Land Rover claims toughest smartphone in the world

[HEXUS]

New Land Rover Explore can cope with extreme temperatures, thermal shock and vibration.

Read more.

[cheesemp]

Overpriced for the spec and a mediatek chip - no thanks. Stick a recent 800 series snapdragon in it and drop the price by £200 and i'd be interested if only for the big battery...

[EvilCycle]

When you look at the build quality of this compared to the likes of a £1000 iphone or Samsung, this price looks quite attractive. I no longer use my phone for anything other than calls, texts and a bit of facebook and music, but I like music festivals and have two young children who enjoy grabbing my phone whenever I look away for a split second, so this looks like a phone I might just be happy with, although I can't see any mention of whether it has aux or not which I still use quite a lot.

[Iota]

To be honest, if I wanted a rugged phone that could do all of that, I'd opt for a CAT Sxx phone.

[philehidiot]

There's a market for this. Nerds need not apply, really but those engineers who want access to the internet and to open huge PDFs on how to mend things will approve of this. Normally a case to fulfill this kind of market adds substantial extra size onto the phone.

[lumireleon]

When you look at the build quality of this compared to the likes of a £1000 iphone or Samsung, this price looks quite attractive. I no longer use my phone for anything other than calls, texts and a bit of facebook and music, but I like music festivals and have two young children who enjoy grabbing my phone whenever I look away for a split second, so this looks like a phone I might just be happy with, although I can't see any mention of whether it has aux or not which I still use quite a lot.

well said.

[Friesiansam]

Before considering buying this, if I was in the market for a rugged phone, I would want to know which manufacturer supplies the phone to go inside Land Rover's case?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Moto X Force and its descendents are still probably the toughest phones out there.



One survived a 1000 foot drop.

[Zak33]

There's a market for this. Nerds need not apply, really but those engineers who want access to the internet and to open huge PDFs on how to mend things will approve of this. Normally a case to fulfill this kind of market adds substantial extra size onto the phone.

this

with articualted bells and hydraulic rams to emphasise it.

and if it works with wet fingers / gloves all the better.

10 cores and good RAM and loads of internal storeage too.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

My main concern is the Mediatek chipset - these have very poor third party support,so will require Land Rover to support the phone properly.

[peterb]

My main concern is the Mediatek chipset - these have very poor third party support,so will require Land Rover to support the phone properly.

What sort of support are you looking for? It's a commodity.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

What sort of support are you looking for? It's a commodity.

Security patches. Mediatek are well known for poor documentation,etc so it means many devices don't actually get properly supported out of the box longterm and it also means there is less likelihood of third party ROM support.

This is an expensive device not a £100 phone where most Mediatek chipsets are usually found.

Also,since Land Rover does not make phones,but is probably rebadging another one,with a different cases,its why this question is being asked by another poster:

Before considering buying this, if I was in the market for a rugged phone, I would want to know which manufacturer supplies the phone to go inside Land Rover's case?

Land Rover are probably relying on some small OEM to handle software too,and I would be very dubious if this phone even is supported within the next two to three years.

IIRC,Caterpillar also makes ruggedised phones like this and from what I gather support is not great.

[peterb]

Security patches. Mediatek are well known for poor documentation,etc so it means many devices don't actually get properly supported out of the box longterm and it also means there is less likelihood of third party ROM support.

This is an expensive device not a £100 phone where most Mediatek chipsets are usually found.

I suspect Landrover will be relying on the OS for this.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I suspect Landrover will be relying on the OS for this.

Yeah,its why I would probably avoid this based on its use of the Mediatek chipset for this,as they are only used to cut costs:

https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/mediatek/helio/mt6797x

The fact that its on a 20NM process,also indicates its also behind similarly priced phones quite a bit who are on 16NM/14NM and are moving to 10NM this year.

If this had been even an older Qualcomm based one,it might have been OK.

If Land Rover can confirm it can support this for the next two years or so,which is not being unfair since this is a £600 phone,it might be OK,but I wouldn't really want to rely on the goodwill of the OEM to do so.

Plus I would love to see dropped 1000ft! The Moto X Force survived such a drop - the most important thing is the screen protection.

[Moonister]

their advert on tv is one of the most cringing things I've seen in a while...