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2011 Toyota Highlander Limited

Like a reliable friend, the 2011 Toyota Highlander goes where you want to go, joining in without complaint or hassle. Its tech may not be cutting-edge, but its many useful features come in handy when exploring new ground or grinding out long road-trip miles.

Toyota made a few changes for 2011, updating the styling and adding the option of a 2.7-liter four-cylinder engine. The new Highlander has a wide, beefy grille and prominent wheel arches. The headlights get squashed by a higher bumper molding. This styling might presage a new Toyota design language, but probably not–Toyota’s cars, SUVs, and trucks don’t share a common look.

In top Limited trim, the options for the Highlander are few. This trim sticks with the 3.5-liter V-6, not lowering itself to the new four-cylinder. Four-wheel drive comes standard, and while Toyota lists a navigation system or navigation with rear-seat entertainment as options, you have to choose one or the other. The Limited-trim Highlander cannot be chosen without navigation, according to the Toyota Web site.

That top trim also means leather seats and faux wood trim in the cabin. All trims of the Highlander get a small LCD at the top of the console, which shows trip and temperature information. The navigation system option adds a touch screen below that, with Toyota’s familiar cabin tech interface.

Audio screens
In some ways, the navigation system feel shoehorned into the Highlander, and not well integrated with the other controls. For example, it can be a little baffling trying to view audio information on the main LCD. Push one of the audio mode buttons on the center stack, for radio, disc, or iPod, and a thin ribbon of audio information appears at the top of the screen over the map.

You have to push in the tuning knob, to the right of the screen, to switch the entire view to audio selection. Likewise, when route guidance is issuing vocal prompts for upcoming turns, the system mutes the music from one speaker by the driver, which is inadequate when the volume is up.

The navigation system itself is DVD-based, older technology that Toyota has been using for years. Maps are strictly 2D, but the response time for the system is good. It can take a little time to make corrections when the Highlander gets off route. Highlights of this system are traffic data with dynamic routing, and text-to-speech, which lets it read out the names of streets.

The map DVD is in a slot behind the screen, which motors open to also reveal the slot for the four-CD changer. Motorized screens are not particularly convenient for loading CDs, and the changer takes a long time to cycle through discs. But there’s no need to rely on it, as the Highlander comes with a number of other audio sources, including iPod integration and Bluetooth audio streaming.

In other Toyota and Lexus vehicles, browsing an iPod library through the car’s LCD has been distractingly slow, but Toyota seems to have worked on this problem in the new Highlander. This model smoothly scrolled through lists of artists, albums, and tracks. The only time it slowed was when we hit the Songs tab on the iPod screen, and it had to list every song in the library.

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After the speakers are fully charged, you can release them from the computer and listen to your music on the go by plugging the cable into an iPhone, iPad, iPod, or other audio device with a 3.5mm input jack. We don’t doubt the durability of the braided cord and we appreciate the ballistic nylon carrying case Razer includes with the hardware, but the act of plugging in a music player feels inelegant compared with a Bluetooth wireless option like the Creative D100.

On the other hand, the D100 speaker doesn’t come with a built-in rechargeable battery as the Ferox does. Instead, you have to load up the speaker with four AA alkaline batteries before you head out, but the D100 also comes with a hardwired 3.5mm cable if you want to play music from a non-Bluetooth device.

Performance
Razer claims that the rising driver chamber should strengthen the bass and overall resonance of your music, but our test results place the speakers only a notch above the disappointing LaCie USB Speakers. We pumped multiple songs and various genres including pop, hip-hop, indie rock, and jazz through the Ferox speakers and were disappointed with the results.

The speakers are capable of higher volumes than your standard laptop or smartphone speaker, but not by much. Bass response is almost nonexistent, more like a weak jab than a punch, and the shrill treble dominates the midrange and low tones. The speakers certainly fail in their attempt to provide anything close to an “omnidirectional” surround-sound experience, whereas the Creative D100 is much better suited for a gaming party, an office gathering, or solo dorm-room listening.

