Sonim XP1 Blog

Benefits of Rugged Technology

Sonim employee Jeffery Pon was in a nasty car accident last week. Thankfully Jeff is ok. And he told us an interesting story about his experience that points up the value of having a rugged phone even if your work conditions and/or lifestyle doesn't fit the 'extreme' profile of the typical Sonim customer.

"It happens in an instant, but it’s an instant that somehow seems to last a lifetime. Tires screech, glass breaks, metal twists and there you sit, very aware that you are an object that must obey Newton's Laws of motion. Then it all comes to an abrupt halt and despite the dozens of cars and hundreds of eyes upon you, you realize that you have never felt more alone in your life.

At least that’s how I felt a week ago, after a truck tire suddenly bounced out of the pickup right in front of me on the bridge during my commute home. It all happened so fast and, unsure whether I should "take the hit" and hope for the best or to try and swerve to avoid the 70 pound object that was barreling towards me, I chose the latter option.

Swerving to avoid the tire and the other cars that had reacted similarly, I lost control of my car and slammed into the outer guardrail (which thankfully held up so I didn’t go sailing off the bridge) only to pinball back to the center divide and slam into the concrete barrier there.

When I finally came to a stop in my now badly mutilated vehicle the first thought I had was that I was lucky to have survived, the second was to call 911. But after a quick glance around the interior wreckage of the car, I noted that my personal cell phone had flown out of the cup holder during the accident and lay shattered into four pieces on the floor. But right beside it, amidst the broken glass and shredded metal, lay my brightly colored yellow Sonim XP1 - completely unscathed.  I reached for it and dialed 911 for emergency assistance. Help was on its way.

 I am not the kind of person who you’d expect would own a Sonim rugged phone. I don't work or play in extreme conditions, the most exhilarating thing I've ever done in my life is a skydiving adventure I embarked upon a couple of years ago. I probably wouldn’t have had an XP1 if I didn’t work for Sonim. That said, I will not leave home again without my Sonim because when I needed it most, and my life depended on it, my Sonim XP1 was there, ready to help me reach out for emergency assistance.

My boss at Sonim, Bob Plaschke, talks a lot about how safety – personal safety, the ability to call for help when you need it no matter what situation you’re in -- is the most important aspect of our rugged phones. I understood the importance of this intellectually before, but now I really get the value of having a phone that you can depend on."

"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!

"The Ultimate In Non-Breakable Mobiles"

Gizmodo's Australian edition has included Sonim's rugged XP1 in its holiday gift guide.

Snipped from the article:

Remember Sonim's XP1; the indestructible phone we were planning to destroy? You know the one. We even asked for your tips on destruction. Well, while parenting duties have stopped us from giving the phone a good whack, literally, that doesn't mean countless others haven't tried and failed miserably in their quest to disprove the phones claim to indestructible-fame. Which is why this little beauty, has popped up on this year's Christmas Gift Guide.

Engineered for sports enthusiasts and those who work in harsh environments, the military-spec, Bluetooth and Push-to-talk enabled XP1 is shockproof, waterproof, dustproof, extreme temperature-proof and, considering the 3-year unconditional warranty, moron-proof. The device is not exactly pretty, but it is something to consider for any adrenaline junkie, drunk, klutz, brickie or astronaut on the lookout for the ultimate in non-breakable mobiles, this Christmas. Available at Crazy Johns for $549 outright.

Also on the list, the Acer Predator high-end gaming PC, iPod Nanos, The BlackBerry Storm, a home automation kit ... lots of good suggestions if you've just hit the panic button after realizing that there's less than a week of holiday shopping time left.

It's Official -- XP1/JCB Toughphone is the World's Toughest Phone

As reported by London's Metro Newspaper, the Sonim's XP1/JCB Toughphone now holds the Guinness World Record as the world's toughest phone.

The story in Metro noted:

The phone was dropped from the bucket of a JCB Digger from various heights until hitting its maximum of 3.25 metres.

Judges would only accept superficial damage to the handset and stipulated that it had to be completely operational and have no cracks on the screen.

Entrepreneur Peter Jones has previously helped test the phone's resistance to other potential sources of damage, including being run over by vehicles, put in a cement mixer and drenched by an industrial hose.

Bob Plaschke, Chief Executive of Toughphone maker Sonim Technologies, said: "From the very start we set out to make rugged phones for people who work and play in rugged environments.

"We're thrilled that Guinness World Records has recognised the JCB Toughphone as officially the toughest phone in the world."

The handset comes with a guarantee against dust, dirt and shock and as well as being fully water-resistant.

Torture-Testing Sonim's XP1

Ladies and gentlemen, for your viewing pleasure we proudly present the newest (and even more excellent)adventures of the world's toughest phone, the rugged Sonim XP1.

