The new Cat S62 is giving us OG Pixel vibes with the benefit of extra durability
Rugged phones aren’t nearly as “mainstream” as say the Galaxy S21 or the OnePlus 9. But if you walk into your local carrier, chances are you’ll see a few of them around, as these phones are still pretty great. The new Cat S62 is launching today at T-Mobile and brings you all of the features that you would expect to find with a rugged phone, along with a few others that you might not have expected.
The Cat S62 sports a 5.7-inch display complete with Gorilla Glass 6 for scratch and shatter-resistance. The display has also been designed in such a way that you can still use your phone even if your hands are wet or if you have to wear gloves at the worksite. Powering the Cat S62 is the Snapdragon 660 SoC, paired with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of expandable storage.
Surprisingly, there’s a solid 48MP main camera on the back, accompanied by a 2MP zoom lens, capable of being used for Portrait images, Panorama’s, and more. The selfie camera is just 8MP, so it’s kind of a “it’s there” camera in case you need to have a video call.
Battery life comes in at 4,000mAh, but Cat has made sure that you’ll get faster-charging speeds thanks to Quick Charge 4.0 compatibility. This goes quite nicely with the two days of advertised battery life. But the S62 has two more tricks up its sleeve, with the first being the fact that you can use a Qi wireless charger with this phone. The second comes via the two Pogo Pins on the back of the S62.
Moving to the ruggedness, Cat hit all the checkboxes with the S62:
- IP68 Sand, dust, and dirt resistant
- MIL-SPEC 810H standard
- Drop-tested up to 6 feet onto steel
- Fully-waterproof and submersible
- Up to five feet of water for 35 minutes
- Can be washed with soap and disinfectant
- Bleach resistant
- Chemical Resistant
- Certified for use in Class I, Division 2, Group A-D, and T4 hazardous locations
That’s pretty damn impressive if you ask me, as there really aren’t too many phones that can offer that level of ruggedness. Cat even went so far to integrate a programmable side key that can be used for Push to Talk, or can be programmed to quickly open something like Google Assistant.
At launch, the Cat S62 will be exclusive to T-Mobile and will be available for $498. Hopefully, this comes to more carriers, because this is one impressive rugged phone.