Over the years we’ve rather enjoyed dunking the Cat phones in water and giving them some general abuse. They’re tough, rugged smartphones designed for tough, rugged people like myself. Oh yes.
But..
Let’s be honest. If you put one next to the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S5 you used to struggle in the specs-race.
We’ve seen this change fairly recently, with the up-rated B15Q adding more performance but maintaining the same sturdy build and protection. Now there’s a new model in the range – the Cat S50. It’s a durable, strong and fairly high-end 4G smartphone designed specifically to be used outdoors and in challenging environments.
Encased in shock absorbent rubber, expect to pay $499 USD / 479 Euros or (by our calculations) around £383 for this quad core (1.2Ghz) device powered by Android 4.4 (KitKat). It’s waterproof and has wet-finger tracking, plus it’s scratch resistant, IP67 certified dustproof and has a 4.7″ shatter-resistant Gorilla glass 3 screen.
Around the back is an 8 megapixel camera with flash and HD video, plus you get 8GB on-board storage and up to another 64GB via the microSD card slot.
Although you get Google Play, on board, Cat are also trying their own store called the “Cat Phones App Store” with 1000 hand picked apps. The S50 also has enhanced audio thank to a sound system developed by Waves, which should mean better sound outdoors.
If you lead an active lifestyle, have a tough job or you’re just tired of wrapping your current phone in a big case, give this a try instead.
Full gallery below and, below that, further details in the press release. It‘ll be available at the end of this month from the same retailers as the B15Q – Amazon, Clove, Expansys etc. Head over to CatPhones.com if you’d like more information.
