Smartphones are great, but they are very easy to break. Falling on concrete or sliding off a table will often lead to splinters, cracks and unwanted dents. If you work in construction, outdoors, or other harsh environments, you may want something a little more robust than a thin glass sandwich. The rise of the rugged phone category was led by Cat, but until now you had to buy them online. Following a partnership with Sprint and a deal with Verizon in the works, the Cat S48c is the first rugged Cat phone to hit US stores.
The Caterpillar brand is actually licensed by British phone manufacturers, the Bullitt Group, and we reviewed its flagship Cat S61 last year. That phone boasts thermal imaging, air quality monitoring, and tons of other tools, not to mention an incredible price tag, but the Cat S48c is much simpler and more affordable at around $500. We took it for a test drive to see how it behaves.
Beyond robust
First and foremost, this is a solid phone. When you pick it up, you’ll immediately notice its angular edges, chunky body and its weight. The Cat S48c weighs 9.1 ounces (258 grams). To put that into perspective, the iPhone XS Max weighs 7.3 ounces (208 grams).
Simon Hill/Digital Trends
The rubberized case feels durable, and there are ribs on the back and sides that provide a better grip, both in your hand and when you place the phone on a control panel or table. You will find protective covers covering all ports. There’s a standard 3.5mm audio jack up top, a USB-C charging port on the bottom edge, and SIM and SD card slots on the right.
It’s a fairly standard IPS LCD with the ability to register touches even if your hands are wet or you’re wearing gloves.
You’ll also find metal volume controls on the right spine, while the power button is on the left. Just below the power button is a large, orange, textured button that supports push-to-talk (PTT), turning your phone into a walkie-talkie. We are pleased to inform you that you can reprogram this button to another shortcut function if you do not wish to use PTT.
There are large bezels on the front of the Cat S48c, with the earpiece and selfie camera at the top, and a large, impressively loud speaker at the bottom along with physical buttons for back, home and recent apps. There’s also a raised lip that sticks out to protect the 5-inch screen. It’s a fairly standard IPS LCD with a respectable resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 dots, Gorilla Glass 5 and the ability to register touches even if your hands are wet or wearing gloves. We found it to be generally readable outside, but the brightness isn’t that high, so direct sunlight could be an issue.
The Cat S48c is IP68 rated, meaning there’s no need to worry about dust or dirt getting in, and it can survive immersion in up to 4 feet of water for 35 minutes without any damage. It is also MIL-SPEC 810G and Class1 Div2 non-flammable, meaning it can withstand drops of up to 6 feet onto concrete, temperatures from -13°F (-25°C) to 131°F (55°C), and that will not ignite flammable gas or vapor.
We used it with dirty hands, got it wet and dropped it a few times and the Cat S48c showed no signs of being mistreated. One thing we did notice, which you can see in the photos, is that the speaker grill and the bezel around the screen are prone to collecting lint and dust.
Solid performance
Inside the Cat S48c is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 with 4GB of RAM. We found it fast enough for navigation and gaming Asphalt 9 without delay or stuttering. It runs Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box, but an update to Android 9.0 Pie is promised.
Performance isn’t the reason you’d consider this phone, but it’s good enough that it’s not a problem for us in everyday use.
We ran the benchmarks and the Cat S48c fared well, scoring 89,922 in AnTuTu, 4,131 in multi-core Geekbench 4 and 702 in 3DMark Slight Shot Extreme (Vulkan). These results are close to the Nokia 7.1, but well ahead of the cheap Moto G6. However, at $350 and $250 respectively, these phones are significantly cheaper than the Cat S48c. It would be fair to say that performance isn’t why you’d consider this phone, but it’s good enough that we didn’t find it a problem in day-to-day use.
We were a little worried about the built-in software. Along with Google’s app suite, you get a lot of Sprint apps of dubious utility, along with three Uber apps, Lookout, 1Weather, and a bunch of others. You can’t uninstall them, only disable them, which isn’t ideal when the phone only has 32GB of internal storage. Fortunately, there is room for a MicroSD card of up to 128 GB.
Camera
You get a 13-megapixel main camera in the Cat S48c and it’s on par with most budget phones. With decent lighting, it is possible to take good photos with this phone. It has HDR, but you have to be steady and patient to take photos with it. If you move too much when taking a photo, you’ll get a bit of blur. As you might expect, low-light photos produce noise, and high-contrast scenes lead to blown-out areas.
Simon Hill/Digital Trends
Simon Hill/Digital Trends
Simon Hill/Digital Trends
Simon Hill/Digital Trends
The camera app is the main area where we noticed some processing lag, but it’s easy to use and works well with close-ups and well-lit scenes. Cat’s camera app also enables underwater photography and you can launch it with three presses of the power button. The Cat S48c also has a competent 5-megapixel front-facing camera.
Serious endurance
One of the key features for the target audience here is battery life, so the Cat S48c comes equipped with a 4000 mAh battery. The battery in the iPhone XS Max is 3,174 mAh, but that phone boasts a 6.5-inch screen. With only a 5-inch power display, the Cat S48c’s large battery goes a long way. We found it easily lasted two days between charges and lighter users could get more out of it.
The Cat S48c has a USB-C port and the supplied charger seems to charge the battery quite quickly. Understandably, given the ruggedized case, you won’t find support for Qi wireless charging here.
Are you planning to drop your phone? A lots of? A Cat S48c might make sense
You can pick up a Cat S48c at Sprint today for $480 plus tax, or sign up for Sprint’s Flex lease where you’ll pay $20 a month for 18 months, then have the option to return the phone or pay off the remaining $120.
It will also be available from Verizon from the end of January, and you can pay $600 for an unlocked handset or $250 if you sign a two-year contract with the carrier.
Conceived as a rugged, waterproof phone that offers durability as its main feature, the Cat S48c achieves exactly what it sets out to do. You might think that getting a good budget phone and a rugged case is a better (or cheaper) move, and for some it will be, but the Cat S48c has been carefully designed with features that make it much easier to use in the workplace or other harsh environments. If you’re part of the target audience for this phone, we think it will tick most of your boxes.
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Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn