Review Of Sonim XP3 Quest Shock Proof, Water Proof Cell Phone

Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

An extremely rugged and durable phone, GPS support.

Thumbs Down:

Tiny display, the rubber padding is ugly, no multi media messaging.

Inside the Trunk:

Technology:
GSM

Band:
GSM 900/1800/1900 (Tri-Band)

Phone design:
Candy bar

Caller ID:
Yes

Other features:
Bluetooth 2.0, Flash light, Backlit, GPS.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

LCD display, Resolution
176 x 220 pixels, 16-bit (65000 colors) Languages – Dutch, German, Chinese, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Greek, Russian.

Supported audio format
MP3

Connector Type
Headset jack – Sub-mini-phone 2.5 mm, USB

Dustproof , Shockproof , Weatherproof

Included Accessories
Headset, Belt clip

Cables Included
USB cable

3 years warranty

Razzle Dazzle:

The Sonim XP3 Quest looks more like a mini robot then a cell phone. It has lots of padding of rubber all around it that is supposed to stand through toughest of tests that you throw in its face. But all the rubber around the phone makes it look kind of ugly and if you flaunt this device on road you will look like a geek. Not the best looking cell phones, we should say.

Inside Dope:

The most important feature of the phone is ruggedness. The phone is made to stand toughest of tests and it really lives up to what is boasted on the box of the phone.

The phone is water proof and shock proof. We actually put the phone in a bucket of water and tried calling, the phone rang and it was not affected by water. This is a good phone for divers or people who love swimming. But we very much doubt if you would be needing phone when you are in there.

Besides this the phone is shock proof, we threw the phone from second storey and yet the phone was shinning all the way through. We also tried to throw it down the stairs and performed a few really tough tests but the phone refused to give up. The SIM got out of the place, we guess because we got message of “insert SIM” on the display once we picked up the phone back. You can gift this phone to your kids, no matter how badly they use it the device won’t be affected.

The screen is the most delicate part of the phone and it cuts like a knife when you see a scratch on that beautiful screen of yours. We protect it all the time by using covers or screen guards to keep it like new. If you buy this phone you won’t have much to worry about with the screen. The screen survived even when we threw it from a distance from up above, this is not all we tried to hammer the phone with a screw and it surprised us because the nothing had happened on the screen. Next we tried to drive a screw in a wall with this phone, the screw didn’t go in, of course due to its light weight but the phone was unaffected. Throw this phone around, put it in water, sit on it, trash it will pass all such tests.

Sonim claims that the device will survive even if you put in a freezer.

The back of the phone has standard screws on it to keep water away from entering the battery compartment. The rubber padding around is the secret of the shock free feature. The rubber padding is really thick and though it adds to the ruggedness but it looks a bit ugly. It would feel geeky to carry this phone around. Make sure you put the screws well in the battery compartment because anything loose will let water in. It is frustrating that the memory card of the phone is located behind the battery, you will have to unscrew the battery cover and then take the card out from there. We complain about phones not having hot-swappable memory cards but this phone asks for more time if you want to access the card. Sonim bundles a screw driver along with the phone.

So let’s get down on the features of the phone, it has everything that a cell phone should normally have. It also has GPS for turn-by-turn directions.

The display of the phone is extremely tiny at 1.75 inches and it gives a resolution of 220×176 pixels and 64,000 colors. Though the screen is tiny, the images look sharp and the text is clear and readable on the screen. The text size is a bit small and we were disappointed it didn’t have provision to make it bigger. But brightness and backlight time can all be changed in the Sonim XP3. You can change screensavers, tones for message and alert, wallpaper, color themes and greetings.

Below the display are the two soft buttons and a four way navigational button. The navigational button has an OK button in the centre. There are also the standard call and call end buttons. Below these buttons are the 12 more keys which make up the numeric key pad. Sonim claims the keys can take about 500,000 presses. We expected using the keys would be a difficult affair considering this is a water proof device but it was not so. The keys were comfortable to type.

The bottom of the phone has ports for charging as well as a head phone port. There is a 2.5 mm jack so you will have to buy an adapter or use the bundled set for headphones.

Other buttons are on the sides such as the volume rocker and button for camera shutter. We were surprised to find a short cut button on the sides of the camera for calling up the phone book.

Phone has a one thousand memory for contact entries and the SIM card stores another 250 entries. A single entry can take about four phone numbers, birthday, Web site, e-mail address, street address and notes. Sonim XP3 can take photographs so you can use them to associate picture with a person so that his face flashes when he is calling and you can also assign a unique ring tone to a contact. You can also you the MP3 tracks in the phone as your ring tones. We found the ring tones that were built in the phone were too loud.

Other features in the phone include strong vibrate mode, calculator, calendar, text messaging, unit converter, stopwatch, speakerphone and countdown timer. Sonim XP3 also has USB support, Bluetooth, voice recorder, FM and you can sync the device to a computer using the software given. There is support for POP3 and IMAP which lets you sync your e-mail account on the phone but we doubt whether you would be using it on such a tiny screen. The application is Java based and there is no alternative.

The back of the Sonim XP3 has a two mega pixel camera and just like any other two mega pixel camera, this can take resolutions of maximum 1600X1200 and minimum resolution is 220×176. There are options for editing like include, self-timer, flash, three quality settings, three color effects, digital zoom, brightness control. The camera will not record video something that surprised us. Not that we were looking forward to capturing video, (a 2 MP lens wouldn’t be any good in video capturing) but if there is hard ware, why isn’t there video recording? Photo quality is good but nothing great. We have seen better photos from 2 MP rated camera.

The phone also comes built in with GPS which can be used to turn-by-turn directions. There aren’t any games on the device and it is something that we aren’t complaining about as playing games on a tiny screen like this would be miserable. There is a built in WAP browsing if you need to surf the internet

The only thing that remains is the call quality test. We tested the phone for call quality and there was an irritating hum during the calls but other than that the voice could be heard clearly. Our friends told us that they could hear the hum but the voice was clear on their side. Speaker phones calls were good although the voice will distort if you push it to the limits. Bluetooth features on the phone allows you to hook up the device with a wireless headset. The calls on the wireless headset were fine.

Sonim told us that the battery life is about 18 hours but we found the battery was alive for about 17 hours in our tests. The rated time for standby is around 62 days.

Nitty Gritty:

Sonim XP3 is a shock proof, water proof device but other than this, the phone is a bit low on features. We would like to see better features and the rubber padding on the phone contributes to shock proof ness but it looks a bit ugly. Get this phone if shock proof is important and if you live in waters.