Why You Can Trust CNET Sonim XP3 Enduro review: Sonim XP3 Enduro
The XP3 Enduro may not look pretty and it has the features of a prepaid mobile, but it's probably the only phone you'll find that can be driven over by a car and still work.
Design
Calling the Sonim XP3 Enduro ugly doesn't seem entirely accurate. Sure it's twice as thick as Apple's iPhone and covered in garish yellow plastic, but it at least has character — albeit a burly, gruff Army Reservist kind of character. With its deep plastic ridges, exposed screws and machine-like vents, the XP3 looks more like an accessory to an electric drill than a relative of most modern mobiles.
Sonim XP3 Enduro
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
The XP3's screen is an underwhelming 1.77 inches diagonally, with a below average 128x160-pixel resolution. Below the screen is a set of keys dedicated to navigation and shortcuts and a standard 12-button numeric keypad. Though the screen may be under par, the button size and placement is excellent, with large raised keys giving good definition for easy input.
Around the ruggedised chassis we find four extra shortcut keys. Two of these adjust the volume controls, a button on the left is dedicated to opening your contacts list and there's one on the right that activates the flashlight on the top of the handset. On the bottom of the phone are a 2.5mm headphone socket and a mini-USB port for charging and PC transfers.
Durability
As you will read in the next section, the XP3 is light on modern phone features beyond the basic PIM functionality. But then, this isn't the phone for latte-sipping, Italian shoe wearing, eye-bag moisturising city dwellers — this is a phone for people who tend to get themselves and, as a result, their phone dirty. Sonim offers a three-year unconditional guarantee that the phone will withstand the following list of tech-abuse.
Firstly, the XP3 carries an IP-57 certification, meaning it conforms to certain levels of resistance in line with the Ingress Protection rating system. The 5 in that figure indicates the phone is protected from dust and sediment, allowing only limited levels of dirt beyond its tight, plastic walls. The 7 indicates that the phone can be submerged in water up to one metre for 30 minutes.
The phone is also resistant to shock, with Sonim specifying its tolerance of shock-drops up to 2 metres onto concrete. The screen is likewise shock and glare resistant. The XP3 also meets the US military certification MIL-810F demonstrating its ability to endure periods in unfavourable weather and environmental conditions including rain, fog, humidity, extreme temperatures and salt air.
Because the CNET team in Australia is an unashamed pack of the aforementioned latte-sipping crowd, we haven't had too great an opportunity to test the limits of these claims, but we can attest to the phone surviving minor exposure to similar punishments. We've dunked it in water and tossed it around, and so far so good.
Features
If you weren't impressed by the XP3's various durability claims, then we can guarantee you won't be won over by its spec sheet. The XP3 is tri-band GSM network compatible (900/1800/1900) and only supports Bluetooth v1.2 connections for transfers. It doesn't have a camera, GPS, Wi-Fi and only comes with 10MB of storage with no option to expand.
Strangely, the XP3 ships with a Java version of Opera Mini pre-installed, but trust us, at GPRS speeds you'll only be using this browser in emergencies. The XP3 is Microsoft Exchange compatible for syncing details with Outlook, but this definitely isn't the phone business people will want to use for corporate emailing.
Performance
Battery life is extremely good with the Sonim XP3 Enduro. The company rates the battery life at six hours talk-time and 320 hours standby, with a decent-sized 1180mAh battery under the back-plate. During our tests we've seen up to six days with moderate use, and could see it lasting for a full week with differing use.
Call quality is a mixed bag, though. The phone excels when outdoors, walking and talking alongside a busy road, but isn't so good inside a house or office. People we spoke to using the XP3 complained that our voice was distorted, regardless of how we adjusted the phone's settings. This might be a small trade off for people looking for a phone to use on a noisy work site.
Overall
It goes without saying — the Sonim XP3 isn't for everyone. Those in Sonim's target market (builders, plumbers, sky-diving instructors, midwives in their noisy nurseries) will surely love the durability of the phone with its speaker and mic settings optimised for louder-than-usual environments. But can anyone love the way this humongous yellow monster looks? We don't love it, our jeans pockets will be glad to see the back of it, though we definitely see the value in a phone you can hammer a nail into.
The XP3 is available exclusively through Crazy John's in Australia, and costs AU$549 outright. When you boil it down, this is a $100 phone wrapped in tough plastic, and the same money will buy you a cheap smartphone with a range of different, useful features. If you don't tend to break phones with shock or water you'd be best to save your money, or spend it on a phone with GPS and a media player.