Why You Can Trust CNET Sonim XP3300 Force review: Sonim XP3300 Force
Sonim XP3300 Force
It's hard not to be impressed by a phone you can submerge in 6.5 feet of water for half an hour without it drowning, drop into antifreeze, and break out of a block of concrete without it sustaining damage. This is exactly the rough-and-tumble toughness that spurs rugged-phone maker Sonim Technologies along in its quest to outfit construction workers and others in outdoorsy occupations with cell phones sturdy enough to withstand a range of environmental hazards. Its latest effort, the Sonim XP3300 Force, has the same military specifications for powering through shock, dust, extreme temperatures, pressure, oil spills, and so on as the previous build, the Sonim XP1300 Core. Although construction on the two handsets looks identical, the Force is more upmarket, with a few additional apps, a camera, and assisted GPS with turn-by-turn navigation. The lack of features is a complaint we had about the Core, and it's heartening that Sonim listened.
Sonim XP3300 Force
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
While the phone's bulk, heft, grip, and hardiness show "rugged" is the name of the game, we did manage to crack the Gorilla Glass screen. We don't hold this against Sonim, not too much, anyway. The company promised ruggedness, not indestructibility, and we were purposely chucking the handset at a concrete surface (read the Durability section for more). It's just a good thing the phone comes with a three-year warranty.
You'll have to pay a pretty penny for all that protection. The Force costs $499 without a contract and will be available in the third week of March through Sonim's Web site and through its distributor, Quality One.
Editors' note: Portions of this review are taken from the Sonim XP1300 Core review due to their overlapping features.
Design
If the Force were a comic book character, it would be the Incredible Hulk, assuming that the Hulk was part fiberglass and not so green. The Force comes in two colors--all black, and black with yellow accents. Both versions stand 5 inches tall by 2.4 inches wide by 1 inch thick and weigh a muscular 6.5 ounces.
The Force has a thick, waterproof rubber-and-fiberglass shell. In addition to protecting the electronic guts from Mother Nature, the ridged rubber coating also gives the Force excellent grip, essential for thickly gloved hands. Unfortunately, the rubber also engulfs the phone's petite, 2-inch screen. Gorilla Glass (1.5 millimeter thick) will help prevent the display from scratching and breaking. Drops onto concrete from higher than 6.5 feet, however, will crack it like an egg.
The QVGA 240x320-pixel resolution display is nothing special, and its interface is functional, but not particularly attractive. Navigation was mostly fine, but small icons in many apps were confusing and strained our eyes. It's clear that Sonim's strength is hardware, not software design.
Below the screen are the soft keys, the Clear button, Talk and End buttons, and a circular navigation toggle with a central select button. All the buttons on the navigation toggle and the backlit, alphanumeric dial pad are ridged, a feature intended to make them easier to press while wearing leather gloves. The keys felt good under our small, bare fingers, but were nevertheless cramped. With slim, tight-fitting gloves, we were able to compose texts and dial phone numbers precisely. With thicker gardening and work gloves, the results of our presses were anyone's guess. A large-handed construction professional we showed the phone to echoed our sentiment. It's disappointing that Sonim didn't take the opportunity to redesign the Force's dial pad--there's clearly space to expand.
Despite the dial pad's weak point, the rest of the phone's hardware continued to impress, especially the two screwed-in, waterproof "mud flaps" on the left spine that help keep the charging and headset jacks dry. The sockets are also water-resistant this year, Sonim CEO Bob Plaschke told CNET in a demo of the phone. Unfortunately, both are also 3.5 millimeters, which is great for accessing the FM receiver and music player, but inconvenient for charging your phone. You'll have to use one of the included adapters or buy your own.
Below the flaps there's a programmable convenience key that goes to the oddly named "Java" app section that houses the Opera Mini browser along with other selections. The interface here is even more oddly adorned with tiny digital flowers.
Back to the hardware: there's a grippable volume rocker on the right spine, above the camera button. The latter also turns on a bright flashlight. Both the 2-megapixel camera lens and the flashlight are on the back. We're very glad to see the camera, which was absent in the Core. As with its predecessor, large screws keep the battery closure secure, and keep water out. Sonim includes a small flat-head (standard) screwdriver tool you can attach to a keychain. The screws aren't designed to come out of the housing, so you'll need to loosen both screws until the cover pops off.
