Tough nut to crack

How often do you drop phones? Worried about cracking your screen, or worse? Well, if you are willing to compromise on feel and build, then the Cat S60 is one phone you could take a look at.

Why? Cat S60 claims it is “drop-proof to 1.8m and reinforced with a strengthened die cast frame, it exceeds even military specifications, making it the perfect companion for those living even the most rugged of lifestyles.”

The “most rugged of lifestyles” can mean people working in construction sites, security forces, firemen or even somebody going on an adventure trip.

What distinguishes the Cat S60 from other phones is the look itself. While the trend these days is “sleek, beautiful, thin” phones, Cat S60 is none of these. The die cast frame gives it a rugged look. It is also bulky and heavy.

The device has a width of 73.4 mm, a height of 147.9 mm and is 12.6 mm thick. Yes 12.6 mm. It weighs 233 grams.

It is also waterproof and can survive depths of up to five meters for 60 minutes. There is a Lockdown Switch that enables it to do that. The S60 can also take underwater photographs and video, and the Gorilla Glass 4 screen is also gloves and wet-finger compatible. Cooking in the kitchen and want to refer to a recipe? You don’t have to wipe your wet hands. You also won’t get a panic attack if you spill water on it.

We dropped it at least four times from a height of five feet and there wasn’t a single scratch or dent. We also dropped the S60 in a bucket of water and let it stay there a while. Clicking a few decent pictures underwater was also easily managed.

There is an SOS button but the only problem is that the user has to open a flap to press a tiny red button inside. However, it could have been kept that way to prevent any accidental presses.

The phone comes with a 3,800mAh battery that lasted for almost 15 hours with 20 minutes of phone calls and at least three or four email apps and social media apps in push mode.

The S60 has a 13MP autofocus and a FLIR Thermal Camera. Thermal Camera? Yes. This is one of the USPs of the phone and could come handy in disaster management and for security teams to track movements in the dark. Thermal cameras are useful even in homes to detect water seeping or overheating devices. The front camera is 5MP.

However, this is not the phone you want if you like taking great pictures. The performance is average. But we have to remember that the USP of the phone is totally different.

The phone has a generous 3GB RAM with 32GB inbuilt storage and an expandable card slot that can take up to 128GB. It has a mid-range Snapdragon 617 octa-core processor.

As this is a water-proof and dust-proof phone, none of the slots are open. We have to open a flap even to insert headphones or a micro-USB cable. But if you want something that is rugged, water-proof, drop-proof and dust-proof, you have to make a few compromises.

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