CAT S60 review: the world's first smartphone with a thermal imager. Mobile phones Caterpillar Rugged phones cat

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RUB 3,296

Smartphone Caterpillar CAT B25 UT000023345

Type - smartphone. SIM card type - regular. Waterproof. The case is classic. Screen manufacturing technology - TFT. Radio. Operating system type - Android. Shockproof. MP3 player. Memory card slot - microSD. With a battery capacity of 1300mAh. Screen resolution - 240x320. With a 2.0 inch (5 cm) screen. With a 2.0 megapixel camera. Dual SIM cards. EDGE. Bluetooth. With a maximum supported memory card capacity of 8 GB. Video recording. With thickness: 22.0 mm. With height: 125.0 mm. With width: 55.0 mm. With weight: 161 g.

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RUB 28,344

Cell phone Caterpillar CAT S60

For 2 SIM cards. Battery capacity 3800 mAh. The size of the built-in memory is 32 Gb. With 4G LTE. The case is classic. With radio. With a digital video camera. Shockproof. With Multitouch. With bluetooth. SIM card type - nano SIM. Waterproof. Screen size 4.7 inches. Screen manufacturing technology - S-IPS. With Wi-Fi. Front camera 5 Mpx. Type - smartphone. Memory card slot - microSD. Operating system type - Android. With auto-rotate screen. With mp3 player. With GPS. Camera 13.0 Mpx. Touch screen type - capacitive. With 3G. Screen resolution - 720x1280. With width: 73.0 mm. With height: 148.0 mm. With thickness: 13.0 mm. With weight: 249 g.

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RUB 16,490

Rugged smartphone Caterpillar CAT S31 black CAT-S31-BK (black)

Waterproof. Shockproof. Radio. With a video frame rate of 30 fps. Video recording. GPS. With a battery capacity of 4000mAh. Operating system type - Android. With a 4.7 inch (12 cm) screen. 4G LTE. Touch screen type - capacitive. Automatic screen orientation. With a 2 megapixel front camera. Wi-Fi. With 8.0 megapixel camera. Video resolution - 1280x720. EDGE. Screen resolution - 720x1280. Screen manufacturing technology - S-IPS. SIM card type - nano SIM. Type - smartphone. With a maximum supported memory card capacity of 128 GB. With built-in memory size of 16 GB. Memory card slot - microSD. The case is classic. MP3 player. Multitouch. Dual SIM cards. Bluetooth. 3G. Width: 74.4 mm. Height: 146.0 mm. Thickness: 12.6 mm. Weight: 200 g.

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RUB 16,848

30% RUB 23,990

Smartphone CAT CAT-S31-BK 2/16GB, black

Operating system type - Android. The case is classic. Screen size 4.7 inches. Screen resolution - 720x1280. Camera 8.0 Mpx. Battery capacity 4000 mAh. Shockproof. For 2 SIM cards. With radio. With auto-rotate screen. With 3G. With bluetooth. With EDGE. Screen manufacturing technology - S-IPS. With Wi-Fi. With 4G LTE. Touch screen type - capacitive. Front camera 2 Mpx. With a digital video camera. SIM card type - nano SIM. With GPS. Video resolution - 1280x720. With Multitouch. Waterproof. Memory card slot - microSD. Max. memory card capacity 128 GB. Type - smartphone. With mp3 player. Video frequency 30 fps. The size of the built-in memory is 16 Gb. With height: 146.0 mm. With thickness: 12.6 mm. With width: 74.4 mm. With weight: 200 g.

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RUB 17,532

Smartphone Caterpillar Cat S31 Black

4G LTE. 3G. Video recording. Wi-Fi. Dual SIM cards. Touch screen type - capacitive. With a video frame rate of 30 fps. MP3 player. Screen resolution - 720x1280. Shockproof. Bluetooth. Video resolution - 1280x720. With built-in memory size of 16 GB. EDGE. With a 4.7 inch (12 cm) screen. Automatic screen orientation. Memory card slot - microSD. SIM card type - nano SIM. Multitouch. With a 2 megapixel front camera. Type - smartphone. The case is classic. Radio. With 8.0 megapixel camera. GPS. Waterproof. Operating system type - Android. With a battery capacity of 4000mAh. With a maximum supported memory card capacity of 128 GB. Screen manufacturing technology - S-IPS. With thickness: 12.6 mm. With height: 146.0 mm. With width: 74.4 mm. With weight: 200 g.

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RUB 22,790

Rugged smartphone Caterpillar CAT S41 black CAT-S41-BK (black)

With a digital video camera. Operating system type - Android. Video frequency 30 fps. With auto-rotate screen. Camera 13.0 Mpx. The size of the built-in memory is 32 Gb. Shockproof. With mp3 player. Memory card slot - microSD. With 4G LTE. Screen resolution - 1080x1920. Screen size 5.0 inches. Waterproof. Front camera 8 Mpx. SIM card type - nano SIM. With bluetooth. With EDGE. Max. memory card capacity 2048 GB. With Multitouch. Type - smartphone. With Wi-Fi. With radio. Video resolution - 1920x1080. Battery capacity 5000 mAh. Touch screen type - capacitive. With GPS. For 2 SIM cards. With 3G. The case is classic. Screen manufacturing technology - S-IPS. Weight: 218 g. Dimensions 152.0x75.0x12.9 mm.

