With the exception of perhaps the Apple iPhone and some other smartphones that cost a couple hundred dollars even with the dreaded 2-year contract, we've come to view cellphones as throw-away items. If they break, exchange them for a new one at the AT&T or Verizon store. As a result, we don't treat smartphones very well, and we don't care if they break. Hey, they're free.
Enter the Sonim Xperience One, or XP1. It's a phone, based on the Philips Nesperia 6120 hardware platform, offered by Sonim Technologies of San Mateo, California, but you've probably never seen one because the company sells it almost exclusively in the European markets though you can buy it online in the US.
What sets this otherwise fairly ordinary cellphone apart is that it's rugged. Sonim states that "the XP1 is designed and engineered to meet the needs of people who use their mobile phones in tough conditions -- working outdoors in all sorts of weather, working in less-than-pristine industrial settings, or engaging in sports such as sailing, snowboarding, skiing or mountain climbing."
What makes the XP-1 rugged? Well, for one thing it's sealed to IP54 specifications. The "5" means it's protected against dust, and the "4" means it's protected against water spray from all directions. It also has a very wide operating temperature range from -4 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, and you can drop it from 5.5 feet to concrete. According to Sonim, the XP1 has been tested according to MIL-STD-810F methods for salt fog, humidity, transport shock, vibration and thermal shock.
The handsome phone's housing is heavily protected by hardened rubber molding, the simple, easy-to-read numeric keypad and buttons have been tested for a half million pushes, and the whole thing definitely has a tough look. It measures 2.0 x 4.4 x 0.87 inches and weighs 4.5 ounces with battery.
Technologically, the XP1 is a standard Tri-Band GSM phone that uses a SIM card. It has an ARM-9 processor, 8MB of RAM and 32MB of flash. You get about five hours of talk time from the 1,100 mHA battery. There are two speakers. The 1.8-inch TFT has 128 x 160 pixel resolution, can display 65k colors, and has an anti-glare and scratch-resistant screen. No touch or anything fancy. There is Bluetooth and you can do SMS testing or use WAP 2.0.
The XP1 costs US$499 -- quite a bit, even though unlocked phones have a real price and not a 2-year-contract-subsidized one, and rugged always costs more. Still, for that price we'd like to see IP67.
Sonim now plans to enter the US market with another model, the even tougher XP3. That one will be a Quad-Band GSM/EDGE phone with GPS and a fairly high-res camera.