A plastic barrier lines the battery cavity to create a firm seal. We had to use the corner of the screwdriver to pry out the battery, at first. In most cases, we frown on any manufacturer that places the SIM card and 16GB-capable microSD card slot behind the battery. In this case, Sonim had good cause. In addition to creating a physical shield, the battery keeps both smaller plastic wafers from dislodging.
Durability
Sonim makes lots of promises about the XP3300's durability. It's certified to military specifications for salt, fog, humidity, transport shock, and thermal shock; it can tolerate temperatures between minus 4 degrees and 131 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 20 degrees and 55 degrees Celsius); you can submerge it in 6.5 feet of water for half an hour; you can cover it in oil; and it can endure pressure of 1,000 pounds per square inch. We subjected it to every test we performed on the XP1300 and on the XP3 before it, including dropping it on a hard surface, throwing it down the stairs, putting it in a freezer, and stomping the heck out of it with a boot.
We also conducted some of our own tests. We called the phone underwater and smashed it on the ground out of a concrete brick Sonim had helpfully poured around one of two test units. We also hammered a small nail into the screen, which created just a scratch. The one test the XP3300 failed was a test where we threw it into the air and watched it land on the concrete. The phone itself still works fine, but the screen is a cobweb of shattered glass. It may not be Sonim's fault. The XP330 Force is supposed to withstand drops of up to 6.5 feet (2 meters) onto concrete. We only eyeballed the toss, but it's possible we overshot the height. At any rate, the phone performed admirably in the majority of the tests. In that one, we managed to push it beyond its limits.
Features
Sonim built its XP3300 Force for strength, not brains. Even so, there are more features in this model than in the sorely lacking Core. The phone book holds 1,000 contacts (with an extra 250 on the SIM) with room in each entry for multiple phone numbers, a fax number, a company name, an e-mail address, a birthday, a street address, a URL, and notes. For caller ID, you can associate contacts with a photo and one of 18 polyphonic ringtones.
The Force supports text and multimedia messaging, in addition to Bluetooth, A-GPS, a file manager, and PC syncing. POP3 and IMAP4 e-mail support are present as well, though the interface is pretty clunky. In terms of entertainment, there's an FM radio and a generic music player that supports MP3, WAV, and AAC files.
The handset also has an Opera Mini browser, with bookmarks, stored pages, and a record of your browsing history. The City Cruiser app does turn-by-turn navigation. Unlike the Core, the Force supports MRM apps (a company's resource management programs) like Xora, ACTsoft, Econz, Spotmaster, and NoteVault for construction workers. Other tools include an alarm clock, a calculator, a unit converter, a world clock, a calendar, a sound recorder, a notepad, a stopwatch, and a text reader.
Don't expect much from the 2-megapixel camera. It takes dull, noisy pictures that you can send via e-mail, photo message, or Bluetooth. It's better than having no camera, as with the Core, but photo quality is poor by any measure. There is, however, a handful of photo tools, such as six white-balance settings, a night mode, and six color effects. For storage, there's 64MB of RAM and there's room for 16GB external memory.
Performance
We tested unlocked the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) in San Francisco using AT&T's network. Call quality was remarkably clear on both ends of the line throughout multiple calls. None of us heard much background noise. In fact, if we dropped silent, it wasn't always obvious we were on a live call. Volume was quite strong as well, and voices sounded loud and fairly natural, with a hint of muffling.
Speakerphone was very loud and clear on our end. In fact, it's one of the best loudspeaker specimens we've found on a phone. On the other end, callers said volume was diminished to the point where they had to listen closely to hear. The call was otherwise clear.
Sonim XP3300 Force call quality sample Listen now:
Sonim kept in mind the long workday shifts of its demographic. The previous model, the XP1300 Core, maintained a rated 18-hour battery life. The XP3300 Force, on the other hand, extends that time to between 20 and 24 hours of talk time. The company says that's 17 hours with continuous turn-by-turn navigation and a full 27 hours using GPS tracking with the corporate applications updating at 5-minute intervals. According to our tests, the Sonim XP3300 Force did result in an astounding 20.3 hours talk time. Sonim claims a standby time of 33 days on its 1,750 mAh battery. FCC radiation tests measure the digital SAR at 0.782 watt per kilogram.