The Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2 is the latest smartphone to hit the market that is tailored to users who enjoy the outdoors, extreme sports and professionals such as builders where the mobile phone will be subjected to a hard life.

As the functionality of smartphones speeds on the question today is ‘Is the Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2 able to match up to its smartphone title whilst taking on a robust shell?’

Quick Highlights

• IP67 Certified for 100% dust protection and waterproof to depths of 1 metre for 30 minutes.
• Android v4.1 Jelly Bean operating system
• Superior GPS with Google Maps
• 4 inch touchscreen display

Features

‘Strong enough for the outdoors’, the Samsung Xcpver 2 combines a special battery cover lock for protection against impacts, a tight-fit strap holder and underwater camera key for taking pictures with its IP67 Certification.

There is a large 4-inch TFT LCD display for viewing images taken on the 5 megapixels camera and a forward facing camera may be used for instigating video calls with services such as Skype.

Sharing files or connecting to wireless devices such as Bluetooth headsets or Bluetooth speakers is easier than before with this mobile phone using Bluetooth 4.0 technology that can now connect to devices that are up to 50 metres away.

When we compare phones the Samsung Galaxy Xcover holds up well and includes a range of Samsung’s favourite features such as S Cloud for backing up files and data synchronisation. S Voice speech recognition is also on board for hands-free operation.

Further to its credit this mobile phone uses Motion UI for performing tasks simply by making a gesture with the phone in hand. Smart Stay cleverly monitors your gaze and this useful feature ensures the phone doesn’t go into idle mode whilst you are looking at it.

Samsung’s Hub Services are also on board with this smartphone giving the user access to services such as videos with 720p playback, music, books, games and direct downloads.

Conclusion

As far as mobile phones reviews go you get a decent spec with the Xcover 2 that whilst it is not a top of the range model it does has everything the normal user would want. Okay so the eye-tracking Smart Scroll innovation seen on the Samsung Galaxy S4 isn’t on board but this is a small price to pay for a durable Samsung phone tailored to builders and outdoor enthusiasts.

In the UK market this handset can be picked up with a contract tariff with a line rental as low as £21 per month so this should tailor itself well to anyone’s budget.

Specification

Connectivity

• Quadband
• 3.5G
• Wi-Fi
• GPS
• Micro USB

Display

• TFT
• 16 million colours
• 480x800 resolution

Hardware

• 1GHz dual core processor
• 5 megapixels camera
• 4GB memory
• Accelerometer
• Proximity sensor