This satphone is suited to offshore duty.
Slightly shorter, slightly wider, and at 8.7 ounces nearly an ounce lighter than the popular Iridium 9555, the latest Iridium satellite telephone—the Iridium Extreme—looks like a ruggedized redesign of the older model. But there’s more to it than a rubber-clad casing and a correspondingly higher price tag (retail prices are around $1,450 compared with around $1,200 for the 9555).
The sturdy case enhances the look and feel of the phone and helps to protect it against shock and impact. Meanwhile the underlying casing boasts an ingress protection rating of IP65—the highest in the satphone industry—indicating readiness to withstand incursion from dust and jets of water from any direction, so it’s sure to work in offshore conditions when your call would be most pressing.
Another major upgrade from the 9555 is that the new phone includes a built-in GPS, which opens the door to all manner of safety and security-related functions such as geofencing and tracking. The phone also offers a very handy SOS function, which sends a call for help, complete with the phone’s current position, to any nominated contact—a call you hope you never have to make.
Iridium
(703) 287-7400.
Iridium Extreme Rugged and ready for the next voyage out of cell range.
($1,450)
This article originally appeared in the December 2011 issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.
