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The assortment of secure smartphones is now dominated by purebred Chinese brands that offer
- What is it?
- What is interesting CAT S52?
- What is in the box?
- What does the CAT S52 look like?
- What is protection?
- How good is the screen?
- What about performance, memory, sound and autonomy?
- What about the interface?
- How good is the camera?
- In the dry residue
What is it?
The CAT S52 is a shockproof, waterproof smartphone, protected against external influences according to the IP68 standard, equipped with a 5.65-inch display and an eight-core MediaTek processor.
</ p>What is interesting CAT S52?
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The most important characteristics of suchsmartphones is, of course, protection from external influences. CAT S52 is IP68 and MIL-STD-810G certified. They promise that the smartphone can be immersed in water to a depth of 1.5 meters for 35 minutes, can withstand being dropped onto concrete from a height of up to 1.5 meters, and is not afraid of high and low temperatures, pressure changes and vibration. Otherwise, everything is not so impressive: the smartphone is equipped with a 5.65-inch IPS screen with HD+ resolution (1440x720), which is quite modest. But they promise to work with wet hands and gloves. Inside there is an eight-core MediaTek Helio P35 processor, 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal memory, plus a separate slot for MicroSD and two SIM cards. The smartphone is equipped with a fingerprint scanner, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, a standard headphone jack and Type-C for charging. The controversial point of the smartphone is its battery, the capacity of which is only 3100 mAh, which is somehow quite weak considering the class of the smartphone. It is non-removable and supports fast charging. The main camera in the smartphone is single, 12 MP with f/1.8 aperture, 1.4μm, dual pixel PDAF and electronic stabilization. Front camera - 8 MP. CAT S52 runs on Android 9 Pie.
</ p>What is in the box?
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The smartphone comes in a cardboard boxblack and orange, with a picture of a smartphone and basic technical characteristics. Inside there is a standard set of smartphone, Type-C cable, charger and documentation.
</ p>What does the CAT S52 look like?
Apparently, the main idea of the engineers whenThe design of the CAT S52 was to create a rugged, shock- and water-resistant smartphone in a relatively compact and discreet package. Indeed, most rugged smartphones are huge, very heavy and not particularly convenient. CAT S52 is somewhere in the middle between the above-mentioned models and standard smartphones. Despite its protected characteristics, it is not significantly larger or thicker than conventional smartphones and weighs “only” 210 g, which is more than good in its category.
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From the front, the CAT S52 looks like a typical smartphonethe middle segment about a year and a half or two ago. There are frames, very noticeable, but within reasonable limits, especially for a secure smartphone. Above the screen there is a speaker, a front camera and a fairly bright LED indicator. There is nothing under the screen. The entire panel is covered with sixth-generation Gorilla glass, on top of which a protective glass is glued from the factory. There is a small protruding edge along the entire perimeter, which (theoretically) increases the screen's chances of surviving a fall.
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The smartphone has a massive metal around the perimeterTorx screw frame. They are decorative or functional - it's hard to say, but it looks in detail. On the left side there is a stub, under which there is a tray and a small reset button in the recess.
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Digging out the tray is not an easy task, Ineeded a screwdriver for this. Maybe someone can get it with your fingers. In any case, the microSD card and two SIM-cards are placed in the tray. So no one was deprived.
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On the right are massive metal power and volume buttons. The latter are divided, and not made in the form of a “swing”. The power button has a textured surface:
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At the top there is an additional microphone and a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack.
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Bottom - the external speaker grid, microphone and USB Type-C connector.
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The back cover is made of thermoplasticpolyurethane with rubberized surface. It is divided into two parts. On the bottom there is an additional relief for a more reliable grip. The surface is pleasant, vaguely reminiscent of Soft-Touch in sensations.
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At the top of the back is a fingerprint scanner, an embossed CAT logo and a single main camera with a flash in the upper left corner.
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In terms of its dimensions, the smartphone rather resemblesa protected model, and a regular large smartphone in a protective bumper. Somewhere it feels that way. The rubberized heel has a positive effect on “confidence” grip: the smartphone does not fall out of your hand. Collected very high quality.
</ p>What is protection?
