Verizon Wireless (Casio) G’zOne Type-S Review

Will it blend?
We’ve all dropped our phones once, twice, or every other five minutes, right? I know I have on multiple occasions and I wince with every drop. The battery or some part seems to dislodge itself without fail every time and it just doesn’t work the same afterwards. I’ve gotten away with sending my phone in for replacement without the watermark stickers revealing I dropped my phone in the toilet, but that good fortune won’t last forever. Have you ever accidentally thrown your phone into an open fire? It looks cool once the embers cool down, but you’re SOL otherwise. And then there are those random hungover mornings when I find my phone in the fridge. Weird. I know. I could be a klutz or jinxed, I haven’t figured that out, yet.

Is there any hope for those of us who seem to be cursed with ‘butter fingers’? Not entirely, but if you’re a Verizon subscriber than all is well in the world. That’s a strange statement considering my love/hate relationship with the nation’s largest provider isn’t it? Anyways, in case your phone can’t handle a dip in the pool, a 10-story drop, a fit of rage as the Sox lose (Yankees lost, so it’s ok), or an open flame then check out the Casio G’zOne.

No need to get into the carrier side of things because it’s the same Verizon crap UI and apps you’re used to, so we’re going to delve into what the G’zOne has to offer, which is quite bit. My first encounter with the G squashed any thoughts that this was just a clever marketing ploy and that it wasn’t built tough enough to take a beating. The reps were winging it across the room, smashing it into the ground, submerging it under water and yet, it still worked without any complications. They even showed me one that some snowboarders had thrown into a fire, which looked like fake poop, but was still operational. Some may still be skeptical and I was as well, so we subjected it to a variety of CG tests. Did it pass?

Hell yes it passed. The first string of tests consisted of dropping it from a few feet onto the floor, launching it down a staircase and letting it sink to the bottom of a pool. No matter how many times I dropped or threw the phone it never skipped a beat. I even went as far as jumping on it and kicking it as hard as possible against the wall. Didn’t affect it one bit. Call clarity never diminished, either, and the battery cover never flew off. Casio was clever enough to implement a latch to ensure the back cover and battery never dislodged. To quote Borat, “That’s a niiice.”

But a lot of phones can take a drop or two and keep chugging along without a problem, right? Can they survive a drop in the toilet or a dip in the pool? Not really and this is one facet where the G excels beyond any other mobile device on the market. I left the Casio on at the bottom of my gf’s pool for about half an hour and as expected it still worked. I then turned on the external flashlight and submerged it in a glass of water for another half hour. You guessed it, still worked. Hmm. What else could I do? I know! I’ll throw it in the freezer and see how slow it goes after half an hour. Most phones become extremely sluggish and sometimes inoperable when they’re subjected to cold temperatures. They obviously come back to life once they’re warmed up, but the G’s fate was much different. There was a minute amount of lag time scrolling through the menus, which is understandable considering the conditions, but it’s nice to know that you can take it up to the mountain and not worry about it not working properly. It took, at the very most, 45 seconds to a minute before everything was free flowing.

The G’zOne Type-S is rugged and tough, but it doesn’t skimp on the features. The clamshell isn’t the thinnest on the market (that honor goes to the Fin), but I like a little girth to my phone, 2.04- x 3.84- x 1.13-inches and weighs a little over 4.5 ounces. The usual suspects include Bluetooth, a VGA 3x zoom camera/video with self-timer (128MB of flash memory), speakerphone, phone book (500 contacts), calendar, calculator, stopwatch, timer and voice memo/commands/dialing all ensconced in a polyurethane coated plastic frame. It even has GPS if you’re a VZ Navigator subscriber. Talk time was around 180 minutes and it supports SMS/EMS/MMS and Mobile IM. You really don’t need much more than that. You can one up now at your local Verizon store, but if you buy online you can get an extra $50 off. Just don’t drop it in the toilet.

External display with two digital and analogue clocks

The money shot

Dimples. That battery isn’t coming off. Ever. Charger contact points.

The red button turns the speaker on. Volume up/down. Mode button activates voice command.

Headset port

Works under water for reals, holmes.