The Vernee Active: rugged, good-looking, affordable, and it's available for pre-order

This story is sponsored by Vernee. PhoneArena's opinions in this article have not been affected in any way!The world of rugged smartphones is a sparsely populated one. Usually, the phones that are meant for active folk are kind of underpowered, kind of ugly, yet weirdly costly. In other words, they have a tough time drawing buyers considering that one can achieve the same effect with a "normal" phone and a rugged case.

This is how the Vernee Active differentiates itself — it strives to be an attractive handset, despite having a rugged, shock-proof build, upper-midrange hardware, and an alluring price tag.

The phone packs a 5.5-inch 1080 x 1920 display, with a glass panel that arches at its sides. The handset has rubber bumpers to protect it from the harsh pavement and a carbon fiber pattern back that can take more than a couple of dings. To top it off, the handset is rated IP 68 for water- and dust-proofing.

On the inside, the phone hums with an octa-core MediaTek Helio P25 capable of reaching a max clock speed of 2.6 GHz. We've got plenty of memory, with 6 GB of RAM and a generous 128 GB storage chip. As for software, the phone runs on Android 7.0 Nougat with Vernee's VOS user interface on top — it's mostly vanilla Android, though. The camera is nothing to snark at, either — the main snapper sports a 13 MP Sony IMX258 sensor, while the selfie cam rocks an 8 MP sensor.

All of this is powered by quite a generous battery — a 4,200 mAh cell ensures that the lights will be on for a long time. Despite this, the phone is not too chunky, weighing in at 6.7 oz (189 g).

The Vernee Active is available for pre-order at a special price of $279.99 until the 18th of December. The retail price will jump to $319.99 after that.

But there's more. If you subscribe to Vernee's newsletter, you'll get the chance to buy the Vernee Active for just $99. Either that or get the grand prize of a free Active and a $1,000 travel voucher. Links to both the store page and giveaway can be found below.