Cat has a new rugged smartphone in store - the S60 - and this time it sports something special in addition to durability: a thermal imaging camera.
The latest Cat S60 has all you need from a rugged smartphone and then some, boasting a durable build, waterproof body, military standard 810G certification and an awesome new camera that leverages thermal imaging from FLIR to capture the unseen.
Cat essentially integrated FLIR's standalone thermal camera into the body of its rugged S60 to offer some innovative smartphone camera functionality. With this thermal imaging technology built in, the Cat S60 can produce a live thermal image, measure surface temperature and capture both still images and video.
Thermal Imaging Benefits And Applications
The resolution of this thermal camera is just 640 x 480 (VGA), giving away its main purpose: practical applications that can make life easier for professionals such as electricians, plumbers and others. An electrician, for instance, could take advantage of the Cat S60's thermal camera to see whether a fuse box is overloaded. A plumber could see where the problem lies in a set of pipes. The possible applications are numerous, and could even include tough search and rescue missions, or detecting heat loss around doors and windows.
This thermal camera is just one of the two cameras on the smartphone's back. The second one is a regular 13-megapixel shooter, which can augment the heat map with the outlines of objects in the immediate vicinity.
It's also worth pointing out that the new Cat S60 is the first smartphone to boast a waterproof rating up to a depth of 5 meters (16.4 feet) for up to an hour.
"To stand out from the crowd in today's smartphone market requires true innovation and we are proud to partner with FLIR to announce what is truly a world's first," says Peter Stephens, CEO of Bullitt Group, Cat's global mobile device licensee. "The Cat S60 represents a milestone for smartphones. We are excited for thermal technology to be in the hands of Cat phones customers and to discover the myriad of daily time and efficiency use cases it will present for them."
Cat S60 Specs
Aside from the higher waterproof rating, high durability and the innovative thermal camera from FLIR, the rest of the smartphone's specifications are not utterly impressive. The Cat S60 has a 4.7-inch display with a 720p resolution, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor, 3 GB of RAM, a 13-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front shooter.
Other specs include 32 GB of internal storage with microSD support, a hefty 3,800 mAh battery, 4G LTE connectivity and Android Marshmallow out of the box. Considering that it's a rugged smartphone, the display also supports input from gloved or wet fingers.
In terms of durability, the Cat S60 has Gorilla Glass 4 protection, an aluminum frame and a toughened plastic back that that looks like carbon fiber. The smartphone can easily survive crash tests, bumps, drops or other such brutal treatment, but so does the Cat S40. What makes the Cat S60 truly stand out is the thermal camera.
The rugged Cat S60 is set to hit the market in by the end of May, sporting a price tag of $599/ €649. Cat will showcase its new smartphone at the upcoming Mobile World Congress (MWC 2016) next week in Barcelona.
