Dubai: Caterpillar’s upgraded version of B15 — B15Q — has the same size, shape and features apart from a more powerful processor and latest operating system.
The B15Q is also the first rugged smartphone to run KitKat.
The toughened rubber casing and silver anodised aluminium body, coupled with Corning Gorilla Glass screen makes the device water, dust and crash proofs.
In my drop test, the device survived a drop from two metres without a scratch and survived a depth of one metre under water for more than 45 minutes.
It can also endure extreme temperatures from -25C to 55C. It shows that Caterpillar is not looking at the beauty but focusing on the durability.
The phone does not have the looks of the present premium handsets, it is bulky but sturdy. The headphone and the micro USB ports are sealed by a flap. Check the flaps to see if it has been properly sealed before immersing it in water.
The four-inch WVGA display with wet finger tracking device is powered by 1.3 GHz quad-cored MediaTek processor compared to B15’s 1 GHz dual-core processor. Both have same resolution of 480 x 800 pixels, which translates into 240 dots per inch pixel density. It is very low compared to the industry standard of Full HD (1920 x 1080).
Caterpillar has jacked up the RAM to 1 GHz from B15’s 512MB but has kept the internal storage capacity at 4GB. Out of the 4GB, only 1.6GB is available for users.
Caterpillar should have increased the internal storage capacity on B15Q at least to 8GB. But no problem, the micro SD card can support up to 32GB.
CAT has added Waves Audio for enhanced sound quality and the big mono speaker at the back produces loud audio to fill a room with decent mid-range, high-range and bass. It has installed Swiftkey to help type faster and Ocearch global shark tracker apps.
CAT has added a LED flash to accompany the 5MP rear camera. The camera features have improved a lot compared to its predecessor but still needs improvement. It takes very decent photos in decent light conditions but struggles in low light conditions. Users can improve the photo quality with HDR function on but switch it off when taking action pictures. The flash can also double as a torch in dark spots. A one button continuous shooting ability is useful for taking multiple images quickly.
It has got seven colour effects and scene modes like auto, night, sunset, party, portrait, landscape, night portrait, theatre, beach, snow, steady photo, fireworks, sports and candle light, apart from HDR, smile shot, face detection, voice capture and auto scene detection. Face beauty is set as default. It can take 40 photos in one shot. The front-facing VGA (0.3MP) camera is only useful for video chatting.
Video recording is decent enough for sharing it on social networks.
Regarding connectivity, it has 3G, GPS, WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0.
The 2,000mAh removable battery gives 19 days of standby and around 16 hours of talk time. Since the screen is not that power hungry, the device gives more than one full day for heavy users and for almost two days for moderate users, which is pretty decent.
In a nutshell, the handset will stand up to any rigours weather conditions and outdoor usage for industrial or heavy-duty workers. If you are not looking at the beauty of the device but at durability, this is the right choice.
