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gear of the week

Gear of the week | Crosscall Trekker-X3

Robust smartphone including weather station

by Marc Stal 04/22/2017
A hackysack-capable outdoor smartphone with good battery performance and sensors that will awaken the hobby meteorologist in you!

The Crosscall Trekker-X3 is an outdoor-capable smartphone that is not only suitable for athletes. Craftsmen, scientists and parents of small children can also benefit from the advantages of a robust, waterproof smartphone with a long battery life and a wide range of sensors. As a partner of the Swatch Freeride World Tour, however, the French company Crosscall is primarily targeting the outdoor community.

First impression

The Crosscall Trekker-X3 is not a classic outdoor cell phone with a design that is strongly inspired by boxing cars. The Trekker-X3 has a rather simple design and looks urban and appealing. It is equipped with Android 6.0.1; 3GB RAM, a 1.5 GHz octocore processor and 32gb internal memory. It consists primarily of the 5" Gorilla Glass display with wet touch function and a 3500mAh battery. A 16 megapixel Action Sport autofocus (f/2.0 - 28mm) camera is designed to freeze moving images as well as possible. An integrated thermometer, hygrometer, barometer and altimeter turn the Trekker-X3 into a mini weather station. The accelerometer, magnetometer, GPS and gyroscope can be used to record all accelerations, speeds, gravitational forces, altitude meters and routes. The smartphone comes with waterproof headphones, a quick charger that charges 75% of the battery in 20 minutes and a secure link.

Test

With its 5-inch display, the smartphone is more of a large smartphone and weighs as much as two and a half bars of chocolate thanks to its powerful battery. Unlike the Iphone 6, however, the Trekker X-3 with its ribbed hard rubber surface feels good in the hand and does not feel as if it is about to slip out of the hand. The high weight is mainly due to the powerful battery (3500mAh). However, the battery is also one of the most important factors for an outdoor cell phone. According to the manufacturer, the battery life is 31 hours in talk mode and 20 days in standby mode. I left the phone in standby mode for one night from 22:00-08:00 at minus 15 degrees Celsius and the battery only lost 3% power during these 10 hours. During the entire test period (approx. 2 months), the Trekker-X3 worked perfectly in very cold temperatures and did not spontaneously shut down. This has already happened to me several times with my Iphone 6 when snowboarding and touring. The good battery life even at low temperatures is one of the Trekker-X3's great strengths. The robustness of the Trekker-X3 is also outstanding. Not only has it withstood falls from a height of 5 meters onto gravel, the smartphone has also survived a longer hackysack session with a few scratches on the side metal panels.

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The processor performance is not as good. In comparison with an Iphone 6, YouTube videos in HD streaming, for example, tended to stutter and were not displayed smoothly. Furthermore, the integrated 16 mp camera with Action Sport autofocus delivers images of a rather inferior quality, which cannot keep up with images from the Iphone 6. However, the robustness and long battery life of the smartphone is certainly an advantage for ambitious hobby timelapse photographers. Starry skies, sunsets or auroras can be captured with the multiple apps available and without additional equipment. The large, robust display enables good tour planning, as digital maps and various apps are displayed well and in HD quality. In the shade and with little sunshine, the display is still easy to see; however, as soon as the sun shines on the display and especially in the snow, it is very reflective and details are very difficult to make out. An Iphone 6 performed better here in comparison.

The sensors built into the Trekker-X3 are sure to make the hearts of amateur meteorologists beat faster, as a temperature sensor and hygrometer are, as far as I know, built into very few smartphones. However, after my initial enthusiasm, the question quickly arose as to why I need a thermometer on my smartphone. When I'm preparing for a tour, I check the weather in advance and use this information to plan. If I'm freezing on the mountain, I don't necessarily need to know how cold it is. Might it be an advantage for tours lasting several days away from the wifi networks? Apart from the fact that it is interesting to know how warm/cold it is, I don't see any advantage. If anyone has any good ideas on how these sensors can be put to good use in the snow, I'd be delighted to hear any comments!

Conclusion

The Crosscall Trekker-X3 is an attractively designed outdoor smartphone that is very robust and has a very good battery life even at low temperatures. The heavy weight is certainly negligible when skiing and snowboarding, touring, mountain biking and hiking. For trail runners and racing cyclists, however, this could be more important and therefore these target groups may prefer smaller and lighter models. Parents with small children will certainly be pleased that the phone does not give up the ghost at the slightest contact with water and the geeks among us can look forward to a wide range of data provided by the sensors. With a retail price of €549, the Crosscall Trekker-X3 is sure to be on the short list of many outdoor enthusiasts looking for a robust smartphone with a long battery life.

Details

Crosscall website

RRP: €549.- Euro

IP protection class : IP67

Water resistance : 1 meter/30 minutes

Dust resistance : Total

Multi-SIM Single-SIM

SIM card size Nano-SIM

2G (GPRS/EDGE): 850/900/1800/1900 MHz

3G (HSPA+) : 900/2100MHz

4G (LTE): 800/900/1800/1900/2100/2600 MHz

Messaging : SMS/MMS/E-Mail

Geolocation : GPS (A-GPS) + GLONASS/Beidou

Display : 5-inch, Gorilla Glass 4, Wet-Touch

Display resolution : Full HD, 1920 x 1080 pixels, 16 million colors

Operating system : Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow

Processor type : Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Octa-Core

Processor speed : 1.5 Ghz

RAM size : 3 GB

ROM size 32 GB

MicroSD card reader : Yes - Up to 128 GB

Dimensions : 155.7 x 81.8 x 14.3 mm

Weight : 230 g

Color : Black and red

Languages : FR, EN, ES, DE, IT, PT, NL, HR, DK, FI, NO, SL, SV, ZH

SAR: 0.510 W/Kg

Usage temperatures : -10°C/+50°C

Flashlight : Yes, Flash LED

Ringtones : Stereo, MP3, Vibrate

Hands-free function : Yes

Format : AMR, MIDI, MP3, AAC, MPEG4 H.263, H.264, 3GP

FM radio : Yes

Functions : Play Store, Google service, hands-free function, alarm clock, tape recorder function, customizable multifunction switch, SOS function

Sensors : Accelerometer, magnetic sensor, proximity sensor, light sensor, barometer, thermometer, hygrometer, altimeter

Camera : 16 MP + 8 MP

Video resolution : Full HD display 1080 P.@30 FPS

Autofocus zoom : 8x digital zoom with autofocus

Flash : Yes, LED

Battery type : 3500 mAh lithium polymer

Battery life in standby mode : 20 days recorded

Battery life in talk mode : 31 hours

Battery life with real GPS signal* : 9 hours

USB : 2.0, OTG

Earphone - jack plug : 3.5 mm

WLAN : 802.11 b/g/n/ac

Bluetooth : 4.1 LE

NFC : Yes

PC connection : Yes

Accessories : USK cable/Fast charger POWERFLOW 24W/Waterproof earphones protection class IPx6/Security Link

Other compatible accessories : Protective case/hard glass/cigarette lighter: 2.1 A

* activated GPS, display switched on (brightness 100%), data and cartography activated, Google Maps activated

Advantages and disadvantages

+ Robust

+ Battery life

+ Thermometer and hygrometer

- Display reflects strongly in sunshine

- Processor performance

- Camera

Photo gallery

This article has been automatically translated by DeepL with subsequent editing. If you notice any spelling or grammatical errors or if the translation has lost its meaning, please write an e-mail to the editors.

Show original (German)

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