Ready to Explore the great outdoors?
Land Rover’s brilliant new model is so small that you can hold it in your hand
CLOSE 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.
A WEEKEND’S WORTH OF BATTERY
ONE of the big problems normal phones face in the wilds is lacklustre battery performance. Especially if you’re using GPS. The Explore has a magnificently huge 4000mah battery that should last a full day with normal usage.
And for this phone normal usage means lots of GPS tracking and map use – that is, after all what it’s for. But there’s more – the included add-on battery back (which has some extra magic) doubles the battery life to two days.
ADD-ON PACKS
THE base model comes with the Adventure Pack, which includes the add-on battery pack, a case, and a carabiner to attach the whole lot to your backpack.
There’s another, even highercapacity 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.
MAPPING
ONE thing you certainly need when out in the wilds is a good mapping system – which is why the Explore comes with the best.
Viewranger offers detailed, premium topographic mapping, with Skyline augmented reality features – when you make it to the top of the hill, point your phone’s camera at the view, and it will tell you exactly what you’re looking at.
All this is enhanced enormously by the addition of an extra, more powerful, GPS antenna, housed in the included battery pack. It gives you the extra confidence that you’ll always know where you are.
WATERPROOF AND DROP-PROOF
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.
FITS LIKE A GLOVE
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