As our adaptable accessories move appear thinner and added affected anatomy factors, we lose clue of a lot of the aspects the absolutely amount in a phone. Array life. Durability. These accept been falling by the wayside aback the canicule of the cast phone. Aback was the aftermost time you didn’t anguish about your phone’s array or looked bottomward abashed aback you alone your phone after a beefy case?
CAT (yes, that Caterpillar) explored these aspects in its new device, the CAT S41.
This isn’t a top-tier Android device. It doesn’t accept the best absorbing blueprint sheet, and you’re not activity to get Agenda 8-level achievement out of this thing. This phone is fabricated for a appropriate affectionate of user, who ethics ruggedness and array activity over aggregate else.
How does the S41 book as an ultra-rugged allotment of technology? Let’s acquisition out.
Are you annoyed of application a beefy case on your phone? What if your phone was a beefy case? That’s what the CAT S41 feels like. It’s fabricated of a thick, rubberized actual evocative of a annoy — applicable for a accessory from a aggregation that makes architecture equipment.
The carapace raises from the awning a bit, which will accumulate it from demography too abundant accident from abrupt drops. Think about the architecture like an Otterbox Defender case congenital into the device. This adeptness be a abundant advantage for those who amount backbone aloft all else.
This asperous architecture continues throughout added aspects of the phone, such as the concrete aeronautics keys. This was appealing cornball for me, aback I haven’t had concrete keys on a accessory aback the Droid Allegation (shudder). They are actual concrete and responsive, which is important to me as a keyboard analyzer and enthusiast (don’t hate). Double-tapping the home key turns the awning on, which is nice for those who don’t appetite to about-face their duke position.
The phone’s got a microSD and SIM agenda tray, adeptness and aggregate keys, a headphone jack, a microUSB charging port, and a ablaze orange “Push to talk” key. Each ports is covered by a accessory fabricated of the aforementioned actual as the shell, and bouncer the ports from water, dust, and more. It’s IP68 rated, so you could apparently bead it from 1.8 meters or deluge it in two meters of baptize for up to 60 minutes.
The “Push to talk” key is the absolute indicator of who this accessory is for. A accumulation of CAT S41 users would be able to rapidly barter advice aback abutting together. This will be best advantageous on architecture sites for analogous workers accomplishing abstracted tasks. If you’re not a architecture worker, you can additionally remap the button to assassinate altered accomplishments via abbreviate or continued presses. This isn’t the Bixby button — you can use the key for appealing abundant anything.
The button additionally has an underwater mode, which locks the awning and allows you to booty photos beneath water. I’m not abiding why you would appetite to deluge this affair on purpose, but it’s nice to have.
The CAT S41 sports a 5.0-inch Abounding HD IPS LCD affectation with Gorilla Glass 5. Overall, I feel actual alloyed about it. The blush is fine. It has a admirable pixel density, at 441 PPI. But the bezels accomplish the affectation feel added encased in the accessory than added options. Compared to article like the Razer Phone, which has ample bezels that abode front-facing speakers, the CAT phone’s affectation feels outdated. It has added bezels aural the awning allocation itself too.
For accepted use and web browsing, the awning performs absolutely well. Colors are absolutely saturated (though not as technically authentic as article like the Pixel 2), which makes for a appealing acceptable acquaintance overall.
The CAT S41 can be acclimated with gloves on, which is appealing rare. This adds to the construction-friendly attributes of this device, aback abounding adamantine activity workers will be cutting gloves while working.
Performance adeptness be one of the CAT S41’s weakest spots. I noticed affluence of lag and abashed about all areas of the OS, alike aback affective about the home screens. It’s not huge, but the abashed can be annoying, and it detracts from the acquaintance of the accessory absolutely a bit. These caveats apparently won’t be all that credible on the job, though. It adeptness be slower than their primary device, but as a assignment phone this should assignment aloof fine.
This lag is acceptable due to the device’s sub-par MediaTek Helio P20 processor. This mid-range dent was appear over a year ago, so acutely you’re activity to see some abundant achievement differences amid it and new chips in 2017. The SoC appearance a Mali T880 GPU, which is additionally absolutely mid-range, as is credible during abundant gaming sessions.
Where the processing of this phone bead the ball, added appearance lift it aback up. The S41 comes with an absolutely astronomic 5,000 mAh array which makes it aftermost an abundantly continued time. I was able to go a abounding two canicule of constant use. It will aftermost alike best if you’re a ablaze user with a lot of standby time. The abutting flagship we could analyze this accessory to is the Razer Phone, which lasted a accurately continued time with it’s 4,000 mAh battery. We ran our own array analysis software on this accessory as well, and it exhausted out alike the best baronial phone from our Best of Android array analysis by miles, advancing in at 23 hours and 18 minutes. That is acutely good.
It abundant to see a headphone jack present in this phone, but I ambition it acclimated USB Type-C instead of microUSB. Every accessory has trade-offs, but for the amount it would accept been nice if the S41’s specs were aloof a bit better.
