Sonim "World's Toughest Phone" Coming To America

Sonim's ultra-rugged GSM cellphones have been touted as the "world's toughest phones". They've survived being dropped from a 13-story building and shot at with guns, and still keep on ringing. Now, the California-based company finally plans to bring their phones home to the US with the upcoming XP3, which will be available next March from several rural U.S. carriers.

Designed for blue-collar workers and outdoor enthusiasts, the Sonim XP3 is as close to indestructible as a phone gets. It's waterproof, can withstand a 6-foot drop onto concrete, operates in extreme cold down to -4 degrees and heat up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit.

Sonim's chief executive, Bob Plaschke, said it can actually run at temperatures down to -40 degrees and survive a 9-foot drop (not to mention that one, 13-story fall.) It's impervious to almost anything, including "micro-particles." It has 2.5 days of talk time and an astounding 2 months of standby on its huge 2200 mAh battery.

The U.S. version will be a quad-band EDGE, GSM phone with GPS, Bluetooth, and flashlight mode. It has a glare-resistant 128x160, 65k-color screen. It isn't going to be a true smart phone, but it can run Opera Mini so you can surf the web while you are out on that hick in the wilderness. It will have a 3-megapixel camera with geotagging for still photos, but no video capability. It doesn't play music, but the speakerphone that is relatively distortion free.

The phone is protected by a 3-year, no-questions-asked guarantee. Meaning if you find a way to break it, you get a new one. From what I've seen these things are tougher than nails so good luck on that one!

The videos below are of the Sonim XP1, as you can see they are extremely tough phones.