Outwell Contour Sleeping Bag

Review Score

Our Score: 8.2/10

We've given the Outwell Contour Sleeping Bag the Thumbs Up award.

Value for MoneyQualityComfort

The good

• A comfortable sleeping bag, ideal for fair-weather camping and cooler nights.
• Rectangular with built-in head support.
• A good zipping mechanism that doesn't snag.
• Packs down to a reasonable size and comes with a good bag.

The not so good

• Headrest only offers limited support.
• If you need to swap temperature rating in the middle of the night, you probably won't bother re-attaching the pillow in the dark.
• RRP is a little higher than some other 2-3 season bags, but not if you shop around.

This was a hands-on product review. The product was supplied to us to test and conduct the review.

Price Guide

Outwell Contour Sleeping Bag Videos

Outwell Contour Sleeping Bag Photos

Our Review

Sleeping bags are designed to work within a temperature range. You can unzip the sleeping bag a little if you get too hot. Too cold, and you fasten it up tighter. And that's about as much as you can adjust it, leaving your sleeping ideal for a specific season where the sleeping bag's temperature range fits.

However, the new 2020 Outwell Contour Sleeping bag has a neat trick: it is designed for different temperature ranges.

Fortunately, Outwell sent us one to try out, so let's dive in and see what it's like.

Warmer and Cooler Nights

Just like the new Outwell Dreamboat sleeping mat, the Outwell Contour has a temperature indicator printed on it, with a warm-side-up and a cold-side-up providing different insulation so that you can use it in summer and late spring/early autumn if the weather is good.

Outwell had this sleeping bag tested, and so here's how it compares between warm-side-up and cold-side-up.

• Warm-side-up: Should keep a woman comfortable when the night is 16C, with a lower limit of 12C for a man.
• Cold-side-up: Should keep a woman comfortable when the night is 7C, with a lower limit of 2C for a man.

Why is it different for women and men? For the answer, see our guide to sleeping bag temperature ratings.

Outwell Contour Review - How well does it work?

I've slept in the bag for a handful of nights now, with a mix of temperatures, though I've not slept in it overnight with the warm-side-up yet. However, from a quick test, it did feel slightly cooler.

One night, the temperature dropped to freezing point, and I did feel a little cold briefly, though not surprising as I didn't have the bag zipped up all the way ;-)

So based on that, the temperature ratings feel about right.

The sleeping bag is stated as a 2 to 3-season bag, but in practice, I think this sleeping bag is best if you camp mainly in the summer months, with an occasional warm Easter or September camping too, when the nights can be cooler.

Swapping the bag over

The bag comes with a built-in pillow. While this gives some head support, it's no substitute for a real pillow, IMHO. ;-)

Of course, when you turn the bag over from cold-side-up to warm-side-up, the attached pillow is on the wrong side. Fortunately, this pillow unzips and re-attaches, so it's in the right place, no matter which way up you have the sleeping bag.

Comfort

This sleeping bag is ideal if you don't like the mummy-shaped sleeping bags with a tight toe box, and so ideal if you want camping to feel more like sleeping at home. There's plenty of room for your feet to move around in the Outwell Contour.

Of course, you can unzip the bag completely, and use it more like a duvet, which is how I would use it on warm summer nights anyway.

The material is polyester but is brushed for that cotton-like feel.

Packing and Transport

The pack size is relatively good (42 x 22 cm), and the pack is a good design with compression straps and a hood to keep dust out when storing and transporting.

Details