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Sonim XP Pro 5G: 30-second evaluation
For a change of tempo, the Sonim XP Pro 5G wasn’t made in China however in Taiwan.
It is a rugged Android 14 smartphone constructed across the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 SoC, making it a strong platform for individuals who need to use graphically demanding functions.
This computing powerhouse is encased in an impact-resistant housing designed to resist being dropped, submerged, and even excessive temperatures.
Where some rugged designs are problematic as a consequence of weight or dimension, the Sonim XP Pro is nearer to a typical cellphone dimension, though weighing 277g, it’s on the heavier facet. Therefore, it ought to simply match into a normal jacket pocket.
The 5000 mAh battery is sufficient to discuss for 27 hours or preserve the cellphone on standby for over eighteen days. Though it received’t final way more than a day without having a recharge.
These options, and lots of others just like the digicam, are run-of-the-mill for a contemporary Android gadget, however there are a couple of facets the place Sonim strayed from the well-worn path.
The buttons, for instance, are positioned on the other facet of the cellphone, the place most individuals anticipate them. At the time of this evaluation, this gadget is just out there by means of AT&T or Verizon Business within the USA. Sonim has promised the cellphone can be coming to Europe this yr.
But, because of the manner telephones are bought within the EU, having them tied to particular service suppliers is a non-starter for that market. Due to the restricted availability and a few points round battery life, the Sonim XP Pro 5G received’t make it into our best rugged phone round-up, sadly.
Sonim XP Pro 5G: value and availability
- How a lot does it price? $430
- When is it out? Available now within the USA
- Where are you able to get it? Direct from AT&T or Verizon Business
Most cellphone makers need to promote their gadgets to the widest doable viewers, however Sonim has at the moment solely launched the XP Pro 5G into the US market through AT&T and Verizon Business.
While the hyperlink from the Sonim web site for Verizon Business is damaged, the one to AT&T lists the value at both $11.95 per 30 days or $429.99 at full retail value.
That’s in all probability concerning the degree one would possibly anticipate for a cellphone of this specification, though that doesn’t account for the extraordinarily excessive value, relative to Europe and Asia, of cellphone service in that area.
Probably the closest usually out there cellphone with related options is the Samsung A56 5G, which is priced round $430 for the mannequin with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. However, that cellphone is described as waterproof quite than waterproof.
Hardly a cut price, however not a gouge both, the Sonim XP Pro 5G is priced to compete with manufacturers like Samsung quite than the cheaper Chinese cellphone makers.
Sonim XP Pro 5G: Specs
|
Item |
Spec |
|---|---|
|
CPU: |
Qualcomm SM7550 Octa-Core (Snapdragon 7 Gen 3) |
|
GPU: |
Qualcomm Adreno |
|
NPU: |
Qualcomm AI Engine |
|
RAM: |
8GB |
|
Storage: |
256GB |
|
Screen: |
6.58-inch LCD |
|
Resolution: |
2408 x 1080 pixels |
|
SIM: |
1x Nano SIM + eSIM +2TB MicroSD |
|
Weight: |
277 grams |
|
Dimensions: |
171 x 80 x 12mm |
|
Rugged Spec: |
Class I, Div 2, Groups A, B, C, D; Class II, Div 2, Groups F, G; Class III, Div2; MIL-STD-810H; IP68; IPX9K |
|
Rear cameras: |
50MP most important + 13MP vast + 2MP Macro |
|
Front digicam: |
16MP |
|
Networking: |
WiFi 6e, Bluetooth 5.3 |
|
OS: |
Android 14 |
|
Battery: |
5000 mAh 18w wired charging 10w wi-fi |
|
Colours: |
Black |
|
Warranty: |
3 years |
Sonim XP Pro 5G: Design
- Slim and mushy
- Confusing button structure
- Huge label on the again
The very first thing I seen concerning the Sonim XP Pro was that some cellphone makers wish to showcase the energy of their gadgets with steel. With this gadget, aside from the display and digicam cluster, all the pieces is encased in a dense, TPU rubberised coating.
That alternative makes it extremely sturdy, rated to deal with a 6.5ft drop onto concrete and submerging on the identical depth for as much as 60 minutes. Making it straightforward to deal with even when it’s moist.
As it is a comparatively slim form and options the pure texture of the overlaying, it isn’t a cellphone that may simply fall out of a pocket by accident.
Where the designers of the XP Pro completely diverged from the anticipated is within the button structure, which flaunts nearly each conference for this stuff.
Phones that don’t have the ability button on the correct facet alongside the quantity rockers are unusual, however separating these two capabilities is uncommon.
On this gadget, the ability button remains to be on the correct facet, alone, and it does operate as a fingerprint reader. And, the quantity rocker is positioned on the left, the place you’ll be able to function it along with your thumb, alongside a Push-To-Talk button that resembles a fingerprint reader however isn’t one.
At the highest of a cellphone is a user-customisable button that may launch no matter apps you would possibly want, and I set mine to launch the digicam.
