops, kicks, shocks and other incidents that typically befall mobile phones owned by people who live interesting lives, click here

"Rugged, indestructible, eternal ..."

European TV science news show Galileo decided to put the world's toughest consumer goods to the test -- or as they put it "explore the myth of the rugged, the indestructible, the eternal."

The products they selected to test were:

• PET bottle
• Zippo lighter
• Swiss Army knife
• Oakley sunglasses
• and -- you knew this was coming, right? -- a Sonim XP1

After a series of tests, the judges ruled that nothing is tougher than an Sonim phone!

You can view the archived show here, but only if you live in one of the countries were the video stream is available (chances are if Galileo is available on your TV, the archived show will be viewable.) If you're one of the lucky folks who can watch the stream, click on the "Galileo vom Donnerstag, 26. Februar" link (the hamburger picture.) The "Most Unbreakable" test appears in the second segment of the program.

Thanks to Sonim owner RW in Germany for letting us know about this show!