Bearing in mind how mobile phones have become an extension of our person — how OK and in control of your work or your personal life do you feel if you go out without yours? — it’s remarkable how few rugged models there are available.
And even the few toughened phones that exist aren’t all that rugged when you read the small print. The never wholly clear phrase ‘resistant’ tends to be prominent when it comes to shock, sand and water.
However, Sonim, a niche US mobile manufacturer, has changed that rather dramatically over the past year. Last winter, it brought out its XP1 model, which quickly became legendary as the world’s toughest phone. Sonim promised to replace it if users could find any way of destroying it within three years, and people around the world duly posted videos of themselves on YouTube bashing it with sledgehammers, casting it in concrete, running over it with bulldozers and even shooting at it.
Sonim CEO Bob Plaschke says the company has honoured all the warranty claims and replaced the phones however they had been destroyed. "This meant we had the public do our research and development for us," he says. Apart from a well aimed, high-velocity rifle shot, he adds, among the only things that could stop the first Sonim phone were a big, determined dog with strong jaws — and a really good dunking in water.
The latter of which at least has led to Sonim now bringing out a new model, the XP3 Enduro, which addresses the water issue splendidly insofar as it even works underwater. Additionally, it is so strong that it will survive being dropped from a 20-storey building on to concrete.
An underwater mobile phone may seem to have about as much point as the proverbial chocolate teapot, but sailors, lifeboatmen, lifeguards, divers, kayakers and windsurfers are among those expected to be happy to spend £250 on the XP3.
It’s not hard to see why when you think about it. With a submersible phone, a surfer, scuba diver, windsurfer or kite surfer stranded at sea will simply be able to phone or text for help, and swimmers who get into difficulties out in the waves could similarly summon up assistance — so long as there’s a signal, of course.
If a small dinghy sailor suffered a capsize offshore and broke a mast it would be reassuring to know that a few minutes in salt water would not have destroyed his mobile and he would be able to phone for help.
Officially, the Enduro is only waterproof up to a metre under the surface, but my test model was fine after half an hour at the bottom of the deep end at my local pool. As for using it underwater, the signal disappears when the phone goes deeper than about three feet, but that hardly matters because speaking underwater is, obviously, impossible.
Texting is fine, however, and I was able to send and receive texts while snorkelling close to the surface.
Where the underwater phone will obviously come into its own is not so much for using underwater, but for sailors to have strapped to their belt and people doing watersports to keep in a pocket of their swimming gear.
One of the XP3’s strongest markets is expected to be Australia, where surfers like to stay in the sea for hours but also need to be on call for work and are excited about having a phone they can answer even if they are out on the waves. Sonim says it has already had inquiries from Aussie policemen, doctors and plumbers wanting to give the impression they’re on call while in fact they’re actually surfing.
I do have one tip, however.
If you buy an XP3 and rely on it to save your life should you ever get into trouble on the water, remember one thing: it doesn’t float. So perhaps you should spend a little time thinking about how to keep it very, very secure about your person.
Visit sonimxp3.com for global stockists.
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