Cat Phones produces rugged smartphones designed for use in industrial, military, or other field settings. They tend to be dust and waterproof, and designed to withstand drops.

Now the latest model has a new feature: a thermal camera. The Cat S60 is the first Android phone to feature an integrated FLIR camera for measuring surface temperatures from up to 100 feet away.

cat s60_02

While this is something that’s obviously going to be useful primarily to enterprise and industrial customers, you could theoretically use the technology to measure household objects. Want to see if you’re burning something in the oven or on the grille? Fire up the FLIR camera. Want to know if your computer is getting too hot? Use the thermal camera.

I suspect those aren’t the sorts of things you’re going to need to do often enough to justify buying this particular phone. But Engadget spoke with a product manager at the company that makes the phones who thinks thermal imaging will be in as many as half of all smartphones within the next five years. As more phones integrate the technology, more people will find uses for it and more developers will create apps that take advantage of it.

As for the Cat S60, the phone has a 4.7 inch, 1280 x 720 pixel display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, Android 6.0 software, and a 3,800 mAh battery.

In addition to the infrared camera, the Cat S60 also features a 13MP rear camera that can be used underwater, a 5MP front-facing camera.

The phone can survive a 6 foot fall onto concrete and it’s waterproof at depths of up to 16 feet for as long as an hour.

The Cat S60 will be available later this year for $599.

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,547 other subscribers