After more than a week of having the heavy duty Caterpillar smartphone, we now come up with our full review. We have two models with us, but we will review the Android version first, the CAT B15Q.
See also: CAT B15Q unboxing and first impressions
The rugged smartphone by CAT is a real one. It is not a casing for a smartphone made by Caterpillar. Most of the impressions I got when I showed the B15Q is that they thought that it is only a casing for the iPhone 4.
In fact, CAT has already five models as of this posting. You can check them out at their website.
CAT via its local distributor sent us two units, the B15Q and the B100. The first one is an Android model and the second is a feature phone. We tested first the Android model.
Design and Build
The B15Q is protected by a rubber material on top, a hard plastic cover with rubber seals, and an aluminum side. It looks perfectly sturdy physically. As expected the unit is bulky as it requires that thickness for the protection it needs on accidental drops. Warning: It doesn’t mean that you can drop it as you wish. 🙂 You should take care of the B15Q as if you are taking care of your usual smartphone.
Because B15Q is waterproof, the micro-USB port and audio port are properly sealed with rubbers too. Even the rubbers that seal the ports looks sturdy too. I have to open the micro-USB port daily to charge the phone. It seems alright and looks like will last long.
B15Q has a replaceable battery with 2,000mAH. The hard plastic back cover has rubber lining to avoid leaks. I like to caution users that it is quite hard to put back the back cover in its place. You have to make sure that all locks fall into place, otherwise there will be uneven part which could be susceptible to water penetration.
Display and UI
CAT B15Q has the latest OS from Android, Kitkat 4.4.2 is installed with a minimal customization from CAT. Display resolution is kind of low at only 480×800. Most of the phones with at this specification has HD display already. Viewing angle is not that awesome too.
CAT also included a notification reminding users to close rubber covers to make sure the device is waterproof.
Storage and Benchmark
CAT B15Q has only 4G internal storage, a very limited for a phone with its price tag. You can only install so much apps and the problem is you can’t install apps into the external storage. A micro-SD slot can support up to 32G which can be used for media files only.
Antutu gave a high result of 17,457. At one point, I got more than 18,000 score which is good. The B15Q has the same processor as the Kata i3S
Drop Test and Water Proof Test
Believe me when I say I dropped the B15Q several times by intention. Although it is not encouraged, I did that to test how tough the smartphone is. Few times in the drop test that I encounter that the back cover became uneven. I have to remove it and fix it once more.
Other than that the phone did not break and still working fine.
The following photos will show the B15Q under water.. under salt water in Corregidor.
After drowning it I check if the phone is still alive and working… Alas, it was still breathing! 🙂 I mean working fine.
I can say that I am impressed on the toughness of the B15Q. In my first blog post, I thought this phone would be for engineers and those people that works in the field. After the review, I will include moms and dads with kids. Now you can let the kids play around with your phones without worrying that it may break.
Camera and sample photos
Evening shot.
Front camera isn’t so good.
Battery Life
The 2,000mAH battery performed well with me. It last for almost eight hours on data. It extends up to 15 hours on Wi-Fi only.
[symple_toggle title=”CAT B15Q Specs:” state=”closed”]
– 4-inch WVGA (480×800) capacitive multi-touch
– MTK 6582 Quad Core 1.3 GHz
– Gorilla Glass 2
– Wet Finger Tracking
– dual-SIM
– 3G 850/1900/AWS(1700/2100) or 850/900/2100
– GSM 850/900/1800/1900
– 4GB ROM, Micro SD Card support up to 32GB
– 1GB RAM
– BT V4.0 ; WIFI, B/G/N; 3.5mm; MICRO USB2.0
– Mil Spec 810G
– Drop up to 6feet (1.8M) onto cement
– Operational Temperature: -13°F (-25°C) to 131°F (55 °C)
– IP6X- dust proof
– IPX7 -Waterproof up to 3 feet (1M) 30 min
– 2000 mAh
– 125×69.5×14.95mm
– 170g
[/symple_toggle]
[symple_toggle title=”CAT B15Q SRP in the Philippines” state=”closed”]P15,990. [/symple_toggle]
Conclusion
The toughness of the B15Q including features like waterproof, dustproof and drop proof makes it a wonderful phone for everybody, not only for the people in the construction site nor for field engineers.
Although I wish that CAT has installed a larger internal storage and an HD display.
CAT B15Q will be initially available in the market this December, but it will be only sold to enterprise client of Cable Access Technologies, Inc. Cable Access is the distributor of CAT phones in the country.
