CAT PHONES S41 Unlocked Rugged Waterproof Smartphone, Network Certified (GSM), U.S. Optimized (Single Sim) with 2-year Warranty Including 2 Year Screen Replacement

The only places that it takes a rating hit is on processor, gyroscope, and camera. It tends to lag a little, but not bad, and only when quite a few apps are open. The low light performance is extremely lacking, but it does well in full daylight. How to improve camera performance: use Adobe Lightroom camera or camera fv-5, and shoot in raw mode, maybe mess with manual controls. I'd honestly have paid 20-40 more for a gyroscope and just a little bump on whatever causes the lag, be it cpu, gpu, or ram - based on what oneplus is doing I think it's a realistic tweak to want. The gyroscope is an issue only because I had to have a VR headset for school presentations. The good: The battery life is absolutely exceptional. It regularly hits 10-16 hours of screen on time without a charge, depending on what apps I use and screen brightness. Reception is better than past phones. Gps is good enough to get the job done - I've used it to navigate backcountry hiking paths with offline maps. Waterproofing is exceptional. Make sure to have the flaps closed. Drop resiliency is honestly the biggest reason I chose this phone, and it hasn't disappointed. It's survived drops within the specified range that could have obliterated past phones' screens (none outside the specified height). The headphone jack is a little wobbly these days and I can't pinpoint a that it should be, but it still functions fine. Android 8. Nice job CAT. It actually made some of the lag issues better somehow. I'm glad there's almost no bloatware - basic Google apps, a fm radio, and a toolbox where you can download apps specific to industries. Expandable storage is really nice. Glove mode really works - thick leather gloves are a non-issue. Included are photos taken using the stock camera app (field, wheel, dog), Lightroom camera (snowy pine, both pops route 66 rainbow bottles), and camera fv-5 (sunset parking lot). Also included are two photos of it during unboxing, a case available for the phone (it's not included with it. It's third party), and another photo using the stock camera app in low light.

Purchased this phone to replace my ailing S40 and am completely satisfied. Battery last 3 - 4 days before requiring a charge. Phone is easy to use. To the people who complain that this phone 'freezes when using multiple apps together,' you have purchased a rugged phone, not a high speed computer or tablet. These phones have been designed more for sheer durability than for sitting around and trying to see how many apps you can run at once. I have run 3/4 apps at the same time and have had no issues whatsoever. Screen light and clarity is fantastic and photo quality is excellent - quite a bit nicer than the camera on my S40 in fact. Another added bonus is that it comes with a pre-installed tempered glass screen cover - something that most other phones are not supplied with. You will have to load your own ringtones and message alert tones, but again, it's a rugged phone, so don't expect a host of ultra fancy features. I will definitely recommend this phone for anyone who is looking for good quality, a long lasting battery and a phone that is easy to use.

I bought this phone several months ago to replace a low end LG, which was an emergency replacement for a Google Nexus phone that got bricked on an Android 'update' (thanks a lot Google). I prefer ruggedized phones if only because I believe the consumer has a right to expect that their expensive electronics designed for use outdoors can reasonably survive the bumps and bruises of everyday life. I selected the S41 based on price (around $350 when I bought it), compatibility with my carrier (AT&T) and reputation for rugged construction. As a phone, this is a great device. The build quality is outstanding. The battery life is exceptional (I simply don't worry about it. I'll glance at the battery level indicator once or twice a week and say to myself "I guess I ought to plug it in, it's getting a little low", but 'low' on this phone means you've still got a few days left whereas on my wife's iPhone it means you've got an hour). Call quality is very good. Some folks griped about the physical size of the phone. When I ordered it I was expecting a big hulking brick. No - this is really no larger than any other 5" phone encased in an Otterbox case. The S41 fits nicely into my shirt pocket. Let's talk about cases. On every other phone I've bought the first thing I do is buy an Otterbox Defender case for it. This is the first smartphone I've purchased where I didn't feel the need to buy a case. The body of the phone is rugged enough. Now for the flaw. The camera is lousy. Period. CAT made a huge mistake when they picked this camera for the phone. They should have spend an extra $10 (per unit) and incorporated a better camera. Color balance is way off, and the phone has a lot of problems dealing with high contrast situations, with the bright areas washing out. This is really sad, because the S41 is an otherwise excellent phone. At the end of the day is the S41 worth the current Amazon price? I say yes. This is a phone that I've grown to really like, and because of this experience I'm probably going to look at CAT again when it comes time to upgrade. Hopefully by then they will have integrated better cameras into their mid-range phones.

