The Cat S62 Pro — and that’s Cat as in Caterpillar, the construction company — is now available in the US. The rugged smartphone is the latest device to feature Cat branding (it’s technically a product of licensee Bullitt Group) and builds on its predecessors’ integrated thermal camera capabilities. It’s designed with construction and industrial workers in mind, and at $699, it’s a more attractively priced follow up to 2018’s S61, which debuted in the US at $899.

Introduced last summer for sale in the UK, the S62 Pro features solid (if not super competitive) phone specs, which isn’t guaranteed in the rugged phone class. You’ll get a 5.7-inch 1080p display, a Snapdragon 660 processor with 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a 4,000mAh battery. But unlike mainstream midrange devices launching now, you won’t get 5G connectivity or Android 11 pre-installed; it ships with Android 10 and Cat says it will provide an update to 11. While the S62 Pro is significantly less expensive than its predecessor, it no longer offers the air quality and distance measurement sensors, and uses a slightly smaller battery (compared to 4,500mAh).

Photo: Cat Phones

That’s the boring stuff. The exciting bits that the S62 Pro has to offer include its marquee feature: a built-in Flir thermal imaging camera with four times as many thermal pixels as its predecessor. The phone offers new modes that allow users to adjust and blend overlaid information from the standard 12-megapixel camera, providing more context to the thermal image. There’s also an option to set an alarm that will notify you when a certain temperature level is detected.

As for its rugged credentials, the S62 Pro is rated at IP68 and IP69: the first indicates that it’s safe to submerge in 1.5 meters of water for up to 30 minutes, the second that it can withstand high pressure spray. The company says it’s been tested against even harsher conditions than this, but is warrantied to the level of those official IP ratings.

Photo: Cat Phones

It can withstand drops of up to six feet onto a steel surface, and its Gorilla Glass 6 screen is bolstered by an additional factory-fitted screen protector. The S62 Pro also meets requirements of the MIL-STD-810 military standard, including vibration and thermal shock resistance.

The S62 Pro isn’t currently available through any of the major US carriers, but is being offered unlocked directly from Cat phones and third parties including Amazon and Home Depot.