Bought a Land Rover SP1 phone (Sonim XP3 re-branded) some months go now...thought I post up some thoughts in case anyone else was looking to gamble £300
On the face of it...tough, waterproof, shockproof...it says it is and it looks it. No reason to doubt to date
Loud clear reception including the phones own speakerphone function: LOUD it certainly is. Much louder than any other phone I've had by a long way. Great in noisy environments
Non-slip rubberised case...the opposite end of the spectrum to my wet-bar-of-soap design iPod Touch
Looooong battery life
Can be had in a bright orange colour
However, here's the list of faults or shortcomings (however you want to phrase it)
* The locked keypad doesn't lock out numbers starting in '9' or '1', ie emergency calls. I've made two inadvertant 999 calls.
* The 'end call' button is faulty. Only works when it wants to and when it wants to it's slow witted.
* The pc sync function doesn't.
* On occasion, the bluetooth function doesn't work at all. When it does work, the bluetooth function cycles connected and unconnected on a 20 second or so cycle. Other times it works ok but it's slow witted. Pressing 'end call' on my LR Disco 4 ends the call on the phone about 30 seconds later. These are known problems with the phone manufacturer (they're not vehicle faults)...no fix in sight (it was going to be early Nov, then end Nov, then year end, now un-timed).
* The phone book function - advertised as allowing the phone book to be sucked up into any LR product thus enabling easier calls out from a LR vehicle or Caller ID on the vehicle facia screen for incoming calls - doesn't work and there is no fix in sight. In fact, there may never be a fix at all even though it remains marketed as a feature.
* All of the above is relevant to Freelander, Disco 3 and Disco 4.
I bought my phone direct from LandRoverPhone Ltd (a completely independant company from LR themselves - the tie is purely a marketing thing). My view after probably a dozen calls to them now is that they are not technical, merely a medium for taking orders. They promise follow ups and calls from those at Sonim but the calls either never happen or, on the one occasion when I got a call from some guy in India, what the guy tells me is subsequently discounted by Land Rover Phone Ltd as mis-informed! Bizarre
Land Rover Phones tell me there are others with all the problems I describe.
I don't have much patience for expensive toys that don't do what they say on the tin. Or patience for the companies that make them. However, I'm sort of sticking out here for software patches in the hope that it'll all come together
I must be mad or going soft in my old age. Or both.
Land Rover Phones and I remain in negotiation
