5 Best Construction Smartphones
5 Best Construction Smartphones
JBKnowledge found in their annual Construction Technology survey that 85.9% of respondents say they use smartphones for business. Like any part of construction, it’s important to have the right tools for the trade. Here are the 5 best construction smartphones for the job.
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Military Standard vs IP Rating
MIL-SPEC 810G and IP68 are very common in rugged phones. They’re a type of certification that tells consumers how rugged a phone is. The best construction smartphones will have both, because they test for different things. An IP rating is how well things enter the phone. The first number indicates solids and the second liquids. An IP rating of 68 means that it’s dustproof and waterproof. The MIL-SPEC is a series of tests designed to test limitations. It’s a great way to know a device’s ruggedness, but it isn’t the same thing as combat tested.
Kyocera Brigadier
The Kyocera Brigadier is one of the best construction smartphones on the market. It has Military Standard 810G protection for shock, rain, low pressure, solar radiation, and fog. It’s certified for IP68. In fact, it’s certified protected in up to 6 feet of water for up to 30 minutes if all of the ports, audio jack, and card slot are covered properly. However, it won’t operate under water and should be dried quickly.
It has a 4.5″ 720 pixel HD Sapphire Shield scratch and impact proof screen that can be used wet or when wearing a glove. It features Push to Talk to let you communicate with up to 250 people. In addition, it also has a Smart Sonic receiver to help with noisy environments, and dual front speakers that can reach up to 100 decibels. Along with an 8-megapixel rear camera and 2-megapixel front-facing camera. The battery lasts for 365 hours on standby and 26 hours talking. On an Android operating system, it has a 16 GB memory 2 GB of Ram with expandable memory capacity. So it can handle the work you need it to where you need it.
Cat Phones
From the same company, Catapiller Inc., that builds heavy construction equipment comes a series of smartphones for construction workers. They have a series of five phones, but these three are the best construction smartphone designs they have on the market. All three share MIL-SPEC 810G certifications and IP68 certifications while running an Android operating system. They can be used with gloves on or wet fingers on their 4.7″ Corning R Gorilla R Glass 720p HD screens. The S60 and S41 both have 32 GB of internal memory and 3 GB of Ram and offer expandable storage. All of them have significant cameras for photos and video and can handle the work needed on a job site, but there are features that make them different.
Cat Phone S60
The Cat Phone S60 is the best construction smartphone Cat Phones offers in the market. It has an operating temperature from -13 degree F to 131 degrees F and Category 4 vibration. Its liquids protection comes from a special lockdown switch that seals off all ports to ensure water or other liquids don’t get into the phone. With 30 hours of talk time and 43 days of standby time, the battery is impressive. The Cat Phone S60 has an embedded Flir camera. It can measure temperatures between -4 degrees Fahrenheit to 248 degrees Fahrenheit at up to almost 100 feet. If your business needs thermal imaging, it’s a great choice.
Cat Phone S41
The Cat Phone S41 difference is the 5,000 mAh battery. It has 38 hours of talk time and 44 days of standby time, and battery share. Battery Share allows you to charge and power other devices so they keep working as long as you need them. And it also allows you to set a percentage stop time, so your phone keeps enough battery too.
Cat Phone S31
The Cat Phone S31 is your standard smartphone, with extra ruggedness. With 30 hours of talk time and standby time of 38 days plus an internal memory of 16 GB with 2 GB Ram with room for expandable memory, you can run all your construction apps on this device. It’s the least expensive Cat Phone listed in this article, but still one of the best construction smartphones on the market.
Sonim XP7
The Sonim XP7 is built by a company that just does rugged phones. It offers glove usability and has outdoor visibility. While it might not be officially MIL-SPEC 810G or IP68, but it is completely dustproof, waterproof up to 6.5 ft for 30 minutes. It can handle 6.5 ft drops onto concrete from any angle. The Sonim XP7 is shock and vibration resistant, can withstand 1 ton of pressure. And it can operate from -5 F to 130 F while maintaining a resistance to oil and chemicals.
To top it all off it has a 3-year warranty that covers accidents as well as manufacturer error. With 40 hours of talk and 1000 hours of standby, an Android operating system, and a speaker output of 103 decibels, it more than makes up for the smaller screen. With the standard 16 GB internal memory and 1 GB ram it can take a moment to process large applications. As one of the few phones that can truly handle a job site, it makes the grade for being recognized on this list of best construction smartphones.
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