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RUB 32,189

Smartphone CAT CAT-S60-BK 3/32GB, black

GPS. Bluetooth. Wi-Fi. With a 5 megapixel front camera. 4G LTE. Touch screen type - capacitive. Screen resolution - 720x1280. Multitouch. The case is classic. Shockproof. 3G. Automatic screen orientation. Type - smartphone. Dual SIM cards. Operating system type - Android. With a 13.0 megapixel camera. Screen manufacturing technology - S-IPS. Waterproof. SIM card type - nano SIM. Video recording. With built-in memory size of 32 GB. MP3 player. With a 4.7 inch (12 cm) screen. Radio. Memory card slot - microSD. With a battery capacity of 3800mAh. With thickness: 13.0 mm. With width: 73.0 mm. With height: 148.0 mm. With weight: 249 g.

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"Indestructible" phone for workers and builders

Walking once, already at the end of last year’s IFA 2012 exhibition, through the most distant and secluded corners of its pavilions, we came across a small, but very interesting for us, stand with representatives mobile technology, still unknown to us. Cute, unusual, brutal-looking, thick and ribbed mobile devices not only instantly attracted the attention of the sophisticated journalistic public with their amazing “armour-equipped” design, but also became participants in a “cruel” show staged by company representatives right on the spot. Before our eyes, phones that have a strong (which could be understood even from the unusual appearance) protected from dirt and water, they were thrown directly into construction concrete mixers, mixed together with fresh concrete, and then, casually rinsed with running water from a garden hose, they demonstrated to the stunned spectators the preserved full functionality of the mobile devices that had gone through this “hell.”

Everything became clear as soon as it became clear who exactly was the initiator of all this “disgrace.” The company demonstrating “cruel” treatment of fragile electronics turned out to be the famous American corporation Caterpillar, a world leader in the production of construction and mining equipment. Accordingly, the “electronics” that such a company had a hand in producing also turned out to be far from fragile. Participants in that memorable show included several completely indestructible mobile phones and even one smartphone, on the body of which was the logo of this famous construction corporation. That smartphone was called Cat B10, and, of course, at that moment we really wanted it to become the hero of one of our reviews.

However, it took much longer than we would have liked before we were able to get one of these super-secure smartphones from a renowned manufacturer of heavy duty equipment for testing. By that time, the life cycle of the Cat B10 smartphone was already coming to an end, and it was replaced by a new “replacement” - the owner of no less characteristic external data, a smartphone called Cat B15. Naturally, we chose for our tests a more recent model, which only recently began its journey to the market.

Since we always take on reviews with great interest and test all dust and waterproof devices that appear on our market, we have already accumulated some experience on this topic. Summarizing most of these studies, we most often come to the same conclusion: almost all of the dust and waterproof mobile devices presented on our market (and the vast majority of them now belong to the Japanese company Sony) cannot be fully called protected devices. None of the protected Sony devices on our market, for example, have protection against shocks and falls, and most of them are not even equipped with locking locks on removable covers. If such phones are dropped onto a hard surface, the plastic cover latches can simply bounce off, and then all the measures provided by the manufacturer to protect against dirt and water getting into the case lose all meaning - the cover flies off, the filling is exposed. If such a phone fell, say, into a puddle on hard asphalt, then such a fall could end just as badly for it as for any other mobile device that does not have special protection from water. Thus, this type of device can be classified, according to the classification accepted in the automotive market, not as an SUV, but rather as an “SUV” - pampered “city dwellers” who demonstrate external attributes more than actually possessing the capabilities of an “all-terrain vehicle”. Such protected mobile devices can only be carefully brought into fresh water and kept there for half an hour at a depth of half a meter - that’s all.

In the pictures: Cat B15 in comparison with dust-proof and moisture-proof Sony smartphones (Xperia acro S, Xperia V and the latest of the new products - Xperia ZR), as well as with one of Lenovo’s rugged smartphones on a similar hardware platform (Ideaphone A660).

Moreover, we were interested in getting one of the real “SUVs” for testing, designed for truly harsh operating conditions. Caterpillar's involvement in the production of a rugged mobile device can be easily explained: with almost a century of experience in the most difficult and remote working conditions, these people know what real special equipment should be like for difficult operating conditions. By the way, the company is also the manufacturer of the famous yellow non-wearable boots, which are so loved by workers and builders all over the world (in the very first photo, the girl is dealing with phones in just such boots). Recently, they have also been offered reliable electronic mobile assistants.

