Wales Proof
Gear
John Summerton takes a first look at the Land Rover Explore phone whilst hiking in the Brecon Beacons, Wales
I’ve been to the Brecon Beacons plenty of times, I’ve seen how grim conditions could be, I knew what to expect when Wales was under cloud… or at least I thought I had.
Wales has a unique ability to conjure up despicably testing weather out of nowhere. I knew that from beautiful blue skies, thunder, rain, and hail can appear quickly, hit hard and move, on leaving you a little shell-shocked, and somewhat bemused as you look up at the cloudless sky again. The Welsh wilderness is sublime, but the tumultuous weather that wrought these mountains is very much an ongoing process.
On the day I arrived in mid-June (June!), the weather gods seemed grumpier than usual. During the morning hike to up to the escarpments of the Carmarthen Fans on the Black Mountain, we were shrouded in mist with wind and horizontal rain increasing during our initial fast ascent. But, for the purpose of the team – a group of hikers, photographers and journalists – these were ideal conditions. An unforgiving playground in genuinely miserable weather was the perfect place for the first look at the new Land Rover Explore phone.
Guided by Brecon Beacons National Park Rangers, we climbed higher with visibility dropping to little more than 15 metres. Despite my waterproof clothing, I was soaked to the skin; my fingers were actually wrinkled. And with my wizened hands, I pulled out the phone and activated ViewRanger’s Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Brecon Beacons map. The first thing to note was the weatherproofing. I immediately had confidence in using the phone in these conditions. The touchscreen worked perfectly despite being soaked and operated by wet hands. The GPS was efficient and accurate, and we followed it safely along the ridge, a 200-metre near-vertical drop beside us somewhere in the fog.
It’s for conditions like this that the phone is for. It is built with adventures in mind. Not just care-free hikes on sunny days but for those dark, cold, windy and soaking wet adventures. The type two kind.
We made our way off the ridge and headed to a mountain shelter for lunch, a tasty treat of Vietnamese pho cooked by outdoor chef Dina Spencer and with Welsh lamb provided by Jake Townley. I took the time to learn more about the phone from endurance athlete Jamie Ramsay who had been testing the phone during his recent races, including the Cape Wrath Ultra.
‘This phone is incredible,’ he enthused. ‘During the Cape Wrath Ultra I dropped it numerous times, it was constantly covered in mud and dirt. Once it landed very hard on a rock and there’s still barely a scratch on it.’
The phone has a smart customisable dashboard that shows all manner of weather information along with sensor data from the device itself. There is everything from wind speed and direction, tides and even barometric altitude. You can customise a dashboard to suit your activity, whether that is biking, hiking or surfing.
The powerful 16MP camera is supported by 64gb internal memory which you can expand on using an SD card. The battery life of the phone is quite remarkable too, and for an even longer life, you can attach the ‘Adventure Pack’, a magnetic battery pack that also houses an enhanced GPS antenna. There is also a number of extra accessories available including a carabineer and bike mount that which attaches directly into the stem – something that I’m testing currently.
So, from our initial outing, the phone is looking extremely promising. With a host of survival-ready features and with its rugged durability, it seems to be the obvious choice when heading into the wilderness. We’ll be testing the phone further on future Sidetracked trips, but one thing we know for now: it’s Wales proof.