Sonim XP1 review

The toughest phone

Sonim XP1 has been around for enough time that a number of people have tried throwing it from the second floor, bashing it against a wall, running it over with a car, pouring it with what-not, and even shooting it with a gun. Luckily, all those attempts have been recorded on video, so we've picked the best - most of them are short and are quite fun actually.

You can check here for more Sonim torture videos. The only thing that seems to remain a mystery yet is "Will it blend?".

Sonim XP1 used as a hammer

Car runover

Car burnout

Sonim XP1 in a cement mixer

Sonim XP1 in milk

Sonim XP1 in beer

Sonim XP1 as soccerball

Various Sonim XP1 toughness tests

Various Sonim XP1 toughness tests

Final words

The Sonim XP1 is an unassuming no-nonsense handset with the sole purpose of providing you with a communication tool in all conditions (no matter how harsh). It hasn't got much stuff on board, but hey, in a ruggedized handset every fancy feature missing is simply one thing less to worry about when you drop it.

Still, we think the manufacturer could have done better - from basic stuff such as the lack of wired headset and the lack of flashlight functionality to some more advanced features that we consider missing - such as a larger screen font and a FM radio.

Nevertheless, the Sonim XP1 is a real survivor but we doubt that it would do it any good with that hefty price tag. 300 euro for the ultimate heavy-duty phone may not sound as a rip-off, but you should remember that for that kind of money you could easily get yourself a good half a dozen other handsets with the same feature set. They may not be as tough as our champion here, but they simply win by numbers. After all, with a fleet of six cellphones you can easily have five sledgehammered and you'd still have one to talk on.

So as always, it's a matter of priorities, but we think that Sonim should either return to the drawing board and add some power to this baby, or they should seriously reconsider their pricing - anything above 150 euro seems way beyond what it's worth.