The Cat S61 tough phone includes temperature and humidity sensors, plus a laser-based measuring tool and a built-in thermal imaging camera.
The Cat S61 tough phone includes temperature and humidity sensors, plus a laser-based measuring tool and a built-in thermal imaging camera.
You probably know US company Caterpillar or "Cat" as a maker of heavy-duty gear from bulldozers to work boots.
But it's also branched out into smartphones with its Cat S61, which overseas reviewers have rated the best "tough phone" around.
Could it live up to its billing?
The short answer:yes.
The Herald put it through a series of rough-and-tumble tests including waterboarding, a drop from 1.8m on to concrete, and being run over by a Lime scooter - a clear-and-present danger for any gadget that falls out of your pocket in Auckland.
Then came the ultimate: being driven over by an NZME pool car - a hazard if you drop your phone in Graham St, or a driveway anywhere (doing the phone-crunching honours in the video below is NZME staffer and editor-for-a-day Amy-Lee Wickliffe).
It's not surprising it survived the dunk test. Any top-shelf phone these days has basic water-proofing - though the S61 is more resistant than most. It's rated to survive industrial water jets and up to 60 minutes underwater at a depth of up to three metres. There's even a special underwater mode, with most functions enabled.
And, unlike most smartphones, the S61 will also work with wet fingers or wet gloves.
It's also dust, dirt and salt-mist resistant and can handle thermal shocks from -25C to 55C under the IP68, P69K and military-grade MIL SPEC 810G standards. Don't laugh about the salt mist. Sea spray is corrosive and if you look at the fineprint on your regular smartphone's warranty, you'll probably find that its waterpoofing doesn't extend to salt water.
More impressively, the S61 was still functioning perfectly after the drop, Lime and car tests. Cat says you can repeatedly drop it from 1.8m (or six feet, in the old money) and that's what we did. It's metallic sides registered a few minor chips and scratches, but the screen emerged unscathed.
That has obvious appeal for anyone who works in or around construction sites or any other rugged environment.
But as a white-collar Joe who, like so many, has a chip on his smartphone's screen from a minor drop, I found it a nice change to never have to worry about spills or falls.
The S61 also packs a laser-assisted measuring app (whose red dot can double as a laser pointer in the boardroom), a FLIR thermal camera for heat-mapping an area, an indoor air-quality meter (which can indicate if you need to improve ventilation in a workspace) and humidity and temperature sensors, which can also graph results over time. I did find the thermometer registered results a little on the hot side - it must be tricky given the heat from the phone and your hand. Resting the phone on a surface for a while yielded a more accurate result).
There's also an FM radio (a feature absent from most smartphones), that's handy if you just want to tune into a regular station rather than stream audio via an app or website.
Yes, the Cat S61 is chunky at 163 x 78 x 13mm, but no more so than a regular smartphone with a third-party tough case wrapped around it.
And at 250g, it's not light, but it's not a brick, either. And for context, Apple's heaviest iPhone is 203g - before a case is added.
The 5.2-inch is a decent size, and at 1920 x 1080 (or full HD) pixels, it's good resolution, if not up there with the 4K efforts on the latest kit from the likes of Apple and Samsung.
It's made from Corning Gorilla Glass 5, with an added screen protector. And a plastic lip on the S61's metal case is raised around the display - which is not that pretty, but provides extra protection against knocks.
The S61's thermal imaging camera lets you heatmap a workspace - or your pet.
There's a good whack of onboard memory (64GB), with the option to add more via an SD Card, and a 4500mAh battery - that is, a lot more juice than most phones in its price bracket. It should last you more than a day, particularly given the S61 doesn't have as many energy-sapping screen frills as more consumer-orientated phones.
There's also the usual range of smartphone sensors including ambient light, a gyroscope, a compass, and an accelerometer. And there's the usual GPS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. The main connector is USB C.
The USB jack can be an Achilles heel for tough phones, but the S61 will give you an onscreen warning if you forget to close its latch.
The power and volume buttons - plus a customisable button - are chunky and metallic, giving them a solid feel and making them easy to use with gloves.
The S61 includes a laser-based measuring tool.
The cameras (16 megapixel rear/8 megapixel front) are adequate, but won't win any awards, especially in low light. If you're an artistic photo buff, this isn't your phone. Of course, it makes up for it in more industrial areas with its thermal imaging smarts.
The S61's interface is a fairly stock-standard incarnation of Google's Android software that will look familiar to anyone who's in the Samsung or Huawei camps, and there are the usual Android tools for switching data over from an iPhone.
And if 1.8m is not enough drop-proofing for you, you can upgrade to a shock-resistant case. There's also a leather holster option.
The Cat S61 has just been released in NZ through Spark and costs $1499.
