Sonim Technologies Blog

XP1 -- The Live Torture Test

The Mobile Gazette, Cnet and Gizmodo all have stories about our latest XP1 torture test happening now over at Test and Destroy.com

Gizmodo says:

The folks at Sonim have done just about everything in their power to convince potential customers that their XP1 is the world's toughest phone. That includes running over it with cars and dunking it in beer baths. Their latest stunt involves hitting in with a hammer 24/7 until it breaks—and you can watch the entire thing go down online.

You can even send it text messages to test whether or not it is working. Visitors can also wager a guess on how many blows it will take before the phone breaks—with the closest guess earning a freebie XP1. Currently, the counter stands at over 33,500 hits—but my guess is that it will take quite a while before it finally gives in. I mean, it's not like that hammer is really wailing on it. Keep in mind that the XP1 is only available in Europe, but interested parties in the states should be able to get their hands on the updated XP3 version in rural areas starting this March.

CNET says:

The Sonim XP1 has been lauded as a "tough and strong" phone. CreativeFeed, a digital marketing agency, has decided to put it to the test.

It's launched a Web site that features "The Destroyer"--a machine-operated hammer that will pummel the phone 24 hours a day live over the Intertubes until it breaks.

Visitors to the Web site have a chance to win the Sonim XP1 handset if they can correctly guess how long it will take for the phone to break/crack/explode, and how many hits it will take before that happens. The site includes a hint line that you can call to get tips on how high you should place your bets.

The Mobile Gazette says:

Sonim are proud of just how tough the XP1 is and sometimes come up with demonstrations to prove it.

This latest test has involves a machine called "The Destroyer", basically a large hammer which repeatedly hits the XP1 to see how long it will take to destroy. Visitors can see the "experiment" live, and can win one of the handsets by guessing how long it will last and how spectacularly it will fail. As we go to press, the XP1 has been hit 33,000 times.

Once the XP1 has met its maker, Sonim are open to suggestions as to what to destroy next. Quite a few people have suggested the iPhone.. we suspect that it will take rather less than 33,000 hits to smash that.

It's a bit of silliness we suppose, but it is worth noting that Sonim also have an upcoming XP3 which promises to be even more impressively macho than the XP1. Presumably they'll need to lob an atom bomb at it or something.

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.

Chuck Norris Meets The XP3

IntoMobile reported on the upcoming launch of Sonim Technologies' XP3 rugged phone in the US, speculating on how the phone would fare in the land of Chuck Norris.

Snipped from the article:

Remember Sonim XP1? We’ve seen the rugged device passing the beer and car tests, but can it handle the wilderness of Chuck Norris’ backyard. Sonim certainly hopes so as they plan to introduce their next-gen indestructible device in the U.S. starting from March next year. Apparently, several rural carriers will offer the waterproof device, which officially can run at temperatures from -4 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit and which withstands a 6-foot drop onto concrete without shrugging. That’s official note, unofficially Sonim’s rugged baby can handle much more.

Anyway, the upcoming Sonim XP3 will come equipped with a powerful 2200 mAh battery that promises to deliver up to 2.5 days of talk and an astounding 2 months of standby time. Other specs include quad-band GSM/EDGE, Bluetooth, flashlight, glare-resistant 128×160 pixels screen, 3 megapixel camera and GPS. Best of all, it comes with a 3-year no-questions-asked guarantee.

Hopefully Chuck will like the XP3. Otherwise a single SMS he sends will destroy the device into particles.

Throw The XP1 on the Barbie

The Herald Sun newspaper has a story about the recent launch of Sonim's rugged XP1 in Australia.

Snipped from the article:

Many phone makers are slugging it out to convince buyers they make the "smartest" mobile. But one company is going it alone by busting its guts -- and gizmos --to make the most indestructible. California-based Sonim Technologies built its niche market selling what it bravely claims are the world's toughest GSM mobile phones.

When the going gets tough, there's the Sonim XP1.

When the going gets even tougher, there'll soon be the XP3.

The credentials of Sonim's flagship product, the Xtreme Performance One (XP1), are that it has endured such ordeals as being trodden on by an elephant, run over by an 18-wheeler truck, shot with a Glock pistol, used as a hockey puck and dragged through water behind a boat.

