Rugged phone maker Cat Phones (part of the Caterpillar brand) has introduced its most durable model to date: the S40.
In a survey of former smartphone users, who now use a rugged phone, Cat Phones found that 80% had damaged a handset in the last five years. Half had cracked or shattered the display, and just under half had accidentally dropped it in water. Around a third had parts break off when they dropped the phone.
A key reason for customers using unsuitable (i.e. non-rugged) phones in demanding work environments was ‘the perceived lack of attractive, rugged alternatives’. The Cat S40 has been designed to address this niche.
Able to survive a 1.8m fall onto concrete, the handset meets the IP68 standard – and exceeds the MIL-STD-810G specification. It is water-, dust- and shock-proof, with Gorilla Glass 4 protecting a ‘super-bright’ 4.7″ display (with 960 x 540 resolution). Operating temperature is between -25° and 55°.
Wet- and gloved-finger tracking are supported. The phone also features waterproof warning sensors, which will let the user know when the phone is not waterproof (via port coverings).
A non-removable 3,000mAh battery is used in the S40. The phone runs Android 5.1 on a quad-core 1.1GHz Qualcomm processor. 16GB of storage and 1GB of RAM are installed.
Cat Phones launched the S40 this month. It is on sale now, for €360 ex VAT.