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Leveling up is a mostly automated affair. You earn experience after every fight and buff your strength and defense with each rank you climb. It’s a shame you can’t tweak your stats individually to mold characters in whatever manner you desire, but that lack of involvement is offset slightly by the skills you acquire. You buy skills from magic shops or earn them during special missions, and these give you a bevy of interesting moves to build your characters. Some of these are passive, such as an increase to your HP, while others give you new attacks. Each of the three characters has around 20 different abilities, and every one of them can be upgraded with the experience you earn in battle. Ultimately, upgrading your skills doesn’t provide a huge draw. There isn’t a big difference between a level-one and a level-three ice spell, for instance, so it’s not a great reward for your hard effort. But the new attacks add a layer of depth that makes it difficult to pull away. Areus starts with a basic fire spell and sword swipe, but things get more varied as you get deeper into the game. A host of unique sword techniques, such as leaping strikes, give you new strategies to play around with, and Areus’ dark magic powers veer even further away from his initial path. You earn these new moves at a slow and steady rate, so you always have time to master your previous skill before the next one unlocks. It’s a tantalizing system that does a good job of keeping you invested throughout the adventure.

6299646Sometimes you can let your friends do the dirty work.None

You need every one of your skills as you get deeper into the game because Trinity offers up a satisfying challenge once the basics have been laid down. The mix of weak and strong enemies makes you fight for every victory, which means you could end up dead by the hands of an ordinary grunt if you aren’t careful. It’s the bosses that do the most damage, though. Many quests have you face off against a powered-up monstrosity at the end, often with a dozen or so weaker enemies surrounding it. Trying to build your combo meter by beating up on the lesser foes is a viable strategy at first, but before long, the bosses are so tough that you have to rely solely on alternate methods to survive. Figuring out what each boss is weak against requires trial and error, and it’s a rush to dodge attacks while trying out every move in your arsenal to dent their impenetrable hides. This is where you have to make smart use of all three of your characters. You may need to conjure a clone of Selena so you can unleash deadly air attacks, or coat Dagda in thick armor so you can get close enough to score a hit. The later bosses pack a mean punch, which makes it more empowering when you do come out on top.

The growing difficulty means you should take part in every quest, optional or story, if you want to make it through to the end. Like most of Trinity, there isn’t much variety in the quests, so don’t expect any huge twists thrown your way. Almost all of them boil down to killing enemies while you venture to a certain point in a dungeon, so it’s hard to distinguish between the necessary and superfluous missions. But what seem like extra quests early on become integral to your survival as you progress later in the game. If you don’t take the time to do every quest and level up as much as possible, battles become crushingly difficult, and you may have to grind just to get your strength up. If you do want to bulk up before heading out, arena missions are always open for your hunting enjoyment. These encounters introduce a ticking clock to keep you moving, and the added pressure forces you to be as precise and efficient as possible. Trinity extends for longer than 60 hours, and you need to do most of the missions if you want to be strong enough to make it all the way to the credits.

Aside from the combat-focused quests, there’s almost nothing else you can do in Trinity. You earn equipment throughout your adventure, and there’s undeniable pleasure when you equip a powerful new sword, but that excitement is short-lived. Each character has only four different pieces of equipment (a weapon, ring, bracket, and necklace), and you don’t even get a variety of armors to play around with. Instead, you earn new clothing at certain story points, and your duds don’t even affect your stats. It’s a shame there isn’t anything else of consequence to do in Trinity aside from the combat. A few diversions could have added immensely to the overall experience, giving you a break from the nonstop bloodshed, but there’s no such reprieve here. Your fierce bouts are interrupted only by mundane trips to town, and those aren’t nearly interesting enough to make you excited for your next visit.

Are you enthralled yet?

At least the varied environments give you plenty of eye-catching vistas to stare at along the way. The early areas send you to underground caves and confined forests, and the murky visuals give the impression of a low-budget game. A cross-hatching visual effect gives these sections a unique feel, but it’s not enough to compensate for the bland view. Thankfully, things become much more pleasing to the eye as you get deeper in the game, and Trinity looks quite impressive at times. In one area, called Sea of Trees, you are fenced in by walls of foliage lining narrow paths. The rich trees are detailed and full of life, and the monsters luring around you add just as much personality to the adventure. Creature design is a strong point in Trinity. There are a huge array of beasts to fight, and all of them have a smart design that makes them stand out from generic tropes. The most impressive are the gargantuan beasts that can squash you in one hit. Facing off against a two-headed chimera is a chilling experience, making it even more exciting when you take it down.

