Casio G’zOne Brigade – Rugged messaging phone
For:
A-GPS; EV-DO Rev A.; 3.2-megapixel camera with flash, digital zoom, and video recording; spacious QWERTY keyboard and roomy numeric keypad; MIL-STD810F certified to withstand extreme temperatures, high altitude, solar radiation, humidity, fog, salt, vibration, immersion, dust, shock, and water.
Against:
The Brigade is much heavier and bulkier than other handsets in its class.
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
Casio G’zOne Brigade is based on CDMA technology and supports dual band of CDMA 800/1900 MHz. It has 256MB ROM and 192MB RAM. The internal memory is 123MB and it has micro-SD expansion slot that accepts up to 16GB cards.
1.2-inch Black & White external display sits on the front and has 128×96 pixels resolution. 2.90-inch LCD internal display has 240×400 pixels resolution that supports 65,536 pixels resolution.
3.2-megapixel camera can capture still photographs in five resolutions: 640×480 pixels, 1280×960 pixels, 1600×1200 pixels, 2048×1232 pixels, and 2048×1536 pixels. The camcorder captures QVGA videos of 320×240 pixels resolution. The camera features multi-shot, flash, digital zoom, face detection, and LED Flash.
The additional features are 2.5mm headset jack, Stereo Bluetooth 2.1, USB 2.0 compatibility, and NetFront Browser V3.5 Mobile.
Casio G’zOne Brigade has 1440mAH lithium ion battery.
Razzle Dazzle:
Casio G’zOne Brigade is 4.4 inches tall, 2.2 inches wide, and 0.9 inches deep and weighs 6 ounces. It is much bulkier than other cell phones in its class. Its rectangular body has sharp-angled corners and wrapped inside hard plastic shell that has soft coating. The crocodile-style texture at the back provides comfortable and secure grip.
Inside Dope:
Casio is one of the famous rugged handset manufacturers in the U.S. All of its cell phones are military certified. Now, the company has launched its new product – Casio G’zOne Brigade that is also MIL-STD810F certified. The G’zOne Brigade can withstand extreme temperatures, high altitude, solar radiation, humidity, fog, salt, vibration, immersion, dust, shock, and water. The Brigade costs $249.99 with two year contract from Verizon Wireless after mail-in rebate of $50. It offers good multimedia features, A-GPS, EV-DO Rev., push-to-talk, 3.2-megapixel camera, full QWERTY keyboard, great call quality, and tough exterior. All of its ports are covered with rubber stoppers and battery cover is protected by a locking mechanism to remain secure from water damage. If you need a durable and rugged messaging handset, we will recommend – Casio G’zOne Brigade.
Design
The external display on the front provides resonant of a stopwatch. External navigation array and numeric keypad sits beneath the external display. You will find the music player key, volume rocker, push-to-talk button, headset jack, and charger jack on the left spine. The camera lens with LED flash-cum-flashlight sits on the back. Micro-SD card slot is located behind the battery.
Display
1.2 inches external PM-OLED display has 128×96 pixels resolution. This external display is monochrome – Black & White. It displays signal strength, battery life, caller ID, and date/time. You can also use the external display as camera’s viewfinder. It also provides access to some of the menu items such as Media, Keyguard, Bluetooth, Recent Calls, Contacts, and Messaging. You can customize the clock format and backlight time.
You can flip open the phone after turning it to 90° to access internal display and QWERTY keyboard. 2.9 inches internal LCD display of Casio G’zOne Brigade has a 240×400 pixels resolution that supports 65,000 colors. You can customize main menu layout, size of menu and dial fonts, clock format, and backlight time for internal display.
Navigation Array & Numeric Keypad
External navigation array sits underneath the display on front of Casio G’zOne Brigade. It consists of round toggle with middle select button in the center, message key and camera/camcorder button in the left, and flashlight/speaker key with favorite contacts key in the right side. You will find Send button, Voice command/Clear key, Power/End button and numeric keypad located beneath above keys. All the keys are well-positioned and raised above the surface for easy usage.
