Cat B35 Review | TechSwitch

At first look, this chunky characteristic telephone seems to be means out of its depth among the many many rugged smartphones we’ve got been testing just lately, however the Cat B35 is smarter than it seems to be. Just like the rebooted Nokia 8110 banana telephone, it runs KaiOS, which makes it capable of supply simplified variations of apps like Google Maps and YouTube. So though there’s no touchscreen, you possibly can nonetheless surf the net over 4G utilizing the button keypad or certainly, speak to Google Assistant. It’s all fairly rudimentary, after all, however there are apparent benefits to a workforce which will have to make use of a cell phone in adversarial circumstances. You possibly can function the keypad with moist, or gloved palms, as an illustration and the battery lasts for weeks, not days in standby. And naturally, it’s significantly cheaper, though there it seems to be as if there’s nonetheless some premium to pay for the Caterpillar branding. The associated fee is $126 (round £96 or AU$176).DesignBefore the iPhone landed in 2007, most cellphones seemed one thing like this. The slim sweet bar type issue matches within the pocket extra readily than a smartphone and with out all of the Gorilla glass, it’s significantly lighter too. The plastic shell is ribbed for further grip and power and the plastic casing initiatives barely additional than the entrance show, so that you’re unlikely to wreck the titchy 2.Four-inch display should you drop it face down. The 21 backlit buttons of the keypad click on comfortably and register with a beep when pressed in order for you them to. You must look intently to seek out the three rubber seals that conceal a headphone jack, a micro USB port for charging and knowledge switch and a SIM tray that can settle for two nano SIM playing cards and a microSD reminiscence card.  There’s a pretty big speaker grill on the rear and a fundamental 2MP digicam lens and on the prime of the telephone is a weak, however very properly positioned torch which has its personal button on the keypad. This small and light-weight handset feels much more strong than any of the ruggedized smartphones we’ve got seen. Specs and featuresSpec SheetHere are the complete specs of the Cat B35:  CPU: Qualcomm 8905 Twin-Core 1.3GHz GPU: N/A    RAM: 512MBStorage: 4GB Display measurement: 2.Four-inch Decision: 240 x 320 Weight: 130gDimensions: 138 x 60 x 14mmRear digicam:  2MP Entrance digicam: N/AOS: KaiOS  Battery: 2.3Ahhe humorous factor about characteristic telephones is that they have only a few options, in comparison with a smartphone. Nevertheless, the KaiOS working system, designed by Google, does deliver some smartphone type performance.Google-owned apps corresponding to Maps, YouTube and Google Assistant are in-built for instance. With no touchscreen, you’re considerably restricted as to what you are able to do, however this telephone makes essentially the most of its limitations. The two.Four-inch show manages a meagre 240 x 320 pixels, so it’s hopeless for exhibiting images, however shiny and sharp sufficient for map studying. The one digicam is a tiny 2MP job, so your images received’t be very detailed anyway. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 4G LTE are all built-in and the telephone is constructed round a 1.3GHz twin core Qualcomm processor, which is sufficient to energy KaiOS with out a hitch. The battery is massive for one of these telephone, however 1 / 4 the scale of a rugged smartphone. Nonetheless, with out a touchscreen to empty the lithium ion, this characteristic telephone will outlast any smartphone by a fortnight. The speak time right here is given as twelve hours and standby as 30 days. What you don’t get is fingerprint of face recognition, video conferencing, cellular fee, a barcode scanner, Uber, web banking, Spotify…in actual fact, this listing goes to be for much longer than the characteristic set, so we’ll cease there. Suffice to say that you simply can’t take a selfie both. In useFor taking and making calls, the Cat B35 is a real pleasure to make use of. Even the preliminary start-up sound impact, the rumble of an enormous diesel engine, is enjoyable. The light-weight handset is tactile in its satin plastic end and the backlit buttons of the keypad are straightforward to function with moist palms, or whereas sporting gloves.The interface takes you proper again to the harmless pre-iPhone period when there have been no time-sapping social media apps to replace and your battery lasted for every week. Fortunately, a number of the extra important apps have made it onto the KaiOS system, together with Google Maps. It seems to be primitive on such a small and low-res display, however it should get you dwelling should you’re misplaced. Messaging is okay, as soon as your contacts are imported, though typing is laborious with out an onscreen keyboard and browsing the net is much more tedious because it entails nudging a cursor down the display relatively that scrolling. Fortunately, Google Assistant is there to hearken to your spoken net searches, which is simply what you want whenever you’re exterior and your palms are too busy to make use of a touchscreen interface. The few simplified apps which might be put in open shortly and don’t crash. Name high quality is sweet and the speaker is kind of loud, which may very well be vital should you work on a loud constructing web site. The digicam is poor high quality and video seems to be horrible on the tiny display, so the YouTube app is relatively disappointing. The capabilities employee is extra prone to want, work properly. For instance the torch comes on with only one lengthy press of a button, whereas with a smartphone, you would wish to wake the telephone, enter a passcode (with out gloves on) earlier than you possibly can scroll to the torch button. Last verdictThe Cat B35 doesn’t do a lot, however what it does, it does properly. It’s smarter than your common characteristic telephone and apps like Google Assistant, which helps you to search the web for options to office issues by voice, is carried out properly. With two SIM slots, 4G and Wi-Fi, you might be no much less related than with a smartphone, however with out a touchscreen, there are an ideal many apps which might be merely not obtainable.You possibly can’t obtain a digital spirit degree whenever you want one, for instance, however some great benefits of utilizing a characteristic telephone in an outside office are many. It’s extra rugged, the battery lasts for much longer, fundamental communication and options just like the torch can be utilized with out taking your gloves off. All of it provides as much as a instrument that appears good for a sure king of job. The one factor stopping us giving this properly constructed and properly aimed handset 5 stars is the value. Sure, it’s the most inexpensive rugged handset we’ve got examined, however characteristic telephones not often price greater than $63.91 (£50) and you should buy a good rugged smartphone just like the Blackview BV5800 Professional for less than $191.74 (£150). Clearly the Caterpillar branding instructions a sure premium and on stability, we expect it’s price it.