Hands On: Casio G’zOne Brigade

So Fedex dropped off a new phone to me yesterday and I figured I’d share it with you guys.. sort of a pictorial unboxing as it were.

Doug says this phone is ugly but I kinda like it. I’m partial to rugged stuff, I’m hard on my gadgets and I always make sure they’re protected with skins, screen protectors and cases. With the cost of phone today, personally I think all phones should be rugged, waterproof and shock proof.

Here’s a snip from the PR:

“The CASIO G’zOne Brigade is available today online at www.verizonwireless.com and in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores for $249.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement. Customers will receive the rebate in the form of a debit card; upon receipt, customers may use the card as cash anywhere debit cards are accepted.”

• Tough Technology Design – Horizontal clamshell with QWERTY keypad

• 3.2 megapixel camera with flash, video capture and LED light

• Clear Talk for superior sound quality

• Water, shock, dust, immersion, vibration, humidity, salt fog, altitude, high and low temperature storage, and solar radiation resistant conforming to MIL-STD-810F

• Field Force Manager capable – A resource management tool that provides businesses with the ability to locate and communicate with their mobile field workers

So here’s the box and a whole bunch of pictures for you:

It does have a full QWERTY keyboard with numbers.

There’s a second display on the front above the keypad.

On the back you’ll find the camera and near the bottom are two contacts that are for charging in the cradle.

Here it is in the cradle:

Here’s a few side views, the two side doors are for headphones and charging, both door have rubber gaskets on them to keep everything out.

On the back is also a slide lock to lock or unlock the battery cover. Inside you’ll find a rubber gasket around the battery and under the battery is the microSD slot.

Lifestyle features:

• Document Viewer – Makes reviewing Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations and PDFs a breeze

• Dedicated message keys – Provide one-touch access to messaging

• Text to Speech – Allows customers to listen to their text messages, multimedia messages and e-mails

• Best Shot™ – Has six presets for a perfect photo finish and automatically changes the setup of the camera based on the background

• Auto Focus – Offers single point, nine point and multi point and face detection, perfect for group shots

• V CAST Music with Rhapsody – Choose from millions of songs to download over the air

• V CAST Video on Demand – Watch favorite television shows while on the go, including live college football, college basketball and NHL hockey games, local and national news and weather, and family programming

• VZ Navigator^® capable – Receive audible turn-by-turn directions to more than 15 million points of interest and share the directions with others

• microSD™ storage for high-quality photos and music

• Speakerphone with front-facing stereo speaker