Coleman Phact X2

This is a great tent but I agree with the previous reviewer regarding the tub base of the tent. The very tight structure stretches the inner liner and the floor does not sit flat on the ground. We slept 2 and had to sleep in the centre with clothes and bags at the side. We were always worried about over stretching the seams. It is almost like the poles are too long!

Easy to erect, superb weather protection and very stable in windy conditions. Great tent great price great quality what more can I say. Bad points, none does exactly what its meant to.

I picked a Coleman Phact X2 for £49 as it had been a display model. I was sceptical but saving myself around £60 was too much to turn away!

I'd spotted this at the start of the season but wasn't too sure I liked the colour or the way the sewn-in groundsheet seemed to be suspended a little high off the ground - making it tight at the edges as soon as you climb in it. Once the price had dropped though these issues became peripheral!

Description

The Phact tent is sold as a 2/3 season mountain tent and is semi-geodesic with a front and rear porch - albeit quite small. It comes in an interesting black and green colour, but I've grown to like it now I've used the tent.

Setup

Setting the tent up is simple and fast with four aluminium poles which provide for the "inner-first" setup arrangement. The first thing I noticed about setting this up was how easily and quickly the poles thread through the sleeves. No catching or pinching as is the case with my Wynnster and Vango tents.

The inner goes up quickly and it is at this point that you can see how well Coleman have used the available space through the semi-geodesic design. It is a pretty solid structure even without pegs and guy lines and this makes for a positive start.

The fly sheet is tough ripstop material and is surprisingly thick. Once draped over the structure it clips to the inner structure by way of 8 (I think) tough, plastic adjustable clip fasteners. This is a great design feature as it ensures that the flysheet is correctly aligned along the poles on the inner structure so you can't put it on off centre.

Once the clips are on and the guy lines pegged in, this little tent isn't going anywhere. It is like a little rock!

Size and Space

I bought this tent to replace my Vango delta 200 - which was way too small for two people. The Phact x2 (the two man version) has ample space for two with plenty of room to stretch out. The best part of this tent is the space for the footprint. I was genuinely impressed at how wide the designers have made this, allowing plenty of room for getting dressed and generally moving around - which is often difficult in tent of this size and height.

I was able to store my 65litre pack inside the tent purely as there was so much room! There are lots of well placed elasticated pockets inside to store things like mini torches, phones, money etc...

Features

Ventilation was excellent for such a thick flysheet. There are two ventilation hatches on the outer allowing airflow in and out of the top but there are also two adjustable vents just above the top of the bathtub groundsheet which allow additional circulation. If that's not enough there are then two zipped mesh patches on the front and rear door and I would imagine that condensation would be kept to a minimum in even the worst conditions.

The two porches come equipped with groundsheets so you can store your pack/food etc off the ground. These porches are quite small and I think if it were raining or snowing heavily you would struggle to cook within it. That said, I tried my 65 litre pack inside the front porch and it was fine and didn't even touch the fly.

I was a bit sceptical about the groundsheet, which is a bathtub type. The problem, in my opinion, is that if there were two people sleeping in it, the seams might be overstressed due to the elevation of the groundsheet - as part of the super tight inner structure. I'm not really sure why it has been designed this way - unless of course the seam stitching is far stronger than I imagine it to be. But this is just my observation. Nevertheless it remained watertight throughout and the same can be said for the flysheet - although it did only take a short shower on day two.

Conclusion

There is an important issue to note here and that is the fact that I got this tent at less than half of the best web-price I could find - so I may be slightly biased as to how much I deem this tent to value for money. The important point though is that had I paid the £110 for it I would still have been very impressed by the quality and features of this tent.

The tent is prob better suited to the weekend camper who perhaps might use it in areas like the Lake District, cairngorms and other mountainous regions in the UK and Europe. I doubt this is a light enough tent to carry any long distances at 4.1kg.

Overall, a good quality performer, easy to set-up and live with - would recommend to a friend.