Naturally, we did not expect anything special from the performance of the Cat B15 smartphone. The usual MediaTek platform inside, low screen resolution, modest hardware data - all this was known before testing began. However, this is not what people who buy such secure devices are guided by. They are interested, first of all, in protective qualities, and the hardware filling is a minor matter. However, as professionals in our field, this part of the issue always worries us very much. Therefore, we finally got our hands on an overseas smartphone and carried out all the experimental studies with it that we carry out with any other mobile device that ends up in our test laboratory. Of course, we did not test the protective properties of a mobile phone by dropping it from the roof of a house or placing it under the wheels of a car - that would have been too much. The Cat B15 smartphone in our hands passed exactly the same standard testing according to the methodology we developed as all the other heroes of our reviews. Here's our detailed report on it.

Cat B15 Key Features

• SoC MediaTek MT6577, 1 GHz, 2 cores, ARM Cortex-A9
• GPU PowerVR SGX 531
• Operating system Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean
• Touch LCD display TN, 4″, 800×480
• Random access memory (RAM) 512 MB, internal memory 4 GB
• Slot for microSD cards up to 32 GB
• GSM communication 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
• Communications 3G UMTS 850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz
• Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, point Wi-Fi access
• GPS, A-GPS
• Camera 5 MP, autofocus
• Camera 0.3 MP (front)
• Dust and moisture protection (IP67)
• Li-ion battery 2000 mAh (B10-2)
• Dimensions 125x69.5x14.95 mm
• Weight 170 g

Contents of delivery

The smartphone goes on sale in an attractive small package in the form of a rectangular box made of thick cardboard with a signature bright yellow color and several laconic inscriptions. It’s nice to pick it up: everything is neat, strict, high quality - everything shows that the product was produced by a serious manufacturer.

In the box there was not a very rich set - everything was only the most necessary: ​​a small Charger, connecting cable, modest wired stereo headset with regular headphones non-nested type, and documentation. It is noteworthy that the operating instructions here are made in the form of a thick book with cut off corners: in terms of dimensions, it is a copy of the smartphone itself. It's a small thing, but nice. I was also pleased with the set of spare parts included in the kit in the form of rubberized caps and even metal screws for attaching them to the body. Everything is thought out before the smallest details: if the rubber gasket wears out, or the slot of the old screw breaks off when dismantling the cover, then a replacement will be included in the kit. It is clear from everything that the manufacturer prepared its “SUV” for truly the most severe operating conditions.

About security

The Cat B15 smartphone is officially certified to IP67 dust and water resistance, which means it's fully protected against dust ingress, as well as low-pressure water jet protection from all directions, and can survive up to 30 minutes in 1 meter of fresh water. water.

As mentioned above, the Cat B15 smartphone is a device with a completely different level of protection than most dust and waterproof smartphones from “traditional” mobile equipment manufacturers currently on the market. Its significant difference is protection, not only from dust and water, but also from falls: the rubberized body of the hero of today’s review has increased impact resistance. As for official data on this issue, in the operating instructions the manufacturer states that the phone has been tested to protect against falls from a height of 1.8 meters (human height), and guarantees that the smartphone will not be damaged in such a fall. What follows is an interesting phrase: the company guarantees protection of the device from accidental shocks and falls, but is not responsible for the consequences of deliberately “cruel” handling of the device. However, this is all, of course, reinsurance: the thick rubberized body of the Cat B15 will certainly be able to withstand falls from much greater heights. The advertising phrase on the manufacturer's brand goes something like this: “Drop it from a height of 1.8 meters upside down on concrete, and it will bounce back, even if the smartphone falls face down.” The display, by the way, is covered with Corning Gorilla protective glass with the ability to control it with wet fingers (Wet Finger Tracking).

We checked the last possibility, and even tried to take pictures with a smartphone camera under water - everything was confirmed. The smartphone can not only be operated with wet fingers (which is very important in extreme conditions of rain, snow, etc.), but can also easily withstand immersion in water to a depth of 1 meter for 30 minutes. Photography underwater is, of course, not included in the official list of capabilities of this “SUV”, but after the declared underwater shooting function of the Sony Xperia ZR, we decided to check this capability with the Cat B15.

This did not present any difficulties, because the Cat B15 smartphone, like the Sony Xperia ZR, is equipped with a hardware key to control the camera, which means it is really capable of shooting underwater, although this is not part of its official “responsibilities.” Of course, in the absence of a built-in flash, you can’t expect anything outstanding artistically from underwater photography with the Cat B15 camera - the quality of the photos is rather modest. But the fact remains: due to the presence of a hardware photo button, underwater photography with the Cat B15 camera is quite possible. Let us remind you that with full immersion, not a single screen will perceive finger touches, which means that it is impossible to take pictures by clicking on virtual icons on the display - only if there is a hardware camera shutter key.

