Verizon Casio G’zOne Brigade Review

Casio has made a name in ruggedized mobile phone market with the G’zOne series of phones. By ticking the Type-V to the newer G’zOne Rock, these phones are military-certified to take a beating and keep on. Now, finally released his very first Casio ruggedized phone messaging – probably the first of its kind – the Casio G’zOne synchronized brigade. With its tough exterior, full QWERTY keyboard and multimedia features, the brigade is built for industrial workers, but is anyone a durable and reliable mobile messaging will, please. The Casio G’zOne Brigade is $ 249.99 after $ 50 mail-in rebate and a new two-year service agreement.

Design

The Casio G’zOne Brigade is following in the footsteps of his predecessor with a thick style that looks like it came from the 90s. At 4.4 inches long and 2.2 inches wide by 0.9 cm thick, is, frankly, very large. The brigade rich weighs 6 ounces, so this is definitely a phone you do not want in your shirt pocket. It is rectangular with sharp corners and is enclosed in a hard plastic shell with a soft-touch coating. It is a unique crocodile-style texture on the back for extra grip. The connections are covered with a rubber stopper, and the battery compartment has a locking mechanism to prevent water damage. In fact, the brigade is MIL-STD-810F certified to withstand water, shock, dust, immersion, vibration, salt fog, humidity, solar radiation, altitude and extreme temperatures.

On the front of the brigade a round external display is reminiscent of a stopwatch. The 1.2-inch monochrome 128×96 pixel AM-OLED display is similar to previous G’zOne phones and shows the typical date, time, caller ID, battery and signal strength. Even if it is a monochrome display, you can still use it as a viewfinder, but it is black and white and quite choppy. You can use a limited selection of articles from the external display, messaging, contacts, call list access, Bluetooth, key lock and the media. You can change the background lighting of the Clock time and appearance.

Below that, the external controls for navigation. They consist of a circular toggle with a center in the center SELECT button and shortcut keys to a new text message, a favorite contacts list, the camera/camcorder, and the flashlight/speaker. Underneath is the send, clear/voice command End/Power buttons, and the number is keyboard. The keys are well spaced apart and are raised above the surface at a relatively steep angle, so it’s easy to feel, to choose from. On the left spine are the charging connector, the headset jack, Push to talk key, the volume rocker and the music player shortcut key. On the back is the camera lens plus an LED flash, which also features a flashlight can. Behind the battery cover is the microSD card slot.

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Turn you open the phone 90 degrees to the right, and you get a full QWERTY keyboard and a 2.9-inch 400×240-pixel TFT display is visible. It only supports up to 65,000 colors, but images still look vivid and sharp. You can adjust the backlight time, the clock format, the size of fonts, both the dial and the menu fonts and the layout of the main menu. You can also order the new icons around, if you wish.

Below this are two soft-key keyboard plus the above. It has four rows of keys, complete with a series in a row, so it is quite spacious. Along the right side of the keyboard are a couple of navigation controls such as a small circle with a center toggle SELECT button, a clear/voice command button and the Send and End/Power keys. You can also find keyboard shortcuts for a new text message, camera, camcorder, and the speakers on the keyboard. The keys feel on the surface with a beautiful arched raised, and are always pleased when the spacebar is facilitated in the middle of the keyboard for input. It is a small thing, but we also that there a dedicated period key.

Features

The brigade has a 500-entry phone book with room in each entry for four numbers, two e-mail addresses, an instant messaging screen name and an address. You can organize them into groups, they associate with a photo for caller ID, or a polyphonic ringtones 20. Other basics include a vibrate mode, a speakerphone, text and multimedia messaging, an alarm clock, a calendar, a calculator, a stopwatch, countdown timer, world clock and a notepad. The brigade is also compatible with Verizon’s Push-to-talk network.

More advanced features include voice commands, instant messaging (Windows Live, Yahoo, and AOL), a wireless Web browser and e-mail. You can either mobile e-mail that an actual e-mail application that you send and receive POP and IMAP mail, Web or mobile e-mail that is simple, you can lead to a mobile web page with access to popular Web mail services like Hotmail or Yahoo Mail. There are also corporate e-mail support, which is especially useful if your employer uses OWA (Outlook Web Access). You also get stereo Bluetooth, USB mass storage, PC Sync, Visual Voice mail support and GPS with support for VZ Navigator turn-by-turn directions and Verizon’s Family Locator service. The brigade also Field Force Manager, a resource management tool is designed to employers to keep in touch with their field staff. In addition, there is a document viewer, which you read most Microsoft Office documents would.

BUY CASIO G’ZONE BRIGADE WITH NEW VERIZON SERVICE PLAN AND SAVE MONEY!

But the brigade is not all work and no play, it also comes with a full suite of Verizon’s multimedia and broadband services. It has EV-DO Rev. A, so that you get access to Verizon’s V Cast video and V CAST Music with Rhapsody. The latter you can download songs over the air for $ 1.99 each way, which includes a simultaneous download to the PC. According to the brigade comes with a music player as well. The interface is not as polished as we would like because it is so with the V Cast Music Interface is connected. Features the music player is the ability to songs on repeat and shuffle set, plus you can create playlists and edit on the fly. You can create your own songs on the brigade load via a microSD card (up to 16GB), the player supports MP3, WMA and unprotected AAC and AAC + formats.

The brigade has a very advanced 3.2-megapixel camera. It can take pictures in five resolutions (2048×1536 pixels, 2048×1232 pixels; 1600×1200 pixels, 1280×960 pixels, and 640×480 pixels), and you can also choose from six Best Shot modes (Person, Scenery choose, Night View, Sepia, Black and white, and negative) to get the right shot. Other settings include a macro mode, a flash, white balance settings, a self-timer, multishot mode, auto focus, brightness and noise of the shutter button. You can also toggle the display timeout. We would like you can easily access many of these camera settings by simply a few keystrokes on the keyboard.

Photo quality was pretty good, but if we are not using Flash, the images would appear a bit overcast with a slight tinge to the orange. Flash does a good job at clearing most of the photos, though, so that is good enough for us. The built-in video camera can record videos in 320×240 pixel resolution, either in 60 seconds for MMS or up to 60 minutes if there is available storage. The settings are similar to the camera.

Like other phones, you can customize the Brigade with a variety of wallpapers, themes and ringtones. You can read more about the Verizon Wireless Web browser. The brigade come with any games, but you can buy them through the browser as well.

BUY CASIO G’ZONE BRIGADE WITH NEW VERIZON SERVICE PLAN AND SAVE MONEY!

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