Caterpillar CAT S75 review – Outdoor smartphone with satellite communication and underwater camera

The rugged phone from Caterpillar enables satellite communication (NTN) via Bullitt Satellite Messenger in addition to the obligatory 4G and 5G support of a premium phone. This satellite service, but without text messaging, can be used for free for twelve months after purchasing the Cat smartphone. After that, a subscription has to be taken out, which costs up to 60 Euros per month.

Instead of relying on a proprietary satellite network, as with an Apple iPhone 14 Pro, the Cat S75 communicates via conventional 3GPP NTN signals thanks to a MediaTek chip, so satellites from different providers can be used depending on which satellite enables the best connection quality. Thus, users should always be able to send and receive text messages and make emergency calls, even when no mobile network is available.

The outdoor phone only offers Wi-Fi 5 within the home Wi-Fi network, which is only sufficient for average transfer rates of less than 400 Mbps in combination with our reference router Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000.