Appearance and ease of use

So, the Cat B15 smartphone is equipped with a shock-resistant case that can protect fragile electronic components not only from dirt and moisture, but also from falls. This is where the features of the body of this communicator follow: rough, angular, very thick and quite heavy. The thickness of the case is justified by protection from shocks and falls - thick rubberized plastic surrounds the electronic filling with impenetrable protection. It is difficult to say for certain whether there is a metal frame inside under this layer of plastic: the manufacturer calls its case “aluminum body,” but this may just be a play on words, or this phrase may only mean aluminum protective pads screwed to the sides of the device. In any case, you can feel the real power and impenetrability of these thick walls, which makes you believe in the absolute reliability of the device in terms of impact resistance.

The phone, as already mentioned, is very thick - almost 15 mm, which is a kind of “anti-record”. But, naturally, it would never even occur to anyone to find fault with the excessive thickness of this smartphone - everyone understands that this is dictated by structural features related to the ability of the smartphone case to withstand shocks and falls.

There are no glossy or shiny surfaces here - only matte rubberized plastic and rough metal of the side covers. Due to this, the phone is firmly held in the hand and does not slip. There is, in fact, nowhere to leave fingerprints here except on the screen itself - the rest of the body is completely indestructible.

The Cat B15 has a removable plastic cover that, unlike most "traditional" mobile equipment manufacturers, has a true locking lock to prevent it from opening due to impact. This sets the new product apart from analogues from Sony, Samsung and others in the sense that the plastic latches may not hold up, but the lock will still hold the lid in place when dropped and will not allow the electronic filling and contacts to be exposed. This is an important difference that allows us to recommend this smartphone to rescue workers, extreme athletes, travelers, and simply fishermen and hunters, for whom the fault tolerance of the equipment around them is most relevant and sometimes vital.

Under the cover are protected from moisture and dirt slots for SIM cards and memory cards, which after installation are supported by the battery. Thus, it is impossible to get to any of the replacement cards here without removing the battery.

The phone supports dual SIM cards (Mini-SIM format is used) and microSD memory cards up to 32 GB. All pyramid-type cards are installed one above the other and do not require frequent replacement: they also have to be removed one after another, it is not possible to remove the lower ones separately, and it is very inconvenient to remove them from the slot-like slots. There’s really nothing to pry off a stuck card - you’ll have to use tweezers if something happens, and it’s better not to think about using a Micro-SIM with an adapter at all: it will be very difficult to insert it and take it out again.

The front panel is almost completely covered with durable scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla glass. The screen is framed by thick half-centimeter frames - some of them are plastic, some are metal. Hidden under the glass are the eyes of the sensors and the front camera, as well as the lower three buttons for controlling the system and applications. The buttons under the screen are touch sensitive and have a dim milky backlight, the duration of which cannot be adjusted using standard means. The screen and touch buttons respond quite comfortably to finger touches - there are no problems with this, no erroneous presses were noticed, nor any sluggish response.

All other controls and connectors are traditionally located along the edges of the device. At the top end, the power button is adjacent to the 3.5 mm audio output, and on the side between the volume keys there is a camera control button. The Micro-USB connector is hidden under a cover on the left side; the bottom end is left empty. The main microphone is located on the front edge under the touch buttons. All connectors are securely covered with tight rubber plugs, and they are not secured to the case using traditional flexible “tails”, but are screwed on with real metal screws. These parts are replaceable and replaceable.

All mechanical buttons have a fairly rigid movement. They hardly stick out from the body, but the response when pressed is quite distinct. The volume is adjusted here not by a two-position rocker, as is the case in most cases, but by two separate independent buttons. The camera control key located between them is unable to activate shooting in sleep mode - in any case, you must first unlock the smartphone, which is logical: we have a product thought out to the smallest detail, in which nothing should work by itself or be accidentally pressed in your pocket.

And finally, a few minor comments. Firstly, the metal side covers didn’t exactly add beauty to the device - the completely one-color rubberized body of the Cat B10 with its black ribbed sides looked somehow more strict and complete in terms of design. And there’s nothing to say about the ease of holding it in your hand: metal certainly glides better in wet fingers than rubber. Secondly, the Micro-USB connector here is recessed so deeply that not every third-party USB cable will fit. The owner of the device needs to remember this, otherwise you can take another cable on the road, relying on their versatility, and be left without charging for the entire time. As for the color schemes, there is no variety here: we have not found any mention of any other color options for the Cat B15 than the one that was on the test specimen that was in our hands.

Screen

The Cat B15 smartphone is equipped with a modest TN touch matrix measuring 53x82 mm, diagonal - 102 mm (4 inches), resolution - 800 × 480 pixels, pixel density is 233 ppi.

The display brightness has both manual and automatic adjustment, the latter based on the operation of the light sensor. Multi-touch technology allows you to process up to five touches simultaneously - tested by AnTuTu Tester. The screen is quite responsive, there are no problems with this. The smartphone also has a proximity sensor that blocks the screen when you bring the smartphone to your ear.

A detailed examination using measuring instruments was carried out by the editor of the “Monitors” and “Projectors and TV” sections, Alexey Kudryavtsev. Here is his expert opinion on the screen of the sample under study.

