Any ideas on a decent machine that will withstand a bit of bumping around (I know the optical drive will pack up after a while – but they are useful when you are on the road and someone has a disc of pics etc) and costs less than £500?

Rather predictable, I guess. This is what happens when you challenge someone to test your "unbreakable" phone on the telly. But I’m pleased to report that my Sonim is still going strong despite plenty of spills and thrills…

Africa may grow some of the world’s finest coffee beans but getting a decent brew on the road can be problematic. In most places Nescafe is the only thing on offer – just about passable if drunk strong and black. But – and I know this is desperately old hat for readers in places where coffee comes with cold milk and broadband – I have the answer. I picked up what I believe is called a mug press while on holiday in northern California recently. Next time I’m breakfasting on fried goats liver and onions (my favourite as it happens) it’ll be washed down with a spot of fresh Kenyan coffee. Cool. Off on the road soon so I’ll keep you updated on how it fares.

“Well, they did tell me it was unbreakable… and asked me to do my best to destroy it… and it has a three-year warranty.” Those were roughly the thoughts that ran through my head as my new Sonim XP1 phone described a graceful arc from the top-floor balcony. Time seemed to stand still as my mind extended its nascent parabola to the point where it would inevitably, crunchingly intersect with what my applied mathematics teachers would have termed an “inelastic horizontal plane” – a concrete floor, about 30ft below where I was standing.
The mistake had been all mine. It is one thing to accept an invitation from an inebriated French journalist to join him for a quick whisky to mark the end of his assignment to a warzone – in this case Goma in the Democratic of Congo. (That is plain good manners.) It is quite another to hand said hack your gleaming new handset for him to admire as you stand on his balcony.
“Ah yeees, theeez izz very nice,” he said, moments before apparently losing all control over his finger muscles. The black, rubberised phone popped from one hand to the other as he tried to regain his grasp. In fact he succeeded only in batting it over the balcony railing.
By the time I’d raced down the stairs to the sun terrace a couple of security guards were standing staring at my phone – much as if it had been a jumper. “Nothing to see. It’s all fine. It’s a supertough phone,” I said, not really believing my own words. But there it was, still in one piece, looking for all the world like a phone – rather than an assortment of broken components that might once have been inside a communications device of unspecified appearance. Apart from two scratches on the casing, it was absolutely fine.
So in this regard, the XP1 is exactly what I’m looking for. My last couple of phones have lasted approximately six months. Even my pocket seems to be too hostile an environment for them, causing their coatings to end up scratched. Drop them from a height of 4ft and they exploded.
The XP1 is tough enough for my requirements, but is it any good as a phone? Yes and no. I love that it has no fancy ringtones or FM radio and that its only volume is “loud”. All perfect for my no-nonsense life on the road. If I need a camera then I’ll use my, erm, camera. Ditto radio. The menu is straightforward and easy to navigate. Sure the phone is a little bulky, but that just means I have less chance of walking off without it.
The only real problem is that I can’t pick up any voicemail messages. Dialling 111 seems to send it into SOS call mode (no-one ever picks up, incidentally) rather than accessing my mailbox. My phone network seems clueless about how to sort this, so for the time being I may revert to my old Motorola until I can fix it and save the XP1 for road trips when I need its durability.
That aside, the XP1 is a great phone. It does what I want it to do – allows me to make calls and text people – without bogging me down with all that other stuff I don’t want. And I know that it is French journalist-proof. Perfect.

My kit bag continues to have a fairly low-tech feel (ridiculed in some quarters) but the last thing you need in this part of the world is to be up all night trying to repair your nuclear-powered wireless nose trimmers. Anyway, there have been a few additions since the last time…

• Sonim XP1 – testing out super tough phone. Came with instructions suggesting I do my damnedest to break it. So far it has stood up to life in my pocket pretty well (which is more than can be said for most of the phones I’ve been using). Should be giving it a better work out in the days to come
• Prescription sunglasses – why did I not get these sooner? Can look cool and, erm, see stuff in sunny places, such as Africa. Particularly useful in places where putting contact lenses in your eyes is like shovelling sand directly into your cornea
• 

  Nivea moisturiser (for men, obviously) – there comes a time in every foreign correspondent’s career when they suddenly realise that spending any more time in the sun runs the risk of turning their facial features into those of Sandy Gall quicksmart. And that’s just the women. Boom boom. Anyway, clearly I wouldn’t fall for any anti-aging marketing nonsense… but after a long day in the sun, it can’t hurt, right?

Has anyone tried the Sonim XP1 phone, which Time seems to be claiming as a “tough gadget”? My current Samsung U600 is pretty wrecked after four months. Its screen is scratched to pieces after a couple of trips to Sudan, a week in the DRC and a lot of battering in my pocket. Battery life is lousy too. My Motorola has just given up the ghost after being dropped in Khartoum, although it never really recovered from falling into an open sewer in Kibera in its first week.
I don’t need a phone that survives at -20C or can be driven over. But a casing that keeps out dust, and a no-glare anti-scratch coating on the screen looks pretty useful.