Verizon and Cat team up to bring customers the ultra-rugged S48c smartphone

Verizon and Cat Phones have just announced the ultra-rugged S48c smartphone is now available to all Verizon Business and Enterprise customers for $250 with a two-year contract or $600 retail.

If you're not a business customer, you'll be able to pick this one up from Cat Phones' online store from the end of January for the same outright price. Verizon is not the first carrier to sell the S48c, as the smartphone was initially introduced in the U.S. by Sprint.

As with all Cat's smartphones, the S48c has been designed with durability at its core. The phone has several certifications like IP68, MIL-SPEC 810G, and non-incendive Class I, Division 2, which ensure the S48c can withstand drops, dust, vibration, extreme temperatures, and some hazardous work environments.

Moreover, the ultra-rugged smartphone can be submerged in up to four feet of water for 35 minutes. You'll even be able to use the phone's 13-megapixel camera to take underwater pictures, although we can't vouch for their quality.

When it comes to specs, Cat S48c looks like an average mid-range smartphone. It sports a 5-inch full HD display with touch Corning Gorilla Glass 5, a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera, a secondary 5-megapixel selfie snapper, 4GB RAM and 64GB internal memory.

The Cat S48c is powered by a 4,000 mAh battery and comes equipped with a 2.2GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 processor. Also, it runs Android 8.0 Oreo and features dedicated, programmable keys that enable easy push-to-talk capabilities, flashlight or other apps.