CAT S61 Single SIM 64GB Unlocked Smartphone with Integrated FLIR Thermal Imaging Camera, 10,000mAh Rugged Power Bank & CAT S61 Hybrid Case - North American Variant - 2 Year Warranty

I pulverize my poor phones! This one, so far, has taken some abuse without so much as a scratch. The stock screen protector is awesome, no bloat-ware means it runs 10X better/faster than any Droid or Samsung I've ever used. Previously had an S5 which admittedly held up better than any phone before that but it was always slow or didn't process that quickly.I switched to AT&T from T-Mobile and I don't think I'll ever go back. I get reception in places even the Verizon guys don't, and I'm in the middle of nowhere! I wish I could test the sensitivity of the receiver but I wouldn't doubt it's probably in the -130dB range (most that I've tested are only -115dB if you're lucky).The only app that didn't work so far is the distance measurement tool. Not sure why, but it's not my main concern. I bought it for the thermal camera and it's the bomb! We have a $6K unit at work and the only real difference I see is this tops out at around 724°F. For engine and electronics diagnostics this thing is great. You can use the average or concentrated points and it's pretty darn accurate from 1-30' away. It takes a while to learn how to use it but it can be really helpful if you take the time to tinker. The key is to have as much of a contrast in temperatures as possible (just like with regular cameras, only thing heat). You can see studs and wires in the wall if the temperatures are just right. If the screen gets saturated just put your hand or a finger in the viewer and it will level it out.As a weird side note, my favorite feature of this phone that's not even mentioned in the reviews is the access to the flashlight. You can get to it with the screen still locked and then it won't get shut off by accidentally touching the screen again. As a mechanic type person this is the most insanely awesome feature to have on the entire phone! Oil changes, changing headlights/light bulbs, working on brakes, rebuilding carbs, all need a light source. I don't have to go dig out the shop light because this thing does it all. For a more serious job you might want to get out the reinforcements, but I'm overwhelmingly happy with this feature. Pair that with the durability of the phone and resistance to liquids while still staying functional is paramount in my book. No need to drag the laptop out to the garage for shop manuals.The air quality meter is actually pretty good as well. You really don't think about it that much but it goes off in some places and I can't help but think "hey dummy, don't sit here and breathe this stuff, open a window!". You don't use it all the time but it's just a great feature to have.Battery life is phenomenal! Holy crap, I kill some batteries and this phone is just the Energizer Bunny. It charges ridiculously fast on the stock charger brick and the battery bank is actually very usable. I figured it would be a bit of a gimmick but it's legit. The flashlight on it is a good extra flood light in a pinch. You can charge the phone almost two full charges before it needs to be recharged, so probably 3 full days of regular use before you would absolutely have to plug in.I didn't test the headphones that came with it, but they're probably just, well...headphones.Wet screen operation is no problem and using it with gloves is no different. I have to say if there's any disappointments is the screen brightness is a bit all over the place. I wish it had quicker access to the controls, but it's livable (but annoying at times).Sorry for the long read, but I hope it was helpful and you will be happy with this phone if you get one! I love it so far!

