22
Jun

Searching for rugged (actually strong) smartphone

When it comes for searching rugged phone then first surprise is that there is also makers who promote their phones being rugged while actually they are not.. And now i understand why. Rugged word gives that marketing “strong” phone feeling “name”. Here is a catch: rugged could also mean “just cool phone with gadgets: thermal image camera and walkie-talkie”. Also you may find some smartphones with word tags IP67 and IP68. These tags does not always mean smartphone actually has these certificates (be sure to do your research, ask confirmation). Some makers just add them as description near to smartphone name

I looked for strong smartphone such as where you wouldn’t worry about would phone fallout of pocket and so on.. Certified for IP standards, long warranty, water plus dust resistance and very good battery lasting, real buttons least for answering call. Of course all normal functions: 4 LTE (fall back to edge, gsm), GPS, gorilla glass, visible on direct sun light and gloves touch responsive

My finding: Sonim XP7

This smartphone suits for people who are biking/hiking, heavy duty workers, outdoors working, offroaders, truck drivers and of course for those who simply want a good strong phone

Comes with it’s own designed charging port (micro usb simply wouldn’t give long lasting result in heavy usage). It does not have external memory card slot (16 GB internal storage should be enough). About call answering. You can use any key function.  Has 4″ inch display. In my experience over 5″ inch display smartphones with one hand – not good to handle.. It has emergency call button (by default not configured). You can talk all weekend. Very good battery lasting. Speaker ~100db. Due to mimo antenna it has better quality and wider area coverage. Android OS is not customized with bloated branded apps. Pure android

Quick look at technical information of this smartphone:

Battery: Embedded 4800 mAh - Standby: 1000 h (that's over month); Talk: 40 h
Noise cancellation dual mic
Water and dust resistance
Weather resistance
Networks: 4G FDD-LTE B2/B4/B5/B7 B1/B8/B12/B17 UMTS 850/900/1900/2100 MHz GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
Antenna: MIMO antenna for LTE
Wifi: 802.11 a/b/g/n/r with hotspot
Memory: 16 GB Internal storage/1 GB RAM User memory: 12 GB
GPS: GLONASS
NFC
Certificates: FCC PTCRB IEEE1725 CEC Bluetooth SIG WFA IC
Camera: 8 MP auto focus rear 1 MP fixed focus front
LED Torch Light
PTT (push to talk) key. Alarm key. Power key
FM radio
Digital compass
Standard android OS (current has 5.x version)
3 year warranty

 

Gallery:

 

Videos:

 

 

Btw, did research for other smartphone makers as well (in this category) and thought not to include them as i am right now only sure about this one but found this nice video which shows you how this phone lasts with heavy testing. They included for testing also other rugged smartphones makers. It’s industrial testing

 

 

To be fair, here is also video with pressure testing (car drives over phone). It’s also full review in dutch language (that’s ok.. for visual understanding it’s very good video)

 

Conclusion: This phone is strong, rugged with 3 years warranty and it welcomes scratches (with casing like this looks normal to have). Almost like retro feeling.. PS! Early model had issue with proximity sensor. Later confirmed to be software issue. Early was with android 4.x and later 5.x android os

Price: Over 800$ for new one. For used price tag around 300-400$

Bonus video:

 

 

As this phone got broken in previous video, now it needs to be fixed:

 

Your comments, score, like or dislike are welcomed

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