It’s to Trinity’s credit that it stays interesting for dozens of hours when there is almost nothing to do except fight. Excellent controls, a wealth of different moves, and a variety of angry beasts keep things fresh throughout, so you won’t even mind trudging through the same dungeon multiple times. It’s just a shame that nothing interesting was built around this enticing combat. The weak story is difficult to pay attention to and even harder to care about, and the streamlined leveling system takes out much of the thrill of earning experience. Trinity feels like one half of a must-play role-playing game. You may crave more variety, but the combat in Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll is so good it sucks you into this adventure anyway.

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By Gary A. Warner, McClatchy-Tribune Newspapers

In Print: Sunday, February 20, 2011

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LAS VEGAS

One of the hottest tickets in Las Vegas isn’t Cher or Celine, Blue Man Group or Cirque du Soleil. It’s a day trip to a gravel lot filled with scrap metal, miles from the Strip.

There, on Las Vegas Boulevard N, surrounded by a chain-link fence, is the latest incarnation of the legendary Las Vegas neon “boneyard.” It’s the kind of place where great signs of long-gone casinos and bars, motels and dry cleaners go to die. They are leaned haphazardly against each other and stacked in chopped-up chunks against walls. Dust, rust and daylight obscure the beauty of their once-lush oranges and blues, reds and greens that glowed in the night.

But this is a graveyard bent on a resurrection. The signs here are part of a new Neon Museum to open this year. Daily tours next to a neon-themed city park across the street often sell out.

“This is one of the few places where Las Vegas will celebrate its past instead of imploding it with fireworks,” said Justin Favela, the director of docents.

Las Vegas is rediscovering neon after almost allowing a fade-out along the Strip. Casinos ditched the touchy tubes of colored inert gas for the ease of fluorescent lights under flexible glass. Later came the harsh, flashing, stadium-style LED and LCD screens that fill the Strip from the Luxor to the Stratosphere.

Neon was born at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and blossomed throughout the country, particularly in New York’s Times Square and parts of Los Angeles. It lit up Tokyo’s Ginza and London’s Piccadilly.

But it was Las Vegas where neon visually exploded. By the 1950s, visitors were greeted at the south end of the Strip with the neon-lit “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign. Neon splashed out from the Sands and Dunes, Stardust and Flamingo. On Fremont Street, neon turned midnight to noon around the Mint, Horseshoe, Fremont and Golden Nugget. The signs signaled that visitors had arrived in an adult playground. The neon cowboy Vegas Vic gave a thumbs-up and bellowed, “Howdy, pardner!”

Vegas’ ‘worst-kept secret’

The boneyard tour began last year when museum staffers went through the collection and selected 150 pieces to show tourists in informal tours twice a day. The cost: $15. Despite the obscure location, the tours are often packed. It’s a mixed blessing for the Neon Museum crew. They’re excited but also overwhelmed by interest in the tours.

“It’s the very worst-kept secret in Las Vegas,” said Bill Marion, a veteran local public relations executive and museum chairman.

“The neon of Las Vegas has both a national and international reputation and interest. We’re not even advertising, but we can’t handle the number of people who want to see it. When it opens up later this year, I think it will be one of the largest attractions outside of the Strip.”

Out front, a large sign spelling NEON sits above a desert-style city park. Favela said the sign is copied from the neon script of famous hotels — the “N” is Golden Nugget, the “E” from Caesars Palace, the “O” from the Horseshoe and the other “N” from the grand old Desert Inn.

Inside the gates, there are pieces of the old “atomic”-style letters from the Stardust, along with pieces of its successor, the massive sparkling Stardust sign. The oldest piece is a 1930s chunk of the Green Shack. Though listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it was torn down to make way for a Denny’s.

