The Sonim Landrover S1 mobile phone –

Waterproof, shockproof….Fishing-proof??!

I wonder just how many mobile phones have been destroyed by fisherman?!?

It was whilst looking for my latest contract renewal that i thought of a day out on the mussel banks, up to my nuts in the brine, wading back to shore, and with one poorly placed foot, the discovery that i really should have bought Chin waders rather than chest waders….

Suddenly the realisation dawns of the compact camera, wallet and mobile phone that REALLY should been placed in the aqua-paq that was left at home.

I am sure we have all done something similar over the years, best laid plans of waterproof containers, seal-able food bags and more recently the aforementioned Aqua-pac.

A quick search on the Internet came up with a few phones that seemed to fit the needs of the average angler. One phone in particular stood out to me, the Landrover S1 phone by Sonim Technologies.

Billed as waterproof, dust proof, impact-shock-vibration resistant, and with an outstanding 3 year UNCONDITIONAL Guarantee it looked like the phone for me.

Can a mobile phone really be this tough??

I was certainly dubious about the claims of “Fully submersible” and “it will withstand a 2m drop onto concrete” However…………..Youtube to the rescue!!!

This is just one of hundreds of videos on youtube of people simply abusing Sonim phones

Still need convincing???

I think we can safely say this is no ordinary mobile phone!!! The decision was made to order the phone…..

Is it any good??

When the package arrived I opened up the shipping bag to find that even the box it came in was tough, my next impression was GOD THIS PHONE IS HUGE!!!

How Big? – Dimensions 119mm x 56mm x 25mm; Weight: 170 g

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After the initial shock of the size, I got to playing around with the functions of the phone. One of the main features I was interested in was the built in GPS. After playing around I eventually got it working, however for this function to work properly you need to have GPRS fully functioning, usually a really easy task, but not with this phone. O2 do not support this phone in as much as being able to receive settings direct to your phone (as is usual with most other phones) Sonims support/instructions are pretty non existent too.

Then you must download third party software for it to be of any real use. Things really are not going well….Dont get me wrong, once its working it does as intended, its just getting there that is the problem.

The Battery stats look impressive….

They sure do, unfortunately, these figures simply do not work out and fall massively short of the published figures of – 18 hours of talk time and 1500 hours of standby time. Through really quite normal usage, this phone needs charging EVERY day!!

Is there anything good about it???

Did you not watch the videos above??

Most features are now pretty standard across the probably hundreds of phones out there, where this phone stands out is that this phone is virtually bombproof…PLUS if you do manage to break it (God knows how) Sonim will replace it, no questions asked!! You have to admit, that is pretty impressive!!

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The 2MP built in camera works pretty well, and the flash for the camera doubles as a really quite bright LED torch. The GPS does work, but is a bit of a pain to set up. Opera mini works great and surfing the Internet is fairly hassle free. The battery is a let down, just remember to put it on charge at night.

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If you are looking for an all singing all dancing smart phone, dont get this. If you want a phone that wont let you down and can literally be abused time after time, is likely to get wet, this phone should definitely be on your short list.

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Published Features

Ruggedization
IP67 certification
MIL-810F certification for salt, fog, humidity, transport shock and thermal shock
Hardened rubber molded to casing by dual injection process
Rated to 2.0m drop to concrete from any angle
Vibration protection from 5Hz to 500Hz
Non-porous casing blocks entry of micro-particles
Operational range -20˚C to +55˚C
Scratch resistant screen
Keypad buttons tested to 500,000 pushes

Key Features
2MP Camera with Flash
Built-in GPS
Torch Light
FM Radio
Micro SD Card slot (up to 2 GB)
J2ME

Battery
1850mAh with up to 18 hours of talk time and 1500 hours of standby time

Physical Characteristics
Size: 119mm x 56mm x 25mm
Weight: 170 grams
GCF/CE FCC certifications
Standard keypad: 5 nav keys +2 softkeys + 2 multi-function keys + 12 numeric keypad keys
Side keys: 2 volume keys + camera key + Easy call key
2.5mm Headset port and Mini USB for charging
Dedicated volume keys
1850mAh with up to 18 hours of talk time and 1500 hours of standby time

Audio System
One single 20mm diameter water resistant speaker specially designed for higher volume transmission and reception
Omni-directional microphone
58db signal-to-noise ratio

Display
176 x 220 resolution and 64,000 colors
67 x 37mm for display bar + 7 rows of data

Software package
Standard services
SMS
WAP
Polyphonic ring tone supported (MIDI)
MP3 ringtone support
Opera Mini
Access to any website
Landscape viewing
Full-screen rendering
Configurable image quality
Java Applications

In the box
Electrical wall charger
Belt clip
Screwdriver
Wired Headset
Mini-USB Cable