There’s a significant advantage to having products that are distinct and differentiated in the market. Our customers, having sought out something more suitable for their needs, are highly engaged and eager to share their requirements and preferences. Each year we speak to tens of thousands of Cat phones customers. We know them well, and what they want and value the most.

In particular, there are features beyond robustness that are particularly valued by our customers. Most obvious among these is battery life. Every Cat phone boasts a large battery, more than capable of taking you through a full, tough working day. But we have also added features such as touchscreens capable of being controlled with wet hands or while wearing gloves, and in our flagship products we’ve brought in innovative features such as thermal cameras and other sensor-based capabilities – all of which resonate strongly with customers working or participating in outdoor activities in rugged environments.

What makes a Cat phone a Cat phone?

Chiefly, it is ruggedness. A Cat phone is engineered from the ground up to withstand the rigours of the toughest environments that our users find themselves in, whether at work or play. As such, our products all share a baseline set of rugged credentials and features, tried, tested, refined, and enhanced to ensure each product is worthy of the brand it carries, and fit-for-purpose.

Those industry-leading rugged credentials include:

• • Repeated drop tests onto a steel plate from at least 1.5 metres (5ft), usually 1.8 metres (6ft), in every orientation – so onto every side and every corner.

• • Ingress Protection testing to ensure our devices are fully dustproof and waterproof, surpassing the IP68 standard requirements as a minimum. That’s an international standard that means the product is impervious to dust and fine grain dirt (6/6) and can be fully submerged in water for an extended period (8/8). Some of our products, including the Cat S61 and Cat S41, are also IP69K certified with the ‘9’ relating to high-pressure water testing.

• • Military Spec, conforming to the US military’s MIL STD 810G standard. This means every Cat phone model has passed a catalogue of Mil Spec tests, including thermal shocks, high and low temperature extremes, vibration tests, tumble tests, and salt mist conditions, ensuring our products can take whatever conditions they’re thrown into.

• • Screens protected both by toughened scratch-resistant glass, and by industrial design elements. For example, our displays are typically recessed beneath a surrounding ridge that helps to stop the glass making first contact with the ground when the device drops.

 

The Cat S31

The entry-level smartphone in the current Cat phones portfolio is the Cat S31: a truly tough Android smartphone, boasting all the Cat phones rugged credentials, a bright screen for use in outdoor environments, and a large 4,000mAh battery that lasts even through the most active of working days. The touchscreen can be used with wet fingers or while wearing gloves, and a programmable key on the device allows users to set a function for easy access.

 

The Cat S41

Adding to everything that the Cat S31 offers, the mid-range Cat S41 brings both higher performance and elevated rugged credentials. Specifically, the S41 boast IP69K certification, greater waterproofing (capable of surviving submerged at depths up to 2 metres for 1 hour), and a higher grade of toughened Corning Gorilla glass. It also has a larger, higher resolution display, more memory, a faster chipset, and most significantly, a bigger battery.

The S41’s battery at 5,000mAh is large enough to enable multi-day use, or alternatively it can be used as a power bank to charge either other phones or accessories such as Bluetooth headphones. To facilitate this, the phone comes with a special Battery Share capable that can be used to connect any USB charger, and an app that allows the user to manage how much of their S41’s power they’re comfortable giving away. They can set the device to charge another phone until their S41’s battery reaches a custom pre-set level, meaning it doesn’t have to be watched and monitored.

 

The Cat S61

The flagship Cat S61 takes a further step up. As a smartphone, it offers more memory and a faster chipset, and has a larger display. In terms of ruggedness, the device gets a further boost as it’s reinforced by a high grade aluminium frame, is also certified to IP69K, and exceed the IP68 standard further with waterproof testing, fully submerged at depths up to 3 metres for 1 hour. But what is more, the device offers a unique combination of innovative features:

• • An integrated thermal imaging camera, offering users the ability to visualise temperatures as contrasting colours on the screen, and to measure temperatures with spot meters, read from either the live viewfinder, or from captured thermal images. The thermal camera can see in the dark, and through obscurants such as smoke. It has many use cases in construction (e.g. checking insulation), utilities (e.g. finding leaking pipes, checking overloaded/overheating circuitry or appliances), agriculture (e.g. spotting animals in the dark, identifying inflammation in animals’ legs), and emergency first response (e.g. assessing the spread of a fire, identifying recently driven vehicles), and many others across lots of different verticals.

• • An indoor air quality sensor that monitors the levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the air around them, allowing them to take simple steps to improve ventilation in their workspace like opening doors or windows, or turning on air conditioning or a fan, to prevent the negative health effects of prolonged exposure in confined spaces. VOCs are common air pollutants, found in glues and adhesives, paint, solvents, cleaning products, and on furniture, carpets, and clothing. Health effects range from irritation to the nose and throat and headaches, to breathing difficulties.

• • A laser-assisted distance measuring feature that uses the camera in conjunction with a laser emitted from the device to determine distance from the S61 to a surface, be it a wall, ceiling, floor, or object. It’s a great tool for quickly capturing estimate-level accuracy measurements to produce quotes or order materials without the need for a tape measure. Through the associated app, users can capture images with the laser dot visible on any surface parallel to the device, then add additional measurements onto the image of that surface later on.

By offering this range of special features, relevant to many of our customers, we ensure that Cat phones are not just phones that are tough and robust, but also offer unique benefits.

Feature Phones

Finally, the Cat phones range also includes more-basic feature phones. These talk-and-text focused products are perfect in settings where the primary requirement is for basic communication, at a budget-friendly price point. The current Cat range includes two feature phones – the Cat B26 and the Cat B35. These both conform to the Cat phones rugged credentials, as well as having features such as flashlights and lanyard attachment holes.

The Cat B26 is a 2G feature phone, with a long battery life and excellent rugged credentials.

The Cat B35 is a 4G enabled feature phone running KaiOS, which offers some basic apps and services, including Google Assistant, Google Maps, YouTube, and WhatsApp – as well as a selection of other apps available via the KaiStore on the device.

You can purchase the latest Cat devices from Digital Wholesale Solutions today by contacting the relevant sales teams.

 

Guest article written by David Hayden, Sales Manager UK @ Bullitt Group (Cat phones)