#The CAT S42 Will Survive Judgement Day, But Its Battery Won’t Survive a Weekday – Review Geek

If you take away the chunky body, using the S42 feels kind of like grabbing a phone from 2015 and running Android 10 on it. The software is surprisingly clean and accessible—it looks like Google’s standard Android launcher is in use, and the pack-in apps are easy to ignore.

Unfortunately, actually using the phone for more than an hour becomes an exercise in frustration. It’s not the RAM—while I like a little more breathing space, I’ve used modern phones with just 3GB without too much hassle. So I’m prone to blame the MediaTek processor for achingly slow performance, crashing apps, and near-constant app restarts. Despite the low-res screen, even playing YouTube videos on this thing seemed to put it through its paces.

Even without giving the phone my usual heavy load of browser, music, and smarthome functionality, I could see it struggling to keep up, or even to turn on at some times. In everyday tasks it often pauses for multiple seconds, and absolutely chugs when handling media or switching between apps. I’d hate to have to bring up a spreadsheet in front of a busy foreman on this thing.

In contrast, call quality is surprisingly good, both on the phone’s integrated speaker and over Bluetooth. Considering the rest of the phone’s performance, I was expecting it to be sub-par, but I can’t knock the LTE reception indoors or outdoors.

Cameras

Predictably, the cameras on the S42 are well below par. That’s not a huge dealbreaker: A budget phone isn’t selling on camera quality or versatility. But versus more or less any iPhone, Pixel, or Galaxy camera, this one’s going to produce photos that seem washed out and lacking in depth. Bright light seemed to bother the sensor, as it failed to compensate exposure for a sunny day.

But hey, CAT isn’t pushing this phone towards shutterbugs. As long as you can accurately get the text on a receipt or an invoice, and maybe shoot a selfie or two during off hours, the cameras will do fine. Just expect to do a lot of work in post-processing to make them “post-worthy,” and wait around a bit for autofocus to lock on.

Here’s the fun part of a “tough” phone review. First, I tested the S42 to CAT’s declared standards. I don’t have a pool, so 30 minutes in my bathtub (with all the plastic port covers firmly in place) will have to do for the water test. It passed with flying colors.

What about dropping? From my head height, almost right at six feet in work boots, I let the S42 drop onto the concrete of my driveway. I did the drop three times. A couple of imperfections are visible on the TPU case, but it’s still working great.

Next come dirt and dust. I buried the S42 in my significant other’s potting soil, left it in for 30 minutes, then pulled it out again. A bit messy, but perfectly functional.

How about those temperature minimums and maximums? I don’t have access to sub-zero temperatures, but I do have an oven. I set it to 150 (65 degrees Celsius) and left the phone in there for half an hour, sitting on a silicone pad to account for any extra heat from exposed metal. It was powered on, perhaps tempting a bit of fate. After letting it cool for an hour, it didn’t appear to have any problems. The phone turned itself off, perhaps as a safety feature, but it still worked!

You’re unlikely to intentionally put your phone in an oven. But there’s a common circumstance that a water-resistant, heat-resistant phone could be reasonably expected to endure: a wash cycle. I threw the S42 in the pocket of my jeans, then washed and dried them in my ancient machines. It was still ticking.

At this point the S42 has performed to the ratings of the manufacturer, and the review is basically over. I’ve got the glamor shots I need. But I’ve got permission from CAT to try and destroy this thing. So, let’s go a little further.

I tossed the S42 up in the air, at my estimation of 10, 15, and 20 feet, and let it crash down on the hard pavement of my neighborhood street. As you can see, it’s definitely starting to show signs of the abuse. The case is battered and scarred. But the screen isn’t cracked, I can’t see any indication that the battery has been ruptured, and the phone is still usable.

It’s time for the final test, the last one I can reasonably imagine a normal person subjecting this phone to with any expectation of survival. Let’s run this sucker over.

With a little help, I rolled the front tire of my 2014 Honda Civic over the S42. Then I backed it over the phone again and retrieved it. According to Honda, my car weighs at least 2700 pounds. Of course, that’s distributed across four wheels, but a greater share of it’s on the front. And the inflated tire will help distribute it across a surface, too. But I think it’s safe to assume that several hundred pounds of pressure were put on the phone, screen-up, twice.

I rolled my car over the front of the phone, and it didn’t seem to take any damage, though dusty tire prints were clearly visible. I rolled it over the back, and it still worked. Here’s the only significant damage I was able to do to the phone: The weight of the car pressing against the screen chipped what appears to be an extra layer of Gorilla Glass on top of the screen itself.

The cracks are numerous and unsightly. But from what I can tell, none of the actual functions of the phone are damaged. There are no large cracks in the screen, so it’s safe to keep using it. Even the rear camera seems unscratched.

This phone is tough, to an astonishing degree. I seriously expected it to crumble under the weight of a car. But at this point, I can’t imagine any situation a regular user would subject it to that might actually kill it, short of dropping it off a skyscraper or letting it slip into some kind of industrial equipment.

When I accepted a review unit of the CAT S42, I had hoped that I could recommend it to general users who wanted something both affordable and tough. I thought it could make an ideal first phone for a child under 10—inexpensive enough to budget for, tough enough to hopefully survive some less-than-careful attention.

Unfortunately, its poor software performance and battery life mean that it’s going to be a chore to use this phone for almost anyone, of any age or occupation. Its toughness is not in question, but its utility as a phone itself very much is.