Sonim Technologies Blog

Meet Roy the Loris - An Unlikely Ultra Rugged Creature

This past month a furry and quite rare creature made a debut on our facebook page.  We get tons of great photos of our phones in action, but this was a first in history – 

Andre Hidayat Arrasuli from Indonesia posted this and said: “Not just humans like Sonim… LOL!”  Yes, we laughed out loud when we saw this peculiar little creature attempt to make a phone call.  The Loris’s name is Roy, and Roy just can’t enough of our phone.  Check out this video of Roy clambering around for the phone.

Poor little Roy, our phone is too tough and heavy for him to lift!  After watching his video, we found out that these little wonders of the animal world are YouTube sensations and millions of people are fans of the ‘Slow Loris.’ 

This video has almost NINE MILLION views! 

Aruna is an Engineer in Indonesia and is a very experienced mountaineer – explaining why he needs and loves his Sonim XP3300.  In his spare time, Aruna likes sharing his Sonim with his furry friend, Roy.  We asked Aruna why he loves his Sonim and he said: "I choose to use a Sonim phone because so far, I have always destroyed phones, whether it falls into water or I drop it..... Sonim is really manly for me." 

Thanks Aruna for the support, and we look forward to more photos on facebook! 

 

 

 

NCIS: Los Angeles -- Criminal Life with a Sonim

I was watching CBS's NCIS: Los Angeles and was captivated by heartthrobs Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J and then BAM -- there was a Sonim Phone!  Yup, we made it into the recent episode, The Debt. 

Here's how it goes: 

The good guys are on the tail of Fisk and in the heat of the chase, Officer Marty Deeks shoots an Aryan thug to protect a female civilian and discovers after he fires his gun, the Aryan thug was unarmed. Guilt-ridden and with bloody hands, Officer Deeks is released from the LAPD, ending his career as a police officer.  The plot thickens when Deeks discovers that Fisk might have a mole within the LAPD, explaining how the evil matermind has escaped the law time and time again.  The main suspect is his ex-boss, Officer Bates, an expert interrogator for the LAPD.  The evidence is in the files of Bates's personal lab top.  Deeks takes on the covert mission of retrieving the key evidence and sneaks into Bates's office to do the dirty work.  While Deeks is transferring the files, he receives a warning text from his partner: "Bates is back. Get out of there!"  Lo and behold... check out Deek's phone -- a Sonim! 

Within seconds, Deeks hears Bates's voice outside the door.  As if the situation couldn't get worse, Bates CALLS Deeks to catch up on the status of Fisk's case and mid conversation, right as Bates opens the door, Deeks makes the split second decision to climb out the window of Bates's office, located on the TENTH floor.  Scrambling and clinging onto the side of the building, Bates sticks the Sonim in his mouth and manages to scale the side of the building and finally finds safety by falling through the window of another office.  Talk about an extreme expedition for our phone! 

Thank God Deeks wasn't found because the plot just gets better after that.  To find out what happens to Deeks and the rest of the criminal gang, watch the full episode here.  Enjoy! 

TUNE IN TO THE XP3400 ARMOR ON YOUR TV!

We're on TV!!!

Our friends at Appalachian Wireless in Ivel, Kentucky just released a series of great Sonim XP3400 ARMOR commericials - our first TV ads in the U.S.A.!  We're grateful to have awesome partners that have as much fun with our phones as we do. They get what Sonim is all about -- Ultra Ruggedness.  Watch the ARMOR undergo some burly tests:

Hammer vs. ARMOR -- Which is tougher than nails?

TONS of Dump Truck Fun!

20 Feet onto Concrete - No Problem!

*Remember this drop onto concrete? 

Thanks Appalachian Wireless for showing our phones a good time.  Please visit their website here. 

Let's Take it to the EXTREME: 22 Hours 29 Minutes

Breaking News: Sonim Wins PC Magazine's Extreme Performance Award

What is a PC Magazine Extreme Performance Award? 

Every year, PC Magazine picks the cream of the gadget crop and conducts "re-producible, Labs-based benchmark tests."  As PC Magazine says, the awards are about "pushing boundaries" and "represent[ing] the leading edge of Performance."  The XP3300 Force won the Extreme Performance Award for 'Best Continuous Talk Time'; it also should be noted that the XP3300 was the only cell phone awarded an Extreme Performance Award. No smart phones, no flip phones, just our phone.  So, it seems that PC Magazine agrees that we are the only phone worthy enough to be called Extreme. 

PCMag reviewer Alex Colon’s says the Force’s bottom line is: “Toughest phone available. Longest talk time we’ve ever seen. Industry-leading three-year comprehensive warranty.”  He got it right on the mark.  We apologize for being Extremely redundant, but we’d like to Extremely emphasize the ever in “Longest talk time we’ve ever seen.”  We’re the first in PC Magazine’s history to have achieved such an Extreme, outrageous, unbelievable battery life which explains why we won this Extreme Performance Award.

PC Magazine also reviewed tons of cameras, laptops, and desktops to find who else was at our level of Extreme Performance.  There were so many awesome gadgets to drool over (have your holiday wish list ready?), but we were especially into the Canon EOS 7D, recipient of ‘Fastest Shot-to-Shot Time.’  It’s true; this camera is pretty Bad Ass.  We’ve gotten to test the 7D for ourselves in the office, and here's one from our backyard.  