If this appears unnecessarily complicated, then we’re on the identical web page. Curiously, I’ve simply obtained a brand new cellphone design from Ulefone with the identical structure, so possibly this association is coming into vogue.
Another oddity concerning the exterior preparations is that the SIM card slot takes solely a Single SIM and a microSD card, with no provision for dumping the SD card and utilizing two SIMs. However, it will probably settle for an eSIM, which could mitigate this difficulty.
There is one other characteristic on the correct facet, protected by a rubber plug, that requires two screws to be eliminated to realize entry. This is a Sonim Secure Audio connector, an adjunct for individuals who require safe audio connections. To make this accessible, you will want a watchmaker’s screwdriver.
The again of this cellphone is a mix of the great and unhealthy facets of cellphone design. What’s good is that it’s nearly fully flat, with even the digicam cluster hardly projecting, which is ideal for supporting wi-fi charging.
There are additionally two pogo pins on the decrease part, which one can solely assume will work with an as-yet-unreleased car mount. But undoing all that good work is a gigantic product label with three barcodes on it that few folks would need to flip over a cellphone to search out.
Overall, the Sonim XP Pro has some hits and a good variety of misses, with a couple of of the latter probably being showstoppers for some potential prospects.
Design rating: 3/5
Sonim XP Pro 5G: {hardware}
- Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 energy
- 5000 mAh battery
- Bloatware
Not that most of the smaller cellphone makers are utilizing Qualcomm SoCs, in all probability as a result of they’re dearer than the MediaTek equivalents.
The Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 is a genuinely highly effective chip, utilizing its SM7550 Octa-Core CPU alongside an Adreno GPU and the Qualcomm AI Engine.
As the benchmarks reveal, this chip mixture presents vital punch, solely eclipsed by issues just like the Samsung Exynos 1580 and the Snapdragon 8.
The solely drawback with such a strong platform is that it tends to devour battery life at a extra vital tempo than one thing extra modest, and with the XP Pro solely having 5000 mAh of battery capability, that’s a related issue right here.
This isn’t the smallest rugged cellphone battery I’ve coated. That doubtful honour goes to the Motorola SupposePhone 25, which has solely 4310 mAh. However, it’s on the decrease finish of the battery capability spectrum, and I’ve examined telephones with extra capability that weighed much less.
The equipped charger is just rated to 18W, the utmost charging capability over wire, and it will probably recharge from zero in round 100 minutes. Although undocumented relating to its efficiency, I discovered that the wi-fi charging was 10W, roughly doubling the time required for a full cost.
While technically not {hardware}, one of many options of this design is SonimWare. To quote the Sonim promotional blurb SonimWare is “SonimWare simplifies device management and configuration and reduces support costs with an entire suite of software—productivity tools and applications”
The main operate of SonimWare is an app referred to as Sonim Scout, which supplies entry to quite a few name management capabilities, a few of that are already constructed into Android 14. I’m unsure why Sonim feels the necessity to recreate these facets after which hyperlink them to a branded cloud service, nevertheless it has.
The XP Pro I obtained was pre-configured for Verizon Business and got here with their bloatware onboard, in addition to a Verizon SIM card within the slot. Not that I made a name utilizing it, because the nearest Verizon supporting mast is at the least 3,000 miles away.
However, the V-tools included are designed to entry voicemail, a name filter, Verizon’s cloud providers, and push-to-talk performance.
As a European cellphone consumer, my rapid response was to take away a few of these invasive instruments, however because the evaluation cellphone seems to be locked to Verizon, that proved unattainable. Why any buyer would put up with being dictated to on this vogue is a thriller to me.
Sonim XP Pro 5G: cameras
- 50MP, 13MP and 2MP sensors on the rear
- 16MP on the entrance
- Four cameras in complete
The Sonim XP Pro 5G has 4 cameras:
Rear digicam: 108MP Samsung S5KJN1, GalaxyCore 13MP GC12A0 wide-angle, 2MP GC02M1 macro.
Front digicam: 16MP GalaxyCore GC16B3
Having seen some exceptionally good digicam sensors not too long ago, those on the XP Pro are underwhelming at greatest.
The main digicam is a 50MP PDAF, however Sonim didn’t element what sensor was used. Digging by me revealed that it’s a Samsung S5KJN1 with an f/1.9 aperture and solely digital zoom. Samsung used the JN1 in entry-level telephones just like the A25 and A26, and by Motorola within the Moto G (2025).
To put it into perspective, the JN1 is used on the newest Ulefone Armour 33 Pro because the third sensor for ultra-wide capturing, not as the first.
The different two sensors on the rear are each made by GalaxyCore. The 13MP GC12A0 wide-angle and the 2MP GC02M1 macro. The identical model additionally equipped the 16MP ahead sensor, the GC16B3. None of those are outstanding by any requirements, and it seems they had been included purely on a price foundation.
As you’ll be able to see within the image samples, the JN1 does an ample job of capturing moderately sharp and customarily well-exposed photos. It can even seize 4K video, however solely at 30fps, and there’s no slow-motion mode in any respect.
