Casio G’zOne Brigade C741 Phone
By Luckzz1000 on Sep 04, 2010 with Comments 5
- Ruggedized phone that’s shock-, dust-, and water-resistant; opens up to reveal QWERTY keyboard and 2.9-inch display
- Talk instantly to friends and colleagues using Verizon Wireless Push to Talk network; GPS-enabled for turn-by-turn directions; access V Cast Music (with Rhapsody) and Video services
- 3.2-megapixel camera/camcorder; Bluetooth stereo music; microSD memory expansion to 16 GB; access to personal/work e-mail and instant messaging services
- Up to 6 hours of talk time, up to 90 hours (3.75 days) of standby time
- What’s in the Box: handset, rechargeable battery, charger, charging cradle, quick start guide, user manual
Amazon.com Product Description
Built to military specifications, the Casio G’zOne Brigade mobile phone for Verizon Wireless is ideal for highly mobile and active users who want access to Verizon’s always-on Push to Talk service. It’s also a great choice for business customers in industries such as construction, public safety and utilities who need devices that stand up to tough work conditions while still delivering high-performance mobile technology.
Business-oriented wi… More >>
Casio G’zOne Brigade C741 Phone
Incoming search terms for the article:
Casio C741 (1)
Related posts:
Filed Under: mobile phone
I bought this phone as a replacement upgrade to a LG Voyager, with the touch screen. It was 2 and a half years old, wasn’t working as well as it used to. It was my 3rd LG phone. As durable as they were, I had been looking for a more durable replacement, or addition I could use while working. Two years I considered other Casio Gz’One phones as a secondary phone. Their reputations weren’t bad. Some minor reliability issues. The biggest turnoff was the added expense. Until I saw this in the Verizon store, and I had an epiphany. It did everything my LG Voyager did, but was armored against everything I would throw against it while working(or playing). The two biggest negatives people say about it is it is too bulky, and it is ugly. The people who said this are obviously shallow, and conceited and are afraid of someone seeing them with it in public. Its lighter then most Nextel phones. And the coverage is way better. No other phone shares the features this does. As for the price, this phone has to be built to a higher standard then most phones. You are paying for water tight O rings. Design, and durability. It isnt as pretty as a Droid, or quick as a Nokia N900. It is a tool, for working class people. You can rely on it in the worst scenarios to call for help, your Mom and your significant other to buy milk on their way home. It just works. Even if it falls in the puddle next to your car on a cold winter morning. Lets see a Droid, or ANY other phone do that.
Rating: 5 / 5
My wife and I should be hired by a phone manufacturer to test out the durability of their phones. I’ve never seen anyone as hard on a phone (not in the construction business or something) as we are, so it has been a challenge to find a phone that was durable enough to handle us…until now!!! My wife and I both got a Brigade so we are quickly putting it to the test in every area imaginable. I don’t think that the phone is ugly, and it is heavy if you are comparing it to a sheet of paper! I’ve read a review where someone said it was like carrying around an anchor…what have you been talking on…a flash drive!? This phone is actually lighter than my AT&T Smartphone that it’s replacing. We’ve dropped the phone a ton already and it still looks like it just came out of the box! I’ve had it in the rain, wore it on my hip while cutting grass, dropped it in the soccer field while playing, and it was trampled a few times, kicked across my hardwood floor by my 5 year old, and just for grins, I’ve even had entire conversations on the phone while I was taking a shower! This thing seems to be indestructible! The buttons are easy to use, the phone is easy to navigate, the qwerty keyboard buttons are easy to push without hitting multiple keys, the camera and video camera are sweet (great quality on both), and I’ve used the flashlight to find everything from items I dropped under my seat, to my keys in the yard! The speaker phone isn’t just for show! You can actually hear (clearly) the people you are talking to, and they can hear you! I really like the key lock feature (it’s on a timer) because I’ve done a lot less butt dialing than I did on my touch screen during the times when I forgot my case. The display screen looks great, and music sounds really good on the speaker. I can’t comment on the Push-to-talk feature because I haven’t used it, but it is clearly marked with a big red button on the side of the phone. The only thing that I’ve had to adjust to is the data plan. You are required to get at least the $9.99 data plan, and I’m not a phone internet user so I’ve had to try to find a way to “get my money’s worth” through features like Mobile E-Mail. Bottom line, if you want a TOUGH phone that still looks good, is functional, and DOES NOT weigh 100lbs, this IS your phone!!! If you are someone who wants to be able to surf the net while driving, you will be greatly disappointed because the phone only has a mobile web browser and not a “true” HTML browser like an iphone or Droid…but you could put the Droid in one hand, the Brigade in the other, use the Brigade to Smash the Droid, and then call someone with the Brigade to tell them what you just did…WWW dot that!!!!