The only real claim to fame this phone has is it's durability and reliability compared to other units at and above it's price. That said as someone who works in a factory where there is plenty of dust and other things to kill phones I am VERY pleased with this phone, aside from some scratches on the screen from accidentally putting it in a pocket with keys it is still in perfect condition and shows no signs of wear. *UPDATE* recently a software update completely bricked this phone. Since the bootloader is locked and as far as I know there's no public rootkit for this phone it is essentially a $400 paperweight(recovery attempts did not work either). I'm incredibly disappointed with this as I had every intention to stick with this line of phones once I inevitably broke it, but now with this issue even if I buy a replacement s41 I feel insecure doing so as it may be bricked by an update as soon as I get it and there is no option for recovery. TLDR Hardware is fantastically durable, will not break on accident. Software is at least in my experience is the opposite.

Phone replaces a Samsung Galaxy S5 active. All apps perform better (moar ram better processor). Battery life is great, user is getting full day despite frequent mobile gaming. Factory screen protector was great but a tempered glass one would have been perfect. Screen is bright but can especially from angles have that blown out look. Device works on AT&T but only 2g. his is not an issue youtube loads as fast as wifi with full signal. The device has two sim cards but AT&T does not support this feature yet. Micro SD card is great, 32gb internal is big but for movies and music you'll want that expansion. I would like a bit more water proofing but this phone blew away the S8 active given that is 2 years old and still 750$.

