Mountain Biking UK

Land Rover Explore smartphone £599 (phone), £29.99 (bike mount pack)

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This Android phone sports a range of features designed to keep itself and you safe. It comes with an IP68 rating, so it can resist extreme temperatur­es, a 6ft drop, water, sand, dust, dirt and vibration. We tested its ruggedness when our sample was ejected on a rocky trail, fell into a puddle and was ridden over. It was fine. Inside the case is a 2.6Gzh processor with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, sitting behind a 5in Gorilla Glass 5 screen. This worked well with gloves. The ambient light sensor and red-light filter were useful too, saving our night vision. The 4,000mAh battery is quickly bolstered with the included magnetic battery pack, which adds 3,620mAh of juice, plus a ceramic patch GPS antenna. This provides great accuracy but runs the battery down quickly. The pack increases the phone’s weight from 232g to 350g. We really liked the stem mount and the floating app that enables one-touch access to the phone’s outdoor features. Compared to the latest models, operating performanc­e is only average though, and the 16MP front and 8MP rear cameras (and video) struggle in low light. Max www.landrovere­xplore.co.uk

A tough phone with some great outdoor features, but not without some drawbacks

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