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LOSE your eyes for a second and try to imagine what a smartphone made by Land Rover might look like and what it might do. I’m willing to bet what you can see looks very much like the Explore and you don’t have to imagine it, either. It’s real and it’s coming to Vodafone this week.

Land Rover’s Explore phone is, it says, an ‘outdoor phone’, and it’s packed with features that make it more suited to an adventure than many other mobiles.

But it also takes a couple of design cues from the iconic 4x4 – such as a camera on the rear that looks like a headlight, or a little grill covering the phone’s microphone at the bottom that is modelled after the front of the vehicle.

You might not even notice these small details if you are not a Land Rover fan. Don’t let that put you off, though – all you really have to be is a fan of the great outdoors to make the Explore a compelling device. It’s especially so if you like taking off to the mountains for a spot of adventure.

At first glance it doesn’t look all that remarkable – a bit bulky for a modern phone, perhaps. But there’s a lot more than usual going on here.

Aside from an excellent camera, and specially devised software for adventurers (all atop a base layer of Android 7), there are a lot of well-thought out features to satisfy even the most committed outdoor types. battery pack available, too – which should give you a longweekend’s worth of power. The Explore is also perfect for cyclists, so you can buy a case that will clip to your handlebars for on the go guidance.

For those days when you want to be a bit less adventurous (weekdays, as we call them), you can get a nice leather case, too. It should go without saying that the Explore offers excellent waterproofing – it’s submersible for up to 30 minutes at a depth of 1m. It’s also specially engineered to cope with salt water and mist, and is dropproof from a height of 1.8m, with a factory-fitted screen protector.

The expansion battery packs fasten to the phone magnetically which, the makers say, make those connections less prone to damage – if you drop it the two bits can just separate. It’s good to use in all temperatures, too – it’ll work perfectly anywhere between -30°C and 65°C. YOU’LL be taking this phone to places where it’s cold and wet. That’s why you can still use the screen when it’s wet – it will still recognise your touch. Turn on the special ‘glove mode’ and you can use it when protected against the elements (it’s been tested with a whole range of outdoor gloves).

YOU can pick up the Land Rover Explore from Vodafone on a Red Entertainment plan which also includes unlimited texts, unlimited minutes, 50GB of data and a choice of Amazon Prime Video, Sky Sports Mobile TV, Spotify Premium or a NOW TV Entertainment Pass for £49 per month (£49 upfront cost).

Or buy it for £599 from landroverexplore.co.uk