The long battery life, drop and water resistance of the Cat S41 smartphone are valuable to professionals in the wine sector. The incorporation of advanced technological services in the wine sector has helped to improve performance and make work in these environments more agile and fruitful.
Using the rugged Cat S41 in a winery
Wine production consists of different stages, some of them complicated, where a phone is an essential tool that allows the teams to follow the process without interruption, to be connected even when at isolated locations, and to overcome any mishaps that people or devices may suffer.
One winery decided to incorporate rugged mobile phones into their essential equipment, devices designed for such demanding environments.
Celler Cooperatiu d’Espolla, one of the wine companies with the most extensive traditions in the Alt Empordà region (northeast Catalonia), collaborated with Cat phones by making the rugged Cat S41 smartphone part of its regular working equipment.
The winery was eager to have a device that would be able to withstand any of their day-to-day challenges often faced when working in a winery.
The risk to phones owned by wine professionals
Wine professionals develop their produce both in the field and in factories. They constantly perform tasks that can easily put phones at risk more often than usual.
Outdoors, moving from one place to another, evaluating the state of the strains or during harvest periods, it is common for phones to drop or to get in contact with liquids. The devices can sometimes end up covered in soil, exposed to footprints or machine crashes, or semi-submerged in mud.
In the factory, impacts usually occur on cement or concrete, sometimes from considerable heights as for instance when working with the vats where the wine rests.
During tastings, when the evolution and the state of the wine fermentation are checked, phones can get wet (water, wine…) and stop working.
Screen, keyboard or battery breaks as well as internal flaws that collapse the system are common situations that force those who work in the field in the wine sector —winemakers, farmers, technicians, harvesters…— to swap their phones a few times a year, with the economic effort that this implies.
Putting the Cat S41 to the test
Pau Albó, oenologist of this cooperative, was the one in charge of testing the capabilities of the Cat S41, for a long period of time among vines.
“In my day to day, in order to communicate with my colleagues and to photograph and record the wine production process, I need to carry my mobile phone with me. The problem is that there are many situations in which the phone suffers. In fact, I usually have to change my phone between two and three times a year due to accidents such as screen breaks, water or wine falling over it… ” Albó explains.
“With the Cat S41 I don’t have to worry at all about where I leave the phone or if it falls. A big advantage is that there’s no need to charge the battery constantly and I can take quality photos of the vines.”
The winemaker usually reports photographically on the status of the strains to the quality department to prevent possible diseases or plagues in the vineyards, among other things. This is a way to keep record of the land of their farms and vegetation and serves to make sure tasks are carried out properly, too.
The Cat S41 resists blows, dust, mud, drops and scratches. During the trial period, the phone was put through its paces, both in factory and field environments. It was dropped into mud, on to cement, covered in wine and drenched by the rain or by hoses in the factory.
“When I do the field work and since I have the Cat S41 I have noticed something that is quite interesting and that I used to value very little. If I receive an important call, even if I have tractors or machinery working nearby, it’s not a problem to take it. I don’t need to move, to ask whoever I’m speaking to to raise their voice or to cover my other ear… The phone offers a high sound quality and the tone of voice is higher than that of other phones,” says Pau.
Pau Albó, winemaker at El Celler Cooperatiu d’Espolla, evaluated the experience with the robust Cat S41 design device very positively, both in terms of return of investment, performance and efficiency brought to the team’s daily workflow.
His experience validated the Cat S41 as an ideal tool for outdoor work or where situations involve hard and compact material enduring rough conditions.
Cat S41 Key Specifications
- Huge battery (5000mAh) with up to 44 days standby time or 38 hours of 3G talk time. Capable of charging other devices and accessories with the Battery Share power bank feature – cable provided
- Water / Dust proof (IP68), Drop tested to 1.8M onto concrete, MIL SPEC 810G, Gorilla ® Glass 5 protected
- Android™ Nougat
- 3GB RAM, 32GB ROM. Expandable Storage (microSD™ up to 2TB)
- MediaTek octa-core 2.3GHz chipset
- 13MP rear camera with LED flash, autofocus with PDAF, 8MP front camera, both with underwater mode functionality
- LTE Cat 6, VoLTE, VoWiFi
- Super bright 5″ FHD display, optimised for outdoor use with a touchscreen that can be used with wet fingers or gloves
- Textured, extra grip design
- Programmable Shortcut Key useful for Push to Talk (PTT), SOS (Lone worker app), or to easily launch its torch or camera
- Curated apps and content catalogue
Discover more about the Cat S41 smartphone from Cat phones.