The smartphone screen is covered with a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface and, judging by the reflection of objects in it, if it has an anti-glare filter, it is a very weak one. There may be a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating on the outer surface of the screen, but its effectiveness is very low; as a result, the screen is easily covered with fingerprints, which are relatively difficult to remove.

When manually controlling the brightness, its maximum value was 316 cd/m², the minimum was 13 cd/m². As a result, even at maximum brightness in bright daylight, the readability of information on the screen will not be very high. There is automatic brightness adjustment based on the light sensor (apparently it is located to the left of the front camera). In complete darkness, the auto-brightness function reduces the brightness to 13 cd/m² (too low), in an artificially lit office, the brightness is set to 56 cd/m² (more or less), in a very bright environment it increases to 88 cd/m² (which is necessary). increase to maximum). In automatic mode, as external lighting conditions change, the screen brightness increases and decreases, but this mode is of little use, since the brightness is clearly set below the required level. The backlight brightness is modulated with a frequency of about 42 kHz, which is very high frequency, so there is no visible flickering of the image on the screen.

This screen has a TN type matrix. The micrograph demonstrates a typical TN subpixel structure (or rather, the lack of structure):

The screen has good viewing angles in the horizontal direction, but at the slightest upward deviation, dark shades are inverted, and when tilted downwards, light shades are inverted. When viewed perpendicularly, the uniformity of the black field is low, since along the border of the screen the black field is noticeably brightened. The contrast is good - about 800:1. The response time for the black-white-black transition is 11 ms (8.6 ms on + 2.4 ms off), the transition between halftones 25% and 75% (according to the numerical value of the color) and back takes 24 ms in total. Short response times are perhaps the only positive property of this matrix. The gamma curve constructed using 32 points did not reveal a blockage either in the highlights or in the shadows, and the index of the approximating power function turned out to be 2.45, which is higher than the standard value of 2.2, while the real gamma curve coincides well with the power dependence:

Color gamut less than sRGB:

Apparently, the matrix’s light filters mix the components with each other, and the spectra confirm this. This technique allows you to increase the brightness of the screen with the same energy consumption for the backlight, but the colors lose their saturation.

The balance of shades on the gray scale is disgusting, since the color temperature is above the standard 6500 K, the deviation from the blackbody spectrum (delta E) is high, and both parameters vary greatly from shade to shade:

We can conclude that the screen is definitely not strong point of this device.

Sound

In terms of sound, the smartphone cannot boast of anything special. Both speakers are not loud enough, especially the external one. Obviously, the general specific internal arrangement, organized to protect against moisture, has an effect. The speaker is additionally covered with a special protective membrane that does not allow water to pass through, so the sound is duller and quieter. This effect is found in many waterproof models (the exception, by the way, was the Lenovo Ideaphone A660 from the comparison table - this smartphone, although protected, is simply deafening with its loud sound). There are no special distortions in the telephone dynamics; the voice of a familiar interlocutor, intonation and timbre are well recognizable, but the voice still sounds dull, as if from behind an obstacle. The external speaker grille is located at the back, so the sound is also significantly muffled by the surface when the phone is lying on the table (screen up).

The standard audio player is nothing particularly remarkable, from sound settings There is only a standard equalizer with several preset values.

Camera

Cat B15 is equipped like most modern smartphones, two digital camera modules. True, the front camera here is equipped only with a very modest VGA module with a resolution of 0.3 megapixels.

The main rear camera is also equipped with a rather modest 5-megapixel module, from which, nevertheless, the image processing program “squeezes” everything it can. By default, the camera shoots at its highest possible resolution of 5 megapixels, and the resulting images are 2560x1920 in size. Examples of photos taken with factory settings and our comments on their quality are presented below.

	Quite acceptable resolution. The foliage of the trees in the background begins to clump together, but the camera tries to process it.
	The same effect on tree crowns. In the lower right corner the resolution drops a little, but overall the image is very decent, even in the farthest plans.
	The foliage is done well, but it feels like it's been painted on.
	The exposition is not bad. Noise in the shadows is very moderate.
	In distant plans, the clarity of large objects is decent, and finely detailed ones seem to be painted.
	Again the same effect of small objects sticking together, but large ones with good sharpness.
	Noises in the shadows are barely noticeable.
	The fine print is legible, which isn't all that surprising, but it's good.
	The macro is nice and detailed, there's even a hint of bokeh.
	The text is intact, but it looks like the font has been smoothed out.

The camera is nice and quite reasonable. It fully utilizes its 5 megapixels.

In many photographs you can notice overly smooth and uniform transitions between shades. The camera processes in a very interesting way what it sees poorly due to its limited capabilities. The program seems to be finishing the landscape with oil. Of course, this is a minus from a documentary point of view, but from an artistic point of view it is a very interesting phenomenon. The program simply paints a picture from life itself. And it should be noted that she does it well. The transitions from sharp to unsharp zones look quite smooth.

