Adventures require expertise, however whereas there are a handful of rugged phones out there, most smartphones are slippery, horrible in freezing situations, and missing within the battery energy required to gas their feeble GPS abilities. 

Cue the Land Rover Discover, an Android handset that incorporates numerous distinctive out of doors tech for the £599 worth (round $800, AU$1,042).

It features a proximity sensor, compass, accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer, a GPS patch antenna and a four,000mAh battery that may be virtually doubled with a clip-on module that comes with the cellphone.

The Discover’s modified Android Nougat working system (with an replace to Oreo deliberate) additionally makes it simple to entry metrics that is perhaps helpful open air.

Coupled with the presence of OS maps, a strong GPS module, and the ViewRanger app – full with augmented actuality for figuring out mountain peaks and different landmarks – the Land Rover Discover is an undeniably useful instrument for the outside.

Or anyplace else. In spite of everything, in case you’re an city warrior who commutes in a 4×4 for completely no cause, why wouldn’t you need to clip a cellphone to your belt with a carabiner?

Design

• Immune to freezing temperatures, water, sand, mud, grime, vibration, humidity and salt mist
• Journey Pack has further battery and ceramic patch GPS antenna
• Land Rover design motifs shall be apparent solely to automobile geeks

Though the Discover is making an attempt to be one thing slightly greater than the typical Android handset, you wouldn’t comprehend it from first look. Certain, it’s a chunkier design than most, and the 5-inch display screen doesn’t go edge-to-edge, however it’s nonetheless a reasonably commonplace look.

We discovered solely from the press launch that the rear digicam’s lens is designed like a Land Rover headlight, and that the front-mounted audio system resemble the engine’s grille. Intelligent stuff, however until you’re a Land Rover fan, you received’t discover any of that. We didn’t.

On the highest there’s a three.5mm headphone port, on the underside a USB-C slot for recharging, whereas the perimeters sport rubberized quantity buttons and a slot for a microSD card and two SIM playing cards. That may very well be useful for long-haul journey, in addition to for roaming across the EU post-Brexit.

The Discover additionally comes with an Journey Pack, a equipment containing a properly designed three,620mAh further battery that attaches to the again of the cellphone utilizing magnets, together with a 25 x 25mm ceramic patch GPS antenna.

There’s additionally a plastic case that encloses the battery when hooked up to the Discover, and has a stainless-steel carabiner hooked up. Rock climbers take observe.

Nevertheless, it’s what’s contained in the Discover that makes it stand out. That it’s fitted with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 is not any shock, however its 1080 x 1920 (Full HD) display screen is smarter than that. 

It claims to be readable in vibrant daylight, and it may be used with moist fingers, and likewise by gloved fingers, which is all important for utilizing the Land Rover Discover open air as a navigation assist.

Actually, it’s IP68-rated, so immune to water (to a depth of 1.5 meters for as much as 30 minutes), but additionally to sand, mud, grime, vibration, humidity and salt mist.

Our private favourite characteristic is that it may nonetheless work okay in freezing temperatures, from -30°C to 65°C/-22°F to 149°F. Common smartphones cease working at about zero°C/32°F. For anybody who regularly skis or hikes in winter, that’s a probably very important characteristic.

The Discover can survive a drop from 1.eight meters/6 ft, which we all know to be true as a result of it fell onerous on to rock throughout our take a look at hike by means of Kazakhstan’s distant Charyn Canyon. It left not a scratch on the Discover.

Nevertheless, the accident occurred as a result of the Discover was hooked to a belt utilizing the carabiner on the again of its non-obligatory Journey Pack case. Though the carabiner’s fixings appeared to clip onerous into place on the again of the case, it by some means got here free whereas it was hanging off the belt.

One thing comparable occurred once more later that day, so we misplaced all confidence within the carabiner case, and as an alternative put the Land Rover Discover within the high pocket of a mountain climbing shirt. Because the Discover is drop-tested, you may argue that none of that issues (rock climbers will disagree), however a secondary clip is perhaps smart for model 2.zero.

In use

• Latitude, longitude, altitude and compass all work off-grid
• OS maps will be pre-downloaded for going off-grid
• Extremely correct GPS route recording by way of spectacular ViewRanger app
• Journey Pack provides battery cost, however it drains rapidly

With its out of doors credentials principally dependable, there’s room for the Land Rover Discover’s true out of doors usefulness to shine, and which means its outdoorsy dashboard.

Accessed by way of a devoted app icon that may ‘float’ across the display screen for simple one-touch entry, no matter different app is open, this modified Android interface incorporates the whole lot you may want when open air.

The entrance web page has a panel for climate predictions, plus six panels that may be personalized. 