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As we wrote earlier, CAT S52 is protected byIP68 standard and MIL-STD-810G certified. In theory, the smartphone can be immersed in water to a depth of 1.5 meters for 35 minutes and can withstand being dropped onto concrete from a height of up to 1.5 meters.
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There were no tasks to kill the smartphone, but somewe still carried out the basic tests: the smartphone withstands a drop from outstretched hands without problems. But it is worth remembering: miracles do not happen and the metal frame is covered with dents and chips with regular falls on a hard surface. The CAT S52 survived the dive into the water tank without any consequences.
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How good is the screen?
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The smartphone uses a rather modest softwareScreen characteristics: 5.65-inch diagonal, IPS matrix with HD+ resolution 1440x720, pixel density - about 285 ppi, aspect ratio 18:9. Considering the cost of the smartphone, you still expect a cooler screen. Visually, it’s a typical modern IPS matrix with appropriate viewing angles and a good amount of brightness. The graininess of the picture is practically not noticeable, including due to the use of IPS, and not AMOLED with PenTile. But still, after constantly using smartphones with FullHD+ and higher, the difference is slightly felt. The claimed operation of the screen with wet hands and gloves was confirmed in practice. What’s interesting is that the mode for working with gloves is turned on separately in the screen settings, but even with standard rag gloves turned off, the screen perceives it normally.
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Measurements showed that the screen is very impressiveindicators of brightness and contrast. The maximum brightness is 521.2 cd / m², the black field brightness is 0.208 cd / m², and the static contrast is 2506: 1. At the same time, the screen is well calibrated. There is a skew to cold shades, but very small, and the color gamut is close to the sRGB color space:
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Comparison with other models:
Device name
White field brightness,
cd / m2
The brightness of the black field,
cd / m2
Contrast
CAT S52
521.2
0.208
2506:1
Sigma Mobile X-treme PQ39 MAX
242.987
0.111
2189:1
Nokia 4.2
333.087
0.283
1177:1
Oukitel WP2
358.108
0.168
2132:1
CAT S60
602.743
0.765
788:1
What about performance, memory, sound and autonomy?
In terms of hardware, the CAT S52 has a 12-nanometerMediaTek Helio P35 (MT6765) processor, which includes 8 Cortex-A53 cores with a maximum clock frequency of up to 2.3 GHz and a PowerVR Rogue GE8320 graphics accelerator. There is quite a sufficient amount of memory (considering the class of the smartphone): RAM - 4 GB, built-in - 64 GB, memory cards up to 512 GB are supported. In terms of performance, everything is quite modest: applications work fine, the interface is not dull, although it’s difficult to call it lightning fast. In synthetic tests, the results are appropriate, quite “budget” by level. Games are also generally playable, but the most modern ones with heavy graphics run on minimum settings with not the most comfortable framerate.
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There are no special problems with the stability of the operation; the case does not heat up under prolonged loads.
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I was pleased with the set of wireless interfaces.There is dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, Bluetooth 5.0 and NFC. Global positioning systems GPS, Glonass, BeiDou and Galileo are supported. Everything is fine with the signal reception quality. The sound of the smartphone is no different, neither for the worse nor for the better. The speaker is average in volume, the volume reserve in the headphones is not bad, but in terms of quality everything is at an absolutely standard smartphone level.
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To unlock the smartphone providedtraditional fingerprint scanner on the back. It is placed successfully, it works quickly and accurately. Although it would be strange if there were any problems with his work.
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The main oddity of the smartphone is its battery.at 3100 mAh, which is very modest. And not only by the standards of secure smartphones, modern “ordinary” Most models offer larger batteries. Fast charging supported. In fact, probably due to the low screen resolution, everything is standard in terms of autonomy. The smartphone lives stable during the day. And if you consider that it will obviously be bought for communication, and not for games or constant filming, then it can easily survive for a day and a half. Although, if you take it on a hike anywhere, only with a power bank.
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What about the interface?
CAT S52 runs on almost pure Android 9Pie, without any own add-ons or an abundance of additional applications. In fact, from your own there are only a couple of shortcuts that are really just links. Toolbox - to the Bullitt app store and registration - understandable in the text. Plus a camera application of its own. The rest is the familiar Android 9 Pie with button and gesture navigation options. They promise a mandatory update to Android 10. Of the nuances - localization is not yet complete.