TL:DR; WOULD BUY AGAIN. IN FACT, I DID!This is the honey badger of cellphones - It Just Don't Care. Drop it. Onto concrete / gravel / slushy salty mud with sand / steel mesh carrier baskets / into the mudroom sink / into the hottub with fresh chlorine and the jets on. It still works perfectly. No visible damage whatsoever. I no longer fear for my phone when I am "doin' stuff". Although I have not tried it, there is a video of some guy smashing walnuts open on concrete blocks with the display of Cat S61. WHAM. Then he eats the walnut. Then he does it again. S61 is unfazed.And yes, the display is bright enough that you can read it in direct sunlight.The FLIR thermal infrared is freakin' useful. I legit use it probably once or twice a week, and "for fun" maybe twice that. Probably saved myself a couple thousand already and my company twice that. Also great fun in bars.The vapor sensor is ... useful. Most amusement - it goes off when I'm sitting on the potty... yeah, whaddya expect? At least I know it's working. And maybe that I need more fiber in my diet. But the vapor sensor was also handy when I was using rubbing alcohol to clean some stuff - didn't realize how badly the fumes were building up till the phone warned me; ventilation on, fumes go away. Can't ask for more.The measure tool works. It isn't that great. Maybe OK for estimates but it needs rework. Hear me, CAT / Bullitt? RE-WORK. Given you also have a 3-axis magnetometer and a 6-DOF accellerometer, it should be more like a surveying "single station" with az/el/distance, and forshortening compensated linear and area measurements, not the simple parallax distance unit you have built (also, the dot-finder is way too slow. Contact me for tech help if you want).No, it is not fashionable. It has a bezel and the bezel is hard rubber. It has a rim and the rim is cast aluminium. It has a back, and the back is urethane copolymer and it won't break if it hits granite. It has an anti-notch, to house the FLIR thermal infrared camera.It is everything an iPhone is not. Including fragile.It's heavy, but balances well. And S.O. liked it enough I got one for them too (trade-up for an original Nexus 6) and they love that they can use it ALL DAY (for work, they're literally screen-on + camera-on + heavy mobile data use) for 3-5 hours a day on site) and still have plenty of battery for facebook at bedtime. I personally rarely get below 75% unless I've been FLIRing a lot; the FLIR camera uses like 1 amp so even a 4000mah battery can't run the FLIR all day. Then again, the genuine FLIR thermal cameras at work don't get more than an hour or two out of their batteries either, so it's not a specific problem with the S61's camera.Something the phone offers but I haven't tried - reverse charging- with that 4500 maH battery this phone claims it can act like a power bank to charge other devices. Heh, cool... maybe test it someday on bluetooth earbuds? But I'll need a special cable - the S61 is USB-C , not microUSB (no "wrong way flip it over" confusion, which is great).The bluetooth connection to my truck works fine. Also phone-as-WiFi-hotspot works fine (I'm a happy T-mobile user, and sometimes use the hotspot in the phone to get stuff done). It fast-charges in a couple of hours so if you charge it when you're driving between job sites or on your commute, that's all it needs.It's also a nearly-pure Android experience, almost without spy / nagware apps. There is just ONE piece of software on the phone that is "cramware" - that's File Commander. Try to do anything useful with it and it wants money. On a $1000 flagship phone that's just not right. Get rid of it; there's better (free, even open source) alternatives if you really want to include a filemanager program. Or prepay FC and get the unlocked version out of the box.

Got my cat s61 in April 2019. Worse purchase I have ever made on here. For starters I ignored all the red flags on youtube and other forums, don't be like me and think you'll get the "good" phone. It's not worth the asking price, I wouldn't give $100 for a new one. My first issues started up with going into a boot loop. I lost all my thermal pics for work after having to reset the phone, this happened twice in the first 3 months. Weekly the phone lost it's APN settings causing service lost, and me saving a screen shot of the correct settings. Not even a few months later I began having battery issues, the phone would get super hot and drop in battery % pretty quick. I called up the at first friendly cat support who quickly got a repair order in. I got the phone back and had the this same issue 3 times TOTAL. Finally I demanded a new phone and sent it off I received a used phone with air bubble filled screen protector. Despite it's looks of abuse it was the best working and longest lasting, but it to had a battery failure. As the issues progressed the support seemed to get worse, so I gave up and bought a Sonim XP8. What I should have done the first time. With each failure of the cat s61 I fell back to using my 3 year old Samsung $150Walmart phone which is still working at this time.The cat s61 has super cheap flaps over the ports that usually won't stay closed. When it comes to having bars when you need them the cat S61 will always be sure to disappoint! The buttons were nice and the speaker was loud. If I had to do it over I would not buy.