There’s the lovely swooping script from the short-lived heyday of the Moulin Rouge, the resort that broke the color barrier in 1955 (and was promptly shut down). Las Vegas would wait until 1960 to integrate casinos.

Some of the best examples are from long-gone motels. One of the most beautiful is for the defunct Yucca Motel, with bent glass yellow tubing that swirls into a version of the desert plant.

While neon is the main attraction, the boneyard has other fun pieces. A staff favorite is a golden lamp from the old Aladdin Hotel, where Elvis married Priscilla in 1967.

There’s also a mullet-wearing metal statue that once graced a pool hall and the massive, scary pirate’s face that topped Treasure Island. It fell victim to the end of Las Vegas’ attempt to recast itself as a family-friendly destination.

“They found out the whales — the big gamblers — didn’t like to be around kids,” Favela said.

Reflections beyond gambling

The star of the nighttime neon experience in Las Vegas is the Fremont Street “gallery.” The Neon Museum website has a walking map and list of the signs scattered about — nearly all within walking distance. Some of the earliest restorations, around 1997, were of a yellow lit lamp from the Aladdin. A glittering horse and rider from the long-gone Hacienda Hotel is high on a pole over the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Fremont Street.

Some of the prettiest examples of neon aren’t involved with gambling at all. One of the small classics is from the old Flame Restaurant. The sign, from 1961, was for a restaurant that once sat near the Desert Inn (where the Wynn now stands). The Chief Hotel Court is the oldest restored sign, a 1940s classic from an old downtown motel.

Progress on saving neon hasn’t been so smooth. The Neon Museum has had no permanent home. The $100 million Neonopolis retail center, with a collection of its own neon signs, is dark and mostly empty. Just beyond is Fremont Street East, a new entertainment district meant to appeal to tourists and locals that features new and transplanted neon. The collections include a boomerang-style sign that says “VEGAS” and a martini glass. Stores and cafes in the area have struggled with the worldwide economic meltdown that hit Las Vegas especially hard.

Living legends remain

Not all the great neon of Las Vegas is in a museum. Hopefully the renewed interest in neon will keep some of the pieces from being hacked up and shipped off to a boneyard. The Flamingo is one of the few hotels on the Strip where neon is still the lighting of choice. The highlights are the two large corner pieces, which cascade warm pinks. In a crime against art, the city allowed a pedestrian bridge to Caesars Palace to be built a number of years ago that obscures the view of the best section.

The Holiday Motel, directly across from the Stratosphere Hotel near the corner of the Strip and Sahara Boulevard, is a candy-colored classic that has been kept up.

Neon Museum staffers are keeping an eye on neon they hope one day will come their way — bits of Circus Circus top the list. They also talked reverently about someday acquiring the signs from the Blue Angel, a one-star motel with five-star signs, including lots of white and blue neon, crowned by a statue of an angel in a blue dress on a pedestal.

One of the pieces of good news is the restored El Cortez. One of the city’s oldest casinos, it was operated by gangster Bugsy Siegel before he built the Flamingo beyond the city limits (a move that earned him a bullet in the face from unhappy mob financiers). The hotel recently installed a sign with retro neon script and an LED screen that advertises shows and deals.

It’s a bit of a shotgun wedding between the old and new. But if it saves neon from the glare of the casino Jumbotrons, Vegas Vic would probably give it a thumbs-up. If he could.

. IF YOU GO

Las Vegas
Neon Museum

The Neon Museum, on Las Vegas Boulevard N, offers tours Tuesday through Friday at noon and 2 p.m. On Saturdays tours are at 9:30 and 11 a.m. The minimum donation for tours is $15.

Reservations must be made at least a week in advance. No same-day appointments or walk-ins are accepted. Visitors must wear closed-toe shoes because of the gravel, some broken glass and exposed metal edges.

There are many rules about the tour, particularly the use of cameras and video equipment. You’ll be asked to sign a release form stating you won’t use the photos for anything but your private use — a policy that hasn’t kept hundreds of images from being plastered on the Internet. The museum is rethinking its policy.

For information and reservations, go to neonmuseum.org or call (702) 387-6366.

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By Janet K. Keeler, Times Food and Travel Editor

In Print: Sunday, February 20, 2011

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BOZEMAN, Mont.

It’s not difficult to imagine dinosaurs prowling the wide-open spaces of the American West. That’s especially true here in Montana, where the state’s plains go on and on and lonely highways weave ribbons through the vastness. At the crest of every rolling hill it wouldn’t seem out of place to see a triceratops rumbling along.

Today we call it Montana Big Sky Country, but what has been unearthed down below is just as impressive. Perhaps more so.

I used to be quite a dinosaur geek, thanks to my son, who fell in love with the prehistoric behemoths as a preschooler. It’s a common obsession of little kids, and we spent lots of time talking about terrible lizards (T. rex), earth shakers (seismosaurus) and all sorts of raptors (veloci-, pyro- and micro-). He outgrew his dino period quickly; they sank their teeth into me a bit longer.

So on a driving trip through Montana last summer, I grabbed the brochure for the Montana Dinosaur Trail (yes, there is such a thing) and plotted to visit as many of the 15 stops as I could. My goal of getting my “Prehistoric Passport” stamped at each locale was dashed when I was overruled by the other occupant of the car. Pick a couple, he said. (If we’d hit them all, we’d probably still be driving. That’s one big state.)

So that’s how I ended up plunking down $5 to see one of the world’s largest dinosaur snaking around the inside of a prefab metal building in Bynum and then spending a day getting up close and personal with the fossils at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman.

The search continues

Some of the biggest dinosaur discoveries in the world have been in Montana. The first Tyrannosaurus rex fossil and the largest T. rex were discovered here. The world’s “best preserved dinosaur,” Leonardo the Brachylophosaurus, is at the Dinosaur Field Station in Malta. There’s even a state fossil, the maiasaura.

While there are some Dinosaur World elements to the state’s celebration of prehistoric creatures (the friendly and colorful dinos near the Ice Cream Parlor in Choteau look similar to those we see on Interstate 4 in Plant City), paleontology is a big and serious business. Scientists and graduate students toil on digs in their Indiana Jones hats, and there are summer programs where novices can help excavate prehistory. Some of the state’s biggest discoveries have gone to large museums such as the Smithsonian.

About 75 dinosaur species have been found in Montana, more than any other state. The landscape during the Jurassic period, some 155 million years ago, was more coastal and swampy; the mountains of Glacier National Park were forming then. Think Pacific Ocean and Everglades. Cowboys and outdoor enthusiasts, both common Montana species today, wouldn’t recognize the place. The dinosaurs survived in Montana through the Cretaceous Period and then — poof! — they were gone.

Sizing up seismosaurus

The state’s most impressive collection of dinosaurs is at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, home to Montana State University and plenty of unique restaurants. When the weather is good, and that’s always sort of a gamble, find a sidewalk cafe for a quick bite before or after your museum visit. On a July visit, I asked a server at Ted’s (of Turner fame) Montana Grill when the snow comes to this part of Montana. She wrinkled her nose and looked at the sky. “Maybe tomorrow.”

To get to Bozeman from Glacier, we first travel south on U.S. 89. In the rearview mirror are mountains, ahead of us undulating hills and that famous big sky. First I see the sign for Two Medicine Dinosaur Center and then another that promises the world’s largest dinosaur. We are in Bynum, I guess, but there doesn’t seem to be much else here except a rock shop and a metal building. That’s where the 137-foot skeletal model of the seismosaurus lives. The “earth shaker” is 23 feet tall.

The center is cool and weird at the same time. It offers hands-on research opportunities in its lab and out in the field from May to September. There are two paleontologists on staff. For a time, I am alone with the big dinosaur, wondering what his skin looked like or if he would just swallow me whole if he could see me standing there.

A few other folks wander in and we all look up, mouths gaping slightly. It’s hard to imagine that this big guy was running around out there. There are a few other exhibits, but the earth shaker is the star of this show.

Sounds of science

The Museum of the Rockies is a world-class science museum. While dinosaurs are the main draw, there is a planetarium plus an impressive permanent exhibit on the American Indians that roamed the northern plains. There is also a pioneer homestead outside and a great gift shop.

But it’s the dinosaurs that speak to me. Literally. Scientists have re-created the rumbling, squeaking, moaning sounds they think the prehistoric creatures made. There are also exhibits of models with skin and features. Who knew they were so colorful?

The museum houses the world’s largest T. rex skull and one of the first identified females. We spend a couple of hours with the big guys and then my guy gets fidgety.

I guess extinction has its limits.

Janet K. Keeler can be reached at jkeeler@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8586.

. IF YOU GO

Montana’s dinosaur land

• The state’s Dinosaur Trail pinpoints 15 places where visitors can see dinosaur fossils and take part in excavation or restoration projects. (Check ahead for schedules.) Most of the stops are across the more desolate northern part of the state. For more information, go to mtdinotrail.org.

• Two Medicine Dinosaur Center, where the skeletal model of the seismosaurus is on display, is on U.S. 89 in Bynum. Cost to check out the big guy and other exhibits is $5. The center offers hands-on programs in the summer and lab activities year-round, though the center is open in winter only by appointment. For information, call toll-free 1-800-238-6873 or go to tmdinosaur.org.

• The Museum of the Rockies, which is affiliated with Montana State University, is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily Memorial Day through Labor Day, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 12:30 to 5 p.m. Sunday the remainder of the year. Tickets are $9 to $13, free for children under 4. The museum, at 600 W Kagy Blvd. in Bozeman, houses one of the world’s largest collections of dinosaur fossils. For information, call (406) 994-2251.

Bozeman has a college town vibe and there are lots of fun shops and interesting restaurants to check out. It’s also a major winter sports hub. The city of about 40,000 is on Interstate 90, so there are plenty of major chain hotels near the highway. We stayed at a Hampton Inn for about $140 a night.

An outside table at Ted’s Montana Grill (105 W Main St.; (406) 587-6000) is a good spot to people watch. Order a bison burger topped with Monterey Jack, jalapenos and guacamole (about $10).

On the other end of Main Street is the Montana Ale Works (611 E Main St.; (406) 587-7700). The expansive bar was jammed with people of all ages. The food is labeled “upscale comfort food,” and I would concur. The meat loaf comes wrapped in bacon and draped with caramelized onion gravy. We liked the Fiery Cajun Calamari, which was dusted with Cajun spices and served with two sauces, garlic-chili aioli and a spicy red sauce ($10.95). Try a glass of Moose Drool Brown Ale, brewed in Missoula, Mont.

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   She may be facing trial in the murder of a lottery winner, but Dorice “DeeDee” Moore isn’t giving up Abraham Shakespeare’s million-dollar home without a fight, TheLedger.com reports.

   From her jail cell, she has been barraging Circuit Judge Neil Roddenbery, who is handling the civil case, asking him to postpone hearings until her murder trial ends. The letters go straight into the court files. A lawyer for Shakespeare’s two sons says she acquired several of his properties fraudulently.

   Shakespeare’s body was found Jan. 29, 2010, underneath a concrete slab behind a Plant City home. He had been shot. Moore befriended him after he won a $17 million lump-sum lottery payment.

   It’s an old scam, but with a new target. A Lake Worth woman is accused of having her son give away a $5 bill, then showing up to say he accidentally had a $50. But in this case, she is accused of using the scam on churches, not businesses, and saying he put the bill in a collection plate, PalmBeachPost.com reports.

   Authorities say Kimberly Wills, 42, used the same scam on nine churches in Palm Beach, Palm Springs, West Palm Beach and Lake Worth.

   She and two accomplices were caught by an undercover operation.

   A man in Sarasota decided to secede from the United States, declaring himself a “sovereign citizen” at the county courthouse, and arguing he no longer was subject to federal law or taxes and that his home is an embassy, HeraldTribune.com reports.

   Yeah, there is a movement making that argument around the county (one estimate is 300,000 “sovereign citizens”), but it isn’t common that they are public employees whose complaints about government include fears that they will lose their jobs and pensions. In this case, the secessionist was Tom Laughlin, a once highly regarded 42-year-old homicide detective.