QWERTY Keyboard
A physical QWERTY keyboard shifts below the display as you flip open the Casio G’zOne Brigade phone. On the top, it has two soft keys beneath the internal display. The keyboard has for rows including numeric row on the top. An internal navigation array sits along the right side of keyboard. It consists of small round toggle with middle select button, Voice command/Clear key, Send button and Power/End keys. You will find new dedicated period key as well as shortcuts of new message, speakerphone, camcorder, and camera on the keyboard. Space bar is located in the center of bottom row, but is small in size. All the keys are raised on the surface for good typing experience.
Phonebook and PIM features
Casio G’zOne Brigade can store 500 contacts in its phonebook. Each contact can save four phone numbers, two email IDs, one instant-messenger name, and one street address. You can divide the contacts in to groups and pair them with one ring-tone and photo for caller ID. The basic feature set includes notepad, 20 polyphonic ring-tones, world clock, countdown timer, stopwatch, Push-to-Talk, calculator, calendar, alarm clock, multimedia and text messaging, speakerphone, and vibrate mode.
The advanced highlights of Casio G’zOne Brigade are Web browser, voice commands, GPS support, Visual Voice Mail, PC Sync, USB mass storage, and stereo Bluetooth. Pre-installed instant messengers are AOL, Yahoo!, and Windows Live Messenger. The Brigade also supports Verizon Push-To-Talk network.
Its email features include mobile email that supports POP3/IMAP4/SMTP, mobile Web email to access Web mails like Yahoo! or Windows Live Mail, and support for corporate emails via Outlook Web Access (OWA). The G’zOne Brigade also has document viewer to read limited Microsoft Office documents. What’s more: Field Force Manager – resource management tool that lets you to remain in with other persons such as field workers.
Verizon Wireless Services
Casio G’zOne Brigade supports EV-Do Rev. A network. Therefore, Verizon Wireless has also included its service inside the cell phone including Verizon VZ Navigator, V Cast Music with Rhapsody, and V Cast Video.
Camera
3.2-megapixel camera of Casio G’zOne Brigade features LED flash/flashlight, video recording and auto-focus. The image editing settings include five resolutions, six Best Shot modes, shutter sound, brightness, multi-shot mode, self-timer, white-balance options, and macro mode. The overall captured photo quality is good with flash and without it as well. The inbuilt camcorder can record videos either up to 60 minutes or for one-minute for MMS. The video settings are similar to that of still camera.
Music Player
The music player interface of Casio G’zOne Brigade is quite similar to that of V Cast Music. It features on-the-fly play-lists, and shuffle and repeat modes. The music player supports AAC+, AAC, WMA, and MP3 audio formats.
Games and Personalization
Casio G’zOne Brigade does not come with any game. You can personalize the phone with various ring-tones, themes, and wallpaper. You can download paid games and more customization options via Web browser.
Call Quality
We made few calls through Casio G’zOne Brigade via Verizon Wireless service for testing. The overall call quality was excellent. We received the loud and clear sound at our end without any static. The callers also received good sound at their end with some distortion. The speakerphone call quality was fine. We could hear our callers with little harsh voice. On their end, the callers received clear and loud sound with a lot of harsher voice. The G’zOne Brigade provides good audio quality. We received thin sound from the speakers, but the headphones provided very good music quality.
Battery Life
Casio G’zOne Brigade has battery life of 3.7 days of idle standby time and 6 hours of talk time. The digital SAR of the Brigade phone is 0.813watt per kg as per FCC radiation tests.
Verdict:
The Brigade is one of the best rugged messaging phones. It is MIL-STD810F certified to withstand extreme conditions. If you are looking for a rugged messaging handset, then we will recommend you to buy – Casio G’zOne Brigade.
