With the Mobile World Congress fast approaching (the biggest phone show of the year), you can expect quite a few phone previews and teasers in the coming weeks. First out of the gate is the heavy-duty Land Rover Explore Outdoor Phone, complete with modular blocks covering GPS and battery boosts.
Phones designed to survive the great outdoors are nothing new, but the Land Rover Explore really looks built to last – apparently it can survive drops, salt water submersion, extreme temperature, and rapid temperature changes. Just an average family holiday down by the beach, then.
Land Rover is handing over the manufacturing expertise to Bullitt Group, the same firm that makes outdoor phones for Caterpillar, but the Land Rover influence is felt with "design cues" from its Discovery vehicle: Primarily the front grill design and the stylings of the case back and edges.
And this is a phone designed to go everywhere a Land Rover Discovery can go too, so think muddy trails and off-roading adventures.
Bullitt CEO Peter Stephens pointed to "growing customer dissatisfaction with the fragility of their mobile phone and poor battery life in particular" as part of the inspiration behind the Land Rover Explore. This certainly looks more durable than the iPhone X.
As for those modular add-ons, there's just one we know about so far, which is called the Adventure Pack (pictured above). Fasten it on the phone and you get a powerful GPS antenna, more battery power, and augmented reality navigation through the wilderness courtesy of the embedded ViewRanger Skyline technology.
As we've noted above, this is a preview of the phone, which is being shown off at the ISPO outdoor and sports trade show in Munich. We should get more in the way of specs and other details when MWC gets underway at the end of February.
The Land Rover Explore will be available to order from April, with a recommended retail price of €649 or £599, which works out at around $800 if the phone eventually makes its way over to the US.
Source: Land Rover Explore