The camera copes well with noise, trying to shoot at minimum sensitivity values. For example, the photo with the yellow box uses ISO 103, and this is the only photo in this series in which the sensitivity value is not around ISO 50.

This camera copes well with both artistic and documentary photography. Of course, it doesn’t have very high resolution for a documentary, but software processing sometimes adds “artisticness” to photographs.

The camera can shoot video, and even has the opportunity to “try” itself in Full HD shooting, but it does this poorly: the image turns out slow and jagged, so the system frankly cannot cope with shooting at maximum resolution. By default, the camera shoots video only in 640x480 resolution. However, we tried shooting in both modes; examples of videos are presented below. The videos are saved in a 3GP container (video - MPEG-4 Visual (Advanced Simple@L5), sound - AAC LC, 128 Kbps, 16 kHz, 2 channels).

• Video No. 1 (13.4 MB, 640×480)
• Video No. 2 (8.65 MB, 640×480)
• Video No. 3 (31.2 MB, 1920×1088)

The camera control settings are standard for the Android system: the poor layout of the icons forces you to scour the menu. Selecting options, such as shooting resolution, is done by clicking on the small arrows to the right and left, which is very inconvenient. In general, manufacturers are doing the right thing by modifying the standard Google interface. However, the possibilities for controlling shooting are quite rich: you can add geotags, artistic effects, color effects, adjust white balance, saturation, brightness, contrast, and even use the HDR mode.

Shooting, as already described above, can be done either by pressing a virtual button on the screen or a hardware mechanical key on the side of the device. This key is not capable of activating the camera from a locked state, as, for example, on Sony smartphones. But you can take photos directly while shooting a video, which can be useful.

Telephone and communications

The smartphone works as standard in modern 2G GSM and 3G WCDMA networks; There is no support for fourth generation networks (LTE). In general, the network capabilities of a smartphone today are minimal: Wi-Fi range 5 GHz is not supported, and there is no support for NFC technology either.

There were no freezes or spontaneous reboots/shutdowns observed during testing. When you bring it to your ear, the screen is blocked by the proximity sensor. The light sensor controls the screen brightness level automatically. But, unfortunately, they didn’t provide any warning light sensor here, which is a pity.

OS and software

There's not much to talk about in this section. The system uses the Google Android software platform version 4.1.2 and its proprietary interface. The developer did not use any additional graphical user interfaces of his own production, nor can you find any additional pre-installed third-party applications here. Everything remained as it was intended by the creator of the system - only “bare” Android and a few icons-links to the Internet pages of various online services of Caterpillar itself (for example, rental of construction equipment). But of course, nothing prevents the user from downloading and installing any programs available in the Google Play online store.

Performance

The Cat B15 hardware platform is based on the MediaTek MT6577 single-chip system (SoC). The central processor here has 2 Cortex-A9 cores operating at 1 GHz. It is assisted in processing graphics by the GPU PowerVR SGX 531 video processor. The device has only 512 MB of RAM, which is not enough for an Android system. Storage, accessible to the user for uploading your own files, initially it is about a gigabyte of the nominally designated 4 GB of internal memory, but it is possible to expand the memory using microSD cards. Connection mode external devices to a USB port (USB Host, USB OTG) is not supported here.

Based on the data obtained during testing, the performance of the Cat B15 was at the expected low level. There is no discovery in this: exactly the same numbers were obtained as a result of tests by the Lenovo A660, which operates on a similar hardware platform. By the way, the results for a secure Samsung smartphone are similar.

As for testing the graphics subsystem in the cross-platform 3DMark test, neither the Lenovo A660 nor our today’s “ward” clearly failed. The phones simply couldn't pass the test, throwing up failure messages on the screen. In principle, this is understandable: the test itself is very difficult, and both devices do not officially meet its requirements - at least with regard to the amount of RAM.

In the Epic Citadel gaming test, the results of the Cat B15 graphics subsystem are modest, but at least the testing passed without failures.

As for benchmarks for assessing the speed of the javascript engine, the results depend significantly on the browser in which they are launched, so the comparison can only be truly accurate on the same OS and browsers, and this is not always possible. In the case of devices running on operating system latest versions Android, we always try to use Google Chrome.

Playing video

To test omnivorousness when playing video (including support for various codecs, containers and special features, for example subtitles), we used the most common formats, which make up the bulk of the content available on the Web. Note that for mobile devices it is important to have support for hardware video decoding at the chip level, since it is most often impossible to process modern options using processor cores alone. Also, don't expect mobile device decoding everything, since the leadership in flexibility belongs to the PC, and no one is going to challenge it.

¹ sound in MX Video Player was played only after switching to software decoding (in Hardware+ smartphone refused to play MKV); The standard player does not have this setting

Battery life

The capacity of the battery installed in the Cat B15 is 2000 mAh. The battery here, as already mentioned, is removable, so it can be removed and replaced (battery brand B10-2).