   According to internal affairs documents, Laughlin believed the red numbers on a Social Security card were clues to a straw man account, and that birth certificates were related to secret ships berthed in a port that held access to millions of straw man dollars. “It was one of those things where, as he’s trying to explain it to me, I’m looking at him thinking, ‘You’re crazy,’ ” Detective Charles Riffe said in a statement to investigators. “I mean, what the hell?”

   And, yes, he did lose his job.

Durability

Sonim makes lots of promises about the XP3300′s durability. It’s certified to military specifications for salt, fog, humidity, transport shock, and thermal shock; it can tolerate temperatures between minus 4 degrees and 131 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 20 degrees and 55 degrees Celsius); you can submerge it in 6.5 feet of water for half an hour; you can cover it in oil; and it can endure pressure of 1,000 pounds per square inch. We subjected it to every test we performed on the XP1300 and on the XP3 before it, including dropping it on a hard surface, throwing it down the stairs, putting it in a freezer, and stomping the heck out of it with a boot.

We also conducted some of our own tests. We called the phone underwater and smashed it on the ground out of a concrete brick Sonim had helpfully poured around one of two test units. We also hammered a small nail into the screen, which created just a scratch. The one test the XP3300 failed was a test where we threw it into the air and watched it land on the concrete. The phone itself still works fine, but the screen is a cobweb of shattered glass. It may not be Sonim’s fault. The XP330 Force is supposed to withstand drops of up to 6.5 feet (2 meters) onto concrete. We only eyeballed the toss, but it’s possible we overshot the height. At any rate, the phone performed admirably in the majority of the tests. In that one, we managed to push it beyond its limits.

Features
Sonim built its XP3300 Force for strength, not brains. Even so, there are more features in this model than in the sorely lacking Core. The phone book holds 1,000 contacts (with an extra 250 on the SIM) with room in each entry for multiple phone numbers, a fax number, a company name, an e-mail address, a birthday, a street address, a URL, and notes. For caller ID, you can associate contacts with a photo and one of 18 polyphonic ringtones.

The Force supports text and multimedia messaging, in addition to Bluetooth, A-GPS, a file manager, and PC syncing. POP3 and IMAP4 e-mail support are present as well, though the interface is pretty clunky. In terms of entertainment, there’s an FM radio and a generic music player that supports MP3, WAV, and AAC files.

The handset also has an Opera Mini browser, with bookmarks, stored pages, and a record of your browsing history. The City Cruiser app does turn-by-turn navigation. Unlike the Core, the Force supports MRM apps (a company’s resource management programs) like Xora, ACTsoft, Econz, Spotmaster, and NoteVault for construction workers. Other tools include an alarm clock, a calculator, a unit converter, a world clock, a calendar, a sound recorder, a notepad, a stopwatch, and a text reader.

Don’t expect much from the 2-megapixel camera. It takes dull, noisy pictures that you can send via e-mail, photo message, or Bluetooth. It’s better than having no camera, as with the Core, but photo quality is poor by any measure. There is, however, a handful of photo tools, such as six white-balance settings, a night mode, and six color effects. For storage, there’s 64MB of RAM and there’s room for 16GB external memory.

Performance
We tested unlocked the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) in San Francisco using ATT’s network. Call quality was remarkably clear on both ends of the line throughout multiple calls. None of us heard much background noise. In fact, if we dropped silent, it wasn’t always obvious we were on a live call. Volume was quite strong as well, and voices sounded loud and fairly natural, with a hint of muffling.

Speakerphone was very loud and clear on our end. In fact, it’s one of the best loudspeaker specimens we’ve found on a phone. On the other end, callers said volume was diminished to the point where they had to listen closely to hear. The call was otherwise clear.

Sonim XP3300 Force call quality sample
Listen now:

Sonim kept in mind the long workday shifts of its demographic. The previous model, the XP1300 Core, maintained a rated 18-hour battery life. The XP3300 Force, on the other hand, extends that time to between 20 and 24 hours of talk time. The company says that’s 17 hours with continuous turn-by-turn navigation and a full 27 hours using GPS tracking with the corporate applications updating at 5-minute intervals. Sonim claims a standby time of 33 days on its 1,750 mAh battery. FCC radiation tests measure the digital SAR at 0.782 watt per kilogram.