Rating: 5 / 5
Got this because my LG Envy Touch was dying. NEVER BUY LG PHONES!
I could not be more happy. Phone is built to last, already dropped it on a hard floor, not a scratch.
I have read other complaints about poor voice quality with this phone, but for me, callers sound crystal clear, and my callers have no complaints.
One thing I noticed is my bluetooth reception has improved with the Casio Brigade, on my other device I would always hear static, no static now!
Also has very loud ringers, and a loud and clear speakerphone as well.
So as a phone it works great!
I haven’t used the web browser, I don’t have the data plan, so I can’t comment on it.
It takes great pictures and video for such a rugged looking phone, better than my LG Envy Touch.
Also has a great qwerty keyboard. I have large fingers, so I need a big keyboard, keys feel great, very responsive.
Also has a flashlight, comes in handy at times.
Voice recognition works great, I only need say a command one time, and it will understand me, my other stupid phone I would have to repeat the command several times, and it still wouldn’t understand what I said.
And it is not heavy, I have read reviews where people complain, maybe if you weigh 90 lbs it might seem heavy, but it’s about the same weight as my Envy Touch.
Great cellphone overall, this is my first Casio, I’m very pleased so far.
Rating: 5 / 5
While I do love this phone, it’s does have a few small qwerks.
Battery Life:
I have been using this phone for 5 months, and I have found the battery life to be terrific. I can charge it for a few hours and it will hold a charge for days! I spend a few hours on the phone each day and text around 15-30 texts a day, and my phone will typically not need charged for about 4 days. Even when there are no bars left and it’s blinking “low battery”, I have left it on overnight to finish draining the battery, and 8 hours later when I get up, the phone still hasn’t died.
Buttons:
This phone it great for texting. I have no problems at all hitting other keys when I’m dialing.
Durability:
Takes hits and keeps on going. I have answered the phone and texted in shower many times. I drop my phone all the time. It just doesn’t phase it at all.
Design/Looks:
It’s not a touch screen. It’s not going to win some fancy glossy style award. It does not look like anything made from Apple or Sony. But somehow, it seems to constantly turn heads. I constantly have both women and men (complete strangers) ask me about my phone and think it looks awesome. Everyone has a shiny, tiny, touchscreen phone. This one people always stop and say…”wow what is that?”. They always want to know what provider carries the phone.
Now for the qwerks. These things are not all necessarily bad things. Just different.
When your text messaging, they save in a stackable design. If your familiar at all with Gmail, and how email conversations stack there, this is the same. Basically, all texts from one person go in the same file. While your texting, you need to be wary of incoming texts. For some reason, you can be texting person “A” and if person “B” sends you a text and you get it while typing, the phone number of the text you are sending to person “A” gets switched to person “B”.
The key guard is set to too many clicks when you first get the phone. You need to go into the phones settings and lower it to 1 button click or else it will drive you mad. Even set to 1 button click, it still takes 2 to unlock it. The first click brings up the prompt to press the unlock key, the second click unlocks it. There is a setting for no keyguard if you chose.
Little bit of lag:
When switching to different screens, there can sometimes be a subtle lag. Not when texting, but after I unlock the phone to dial a number, there is a half second lag before I can start dialing. I love the phone too much to care about it. But it takes a few days of using the phone constantly to not notice it every time.
Keyguard doesn’t work for number 9 and # key. I have no idea why, but even with the keyguard on, you can still press the 9 or the # keys. This may have been done on purpose for some kind of feature, but it can sometimes be annoying to always have to hit clear to clear out the screen before making a call.
So there it is. I love this phone myself. It feels like a real phone in my hand instead of a tiny piece of touch-screen glass. I can lose it in a Minnesota snow drift for a week and it will still work when I find it. I can drop on the ground when I’m running in from the rain and it will still work when I go back out to get it. It has a super BRIGHT LED flashlight feature on it that I have used so many times. It has push-to-talk for those who use that feature. The camera take AMAZING pictures for a rugged cell phone! And it has a great large keyboard for texting. Even with it’s few qwerks, I still love this phone and want no other.
