I had the new Cat S52 smartphone in my possession for nearly three weeks prior to its national launch. I used it on a daily basis during the three week period and spent a considerable amount of time testing it in various environments.
Firstly, there's no doubt that the S52 is tough. It has IP68 certification, which means that it is super resistant to sand, dust, and dirt. It can also be submerged in up to 1.5m of water for approximately 35 minutes. It’s, however, not clear if it can only handle freshwater or freshwater and saltwater.
It’s equipped with Gorilla Glass 6 and it can handle a 1.5m drop onto solid concrete without succumbing to the impact. It has a MI-SPEC-810G certification, which means it’s resistant to thermal shock, vibration, salt, and humidity. Lastly, it has an aluminium frame with a non-slip rubberised TPU back-plate.
It’s safe to say that the new Cat S52 confidently ticks the ruggedness box. I was pleased with its rigid feel and was not a disappointment by how it handled a few drops on concrete.
I can’t go on for much longer without mentioning the sleeker design of the phone, which is the most notable change with this new version. The sleeker design was purposeful as Cat is aiming to diversify its target market.
The sleeker design means that it is more pocket-friendly, an important and unique feature for a rugged phone. Its dimensions are 158.1mm x 76.6mm x 9.69mm and it weighs a surprisingly 210g. There are no removable caps over any of the ports, further adding to the sleek look.
The aluminium frame gives it a distinctive look, which I’m not too fond of. On the back, there’s a round fingerprint scanner, a Sony 12 MP camera on the top left-hand-side and the Cat logo in the top right-hand side.
I was impressed by how sleek the phone is for its ruggedness. I think the plan of making the new version slimmer works well.
Another thing that surprised me was the display. The overall look of the phone is not 2020 or 2019, in fact, it looks like the early ‘10s. For this reason, the display caught me off guard.
It is as bright as any new sophisticated phone. It has a Super Bright 5.65-inch display - HD+ (1440 x 720) IPS that works with gloves and wet fingers.
As mentioned before, it has a rear-facing Sony 12MP camera and 8MP front-facing camera. Its camera quality for night mode is impressive, although it’s not on the same level as a Google Pixel. The battery capacity is 3100mAh (supports fast charging).
It has a Mediatek Helio P35 Octacore 2.3GHz processor, 4gb of RAM, and 64gb of ROM that is expandable via microSD card (separate microSD and SIM slots).
The processor and storage are sufficient and I experienced no lag. Applications were responsive although it doesn’t have the best processor out there.
It’s equipped with the following sensors: E-compass Proximity Sensor Ambient Light Sensor Accelerometer Gyroscope.
Overall, the S52 is rugged enough for the environment it was built for, even though it is Cat’s slimmest rugged phone. So if you are looking for a phone that is rugged but doesn’t really look like it, the S52 might be ideal for you. What’s great about the phone is that anyone can use it, it’s not just for handymen or architects; it’s suitable for the average Joe.
My only minor gripe is the design. As mentioned before, the phone looks as though it was released in 2013. It looks like a really bad outdated iPhone. The silver looking aluminium frame is partly the reason for this.