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Durability

Sonim makes lots of promises about the XP3300′s durability. It’s certified to military specifications for salt, fog, humidity, transport shock, and thermal shock; it can tolerate temperatures between minus 4 degrees and 131 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 20 degrees and 55 degrees Celsius); you can submerge it in 6.5 feet of water for half an hour; you can cover it in oil; and it can endure pressure of 1,000 pounds per square inch. We subjected it to every test we performed on the XP1300 and on the XP3 before it, including dropping it on a hard surface, throwing it down the stairs, putting it in a freezer, and stomping the heck out of it with a boot.

We also conducted some of our own tests. We called the phone underwater and smashed it on the ground out of a concrete brick Sonim had helpfully poured around one of two test units. We also hammered a small nail into the screen, which created just a scratch. The one test the XP3300 failed was a test where we threw it into the air and watched it land on the concrete. The phone itself still works fine, but the screen is a cobweb of shattered glass. It may not be Sonim’s fault. The XP330 Force is supposed to withstand drops of up to 6.5 feet (2 meters) onto concrete. We only eyeballed the toss, but it’s possible we overshot the height. At any rate, the phone performed admirably in the majority of the tests. In that one, we managed to push it beyond its limits.

Features
Sonim built its XP3300 Force for strength, not brains. Even so, there are more features in this model than in the sorely lacking Core. The phone book holds 1,000 contacts (with an extra 250 on the SIM) with room in each entry for multiple phone numbers, a fax number, a company name, an e-mail address, a birthday, a street address, a URL, and notes. For caller ID, you can associate contacts with a photo and one of 18 polyphonic ringtones.

The Force supports text and multimedia messaging, in addition to Bluetooth, A-GPS, a file manager, and PC syncing. POP3 and IMAP4 e-mail support are present as well, though the interface is pretty clunky. In terms of entertainment, there’s an FM radio and a generic music player that supports MP3, WAV, and AAC files.

The handset also has an Opera Mini browser, with bookmarks, stored pages, and a record of your browsing history. The City Cruiser app does turn-by-turn navigation. Unlike the Core, the Force supports MRM apps (a company’s resource management programs) like Xora, ACTsoft, Econz, Spotmaster, and NoteVault for construction workers. Other tools include an alarm clock, a calculator, a unit converter, a world clock, a calendar, a sound recorder, a notepad, a stopwatch, and a text reader.

Don’t expect much from the 2-megapixel camera. It takes dull, noisy pictures that you can send via e-mail, photo message, or Bluetooth. It’s better than having no camera, as with the Core, but photo quality is poor by any measure. There is, however, a handful of photo tools, such as six white-balance settings, a night mode, and six color effects. For storage, there’s 64MB of RAM and there’s room for 16GB external memory.

Performance
We tested unlocked the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) in San Francisco using ATT’s network. Call quality was remarkably clear on both ends of the line throughout multiple calls. None of us heard much background noise. In fact, if we dropped silent, it wasn’t always obvious we were on a live call. Volume was quite strong as well, and voices sounded loud and fairly natural, with a hint of muffling.

Speakerphone was very loud and clear on our end. In fact, it’s one of the best loudspeaker specimens we’ve found on a phone. On the other end, callers said volume was diminished to the point where they had to listen closely to hear. The call was otherwise clear.

Sonim XP3300 Force call quality sample
Listen now:

Sonim kept in mind the long workday shifts of its demographic. The previous model, the XP1300 Core, maintained a rated 18-hour battery life. The XP3300 Force, on the other hand, extends that time to between 20 and 24 hours of talk time. The company says that’s 17 hours with continuous turn-by-turn navigation and a full 27 hours using GPS tracking with the corporate applications updating at 5-minute intervals. Sonim claims a standby time of 33 days on its 1,750 mAh battery. FCC radiation tests measure the digital SAR at 0.782 watt per kilogram.

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