In this spine-tingling installment the XP1 has a close encounter with a bulldog, experiences the brief but glorious life of sausages, enters the deep freeze, briefly flies through the air before the inevitable hard crash landing, is run over by construction equipment and is then run through a car wash, and enjoys a steamy shower with a lovely lady -- and much more.

Will the XP1 survive? View the video and find out.

XP1 on CNET TV

In this video CNET provides an in-depth look at the engineering and features of Sonim's rugged XP1 phone. We got kudos for everything but the phone's emphasis on tough usability rather than the now-standard slim-lined flashy form factor ... and even then the reviewer noted that cuteness really isn't the central interest or concern of the people who use a rugged phone.

Test And Destroy!

U.K. newspaper The Guardian published an article today on Test and Destroy, a new torture test devised to gauge the level of abuse our rugged XP1 phone is capable of withstanding.

Snipped from the article:

Manufacturing firm JCB is aiming to prove the toughness of its mobile phone with an online campaign that allows skeptics to pummel it with a machine-operated hammer at the click of a mouse.

The campaign, developed by agency CreativeFeed, aims to prove the aptly named JCB Toughphone is practically indestructible.

CreativeFeed has set up a website - testanddestroy.com - that features the phone hooked up to a device designed to smash it to pieces.

Doubters can watch the device, a machine-operated hammer called The Destroyer, pound the phone every eight seconds.

Visitors are encouraged to make bets on how long the phone, which will be battered 10,000 times a day, will take to break. To prove the test is live visitors can also call the phone and see it ringing.

JCB licenses the rights to name the phone, which is known as the Sonim XP1, in the UK market.

Once the phone is broken, visitors can watch other objects being demolished by The Destroyer, which took four weeks to make, and suggest other objects that could be put to the test.

So head on over to Test and Destroy, make a guess about how the XP1 will respond to the incessent hammering, suggest other things we can break, and call in to activate some additional options.

Sonim XP1 Meets The Destroyer

What does it take to wreck the world’s toughest phone -- Sonim’s rugged XP1? Bloggers around the world, the media and the Sonim team has torture-tested the XP1, and the phone has survived being stepped on by an elephant, used as a hockey puck, hammer and a football, being strapped to a rocket, tossed into a working cement mixer, flung off roofs and down stairs, dragged behind a boat, dropped into a fish tank, frozen, baked, driven over by multi-ton trucks, and dumped it into tubs of beer and soda … and much more.

But what will happen when the XP1 meets The Destroyer -- an infernal machine created specifically to pound on the XP1, round the clock? We don’t know. But you can watch the Destroyer at work on testanddestroy.com and submit your guess as to the outcome of the XP1’s toughest-yet torture test. Will the XP1 explode/fall apart/burst/quietly crack into pieces or vanish mysteriously in a puff of smoke? Maybe, just maybe, it’ll never break -- for all we know the XP1 might destroy The Destroyer.

Guess correctly and you 're in the running to win a free Sonim XP1 rugged cell phone, engineered to meet the needs of people who work and play in extreme environments.

XP1 in Australia

B&T Magazine, Australia's highest-circulating advertising, marketing and media publication, has a story about the recent launch of Sonim's XP1 rugged phone in Australia.

Snipped from the article:

The XP1 phone is marketed as the “toughest” GSM mobile phone in the world and to prove it the makers have produced a campaign dedicated to getting people to put their phone to the test.

The XP1 Test Kit has been sent around the world to bloggers, journalists and users, with illustrations showing how to put the phone to the test and directs them to the website www.toughestphone.com, where users can then upload their own experiments. The company is now targeting the Australian market following the launch of the phone last month.

“It’s a fun and successful way to get bloggers to write about the technology,” Sonim president and CEP Bob Plaschke said. The phone was launched in Australia exclusively through Crazy John’s stores, with plans to launch a new XP3 in November this year.

The blogger out reach campaign was created by Sonim’s US creative agency CreativeFeed, headed by Arthur Ceria, ex-creative director at Ogilvy One Worldwide.

“The XP1 test kit allows them to unleash the childish side of who and what they are,” Ceria said. He added they had chosen not to use main media because the product relied on this “word of mouth” marketing, to reach consumers on a more personal level.

Linux and the XP1

I noticed a post on Houtkabouter’s Blog about some issues he had synching contacts with Sonim's XP1 rugged phone and his computer, which is running Linux. We are developing a solution to address this, which will accompany the next generation of XP rugged phones, but in the meantime I wanted to share the workaround developed by the open source community figured out, Wammu, a mobile phone manager running on Linux and other platforms allows Linux users to synch and perform other actions on their XP1 phones.

We'd also like to thank Houtkabouter for his great review of the XP1. He wrote, in part:

About 2 weeks ago I got a demo Sonim XP1  phone to test and play with. As a phone, (as in make calls and SMS) it rocks. It does not claim to be a calendar, coffeemaker or Gameboy. It is a rugged phone and just that.