Summary: Ingress protection: probably fine IF all covers are secure Overall feel: solid, nice grip, factory screen protector Physical UI: Okay; physical buttons are a little klunky Battery life: excellent so far; charge-rate not shown while on Call audio: good in both directions, loud speakerphone mode OS bloat factor: minimal, can't disable one or two items Lock security: problematic WRT the quick-settings Downside items: camera, messaging app, no VoLTE, WiFi behavior Manufacturer support: sketchy, but there's hope Full review: I'm new enough to the field of smartphones that I'm not really sure where any product should fall on a scale, so I'll stay rating-neutral and just describe some experiences. This is to warn potential buyers about some caveats, which may be tolerable enough to otherwise enjoy what seems to be a solid product. Some users will never hit some of these situations, depending on their own usage preferences. No, I haven't taken it swimming. The waterproofness is still entirely dependent on closing the three little access hatches right -- charging port, SIM/SD slots, and headphone jack. Why borrow trouble if we don't have to? I'm satisfied knowing that it'll be more resistant to conditions I might run into when hiking or doing rough physical work or whatever. It is a nicely solid unit, apparently fine on its own without any add-on case around it, making for a nice compact handful even though it's a ruggedized type. The edges have rubber inlays and the whole back is a similar rubbery-feeling material, giving a nice solid grip. The screen has a factory-installed protector glued on, which is very precisely fit and after a month-plus hasn't shown any signs of peeling up. Battery life is quite good, but much depends on individual usage and how many background activities have been disabled. In my configuration, a day of sitting idle on the cell network with nothing running and no calls drops the charge maybe 2-3% over the entire day. Fast charging vs. slow charging cannot be distinguished unless the phone is powered off. Call audio in my ear is nicely clear, and I've been assured that my speech sounds a lot better than it did on my old flip-phone. The phone microphone is tucked down underneath the row of navigation buttons. [And yes, they're physical buttons on this phone. That's an entertaining variant but in the typical flow of usage, it's actually slower to press a physical button than tap a region for the back/home/recent functions.] The speakerphone output is almost annoyingly loud even on the softest possible volume setting. The Android 7.0 Nougat it comes with seems reasonably bloat-free; the one super-annoying app you can't disable is the "App Toolbox" which upon startup immediately tries to call home to "appland.se" and send all kinds of intimate device details to a website you never heard of. My proxy layer now knows how to silently intercept and block that, along with the usual Google nonsense. Most of the other junk can be disabled readily enough. When the phone is LOCKED, it is still possible to turn wi-fi, cell data, bluetooth, hotspot, and airplane on or off from the "quick shade". This is arguably a security lapse, as such configurability should NOT be randomly changeable by someone who happens to casually pick up the phone. The flashlight is similarly left enabled, but that may actually be useful even if it lets someone run your battery down faster. The workaround is to remove the items in question from the shade configuration, and access the relevant settings once the phone is unlocked. Oddly, the location icon *does* require unlocking to toggle, which is rather inconsistent. The messaging app has an annoying race-condition bug where MMS is concerned. A short description and a "Download" link is presented for a new MMS, and if the phone is not connected to the cell data network at the time you tap the button it changes state to "downloading..." and NEVER returns to tell you it failed and allow retry later. Some internal service that presumably downloads the content sometimes shows a pop-up that download failed, but the message app never gets this status returned and stays in "downloading..." deep space until you REBOOT the entire phone. Workaround: have cell-data turned on and valid before trying. MMS fetch does NOT work over wi-fi. As noted in other reviews, the main camera could be a lot better -- not necessarily because of the hardware, but because of the lousy processing done in the camera app. Typical soft edges and too much "oversharpening" leading to unnatural-looking detail. If you need to do photography, get a real camera and don't rely on *any* phone's tiny fixed optics. I'm not even going to talk about the selfie-cam, as it got taped over within ten minutes of unboxing. The phone does NOT do VoLTE or wi-fi calling, at least in the variant that T-mobile and other carriers expect with the IPSEC encapsulation. There seem to be capabilities for plain old SIP, but that's a different beast from what people expect as having cell service over their home wi-fi hookups. Workaround, on T-Mo: order a "LTE cellspot" unit, free except for a one-time $25 deposit. Other carriers may have equivalent units to create a strong micro-cell within your home and pipe to the carrier over your regular internet hookup. It appears to be impossible to *prevent* the phone from jumping onto whatever SAVED wi-fi networks it sees in range, and sometimes it hops randomly between different ones as it pleases which can really screw up any notion of a "session" you have through a particular network. For different APs within a single infrastructure that's fine, as it allows roaming to the strongest one, but for different networks?? Wrong. Samsung actually got this right, presenting a list of visible saved networks but not joining *any* of them until you say so. Klunky workaround: temporarily set incorrect passwords for private networks you don't want to join right now, and hope that there isn't an "xfinitywifi" within range because that will try to grab away your expected connectivity too. The people behind "[email protected]" could use to be a little more responsive when sent specific complaints. On the other hand, they claim [as of Sep-2018] is that there will be an Android 8 update available relatively soon. Maybe that will fix some of the minor bugs and introduce proper wi-fi calling, leaving the users to then convince their carriers to enable it for their accounts with non-branded phones. They also now know of several things that need to be fixed and/or added to in the online PDF user manual. Bottom line: pretty happy with it overall, still mastering workarounds for minor annoyances.

Quite a good little phone. A lot of features on it, that I would expect to see in some of the brand new Samsung Galaxy phones. When it comes to battery life, for the first seven or eight months I would only have to charge it every 2 days or so. That's a lot better than any Galaxy phone that I've ever owned, And definitely better than any iPhone on the market. I've bought 2 and they both work very well. I have dropped my phone out of my semi truck so many times I've lost count. And even after 2 years, my phone is just as fast as it was when I peeled the plastic back and set it up. the rubber coating is a little plastic feeling at first but with normal use it softens up a little. The gorilla glass never broke, and resists scratching very well Overall I am pleased with my phone! I would take a picture but I'm using it right now.

This is hands down the best smartphone I've ever owned. It is EXTREMELY water resistant (tested it, and sometimes take it in the shower to send messages to the Missus while she's out. :) ), kid resistant (two year old boy), dirt and dust resistance, and drop proof at the average human height (tested that MULTIPLE times). It is FAST, RESPONSIVE, and SHARP. The speakers are EXTREMELY LOUD on this phone. I like to use "Goodbye Horses" as my ringtone, and I get crazy looks from across the movie theater when it goes off for some reason. ;) Seriously, you will not regret your purchase, especially if you don't want to pay $1,000 or more for a rugged phone (like a Samsung). This phone is AWESOME.