Sonim XP3

Sonim's XP3 is the best simple phone on the market.

On the front, there's a monochrome display showing time, date, signal, battery, and caller ID.

Inside, there's a perfectly adequate 2.6-inch, 320-by-240 LCD and big, backlit keys.

There are non-calling apps, but very few. There are no games, and you can't download anything.

The XP3 is wonderfully tough. It's IP68 waterproof and MIL-STD-810G ruggedized. The physical buttons mean it's fully usable when wet, even underwater.

The phone has a single 5-megapixel camera on the outside face, but it's not very good.

Android and LTE take a bit of a toll on the removable 1,500mAh battery: we'd estimate seven hours of talk time within two days of use, so maybe a charge every two or three days on average. The phone charges over USB-C or in an industrial cradle using some pop-port connectors on the back. Additional batteries cost $44.95.

There's a regular 3.5mm headset jack.

There are volume buttons on the side, along with a big, programmable yellow button that in theory is for push-to-talk, but can be set to quickly launch any application.

If your work or life involve a lot of potential phone damage, the Sonim XP3 will pay for itself quickly.