Built-in thermal imaging gives Cat’s S60 smartphone superpowers

By Alexander Thickstun Published July 11, 2016

Caterpillar is better known for making bulldozers and backhoes than smartphones, so it goes without saying that the new Cat S60 is not your typical phone. It’s the world’s first smartphone with an embedded thermal camera, which opens the door to countless applications.

Inside is a FLIR thermal camera, along with a 13-megapixel visible-light camera to augment the thermal view with visible details like edges and corners. You can even add crosshairs to measure an object’s temperature by just pointing the Cat S60 at it.

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Aside from these heat-viewing superpowers, the Cat S60 is also the most waterproof smartphone available. With the speakers open, the phone is waterproof up to 6.5 feet, but a switch up top lets you close both the speakers and microphone, readying the phone to dive as deep as 16 feet without issues.

It also sports a beefy die-cast frame that will withstand falls onto concrete from 6 feet high, which helps it earn a military-spec durability rating. Watch our video to see its durability and impressive thermal imaging put to the test.

Alexander Thickstun

Former Video Contributor

Alexander graduated with a degree in Aerospace Engineering in 2005 and an MBA in 2011. He's an outdoor enthusiast and avid…

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