One affair to agenda about the CAT S41 is its MIL-STD-810G certification. This acceptance was accustomed by the United States aggressive to analysis accessories and ensure it is up to their standards — it can awning a cardinal of altered ecology altitude such as temperature, atomic atmosphere, and alkali fog, amid added thing. Best customer electronics certified with the accepted are rated accurately for shock. That said, CAT accurately declared the S41 is certified for thermal shocks and alkali brume spray.
Because the advancing customer for this accessory is a architecture or adamantine activity worker, this acceptance is actual important. If you appetite to apprehend added about the MIL-STD-810G certification, analysis out the Wikipedia entry.
It’s adamantine to put it any added way — the CAT S41 cameras are bad. The 13 MP rear ballista is abundantly bendable in annihilation but the best ideal lighting situations, and the front-facing 8 MP camera streaks aback apparent to any cogent ablaze source. The advanced camera absolutely seems to do hardly bigger than the rear in abounding situations, which is appealing strange. Don’t use this phone as your capital imaging device.
The rear camera tends to oversaturate photos added than any added smartphone camera we’ve tested. Images in accepted attending like the assimilation slider was pulled a bit too far to the appropriate in alteration software. There is an absorbing settings card actuality that allows you to abuse aspects of the camera to your liking, but they didn’t assume to do much.
One absorbing affection this phone has is the adeptness to booty “Picture-in-Picture” shots, which takes an angel with the rear and advanced camera at the aforementioned time, acceptance you to pin the additional angel anywhere on the screen. I’m not absolutely abiding how this affection would be useful, but I’m additionally not a architecture worker, so I’ll accept to adjourn to those guys on this one.
The video approach is able of 1080p video at 30 fps, but it suffers from the aforementioned assimilation and benevolence issues as the photo mode. Another awe-inspiring affection Caterpillar absitively to accommodate is the adeptness to almanac application filters like Negative, Aqua, and Sepia. I can’t see why you would appetite to use these modes in, well, any circumstance, but the advantage is there for those who appetite it.
The CAT S41 is active Android 7.0 Nougat, which, at time of writing, is a 17-month-old body of Android. We do not apprehend new accessories to barrage with 7.0 Nougat at this point. Newer, added defended builds of Android accept been out for months. The ambition buyers of this phone apparently won’t affliction as abundant about appropriate software updates, but the actuality that it runs such an old adaptation of Android makes us feel like it adeptness not anytime accept one.
The S41 appearance CAT’s acutely ablaze user interface. It feels mostly stock, with a few baby UI tweaks like some custom icons, which accomplish the phone feel added like a Caterpillar device. There’s a allotment app, FM Radio, App toolbox, and a “Catphones” app which is aloof a articulation to the online abutment page. The best advantageous app congenital into the phone out of the box is the “Share” app, which allows you to allegation added accessories with the massive 5,000 mAh array arranged in this thing. You can usually alone do this with accessories application USB Type-C, so it’s nice to see this affection available, abnormally aback it has one of the bigger batteries on the market.
If you’ve acclimated a Nexus or Pixel device, the software about reflects what you would see on one of those devices. I’m consistently blessed to see a congenital FM radio, but you will allegation to use some active headphones as an antenna for this to work. Still, it’s actual nice to have.
The Caterpillar S41 is one of the best asperous accessories we’ve apparent to date. The concrete keys, IP68 acclimate resistance, and Gorilla Glass 5 accomplish it a admirable best for those alive in alarming environments. However, this is not a customer device. The apathetic processor and less-than-ideal camera will accumulate abroad anyone absent to use their accessory for added than the simplest tasks.
Design
Display
Performance & hardware
Cameras
Software
Specs
Gallery
Pricing and final thoughts
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| Caterpillar S41 | |
|---|---|
| Display | 5.0-inch IPS LCD 1,920 x 1,080 resolution 401 ppi 16:9 aspect ratio Corning Gorilla Glass 5 |
| Processor | 2.3 GHz octa-core Mediatek Helio P20 |
| GPU | Mali T880 |
| RAM | 3 GB LP-DDR4 |
| Storage | 32 GB |
| MicroSD | Yes, up to 2 TB |
| Cameras | Rear: 13 MP autofocus sensor with PDAF, LED flash Front: 8 MP anchored focus sensor |
| Battery | 5,000 mAh Non-removable |
| IP rating | IP68 |
| Military standard | MIL-SPEC 810G Operating temp: -25°C (-13°F) to 55°C (131°F) Category 4 vibration |
| Ports | MicroUSB (USB 2.0) 3.5 mm headphone jack |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi: 802.11 b/g/n, 2.4/5 GHz, 2x2 MIMO Bluetooth 4.1 NFC GPS |
| Sensors | Accelerometer Gyroscope Proximity Ambient light Electronic compass Sensor hub |
| Audio | Bottom-facing speaker |
| SIM | Nano |
| Software | Android 7.0 Nougat |
| Dimensions and weight | 152 x 75 x 12.9 mm 218 g |
| Colors | Black |
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