CAT, a brand that is more well known to tradies, construction and mining, has dabbled in the world of smartphones with a couple of devices which really haven’t previously made it to our shore until now. The brand is launching its latest offering, the CAT S42, in an exclusive deal with Telstra business and corporate customers.
The CAT S42 has been billed as the essential work phone for those looking for a rugged and tough device that can survive on construction sites or on the road as a power workhorse.
The CAT S42 comes with an 5.5-inch IPS LCD display (720 x 1440) that is powered by Quad-core 1.8GHz Mediatek MT6761D Helio A20 (12 nm) Cortex-A53, along with 3GB RAM and comes with 32GB onboard storage that can be expanded to 128GB via MicroSD. It also has a 3.5mm audio jack, comes with Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 5.0.
Interestingly, there is NFC available but no fingerprint sensor either on screen on separate on the back of the device but the S42 does come with an IPS68, IPS69 dirt, dust and water ingress protection along with MIL-STD-810G thermal compliant and waterproof protection up to 1.5MP for 35 minutes.
The CAT S42 comes with a single 13MP rear camera, with the front facing camera being a 5MP, so still can get some tradie-quality selfies on site if needed. It also comes with Android 10 and there are plans to upgrade the S42 to Android 11 early next year but no time frame given. The company has stated that the CAT S42 will have guaranteed 2 years worth of security and firmware updates as well.
As stated, the CAT S42 is exclusive to Telstra business and corporate customers with device repayments starting at $18 per month for 24 months, whilst the cost is $36 for 12 months on top of the plan costs per month.
The CAT S42 will also be available from other retailers for $439 outright, though this has yet to hit any websites.
Ausdroid currently does have a CAT S42 on our review bench and will be putting the devices through its paces so keep an eye out on the site when the review hits the site.
How *do* you submerge a phone in 1.5 megapixels? ; )
Are these CAT phones manufactured by Ulefone – they look remarkably similar in specs and design to the Ulefone Armor phones (with a huge price markup)
Any news of the Cat S62 Pro. Big improvements over the S42.
Was gunna say… that isn’t even their newest one, nor even what could be considered their flagshiop phone… Why this hasnt been a thing earlier is also a curious note, when we have such a big, (positive?) culture around tradies… ?