We'd like to leave you with some Extreme things you could do while talking on your Sonim for 22 hours and 29 minutes.

• Drive half-way across across the United States (except states with cell phone laws)
• Watch the fastest Ironman to date, Andreas Raelert, do the entire race 3 times. He did it in 7 hours/41 minutes *remember this tough guy on our blog?
• Have a Harry Potter Movie Marathon, 17 hours/30 min and really piss off whomever you are watching with.
• Fly from Sonim's headquarters in San Mateo, CA to our office in Bangalore, India. 

You got any more? Also, how many times did we say Extreme? ;)

Enjoy PC Magazine's full article HERE.

 

 

 

 

 

Guinness World Record for Highest Mobile Phone Drop

We broke the World Record.  The Guinness World Record.

Now the World’s Toughest Phone, the ultra rugged XP3300 Force took the fall—all 25m/83 ft to the pavement  (higher than a 10 story building)– and survived.  We broke the record in Epe, Netherlands, where Guinness World Record judges witnessed the extreme drop and tested the phone afterwards.   After Lucia Sinigagliesi, Adjudications Manager Guinness Word Records, successfully received a call on the phone, the XP3300 Force officially became the one and only, World’s Toughest Phone. 

We beat the previous Highest Mobile Phone Drop World Record of a measly 3.5 meters by a long shot.  We’re proud of the quality of our ultra rugged phones and establishing the Guinness World Record for Highest Mobile Phone Drop assures remote and tough workers that their Sonim phones can withstand daily knocks, drops, and tumbles. 

Check out the video down below as well some exciting coverage on this incredible feat. 

PC Magazine   

Ubergizmo  

Phone Arena

To explore more Guinness World Records click here. 

Tough Phones for Tough Times

 
 

As many of you know, at the end of May, one of our nation’s deadliest tornados touched down in Joplin, Missouri.  Thousands of homes were destroyed, families displaced, and loved ones lost.  Within hours, AmeriCorps deployed volunteers in the area to execute search and rescue missions, offer emergency supplies, clear roads of debris, begin repair on homes, and manage donations.  We have donated phones to AmeriCorps volunteers, and we hope that our contribution will help coordinate their team efforts.  Simple Mobile, a subsidiary of T-Mobile, is donating SIM cards for our phones.  There is still a lot of work ahead for volunteer workers in Joplin, and we plan on continuing to support Americorp’s relief efforts in the area.  You can help too by contributing to volunteer organizations – any size donation is greatly appreciated. 

Donate to AmeriCorps

Donate to Red Cross

Donate to Convoy of Hope

 

 

 

Enter our contest to win a free phone

Check out our new online contest here: 

http://contests.sonimtech.com/

Its simple, sign up with your email and get 3 of your friends to sign up using your referral link.  After that, you're entered in our contest. That’s it!  Good Luck!

Sonim Featured in BBC News

When working alone, as we know a lot of you do, I know that health and security is a priority.  We're proud to support you, it's what we're good at.

Our VP of Marketing and Business Development, Sanjay Jhawar, was interviewed by the BBC on how Sonim and other companies try to keep you safe while working in dangerous environments. To see the story, click here.

I would love your stories and comments on this.

Best,

Bob

The Sonim XP3300 Keeps Ringing on Will it Blend

Will it Blend? boasts that their blenders can pulverize almost anything.  From iphones to golf balls, the Total Blender turns most of its victims into piles of smoky dust. (see Iphone vs. Total Blender)

So we thought--could a Sonim phone be blended?  Check out the video:

  

Turns out, the phone didn't get shredded into dust and smoke!  Rather than a pile of dust, (like other blended gadgets), the Sonim XP3300 Force still looked like a phone -- looks like the Total Blender finally met it’s match!  In Blendtec CEO Tom Dickeson’s words, “That is one tough phone.”  Thanks Blendtec for giving us a shot, the Total Blender was really the ultimate test for our phone, and now we’re thinking – what to blend next?  

 

Sonim XP3300 Force: "Daddy of Tough Phones"

How does the Sonim XP3300 Force match up against our competitor the JCB Sitemaster?  Check out Mobile Choice's and 3G's reviews, both trusted resouces for mobile phone news in the UK.  The XP3300 survived drops, shocks, water submerging...and even a stiletto heel stomping to outlive the Sitemaster. 

Mobile Choice Review

3G Review

The JCB Sitemaster just couldn't keep up with our phone, especially when it met its demise at the heel of a stiletto.  Who would have thought that stilettos could prove to be so lethal?  3G.co isn't the first to test the XP3300 with high heels.  In case you doubt that the XP3300 is stiletto proof, check out this picture from IGizmo earlier this year. 

Beyond the Sitemaster's vulnerability to high heels, it didn't match the XP3300 in terms of battery life and durability.  Both Mobile Choice and 3G gave the XP3300 five out of five stars for both performance and battery life, proving just how tough our phone is. 

Thanks Mobile Choice and 3G!