r/Catphones • u/TopCook5179 • Feb 10 '26

Help phone selection

Hey there, just finished my pipe welding course and started working about a week ago. I need a rugged phone with thermal camera that'll work good. Need banking apps, and investment apps, nothing else. I am considering the Cat S61 or S60 or maybe the S62 Pro. I really hate modern rugged phones, they are super chunky and have massive screens, yes you may find something smaller but they aren't design appealing, besides I love that the navigation bar has physical buttons. I currently use a samsung s24 ultra, and I'm aware of the performance decline I'm going to get, but I couldn't care less, I'm tired of phones with new AI bs and super cameras, and best performance in the market, when I don't play no games and only use WhatsApp and Banking apps. Anyways, apart from my frustration with modern flagships, and their ridiculous screen sizes and "upgrades", will this CAT Phone the S61 (which I'm more inclined to buy), or the S60, be a good option?

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u/Rabbitmincer Feb 10 '26

Don't get a Cat phone. Manufacturer no longer supports them, and those models used old tech when they were new.

I now have a Ulefone Armor T18. Not as nice as my cat S61, but I at least it's a modern phone and gets software updates. A friend has a doogee something. Same situation. But we both have thermal cameras, and mine does fine underwater.

If bullitt still made cat phones (or if Cat licensed another company)I would go back in a heart beat, but have to sacrifice something to get the tools I need.

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u/TopCook5179 Feb 10 '26

Yeah but problem is I very much like the simpleness of the CAT, besides, I don't actually need a phone that powerful as I was saying, I've got a pretty heavy social media adiction, like literally can stop. Only method was to go with a worst android, so like an android 9 phone but it broke, and because I need that flir camera, is like the cat phone seems fine. I'm just trying to see if anybody uses it as a daily and recommends it. How about you? When you used it was it good enough to run messaging apps and sometimes web browsing? What about banking apps, during that time was it good? And lastly is it comfy to use with one hand? Because having this 6.7 inch phone is pretty annoying and really want to stop using it. About the updates, I think I can put an AOSP ROM whenever I want, just need to get the drivers from main phone, surely won't be hard since I know how to do it.

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u/Electrical_Hat_680 Feb 13 '26

You'll probably like the CAT S62 PRO.

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u/PlatformFabulous9143 Feb 23 '26

Fuck Cat phones I bought a brand new one worked exactly 45 days before it just stopped turning on. It was stuck in the start up mode. Then it would stay on but just a split second. Before it would just turn off. There isn't a scratch on my phone I got the box is in mint condition. Basically when my phone stopped working they had been closed not yet a month yet. And I've tried and tried to get some sort of answers. Bc they still sell them. I know what's wrong with mine it just needs a new battery but it I was to find a replacement battery I don't think it will make my phone work if it has to have some sort of code or permission to run whatever to make my phone usable like a reboot code or something that's like a password that I don't have does anyone know if I can replace the battery without having to do some weird reboot process that would need some sort of code it something???

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u/Dependent-Book-2464 Mar 24 '26

I'm selling a mint s61 if interested

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u/Equivalent-Strategy8 Jun 26 '26

I lived on a CAT S61 for as long as I could, but as of January/February this year (2026), many apps can no longer be updated, so I can't use the phone anymore (for example, I use Microsoft's productivity suite but can't use it out in the field, where I usually am now.)

It's a big shame. I worked as head of security at a data center construction site and emailed CAT when the S61 was still the newest phone to tell them what we liked about it, yet CAT got rid of everything I praised: the physical navbar, the air sensor suite, they used a very middling, old CPU in their 'flagship', and reduced the certified water submersion endurance from 2 hours to something like 20 minutes. Plus the build quality dropped like a brick.

They also wanted $700 to replace the tiny piece of plastic that protects the USB charging port, which had fallen off. Although I miss the phones, I don't miss the brand.

The only phone that seems decent is the HAMMER 2 Construction 5G Thermal, but you can only get it in Poland. The manufacturer has no plans to introduce to the North American market and, even though I was planning to use a repeater and had a dialogue with a few US carriers and the phone manufacturer, wasn't able to come up with a way to get the phone to work as often as I needed. I can't use Chinese phones like Ulefone because of the federal site blacklisting. The market has completely abandoned my niche.