Caterpillar is a household name when it comes to construction and mining equipment. Their yellow CAT logo can be recognized worldwide. With more than $89 billion in assets, this company was ranked number one in its industry and stands 44th in the Fortune 500 top companies list.
On the other hand, FLIR Systems is the world's largest commercial company that specializes in thermal imaging cameras—you know, the kind that lets you view the world like you were a dreadlocks-wearing alien chasing heavily muscled commandos around the jungles of Central America.
Now, Caterpillar has partnered with FLIR to launch the company's first smartphone with FLIR thermal imaging built right in.
Built For the Rough
The new S60 is not your ordinary phone. Aside from having a built-in FLIR thermal imaging system, this phone has a 3,800 mAh battery, die-cast steel frame inside, and Gorilla Glass 4 display, to name a few. The steel frame is designed to exceed the military's 810G drop test specifications. This basically means that the phone can survive a dive into concrete floors from over five and a half feet.
The phone is also waterproof: it has switches on the front of the device that seal the phone from getting its insides wet, and can last up to an hour underwater at a depth of 5 meters (16.4 feet). This is a great feature for workers who have to rough it out in the rain. Appropriately, CAT targets consumers from the construction, engineering and manufacturing industries to sell this hardcore phone.
The S60 will be available sometime in June this year and will cost $599. The CAT's website does not give specs of the phone off the bat, and instead asks you to "register your interest." It doesn't really ask for your information though, and it lists all the amazing specs after clicking the button.
Here are some of the other specifications of the S60:
32GB onboard storage
3GB of RAM
Snapdragon Octa core processor
Just like other smartphones on the market today, it also has features like location tracking through GPS, assisted-GPS, Glonass and the Chinese Beidou satellite network. Additional features include Bluetooth, NFC, FM radio, barometer and altimeter sensors.
The phone cameras are not so bad either: 5 megapixels at the front and 13 megapixels at the rear. The camera is located next to the thermal imaging Lepton sensor, which allows both the camera and the thermal sensor to work together, creating a composite image from both feeds. That was one of the most important innovations that FLIR introduced on the FLIR ONE, and it allowed those who weren't familiar with thermal imaging to be able to easily decipher what they were looking at.
Overall, the S60 is a pretty good investment for people who work in harsher conditions than most of us. Due to its resilient features, the phone is slightly thicker than the iPhone, measuring at about half an inch. It may not be as pretty, but the insides are pretty awesome, and it can survive the very worst that life can throw at it.
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