Continuous reading in the FBReader program (with a standard, light theme) at a minimum comfortable brightness level (brightness was set to 100 cd/m²) lasted 14 hours 15 minutes until the battery was completely discharged, and continuous viewing of videos from YouTube in high quality(HQ) with the same brightness level through home network The device spent more than 7 hours on Wi-Fi - not bad performance, but this is normal for a small screen with low resolution and dim backlighting. The Lenovo A660 performed worse, which is consistent with its smaller battery capacity.

Bottom line

Officially, Caterpillar does not supply its smartphones to the Russian market, and Cat B15 can be purchased abroad at prices starting at 300 euros. If you search in online stores, then in our country the few sellers that offer this model set prices for it from 21 to 25 thousand rubles. Of course, the smartphone turns out to be very expensive for such primitive characteristics: for that kind of money you can buy two uncertified Sony Xperia V (≈11 thousand rubles) or as many as three Lenovo A660 (≈7 thousand rubles), and in terms of protection from dust and water, these models are basically equal to each other. But if you are faced with the task of choosing a truly protected smartphone model that is not afraid of falls from heights or impacts against rocks, then you can probably overpay. However, it is better, of course, to try to order a Cat B15 from abroad, on Amazon for example: it will be much cheaper, even taking into account delivery.

Our editorial team has already repeatedly visited protected smartphones that can be dropped and drowned in water, but today’s hero of the review, the CAT S60, differs from them in one, but very significant feature: the presence of a thermal imager, for the first time in smartphones. FLIR has been making thermal cameras for quite some time, including for drones and smartphones, but until now - only as an external plug-in unit.

What is this?

CAT S60 is a shockproof, waterproof smartphone, protected from external influences according to the IP68 standard, equipped with a 4.7-inch display and an eight-core Qualcomm processor.

Why is he interesting?

In such smartphones, the smartphone component itself fades into the background and you should not expect any top-end characteristics, and they are not needed; this is a highly specialized gadget that is intended for professional use and tourism. So the most interesting in this case are, of course, the FLIR thermal camera, protection from external influences according to the IP68 standard and MIL-810G military standards. It can withstand falls from a height of up to 1.8 meters and can painlessly dive to a depth of 5 meters, and this is already a serious indicator. Typically, such smartphones can withstand up to 2 meters maximum.

What is in the box?

The smartphone comes in a small orange box, inside: smartphone, charger, USB-MicroUSB cable, headset (in-ear headphones with flat cable), screen protector and instructions.

What does it look like?

In such smartphones, aesthetics go into the background, but the CAT S60 cannot be called ugly. Yes, it is massive, but it looks attractive in its own way. In addition to the screen, the front panel has a front camera, a set of sensors, an LED indicator, mechanical back and home buttons and an application manager, an earpiece and an external speaker. These are from standard elements. In addition, there are two 2/5m mechanical switches above and below the screen. They are quite tight and seem to mechanically close the rubber seals inside. The 5 m position is intended for immersion to the appropriate depth (as you might guess), while all the cracks in the speakers are clogged.

The smartphone is quite thick, with an impressive massive metal frame around the perimeter. The volume buttons are located on the left side. They are also made of metal, are large in size and are quite tight to press:

There is nothing on the bottom end except two plastic inserts. Apparently, for adequate operation of wireless modules:

The right side is loaded with functional elements. It houses a power button with a textured surface and an orange function button (you can assign the desired functions or applications to it by either a short or long press). Below are two plugs with an SOS button and a MicroUSB connector. Even lower is a separate plug for the 3.5 mm jack:

The plugs have an interesting and reliable (at least that is the impression) design:

At the top of the case there is a large protrusion with the FLIR logo. Apparently the thermal imager module itself has impressive dimensions:

The back cover has a textured carbon-look surface. In the middle is the CAT logo:

All functional elements are located in the upper part of the body. To the left is the flash, the main camera is 13 megapixels, and above is the thermal imager eye:

To the right is a sealed compartment for two nano SIM cards and a MicroSD memory card:

As mentioned earlier, the smartphone is absolutely not afraid of immersion in water:

The smartphone is also not afraid of falls from human height. A video demonstration will be available soon in our video review. The smartphone operates in a temperature range from -25°C to 55°C. From the point of view of the rugged smartphone category, the CAT S60 performed exceptionally well.

Is the screen good?

The smartphone has a bright a-Si AHVA screen (a la IPS from AU Optronics) with a diagonal of 4.7 inches and a resolution of 1280x720 and Corning Gorilla Glass 4, which is very good for a rugged smartphone. In this case, a larger size and resolution are not needed. The screen really has a very high maximum brightness, and the viewing angles are also good.

The picture is bright and saturated, there is enough brightness reserve even in the bright summer sun. The oleophobic coating is not the highest quality, but it is there. Multi-touch support up to 10 simultaneous touches:

As measurements using a colorimeter have shown, the maximum screen brightness is indeed very high: 602.743 cd/m2, so it’s enough for all occasions. But the brightness of the black field is also higher than that of competitors: 0.765 cd/m2, the contrast ratio is at a good level: 788:1. As it turned out, the screen is calibrated very well: ΔE does not exceed 8, there is a slight drawback of red:

Comparison with other smartphones:

What about performance and autonomy?

Super-powerful processors and a lot of RAM are clearly not a feature of this class of smartphones, but it’s still worth saying a few words. The smartphone runs on 64-bit quad-core Qualcomm processor Snapdragon 617, RAM capacity is 3 GB, which is enough to ensure that pure Android 6.0 Marshmallow “whistles” on the HD screen of the smartphone. Modern games also work quite normally, although, again, the smartphone was not developed for these purposes:

The built-in memory is 32 GB, which can be supplemented with a MicroSD memory card for another 128 GB, so there will be no problems with storage space.

Regarding the sound quality, we can say the following: the ringtone is screaming very loudly, so it’s difficult to miss a call. The sound in headphones is quite good, of course not Hi-Fi player, but for such a smartphone it’s very good. CAT decided to use the Waves MaxxAudio enhancer; this is more of a marketing move. Although the Israeli company Waves Audio itself is a developer of excellent VST plugins for sound recording:

The smartphone supports 3G and 4G networks, there is Wi-Fi 802.11 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1 and NFC. To find the location, global positioning systems GLONASS, GPS, aGPS and Beidou are used. The smartphone detects satellites very quickly even without connecting to any cellular networks:

The battery is non-removable, its capacity is 3800 mAh. We can’t say that it’s a lot, especially considering the purpose, but in real conditions the smartphone can easily survive 2 full days under fairly impressive loads. Largely thanks to the relatively small diagonal and screen resolution and good energy efficiency indicators of the 617th “Dragon”.

For those who want to know more

Inside is a 64-bit eight-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 MSM8952-3 (4 x 1.5 GHz + 4 x 1.2 GHz) plus an Adreno 405 graphics accelerator and 3 GB of RAM. For those who care about numbers:

What additional software is there?

As mentioned earlier, the smartphone runs on pure Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS, but it would be quite strange to see such a smartphone without additional specialized programs. In the settings there is a set of simple animated instructions on the main functions:

Travel companion app with barometer, temperature, compass, flashlight function, distance calculation and so on:

Proprietary application for faster drying of speakers after immersion in water

Programming programmable and SOS button:

You can specify up to three recipients to whom a message with coordinates will be sent:

What can a FLIR thermal imager do and who will benefit from it?

The smartphone is equipped with a FLIR thermal imager, which can operate at a distance of up to 30 meters in the dark and through smoke. You can take photos and videos, the resolution is 640x480, which is normal for such cameras. The MyFLIR for Cat S60 app is pre-installed for use. The thermal imager determines the temperature range in the “frame” in real time and provides a corresponding scale on the side. In the images you can mark specific points with a marked temperature, individual areas or temperature differences:

If we take the issue seriously, a smartphone (and a thermal imager in particular) is intended for builders, firefighters, rescuers, it will allow you to determine heat leaks near windows and doors, places where moisture accumulates, damaged insulation, leaks in a pipeline, or detect overheating of electronics. For domestic purposes, you can use, for example, to determine overheating of a PC:

Laptop heating places:

Heating of smartphones after prolonged heavy loads:

And this is what the video from the FLIR thermal imager looks like:

In fact, you can come up with a lot of household applications. The only question is that the pleasure is quite expensive: a separate FLIR thermal imager for smartphones costs 340 euros, so the $700 price tag for the CAT S60 no longer looks so high, but the smartphone clearly does not pretend to be widespread.

How are things going with the camera?

The main camera uses a module with a resolution of 13 megapixels, the front one is 5 MP, video can be shot in FullHD resolution 30 frames per second. The interface is extremely simple and clear. All necessary functions are on the screen (or within one menu level):

The emphasis in the smartphone is clearly not on the main camera, but it allows you to get quite good photos in normal lighting. Examples of photos:

Bottom line

Despite the fact that anyone with $700 in their pocket can buy a CAT S60, the smartphone still has a narrower specialization and the main audience will still be workers in the relevant professions, because not everyone needs a thermal imager in a smartphone, and it adds a lot to the cost decently. If we look at it in absolute terms, the CAT S60 is a kind of flagship among rugged smartphones, which has all, or almost all, the relevant functions. The smartphone received a truly shock-resistant case that you don’t have to worry about dropping, “adult” water protection, not immersion up to a meter, a unique feature in the form of a FLIR thermal imager, and a completely modern smartphone filling. To complete the “stuffing”, the only thing missing is the radio station function (a full-fledged one, not the Zello application), although there are a very small number of such smartphones.

6 reasons to buy CAT S60:

• very durable, shock-resistant housing;
• water resistance up to 5 meters;
• presence of a thermal imager;
• bright and high-quality screen;
• modern hardware;
• pure Android current version.

3 reasons not to buy the CAT S60:

• high price;
• the battery could have been installed larger;
• you simply don't need a smartphone with this functionality.

Our video review of the CAT S60 smartphone: