GEAR AND REVIEWS – Page 4

Ok – so this review might be a little different from anything else you’ll find if you Google 'Landrover Explore Smart Phone reviews'. The tech specs are below but are largely irrelevant because this phone is not for anyone who will obsess about the specification – it’s not an iPhone, it’s not a top end android but by golly it’s smart and it’s blummin good value. We're not even going to compare it with other phones, it's not the same thing. The pros and cons (particularly for skiers and snowboarders) are also listed below but here’s my take after 2 weeks of it being my only phone (ordinarily a Google Pixel user). I love the Landrover Explore smartphone. There, I said it. Bite me. Why? Because I have come to realise I only have three basic requirements from a ‘mobile’. It works as a smartphone – i.e. I can call on it, flick through Facebook and read emails I can do this for more than 1 hour before starting to panic about the 5% battery life I have left I can drop it without my world going into slow motion as the life threatening consequences of my phone smashing carousel in front of my eyes. Let’s tackle each of these: Does it work as a phone? Yes. I am simply using all the apps I have on my Pixel. Several very favourable comments have come back about the sound quality when speaking on the phone – Tick. Battery life. Ridiculous – see right. True news. Begs the questions, if the makers of the Landrover Explore can make a phone with a battery that lasts longer than 57 minutes then what the heck are the other boys playing at? Rhetorical - I do actually know how they do it and you’re not going to like it. It’s a few grams heavier than your iPhone. I know – intolerable isn’t it? No. It’s not intolerable at all. It’s fine. The 'Adventure Pack' additional battery even transforms your phone into a highly effective door stop or weapon of moderate destruction so that ticks a lot of boxes in my book. Durability. Landrover say it’s ok to drop it from just under 2m (onto rock or into salt water even) and I think this is a gross underestimation of its capabilities. We are going to continue to test this phone throughout this season and if it can survive James’s official testing process it will join an elite group of products – a club of about 3 things, one of which is a rather hefty hammer. It has survived stone and road surface thus far. Haven’t yet tried it in the bath yet but I might surprise it with that in the coming weeks. Special mentions Ladies – this phone is toilet-proof. You know what I’m talking about. You go to do your business and life pauses as you anticipate the inevitable… your super-slippery £1000+ phone launches itself from your rear pocket, shoots past your lowering tooch and makes a bid for freedom through the great British sewerage system. Not the Landrover Explore. This baby has a rubbery back that sticks to the inside of your jeans and stays put for this procedure. If that’s not a reason to buy it I don’t know what is. It also doubles as a nail-picker-upper. Due to the super magnetic back where the Adventure Pack attaches, the Landrover explorer is also exceedingly useful for collecting small metal things. The outdoors life The Landorver Explorer comes with loads of funky apps and software that outdoorsy people will like (my current barometric altitude is 107m and today’s freezing height is 3712m) and they’re a lot of fun – probably life saving in the right hands Most importantly for skiers and snowboards, you don't have to take your gloves off to use it. In summary Two weeks ago I was adamant that it was ace for a weekend away but I could never swap to it full time. I have changed my mind. Yes, that camera isn’t as good as my Pixel and the screen resolution doesn’t seem as good as it’s behind bulletproof glass but I’m never going to have to look at it through that spider of cracks that you lot have to contend with when you lower your phone onto the kitchen surface too viscously. Where to buy If this is enough to get you to dig a bit deeper, you can check out more details at the Landrover explore UK website - simply click the link to take you to all the options and packages available. If you want 10% off, you can use the code LRE10OFF that's valid until 21st October 2018 when you click the link above. Technical Specification Left out all the stuff I don’t care about – you can see the full list here. [lists layout="half" style="style4" line="0"] Dimensions:152 x 75,3 x 14mm Weight: 232g Display cover / Screen Cover: Corning® Gorilla® Glass 5 Ingress Protection (IP68): Sand, dust and dirt resistant Drop Tested:Up to 1.8m (6 ft) with factory fitted screen protector Resistant to humidity and salt mist Handles low to high temperature differences between -30°C (-22°F) - 60°C (149°F) for multiple cycles Display / Screen: optimised for outdoor use with sunlight readability, wet finger and gloved finger tracking* Video Recording:1920x1080 at 30 fps Video Playback:1920x1080 at 60 fps Camera:Rear:16MP with PDAF, dual LED flash Selfie:8MP Audio Jack:3. 5mm Bluetooth®:4. 1 SIM Type:Dual SIM - 2 Nano SIM / 1 Nano SIM + 1 microSD™ card GPS:GPS, AGPS, Glonass, BeiDou (variant dependant) Memory: 64GB ROM (Expandable storage via microSD™) 25x25mm Ceramic Patch GPS antenna Ecompass, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Location, Barometer Battery Capacity:4,000mAh (Pump Express ready) Type:Non removable Lithium Ion Adventure Pack: 3,620mAh additional battery Apps:Explore Hub, Night (red-light filter), Dashboard, ViewRanger, AVG, Office Suite, File Commander [/lists] [ngg src="galleries" ids="2" display="basic_thumbnail"]