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The CAT S60 is a heatseeking smartphone for emergency responders (pictures)

Cat hopes its new S60 phone will soon ride shotgun with construction workers, police officers and outdoor enthusiasts.

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Katie Collins
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Justin Yu
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1 of 9 Katie Collins/CNET

The C60's secret weapon is a a Flir thermal imaging camera, which can visualize heat as a colorful map, taking measurements from up to 30 meters (100 feet) away.

You can use it for a huge number of tasks, from detecting heat loss around windows and doors to identifying overheating circuitry, or just seeing in the dark.

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Get the full picture

The heat sensor is on the back of the phone, just above the 13-megapixel camera.

Use the two together and you get not just a heat map, but a picture that combines the heat map with details observed by the camera that add extra context, such as architectural and facial features.

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Built to take abuse

Whereas most phones are all smooth lines and sleek ergonomics, the Cat phone is unabashedly bumpy.

It may not be pretty, but it's also not going to slip out of your hand.

And even if it does, it's more than likely it'll survive unscathed, as it's built to withstand a fall onto concrete from a height of 1.8 meters (5.9 feet).

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Shielded from harm

As you would expect from a superhero, the S60 can take a battering better than most.

It can also go for a swim, down to a depth of 5 meters for as long as an hour.

If you plan to take the S60 snorkeling you can take a belt and braces approach by flicking two little switches, one at the top and the other at the bottom of the phone, that totally close off the phone's speaker cavity, its most vulnerable spot.

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Expandable storage port

In addition to the 32GB built-in, you can expand the phone's storage with a microSD card, which may prove necessary for storing all those heat map images.

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Tough as nails

The Cat S60 is equipped with a 4.7-inch HD capacitive multi-touch screen that can be operated with wet fingers and gloves for use in extreme climates.

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Ready for rescue adventures

Flir imagines that others, including emergency first responders and outdoor enthusiasts, may also find uses for the phone.

If police come across an abandoned car, for example, they can use the thermal imaging camera to determine whether the engine or seats are still warm, or whether there's a body anywhere in the vicinity.

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Powered by Marshmallow

The preinstalled Flir app is slightly different from what you'd download if you bought a plug-in thermal imaging sensor.

It's designed to take full advantage of the phone's octa-core processing capabilities and the latest version of Google's Android software, nicknamed Marshmallow.

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Built-in image intelligence

If you capture an image and want to find out later what the exact temperature was in any particular spot, it's possible to press on it to find out -- all of that detail is captured with the picture and stored in its metadata.

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