Cat S61: Everything is better with laser

I love rugged phones. There is no really good reason for this. It's more like a series of reasons that somehow incoherently form an overall picture of a type of phone that I have a lot of sympathy for.

• Rugged phones don't want to be lighter, thinner, slimmer
• You can throw the phones around, it's cathartic
• If you drop your phone on the floor, there's no panic moment. Unless you're worried about your floor
• The battery generally performs better, as manufacturers don't cut corners here. What does a few extra grams matter

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The Bullitt Group is behind the best rugged phones on the market. The manufacturer builds phones that can withstand extreme conditions and publishes them under licence. Bullitt's range includes the Land Rover Explore and the Cat series, named after the American construction and lifestyle company Caterpillar.
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This article is about the Cat S61, the latest flagship from Bullitt. But before we talk about the phone, it's worth taking a closer look at the manufacturer.

Bullitt gets it right

My love letter to rugged phones doesn't end with the concept. Bullitt itself deserves a lot of praise. Because the manufacturer does one thing right above all: a new Cat or Land Rover phone is only ever launched on the market when Bullitt can be sure that the smartphone actually offers something new. Bullitt does not offer iterative updates that simply make everything that little bit better. Bullitt doesn't have failures like the Samsung Galaxy S9 - not a bad phone in itself, but just not groundbreaking or particularly innovative.

Smartphones

Cat S61

64 GB, Black / Silver, 5.20", Hybrid Dual SIM, 16 Mpx, 4G

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Smartphones

Cat S61

64 GB, Black / Silver, 5.20", Hybrid Dual SIM, 16 Mpx, 4G

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The latest phone from Bullitt is the Cat S61, the successor to the Cat S60, for which I have already found many very fond words. But the S61 has very little in common with the S60. Bullitt has gone the extra mile and given its users a reason to upgrade to a new phone. Example: Désirée, a student at a university where iPhones and MacBooks dominate the scene. She is proud of her Cat S40.

A manufacturer has shot itself in the foot by building a phone that is virtually indestructible and is competing fiercely with itself. Because no one else is doing it. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. It allows a niche market to develop that is monopolistic in nature, but gives Bullitt the freedom to push ahead with developments and perfect them before the launch. You can see that in the Cat S61. Everything works.

The Cat S61 offers users a lot

I've been carrying the Cat S61 around in my pocket for a week now. And I'm loving every second of it. Of course, the phone has clear weaknesses. In particular, the Snapdragon 630 system-on-a-chip (SoC) stutters from time to time. This is not noticeable in normal use. Instagram, WhatsApp and so on work flawlessly and quickly. However, with apps that generate a slightly higher system load - the thermal imaging camera or the laser measuring device, for example - I notice that the machine doesn't perform quite as well as it wants to. Because the S61 wants to work, I realise that. It reminds me a lot of the good old IBM ThinkPads. They weren't particularly fast either, but they never gave up.

On the hardware side, there is only one point of criticism apart from the SoC: Why isn't there an AMOLED display? Sure, it costs a lot more, but if the current generation of smartphones has shown one thing, it's that it's worth investing in screen technology. The picture doesn't look bad, all things considered, but the rough phone deserves some glamour in this respect. Furthermore, the Bullitt/Cat team could have invested a little more in the unlock mechanism. I simply don't believe that there wouldn't have been room for a fingerprint sensor. Face Unlock could also fit, because the front camera offers appropriate performance and there would also be space for additional sensors in the housing.

Other than that, the massive hardware of the phone only offers the things that phone fans have been wanting for a long time. One thing in particular: a programmable button on the side.

You can assign two functions to this button; you can activate one app with a short press and another with a long press. I've never launched Spotify faster. Samsung is close to this with the button that activates Bixby, but the company insists that the device either does Bixby or nothing at all. With Caterpillar, you can make it do whatever you want. It's these things, plus the whole philosophy of Caterpillar and Bullitt, that make the S61 such a likeable brick.

The better hardware, especially the SoC thing, would have an impact on the battery life of the Cat S61. It's generally not bad and can easily last a day with a 4500 mAh battery. But imagine if you had specs like a Huawei Mate 20 Pro, with a Kirin platform that could easily last a day and a half at full steam with 4200 mAh. That's where Bullitt could score. Because the manufacturer managed that with its predecessor, the S60. At the time of its release, the S60 was roughly on a par with the current iPhone in terms of system performance.

Indestructible and cathartic with outstanding call quality

The Cat S61 could almost be a kind of therapy phone. Because every time one of my smartphones falls to the floor or something in the general vicinity of the mobile phone hits the ground - keys on the table, for example - I cringe. Is the expensive flagship now broken? Because flagships are strong and all, but some of them scratch just by existing on the same planet as a sharp edge. The S61 is a welcome change. It's really good for the soul when you don't have to worry about the health of your phone. Catharsis sets in after about five moments of shock at the latest. At some point, you start banging the phone against the edge of the table out of curiosity. The device survives. Throw it into the trees? That works too. Water, dirt, dust... no problem.

In addition, the call quality is outstanding. I don't think I've ever had a phone that made calls so damn good. Sure, the sound quality is still miserable thanks to the outdated technology of our telephone network, but the playback on the Cat S61 is impressive. Loud, well isolated from the outside world and as clear as can be. During VoIP calls, my dialogue partners can be heard crystal clear. But the S61 really comes into its own when you use it with the loudspeaker. As a rule, you should keep the line of sight to the phone when using the loudspeaker. And don't be more than a few metres away. With the S61, I was on the phone from about five metres away with a wall in between and the other person could still hear me. In other words, the microphone on the phone is sensationally well built.

In short: The Cat S61 may be a rugged phone, but it does enough right to have plenty of appeal for everyday users. You can live carefree with this thing. If you can think of a way to break the device, let me know. I can tell you that driving over it with a car won't work. And the warranty will also be void.

So, that's it. Désirée, you can think about upgrading your S40.