Does the name Land Rover ring any bell? definitely not in the smartphone arena, but well known for its rugged terrain and off-roading adventure. The company today at the ISPO Munich has ventured into the smartphone arena with the launch of the Land Rover Explore Outdoor phone, an Android smartphone made in alliance with Bullit Group, the same company responsible for rugged devices from Caterpillar. The Land Rover explore as its name suggests is built to withstand the toughest conditions during outdoor activities, and for the specs it possesses, the device has been crowned with the Winner of the 2018 ISPO Award in the Outdoor Tools & Equipment category.
The Land Rover Explore is made by Bullitt Group, but with a few “design cues” from Land Rover Discovery vehicle especially evident in its front grill design, the styling of the case back, and edges.
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Land Rover’s approach to the rugged design is quite different, it says the Land Rover Explore has been made to go everywhere a Land Rover Discovery can go too, so we are talking of a phone that can survive in extreme conditions far beyond what IP68 dust and waterproofing certified devices can take. It can come out unscratched from saltwater submersion, violent drops, extreme temperatures and rapid temperature changes.
Away from its design, the Land Rover explore comes with some modular capabilities that can enhance the functionality of the device but can only take a single addon (the adventure pack), for now, just maybe more will be added later. The Adventure Pack seen below when clipped to the phone provides it a powerful GPS antenna, more battery power, and augmented reality navigation via the inbuilt ViewRanger Skyline technology.
Land Rover hasn’t revealed the internal makeup of the device, such details would probably be made available at the MWC later in Barcelona where the phone will be fully showcased. Interested buyers should be able to order the device later in April 2018 via Land Rover Explore and selected retailers at a recommended retail price of €649 or £599.