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How good is the camera?
The main camera in the smartphone is single, whichlooks weird lately. 12 MP Sony sensor with 1.4μm pixel size, f/1.8 aperture, dual pixel PDAF and electronic stabilization. The camera application is proprietary and extremely simple. No translation. The main screen has all the necessary settings, including HDR, flash, timer and mode switching. There are only three of them: photo, portrait and video. In the settings there are additional little things like grid, face recognition, geotagging and resolution selection.
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Cameras have never been a strong pointsecure smartphones. It is difficult to compare CAT S52 with other rugged smartphones in this parameter. To do this, you need to try a couple of dozen of them. In absolute terms, I expected worse results. During the day, the photographs turn out to be very good, but in the evening it is difficult to get a clear picture. Although quite real. The smartphone takes pictures with HDR very slowly: either the modest processor takes its toll, or the optimization is not the best. Or a combination of these factors.
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The smartphone writes video in FullHD resolution of 30 frames per second, electronic stabilization is announced. Visually, there is something, although it does not work in the best way.
</ p>In the dry residue
The CAT S52 smartphone looks like a tourist whosuccessfully disguises itself as an office worker: the company has managed quite well to combine the features and advantages of protected models and fit it into a decent, neat case of relatively adequate size and design. If we evaluate the CAT S52 without reference to its cost, then we have a shock-resistant, water-resistant smartphone, which (taking into account the experience of using the CAT S60) is really better in terms of durability and quality than inexpensive Chinese ones. It is equipped with good color rendering and a very bright display, which is pleasant to use with gloves and wet hands, but not pleasing with its resolution. The smartphone has very modest performance hardware. and a small battery by class standards, but there are all modern interfaces, including dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, Type-C and, as a bonus, a tray that can accommodate 2 SIM cards and a memory card. The main problem with a smartphone is its cost.16,000 UAH(By the way, on the official website the price is not very different: £ 449.00), which is certainly very expensive. Even if we assume that he will live longer than a couple of inexpensive protected competitors. For the same amount, you can get, for example, Samsung Galaxy S10e with moisture protection and clothe it in a shockproof bumper.
4 reasons to buy CAT S52:
- protection against bumps and drops, dust and water;
- very bright and contrasting display with support for gloves and wet hands;
- full tray with places for 2 SIM-cards and MicroSD;
- the presence of modern interfaces: dual-band Wi-Fi, NFC, USB Type-C.
3 reasons not to buy the CAT S52:
- very high cost;
- small battery; modest battery life;
- modest iron.
CAT S52
Shockproof, waterproof smartphone with notoo monstrous body, IPS display, modest performance, dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, Type-C, a single 12 MP main camera and a 3100 mAh battery.
Rozetka
Foxtrot
Unkillable
Specifications CAT S52
Display
IPS, 5.65 inches, HD+ 1440×720 (18:9 aspect ratio), ~285 ppi
Housing
dimensions: 158.1×76.6×9.7 mm, weight: 210 g
CPU
Mediatek MT6765 Helio P35 (12 nm), (4×2.3 GHz Cortex-A53 + 4×1.8 GHz Cortex-A53), GPU PowerVR GE8320
RAM
4 GB
Flash memory
64 GB, MicroSD
Camera
12 MP, f/1.8, 1/2.55″, 1.4µm, dual pixel PDAF; front camera: 8 MP
Wireless technology
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac (dual band, 2.4 and 5 GHz), Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, FM
GPS
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO
Battery
3100 mAh, non-removable, fast charging
operating system
Android 9 Pie
Sim card
2xNanoSIM
Additionally
IP68 and MIL-STD-810G certification. Immersion in water to a depth of up to 1.5 meters for 35 minutes, drop onto concrete from a height of up to 1.5 meters
For those that want to know more:
- Oukitel WP2 Review: Survival Smartphone
- Sigma Mobile X-treme PQ39 MAX review: a modern secure battery phone
- CAT S60 review: world's first thermal imaging smartphone
- Review of Huawei P Smart Pro (2019): there is never much memory
- Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite review: flagship at the minimum
- Vivo V17 review: competitors, get moving!