Sonim XP3 Enduro ultra-rugged mobile phone

Launched in November, but only just available in the UK, the Sonim Enduro is hard to kill - very hard. We know - we tried. Sonim XP3 Enduro Sonim's XP3 Enduro: well 'ard Sonim announced its range of toughened handsets back in 2007, and made much of the phones' indestructibility. The specifications list an operational …

[Warhelmet]

Ideal...

I remember being told by someone who looked after mobile phone stuff for a large company that some of the sales force seemed to have a lot of accidents with their mobiles. The staged roll out of a new model was mere coincidence. As was the fact that the concerned individuals seemed to be scheduled towards the end of the roll-out.

A similar thing seemed to happen with laptops.

Ruggedised equipment sends out a strong message.

[Dave_H]

You must take it caving

A few years ago I took a group of students caving and had to take the Student Union phone on the activity with me. They did not care that it would only last a few minutes before disintegrating or that there was no signal underground. But boy did they grumble when I returned a very wet bag of broken bits to them a few days later!

Maybe this phone would get over the first problem, but still no lack of signal.

I only use a ‘phone for making calls, so this could be ideal for me.

[Adam]

Does it

Float?

[Dive Fox]

Been done...

I guess no one in the UK has ever used a Nextel before. That thing looks just like an i58sr, one of Nextel's old phones.

[Gotno iShit Wantno iShit]

Oh how the fruit bauble worshippers will weep.

"The Enduro is a 2G device, lacks a camera and the interface reflects the functionality in its Spartan options lists. There are no games, no support for Java, a very basic WAP browser and the most primitive MP3 player we've ever encountered."

Oh my, a phone that is very nearly just a phone.

Bin the headset dirt hole and make it work with bluetooth headsets. Bin the WANK, sorry, WAP entirely and you've got such a winner. Mp3 - meh.

The Anti Jesus Phone in every respect - I want one.

[Anonymous Coward]

I want one.....

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

The yorkie bar of phones....

Grrrr

Now I'm of to drink molten steel.

Grrrrrr

[John]

we need pics and video. and a blendtec blender.

Arstechnica did a stress test on the first iPhone. The second iPhone has a plastic back, so it won't be as durable, but the screen's glass is still the same. The point is they have photos and videos!

http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2007/07/iphone-review.ars/13

though it appears the videos haven't survived the site's redesign in Opera :(

The real question is 'Will it blend?'

[Anonymous Coward]

But....

...did anybody test whether it will blend?

[Anonymous Coward]

Interesting product

Any chance of a comparative shot with something like a CD so that we can gauge how large it is?

I'm sure the dimensions will be on their website, but it's useful to get a feel for the size of something like this.

Looks like someone's finally made a useful handset!

[Bronek Kozicki]

going in right direction

Now, can I have feature request for the 3G model? Make it work like a nice standard modem over both USB and Bluetooth. And perhaps improve battery life to 1 month ? (kidding)

[Stuart Carruthers]

Bought my dad one...

of the JCB Tough branded phones made by Sonim last year from Phones4U. Same colour & spec but slightly different layout. Only costs £100 though had to also by £20 Vodafone P&G airtime. It came sim-unlocked so stuck his O2 sim in without a clitch! He loves it, just the part on building sites & it become a bit of a fad, so much so that they've all got one now! Can vouch for its resiliance, he replaced Nokia's on a 6-months basis beforehand. And its so loud even though he's lost some of his hearing he asked me to reduce the volume!!

If you want one of these looked for the JCB Tough as the same handset branded Sonim was £300!!"