Outdoor cell phone Crosscall Stellar-X5 in test

Thin, Strong, Stylish: The Crosscall Stellar-X5 combines outdoor suitability and business looks. But does it justify the high price? This is what our testing shows.

Outdoor smartphones are often bulky, heavy and technically unimpressive – the Crosscall Stellar-X5 aims to break this prejudice. The company develops its products in France and assembles them in China. This rugged mobile device combines robust design with elegance making it attractive for everyday office life or business use. With its slim case, modern features and five-year warranty, the Stellar-X5 stands out from the Chinese competition. But is it a high price 800 euros Our testing shows that this may be justified.

The French understand design. This becomes clear from the Stellar-X5. Compared to bulky and martial outdoor cell phones from other manufacturers, the X5 appears almost elegant and discreet, it could even pass as a business smartphone; The camera is integrated at the back. The front camera is located in a punch-hole notch on the screen.

The housing is made of very strong plastic, which is 25 percent recycled. With a thickness of 11.9mm, it’s extremely thin for a rugged phone. Overall, it’s still quite huge at 172.4×80mm compared to the 6.5-inch display diagonal. The weight of 250 grams is low for a robust smartphone.

Crosscall does not claim military certification, but the smartphone can withstand a fall from a height of 1.5 meters onto concrete. We threw it from waist height to the ground in a parking lot and it survived this treatment without any problems. The display is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus 2. The X5 is dustproof and waterproof as per IP68 (up to a depth of 1.5 meters for 30 minutes). For this purpose, the USB-C port is additionally protected with a rubber cover. According to the manufacturer, it can even withstand exposure to salt water. The biggest special thing: The manufacturer gives a guarantee of 5 years.

The screen with an IPS panel has a diagonal of 6.5 inches and a Full HD+ resolution of 2400 × 1080 pixels. This results in a very sharp image on the display. It also offers a refresh rate of 60 to 120 Hz, which ensures a smooth image when scrolling or doing animations. The touchscreen can be used even with thin gloves or wet fingers.

Image quality is extremely good. However, with a maximum brightness of 450 cd/m², it’s not particularly bright. In normal weather you can still read it outside, but in bright sunlight you will have to find a shady spot to be able to see the display clearly.

The dual camera offers a 50-megapixel lens (Sony IMX766) and a 13-megapixel lens for wide-angle shots at 120 degrees. The resolution of the front camera is 16 megapixels. Image stabilization is completely electronic.

For an outdoor phone, the X5 takes pretty good photos during the day. This level is equivalent to lower mid-range smartphones priced below 300 euros (best list). Images are clear and offer a consistent dynamic range and decent image detail, and colors are reproduced true to life. Even with 2x zoom, images don’t look too grainy. However, in darkness, the quality drops rapidly and results in blurry images with a lot of noise.

The color of the wide-angle lens is slightly different from that of the main camera. Also, the dynamic range here is weak. The front camera takes good, sharp selfies during the day, but this lens is of little use in the dark. Videos from the main camera are possible in 4K at 30 fps or Full HD at 60 fps and deliver good image quality. There are also nice tricks like time-lapse or slow motion. The X-Story app, which is linked to the camera app, is available for editing clips.

One special feature is underwater mode. If it’s active, the touchscreen locks so you can take photos underwater. The trigger is then activated using one of the programmable buttons, the default being the button on the bottom right. The photo app called X-Cam looks very stylish and stands out from the standard Android apps. For example, you can choose the main, wide-angle or selfie lens using the three aiming icons at the bottom right.

Qualcomm QCM5430 is used as the processor. It offers good performance at a solid mid-range level. This makes the Crosscall Stellar-X5 one of the most powerful smartphones we’ve tested so far, as PCMark’s 13,000 score shows. This is evident even in everyday life, where the smartphone works smoothly and without lag. However, the chip is less targeted towards games, so graphics performance is lower at 1100 points according to 3D Mark’s Wild Life.

Available memory is 128 GB (UFS 3.1) and 8 GB RAM (DDR5). Storage capacity in particular may be larger for the price than the Chinese competition, where 256GB is standard. However, expansion is possible via microSD card.

Things look really good when it comes to interfaces: the device offers the latest standards with USB-C 3.2, Wi-Fi 6E, 5G, Bluetooth 5.2, and NFC. Using the X-Space service, a cell phone can also be connected to a screen to turn it into a mobile desktop. Dual SIM operation is possible, but at the expense of a slot for memory expansion. Location is determined using GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou and Galileo with a typical 3 meter accuracy according to GPS testing.

There are not one, but two programmable buttons on Crosscall cell phones. Each of these can be assigned two functions in the settings (for triple or long press).

Unfortunately, the Crosscall Stellar-X5 still runs Android 13. The security patch is also from August and out of date, even though the manufacturer promises software support for 5 years and updates to Android 16.

The user interface is based on standard Android and provides icons for navigation as standard. The manufacturer is cracking down on bloatware. In addition to the specialized photo app, Crosscall has some services, such as an app for calibrating sensors (X-Sensor), a video editing tool, and X-Talk for push-to-talk – although the service was discontinued. At the end of last year.

The relatively slim housing and low weight lead to only one conclusion: the battery capacity is not as large as that of Chinese outdoor cell phones. At 4500 mAh, it exceeds the standard capacity. This means that the Crosscall Stellar-X5 is not the king of endurance. During simulated operation in PCMark’s battery test, we got just under 9.5 hours, which is a fairly average value for a smartphone.

If you’re going to be outside for long periods of time, you should think about a power bank. Wired charging up to 18 watts is possible; Power adapter is not included.

The Crosscall Stellar-X5 seems to be designed primarily for the commercial sector, as evidenced by the high price with an RRP of 900 euros. Road prices are currently low less than 800 eurosThat’s expensive for equipment – ​​even for an outdoor smartphone.

The Crosscall Stellar-X5 is a particularly thin and light outdoor smartphone, making it ideal for everyday use or business use. It scores with good performance and good features, including a good camera. However, it is less suitable for long outdoor adventures as the battery life is comparatively short. Another positive feature is the five-year guarantee, which makes a strong argument for longevity and reliability. However, a weak point is the outdated software and high price.

Looks like it’s printed: E-ink picture frame from PocketBook