The Sonim XP8 – This tough, $700 phone is meant for first responders, but you can buy it if you want… with a massive 4,900mAh battery
As an Android phone, there’s not much to see here. It still runs Android Nougat, instead of the newer Oreo, and internally, there’s a Snapdragon 630 processor, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage (which can be expanded by microSD), which is all pretty standard. Cameras are a 12-megapixel rear shooter, and an 8-megapixel front-facing lens, but if you’re buying the Sonim XP8, it’s probably not to take pictures. The highlight here is a massive 4,900mAh battery that Sonim claims is good for 30 hours of talk time or 30 days of standby, which fits more in line with the rugged purpose of the XP8.
The display is a 5-inch, 1080p panel (pretty ordinary specs for a phone) and is also puncture-resistant and able to be used with gloves and wet fingers (less ordinary). Also of note is something that’s become a bit of a rarity these days: physical Android buttons for home, back, and multitasking, instead of the almost ubiquitous on-screen icons.
But the Sonim XP8 is designed for military users or emergency workers, and plenty of the feature-set is dedicated to those sorts of demanding use cases. The phone is rated to MIL-STD-810G standards for things like dust, shock, rain, and temperature, and is rated for both IP68 (water submersion) and IP69K (direct water spray) as well.
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This tough, $700 phone is meant for first responders, but you can buy it if you want Tough as nails |