There’s a compass, your actual latitude and longitude, altitude, the native time, sundown and dawn instances, tide instances, a stopwatch, humidity, UV index, wind pace, visibility, sea temperature, swell top, SOS torch (which flashes)… the record is infinite.

Though stuff like latitude, longitude, altitude and the compass work with none entry to knowledge, climate predictions, and even dawn and sundown instances, do require a continuing knowledge connection.

We notice the Discover is all about being location-specific, however it might be extra helpful if knowledge like climate and sundown/dawn instances have been retained from the final recognized location (most definitely your own home, or a Wi-Fi-equipped lodge foyer from the place you left for the wilderness the day before today).

One other spotlight of the Land Rover Discover is its ViewRanger app, which permits hikers and cyclists to navigate utilizing off-road topographical mapping along with that ceramic patch GPS antenna.

It’s potential to pre-load maps, and even load up tracks to comply with, and though the latter wasn’t potential in Kazakhstan, we recorded the route with extraordinary precision, and obtained loads of knowledge. 

It’s an amazing app, however notably one that may be downloaded to different telephones from Google Play (although most telephones will not offer you as a lot GPS precision).

After a three-hour hike, the Journey Pack battery had just about run-down; these GPS goodies come at a value. So the additional battery life is finest seen as important slightly than as a pleasant choice.

One other spotlight of the ViewRanger app is Skyline, an augmented actuality characteristic that permits you to establish the names of mountain peaks simply by pointing the cellphone’s digicam on the panorama earlier than you.

Nevertheless, although it appropriately recognized varied peaks whereas being utilized in a automobile close to to a latest Wi-Fi connection, by the point we obtained to Charyn Canyon, Skyline was not working with no knowledge connection.

Benchmarks and battery life

• Common life from built-in battery
• Low to middling benchmark efficiency

Utilizing the Geekbench four app’s CPU take a look at, the Discover achieved a single-core rating of 809 (which places it on a par with the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the Nexus 5) and a multi-core rating of four,937 (just under the Samsung Galaxy Note 7). So this isn’t a power-packed cellphone.

On the compute take a look at, it scored three,703 (akin to the Nexus 9 and Nexus 6), and for the battery take a look at, 2,455 (greater than the iPhone 8 and the Google Pixel, however considerably lower than the Samsung Galaxy S8).

Working our commonplace 90-minute battery take a look at with a full HD video, display screen brightness cranked as much as full, and Wi-Fi linked, the Discover had 80% of its cost left, which is a really common end result.

Display and digicam

• Not nice in vibrant daylight
• Purple mild filter is beneficial
• 16MP rear digicam and 8MP front-facing one

Subsequent, let’s take a look at that 5-inch 1080p display screen. In vibrant direct daylight the show shouldn’t be considerably simpler to make use of than a daily cellphone.

Nevertheless, we liked its ambient mild sensor, and significantly the purple mild filter, which stops the person from being blinded at evening by the display screen’s white mild, preserving evening imaginative and prescient. That’s a characteristic that every one smartphones ought to at all times have.

It’s not excellent, however that form of consideration to element makes the Discover the perfect thought-out out of doors cellphone round.

The Land Rover Discover additionally offers you a 16MP rear digicam and 8MP front-facing one to seize your adventures. You’ll be able to see some examples of how the primary snapper carried out under – pictures have been usually acceptable, if typically a little bit drab.

Digicam samples

Verdict

The Land Rover Discover is a cellphone designed for these going off-grid. Or is it? There’s no query that this is likely one of the finest telephones round for true out of doors varieties. 

Nevertheless, we’re satisfied that it’s styled to attraction as a lot to the faux-outdoor way of life of the typical 4×4 proprietor as it’s to hikers, climbers, cyclists and kayakers.

Though the modified Android OS is outdoorsy to the core, too most of the key knowledge metrics gathered develop into unavailable when the cellphone goes actually off-grid. Vital info like dawn and sundown instances solely stay when the cellphone is refreshing on an information connection; go off grid – which is definitely what this cellphone is for – and key knowledge disappears.

That’s to not say the Discover shouldn’t be match to be used by adventurers; it undoubtedly is, and apart from, there’s little competitors in its area of interest.

With a water-proof, drop-proof design and a transportable battery module, we will see the attraction of the Discover as merely a well-designed cellphone for individuals who need a handset that may work in all types of climate, together with freezing situations.

Nevertheless, regardless of the Discover’s ‘Land Rover DNA’ being of little curiosity to true out of doors varieties, this cellphone – with its cute car-inspired design motifs – has followers of the posh automobile model firmly in its sights. So the Discover will possible be welcomed simply as a lot by posers as by pioneers.

First reviewed: June 2018