CAT B15 prototype "rugged" phone (via MWC & CAT)
Those working or playing in a rugged environment need their equipment able to handle anything in those rough areas might provide, like dropping equipment onto hard surfaces, bad weather and the ‘electronics end-all’ - water. Smartphones are particularly prone to those factors and typically end up as ‘non-functional’ after encountering anyone of those scenarios. Caterpillar, the makers of heavy equipment such as bulldozers, backhoes and front-end loaders, has designed a new Android-based smartphone that’s purported to be able to handle just about any abuse and still reliably function as though nothing had happened (except for the noticeable scratches and dings). The company recently unveiled their new phone, dubbed the ‘CAT B15’, at this year’s (2013) Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona (Spain). CAT’s previous models, CAT B10 and B25, were introduced to the commercial market back in May and are rugged in their own right but the B15 takes it a step further with the latest electronic upgrades. The first notable upgrade is the phones outer casing, which made from silver anodized aluminum rather than its predecessor’s rubber casing which means it can take much more of a beating. The display has also been upgraded from the B10’s Asahi strengthened glass to Gorilla Glass, which is both thinner and lighter than the previous iteration. According to CAT the smartphone can handle about a 6ft drop on solid concrete, be submerged under 3ft of water for up to 30 minutes and can operate in temperatures ranging from -4F to +122F which is pretty impressive to say the least.
The phones internals have been upgraded and downgraded as well (over the B10) and include a dual-core 1GHz Cortex A9 CPU (over the B10 and B25’s 800MHz Qualcomm single-core processor) running Android 4.2, 512MB RAM and 4GB of onboard storage (8GB of storage for the B10 and B25 respectively). The B15’s display, which features ‘wet-finger tracking’ (navigation of the screen even with wet fingers), features a slightly upgraded resolution of only 800 X 480 on a large 4-inch screen (over the B10’s 3.2in TFT HVGA screen). The screen certainly isn’t the best on the market right now in terms of HD resolution but it’s certainly stronger than most displays found in current generation mobile devices. Overall, the phone appears to be able to handle just about any accident that it may inadvertently encounter. According to CAT, the B15 smartphone will be available by the end of March (2013) and retail for around $390 US.
Industry, is this our perfect smartphone?
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