Rugged mobile phone maker Sonim Technologies seems to be on a never-ending mission to create products that can withstand whatever extreme torture can be thrown at them. The company has just announced another tough cookie that's been designed to help enterprise and government organizations locate, track and manage its mobile workforce - whatever conditions they may find themselves in. As well as some impressive tough guy credentials, the XP3300 FORCE also lays claim to the industry's longest talk and stand-by time.
The XP3300 FORCE is a quad band GSM with GPRS and EDGE class 12 data capability and Bluetooth 2.1. It's built on the MediaTek MT6235 ARM-based platform and features an omni-directional, noise-canceling microphone, a 2 megapixel camera with LED flash (which also doubles as a torch), MicroSD slot and an FM radio and media player. It comes pre-installed with the popular Opera Mini browser, a native email client and the City Cruiser turn-by-turn, voice-guided navigation application backed by enterprise-class GPS.
The list of tough credentials starts with IP68-certification, which means it should withstand being plonked 6.5 feet (2 meters) underwater for at least an hour and there's a waterproof vent for 23mm diameter external speaker, which has a claimed max output of 100 dB. The headset and USB ports are similarly water-tight. Its non-porous fiberglass casing, which benefits from a hardened rubber shell dual-injection molded to it, keeps dust and microparticles where they should be - outside. It should also be able to survive a drop from the same height onto concrete.
It's said to work in temperature extremes from -20 degrees C to 55 above freezing, is shock resistant up to 4G and has vibration protection from 5Hz to 500Hz. It benefits from salt, fog, humidity, transport shock and thermal shock protection to MIL-810G certification standards and has spaced input keys to cater for gloved use. The 2-inch, 240 x 320 resolution display sits behind 1.5mm thick, shock and scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass, which is said to be able to stand up to a 4 meter drop hit by a 50g steel ball.
The XP3300 FORCE's 1750 mAh battery is reported to power the device for up to 20 to 24 hours of talk time and a massive 800 hours standby, which is more than enough to cope with the 16-hour shift work that the phone was designed for. Workforce location monitoring, fleet tracking, monitoring, timecard reporting, real-time work order updates, alerts, job scheduling, event confirmation, data collection and reports via MRM applications benefit from 26 hours of GPS tracking functionality.
Although the obligatory tested-to-destruction video attempts have yet to appear, Sonim's Virginia Jamieson told Gizmag that the XP3300 FORCE "is available right now for US$499 unlocked - without a contract. As Carrier deals emerge the price will vary depending on where you buy it."
