Last winter I did a number of hikes in Snowdonia National Park in North Wales. The conditions were somewhat wintery, as they often are at any time of the year there! Sideways rain turning to sleet and gale force winds meant that we had to abort one of our hikes along an exposed ridge line. The lack of ability to take more than a couple of steps without having to crouch down before being blown down made our decision easy. It was so windy that even the waterfalls were being blown against the force of gravity towards the sky! With our group of 6 getting easily split up from the lack of visibility, it would have been a smart time to have my phone on me, and the photos of upside down waterfalls would have been pretty good too. But there was no way I was risking my having my Iphone get as saturated as everything else in my bag, let alone getting it out to actually use. So after a regretful few hikes of not taking photos due to the weather, I decided to get myself a waterproof Aquapac phone case.
Testing the Aquapac phone case
As it turns out, I’ve yet to use it on any hiking trips as the summer weather has been rather good this year. However I have used it on two canoeing trips and a paddle boarding adventure and it has been invaluable for snapping away without the worry of getting it wet.
Before I took it out on the water I decided to test it with something a little less valuable than my phone, and submerged it in water with some dry tissue inside it. I held it under the water for a minute or two whilst jostling, squeezing and squishing it – I wanted to really test that bad boy!
Waterproof gear is what Aquapac do! So to see the tissue paper come out totally dry was unsurprising but reassuring all the same.
The specs of the Aquapac phone case
The case is designed for the Iphone 6. However my smaller 5c model works just fine in it, and there is also room for an Iphone 7 if you’ve made that upgrade.
There are some fabulously simple features of this phone case that make it an excellent choice for any outdoor adventures, not just ones in bad weather or on the water:
- The attached string is long enough to go around your neck and then tuck into an internal jacket pocket when not in use.
- The toggle on the string gives you the option to shorten or tighten the string to whatever it is attached to.
- The window on the front of the case enables you to use the touch screen completely normally, even when it is wet.
- There is a window on the back of the case that allows you to take photos and videos as normal.
- You can hear and be heard perfectly well when making a call when your phone is in the case.
- The inside of the case is rubbery making your phone stick in place well. This means you can use different sized phones in it without a problem.
- The case doesn’t just protect your phone from water, but also from dust and dirt that us adventurers find ourselves accumulating.
The verdict
I was a little sceptical about the quality of photos taken through the Aqaupac phone case, but so long as the case is clean and the camera lens is sitting flush with the case, the photos actually come out pretty well. They’ll never be quite as good as ones taken out of the case, but if the alternative is missing out on recording those cherished memories, then it’s a small sacrifice. Here’s a photo taken with my phone inside the case:
I’m looking forward to wet and windy hikes this coming winter. I’ll get to not only record just how wet and windy of an endurance test my ‘leisure’ time can be, but also have the reassurance that if I need to, I can make emergency calls with a fully functioning and waterproof phone.
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Disclaimer: Cool of the Wild received this product free in return for an honest review. We only recommend gear that we love from companies we trust and we are under no obligation to give a positive review. All thoughts and opinions are that of the reviewer and we are in no way influenced by the brand or company.