During visits last week to Crazy John's stores -- Sonim's exclusive distributor in Australia -- Sonim CEO Bob Plaschke was amused to learn of attempts by local larrikins to knock the stuffing out of the XP1.

"One guy brought in one with the rubber melted in one corner," he told Extratech. "Turns out they threw it on the barbie.

"A gardener told me he dropped a limestone paver on his XP1 -- and it broke the limestone in half."

Plaschke's main message while in town was that if you think the XP1 is tough, wait until you put the XP3 through its paces.

He says the XP1 meets military and water-resistance specification IP54, but the XP3 goes further by meeting the more demanding IP57 standard.

"The XP1 is water-resistant and can be dropped from 1m 100 times on to a concrete floor and it won't break," he says.

"But the XP3 is submersible up to 3m for up to half an hour and can be dropped from 3m 100 times and it won't break."

Plaschke says the XP3 can also endure temperatures 10C lower or higher than other phones, the screen is glareproof for use in bright sunlight, and the battery delivers two days' talk time and two months' standby time "because you don't take a rugged phone for a short walk -- you use it outdoors".

Sonim phones also come with a three-year, no-questions-asked guarantee.

Sonim's focus is on the 2 per cent of mobile-phone users who are very, very hard on their phones.

"They are people who work or play in extreme environments, people who are paid money to do things you or I won't do, or pay money to do things the rest of us are too scared to do," Plaschke says.

The World Records Academy: XP1 at the Top of its Class

We've said it before and we're saying it again but this time, it's official.  The World Records Academy declared on Sunday, October 12 that the XP1 is the "most durable phone" in the world.
Taken from the article:

"The Sonim XP1 is built for anyone who requires equipment they can depend on, ideal for construction workers, lorry drivers, farmers and foremen. 
Equally, the Sonim XP1 is perfect for anyone with an active lifestyle who requires a mobile phone that can take a few knocks.  It should also survive most outdoor leisure pursuits, or possibly even trip down to the pub.
The Sonim XP1 is arguably the most durable mobile phone ever made available to the general public."

We aren't the only ones accomplishing greatness in the world.  This past week, I saw that a couple won the title of longest movie watching marathon. 123 hours!  Pretty incredible, but I will say that the XP1's  battery life could outlast these film aficionados.

It is truly an honor to receive the accolades of the World Records Academy, seekers of the most accomplished, most outlandish, and in our case most durable in the entire world.

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.

XP3 -- Coming to the USA

Yes, it’s true. As Gizmodo and PC Magazine are reporting, Sonim’s XP3 -- the newest addition to our family of ruggedized, super-tough phones, will soon be coming to the US.

PC Magazine wrote:

Their European phones have been dropped from a 13-story building and shot with guns, four times, but Sonim's ultra-rugged GSM cell phones keep on ringing. Now, the California-based company finally plans to bring their phones home to the US with the upcoming XP3, which will be available next March from several rural U.S. carriers.

Designed for blue-collar workers and wilderness aficionados, the Sonim XP3 is as close to indestructible as a phone gets. It's waterproof. Officially, it runs at temperatures from -4 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit and it withstands a 6-foot drop onto concrete without shrugging. Sonim's chief executive, Bob Plaschke, said it can actually run at temperatures down to -40 degrees and survive a 9-foot drop (not to mention that one, 13-story fall.) It's impervious to almost anything, including "micro-particles." It has 2.5 days of talk time and an astounding 2 months of standby on its huge 2200 mAh battery.

It isn't a smart phone, but it runs Opera Mini for Web browsing out in the wilderness. It will have a 3-megapixel camera with geotagging for still photos, but no video capability. It doesn't play music, but the speakerphone goes really loud without distortion. It's protected by a 3-year, no-questions-asked guarantee. You break it, you get a new one.

And we loved some of the responses to the story at Gizmodo, especially this one from “heybeav”

This would have been perfect last week when I walked backwards off a pier with my iphone in my pocket. I got it dried out and its working again, but acts a bit funky at times.

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.