(Edited to add)
The sound from the call quality is awesome. I hear people perfectly. Much better than on my husbands Casio Boulder. I am a stickler for how well I can hear people and how well they can hear me. All the bells and whistles on a phone don’t matter if the basic call quality is bad. I upgraded to this from an LG Chocolate and everyone immediately asked if I got a new phone when I called them. I asked why and they said they could hear me MUCH better.
I can’t say anything about the internet browser and such. I don’t think this phone was really meant to be a BlackBerry or a Driod. It’s pretty much the opposite of that, so if that’s what your looking for, your not going to find it in this. This is a rugged cell phone, an awesome one at that. Not a PDA, Smart Phone, mini-computer. Looking for the anti-iPhone? This would be it.
Rating: 5 / 5
Well, after using the Casio G’zOne Brigade for over a week, running it through it’s paces and subjecting it to various tests, I’ve come to the conclusion that although this phone IS hardy enough to go with me where ever I want, it simply does not deliver the features I need/want. It doesn’t matter that the phone is out in the elements with me, if it’s unusable, it’s no better than having a dainty Smartphone with me. At least I can hard-case protect the Smartphone from the elements and have a phone I can actually use! There’s nothing I can do to the Brigade to make it more functional. I’m really bummed out because I had such high hopes for this phone. Unfortunately, the Brigade is what it is. I simply need more out of a phone. If the Brigade and the Droid ever has a lovechild, I will be the FIRST in line to buy it!!
Thankfully AmazonWireless offers 30-day satisfaction guarantee on all phone products. My experience with obtaining the RMA was seamless. I am very happy with the “try it for 30-days” policy.
PROS:
* Tough construction.
* Solid feel.
* Waterproof.
* Thermal tolerant.
* Great speaker/mic.
* Camera flash doubles as awesome flashlight!
CONS:
* The internet browser sucks! It hardly renders HTML that well, let alone dynamic pages like Facebook. And you can absolutely forget about Youtube!! It will NOT render Youtube homepage, let alone stream ANY Youtube video. Trying to reach favorites takes 2 clicks, plus a third to select the favorite. Oh, and the most annoying thing about the browser, if you receive a call or email, it closes the browser (without an option to ignore inbound call or email). And every time the browser closes, it opens back up to the Home page instead of your last viewed page (I admit to being spoiled by that home page feature with Smartphones). The browser is a step backward by at least 5 years, reminding me of my old Nextel phone in 2003 which was the first phone I had with internet capabilities. The browser on the Brigade is every bit as chunky and clumsy. The only way you could be impressed with this browser is if you never had used a computer in your life and never had been on the internet. Strong words, but I calls it like I sees it :}
—-> Strike one!
* Not able to sync calendar. Verizon has their propietary “Office Kit”, but it took me 2hrs just to get my laptop to install the driver for the USB data cable. I’m IT-saavy, so I can’t imagine how long it would have taken a non-tech person. Apart from accessing my email, syncing my calendar is top priority for me. If I’m not able to know when/where I’m supposed to be, I might as well never leave the house! And if I never leave the house, the Brigade is worthless.
—-> Strike two!
* Clumsy email interface. It takes 2 clicks to reach my inbox and another click to read my email. That’s 3 clicks total, for those of you keeping score at home. My Blackberry Pearl took only 2 clicks. Another thing about Verizon email interface, is that it doesn’t give me the option to delete email only off my handheld device. Which means this is web interface email (direct to Yahoo, Gmail, etc), not client base email (not true POP3). I want the option to read/delete an email on my handheld and then allow the email to download later onto my laptop so I can take a closer look or answer it.
—-> Strike three!
* Not able to data transfer without jumping through hoops. Like I said, took me 2hrs to get my laptop to recognize my phone through data cable. Despite the Brigade having a “My Documents” feature it won’t read or render Word documents or even Text files. What the bloody good is “My Documents” feature if it’s not usable?!
* The keys are not responsive, having to press twice. It’s like the keyboard “sleeps” and then you have to press once to awaken and then another time to execute the number. This was very evident while listening and deleting vmail. Quite frustrating to say the least!
* Very limited customization of phone. You can change the menu layout (grid, list, icon) and change desktop picture, but that’s it. What you see is what you get. For phone of this price range, I would expect MUCH more personalization ability.
RATINGS:
* Construction: 10/10
* Mic/sound quality: 10/10
* Signal strength : 8/10 (dropped several calls even when sitting still in my home)
* Web interface: 1/10 – nearly non-existent.
* Email: 2/10
* Calendar use: 0/10
* Overall rating: 5/10
Rating: 2 / 5