Rugged smartphone comes with thermal camera

Smartphones as both products and as a market are now sufficiently mature that everyone seems to want their own niche design to sell to specific groups of people. That is why construction equipment company Caterpillar has its own mobile handset. Its newest phone is made by Bullitt Mobile, but the Cat S60 carries the Caterpillar brand. It is a rugged, water-resistant phone with a built-in thermal camera, making it a unique product in the market.

Like other highly-specialized electronics products, this device does not come with the latest internal specs such as Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 found in so many other high-end phones this year. The handset is for a specific sub-market and people who need an extremely durable phone with thermal imaging will pay the $600 without worrying about whether it is the fastest phone available.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Cat S60 still uses a Qualcomm processor, but Caterpillar opted for the less expensive Snapdragon 617. It also includes 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot. The 4.7in 720-pixel screen is powered by a 3,800mAh battery. The phone also ships with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, the latest version of the OS.

Rugged smartphones are having something of a moment. As mobile handsets have become increasingly important in the workplace, employers might be looking for something that is not going to break after a slight drop or bump to the screen. The Cat S60 definitely looks like it can take some punishment, which is reminiscent of Panasonic's Toughbook line of laptops.

While Caterpillar is relying on its brand as a manufacturing equipment maker, more traditional smartphone companies are getting into the rugged smartphone business, too. Samsung released recently its Galaxy S7 Active, which is a variant of the popular Galaxy S7 that has a more protective casing. Even so, the phone still looks sexier than the Cat S60. That might not be a good thing, however. Consumer Reports said the S7 Active failed to survive 30 minutes in five feet of water as Samsung advertised. A nice-looking phone with top-of-the-line specs does not mean it will not survive the conditions inwhich people want to use it. In light of that, Caterpillar's existence in the market makes sense.