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Cat Adds Thermal Imaging Camera to Rugged S60 Phone

 & Ajay Kumar Contributor

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On its face, the Cat S60 looks like your standard ultra-rugged smartphone, not too different from the Cat S40 or Kyocera Duraforce. Durable build? Waterproofing? Military Standard 810G certification? Bright display? Yep, the gang's all there.

But once you flip it over, you notice that the S60 has two camera lenses instead of one. The first is your regular 13-megapixel sensor, while the second is a thermal imaging camera integrated into the phone courtesy of Flir.

The thermal camera visualizes heat and highlights temperature contrasts. It can measure surface temperature from a distance of 50 to 100 feet away, even through smoke or other things that may block a regular sensor. You probably won't trade your iPhone in for an S60, though. Cat and Flir envision it being used by utility workers, building professionals, first responders, and other industries that require workers to see in the dark or identify places of heat loss or overheating appliances.

In terms of specs, the Cat S60 is on par with midrange devices like the HTC One A9. It has a 4.7-inch HD display, a Snapdragon 617 processor, 3GB of RAM, 4G LTE connectivity, expandable storage, and Android 6.0 Marshmallow, which is rare for an ultra-rugged device. There's a 3,800mAh battery, along with a few other bells and whistles like high-quality audio, wet finger and glove multi-touch for the display, and an ability to remain under 6 feet of water for a full hour.  

"To stand out from the crowd in today's smartphone market requires true innovation and we are proud to partner with Flir to announce what is truly a world's first," said Peter Stephens, CEO of Bullitt Group, which licenses mobile devices for Caterpillar. "The Cat S60 represents a milestone for smartphones. We are excited for thermal technology to be in the hands of Cat phones customers and to discover the myriad of daily time and efficiency use cases it will present for them."

The Cat S60 will be $599 for 32GB of storage. That's comparable to what you might pay for top-tier flagship phones, but as Andy Teich, President and CEO of Flir points out, "the CAT S60 presents mobile users around the world with new capabilities – a 'sixth sense' experience that only thermal imaging can offer."

Release dates and availability aren't confirmed yet, but we expect the S60 will come unlocked and work on GSM carriers like T-Mobile and AT&T.  

This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.

About Our Expert

Ajay Kumar

Ajay Kumar

Contributor

Ajay has worked in tech journalism for more than a decade as a reporter, analyst, and editor. He got his start in consumer tech reviewing hundreds of smartphones and tablets at PCMag as a Mobile Analyst, and breaking the hottest Android news at Newsweek as a tech reporter. 

In his most recent role, he’s worked in content marketing for a B2B SaaS company and in a PR capacity at an AI startup. Previously, he was Managing Commerce Editor at Android Police and Section Editor, Mobile at Digital Trends, where he spearheaded his team's coverage of breaking news, features, reviews, roundups, deals and more. He also worked at Lifewire as a Tech Commerce Editor, putting together tested best-of lists and assigning product reviews. 

As an avid tech enthusiast and traveler, Ajay loves tinkering with the gaming PC he built, adding new smart home devices to his apartment, and scoping out ancient ruins in new countries.

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