Having seen the image choices which are on telephones with 108MP sensors, and even the brand new 50MP Sony LYTIA 700C with zoom optics, the cameras on the XP Pro aren’t going to transform a possibly right into a sale.
A minor profit is that Widevine video encryption is L1, that means you’ll be able to stream Netflix or different mainstream providers and anticipate at the least 1080p decision on this cellphone.
Sonim XP Pro 5G Camera samples
Image 1 of 10
Sonim XP Pro 5G: efficiency
- Powerful SoC
- GPU is game-friendly
- Battery life is poor
|
Phone |
Header Cell – Column 1 |
Sonim XP Pro 5G |
Samsung A56 5G |
|---|---|---|---|
|
SoC |
Row 0 – Cell 1 |
Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 |
Exynos 1580 |
|
GPU |
Row 1 – Cell 1 |
Qualcomm Adreno |
Xclipse 540 |
|
Mem |
Row 2 – Cell 1 |
Qualcomm AI Engine |
In GPU |
|
NPU |
Row 3 – Cell 1 |
8GB/256GB |
8GB/256GB |
|
Weight |
Row 4 – Cell 1 |
277g |
198g |
|
Battery |
mAh |
5000 |
5000 |
|
Geekbench |
Single |
1145 |
1337 |
| Row 7 – Cell 0 |
Multi |
3070 |
3822 |
| Row 8 – Cell 0 |
OpenCL |
3476 |
6502 |
| Row 9 – Cell 0 |
Vulkan |
4031 |
6864 |
|
GFX |
Aztec Open Normal |
56 |
56 |
| Row 11 – Cell 0 |
Aztec Vulkan Norm. |
65 |
64 |
| Row 12 – Cell 0 |
Car Chase |
47 |
46 |
| Row 13 – Cell 0 |
Manhattan 3.1 |
82 |
82 |
|
PCMark |
3.0 Score |
11399 |
14287 |
| Row 15 – Cell 0 |
Battery |
10h 47m |
14h 2m |
|
Charge 30 |
% |
34 |
65 |
|
Passmark |
Score |
14199 |
10095 |
| Row 18 – Cell 0 |
CPU |
6953 |
7950 |
|
3DMark |
Wildlife |
5400 |
5125 |
| Row 20 – Cell 0 |
Nomad Lite |
490 |
642 |
In this efficiency presentation, I pitted the Sonim XP Pro 5G towards the Samsung A56 5G, one other cellphone designed for enterprise customers who desire a highly effective platform in a sturdy package deal.
If requested, most individuals select a extra highly effective SoC over different cellphone options, though there are some downsides to having an excellent chip with a restricted battery capability.
The first takeaway is that, as spectacular because the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 is, and it’s an excellent SoC, it’s considerably outmatched by the Exynos 1580, which is a powerhouse.
But it’s not nearly how a lot better it performs in benchmarks; the place the Exynos 1580 really shines is in its energy effectivity.
Power use is evidently the key weak point of the Sonim XP Pro 5G, because the 5000 mAh battery is eaten at an alarming tempo by the benchmark on this platform. The outcomes are so one-sided that I’ve since concluded that both a few of the bloatware on the Sonim was consuming energy in the course of the check, or another issue was at play.
Whatever was happening, and I ran the check twice after reboots, the battery lifetime of the XP Pro is barely adequate to get by means of a single working day.
I ought to notice that the battery lifetime of the Samsung A56 isn’t awe-inspiring within the broader context, because the Phonemax X1 Pro lasted almost 24 hours with solely 5100 mAh of battery, admittedly with a considerably much less highly effective SoC.
Overall, efficiency for demanding apps is nice, however battery life is dire.
Sonim XP Pro 5G: Final verdict
It’s difficult to type a coherent view on the Sonim XP Pro, because it’s a curious mixture of options that doesn’t fairly maintain collectively holistically.
On the plus facet of this equation, it is a extremely sturdy gadget that may stand up to ranges of abuse that different telephones would crumble below. The display and SoC are glorious, and it helps wi-fi charging.
Balancing these issues is a digicam choice that’s nothing particular, a large sticker that covers a 3rd of the again, a button structure that’s by no means been seen by this reviewer beforehand (for good purpose), and poor battery life.
And, making it even much less compelling, it has each the maker’s software program boot prints and the hooves of the authorized US service supplier evident on the Android set up.
I’d strongly advocate that Sonim keep distant from doing the identical once they carry this gadget to market exterior the USA, and in addition resolve why the platform isn’t extra pleasant to the battery capability.
Should I purchase a Sonim XP Pro 5G?
|
Attributes |
Notes |
Rating |
|---|---|---|
|
Value |
About the going fee for a cellphone with this SoC |
4/5 |
|
Design |
Weird button structure however a super-tough exterior |
3/5 |
|
Hardware |
Powerful SoC, modest battery and bloatware |
3.5/5 |
|
Camera |
Mediocre sensors with out zoom optics |
3.5/5 |
|
Performance |
Good SoC outcomes however dire battery life |
3/5 |
|
Overall |
A sensible design that has comes with a couple of main flaws |
3.5/5 |
Buy it if…
Don’t purchase it if…
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