Verizon launches Casio G’zOne Boulder
By Will Park on Monday, July 28th, 2008 at 1:29 PM PST In Announcements, Casio, Devices, Verizon
All you outdoorsy types and rough-necks out there take heed. Verizon (NYSE: VZ) has finally gone live with their much-anticipated successor to the ultra-rugged Casio G’zOne push-to-talk handset, the Verizon Casio G’zOne Boulder.
That’s right. Verizon’s online webstore is offering the Casio G’zOne Boulder for
$129.99 after 2-year contract and online discounts are applied. Those of you looking for more instant satisfaction can pick up the Casio G’zOne Boulder for $179.99 at your local Verizon brick-and-mortar store. Black-on-Silver is the only available color choice at the moment, but we’d imagine Verizon is readying that bright-orange jobby for release down the line.
The Casio G’zOne Boulder’s cosmetic updates, while significant and seriously eye-catching, aren’t the only changes in store for Verizon subscribers needing military-spec shock, dust, and water resistance. The Casio G’zOne Boulder offers a 1.3 megapixel camera (up from VGA resolution on the G’zOne Type-S), push-to-talk on the EVDO Rev. A network, and a slimmer profile.
Go forth, all you crazy water-borne, sand-loving, adrenaline junkies and grab yourself the absolute standard in rugged handsets. But, please, watch your step.
It would be great if it actually work like push to talk should but Verizon failed it’s last atempt at push to talk and it will never conpare to Nextel push to talk which is by far superior when it comes to push to talk
I just got mine in the mail yesterday. I am a former Nextel subscriber and you are right, the PTT does not compare to Nextels Direct Connect wich is far superior.
I have also noticed the batter life is not that good. Just about 16 hours!!
I really wish people would stop promoting this phone on their sites without first trying it a couple of days. It’s a staggering failure on many fronts, and I say that as one who eagerly anticipated it.
Got mine Thursday and it’s going back as soon as I figure out another phone to swap it for.
The only trait I can praise is its build and design (all phones should be made this solid), but what’s inside is junk. Sound quality is abyssmal (even the Nokia I had nine years ago was far better), like talking to someone gagging on Saran wrap at the bottom of a swimming pool.
And the battery, oh dear, the battery. Let me get this straight: You’re marketing a phone for “outdoors” and “adventure” types. If anything, shouldn’t it feature a bulked-up battery for, say, weekends away on a sailboat, camping, hiking, etc.?
Instead, we get the wimpiest battery I’ve had on any phone in several years — if not the entire nine I’ve been a cellphone customer. Brand-new, after its initial charge, it was already at half power after a few phone calls and texts and standby for three hours. Yesterday, with light usage, it died by sunset.
I can live without a gimmicky digital compass, and whatever I get to replace this waste of time will have to live in a plastic bag if I go boating. The purpose of a phone is to have conversations, and to be convenient (i.e., not run out of energy all time time).
This fails miserably in both regards.
Poor sound quality (both incoming and outgoing) is an understatement! Is this due to an unwelcome side-effect of the water-proofing of this handset??
I work for a large metro PD, who just changed over to Verizon (from Nextel), and we’re all being issued the Boulder.
The thought of conducting business without the effective Direct Connect was bad enough, but I figured I could live without it (not like I had a choice).
But, I’ve found that unless I’m in my ultra-quiet office, trying to actually understand a conversation on this thing is a joke! It’s so bad that if I’m out in the car, or anywhere remotely noisy, I just expend my own minutes and use my personal AT&T RAZR.
I hope Verizon/Casio/Qualcomm can improve this POS with a firmware update!
This phone is TERRIBLE!!! what’s the use of it being water resistant if the seals on the speakers make it
almost impossible to hear anything with the volume on max? The only thing “military grade” about it is if
Halliburton got a nice no-bid contract and this poor design is all they could come up with. Also phone just
locks up and turns off a lot.
as far as battery life; mine is great when you actually FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS! when you get it out of the box and put the battery in the phone, your not supposed to use it, your supposed to let it get a full charge first.. and i did that after reading all these complaints about the battery, and guess what, i use my phone ALOT and i can have it sun up to sun set with 2 bars left at the end of the day.. but as far as the muffled hearing;; do the software upgrade, hope this helps all the people that were thinkin twice on buying this phone, its actually a great phone, with great features if your not a complete retard!
These reviews are very confusing and not very helpful. One guy says the battery is good the other says it sucks. Did the guy with the good battery follow the intial charging directions or did he just half ass it.
i followed the charging directions! my battery is perfect.. this is a great phone! it did the automatic update about 10 minutes after i set it up on my number and is perfect!
Nice looking phone, but the bottom line- sound quality BADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD. Taking mine back.
I initially purchased the Boulder because I was sick of lugging around a fragile and overly-complicated smartphone. I just wanted a phone but not one that would shatter if I dropped it.
Form Factor: Comfortable, I like the almost rubber like feel on the sides which gives good grip. The phone flips open to about a 20 degree angle, a little flat for me. I like maybe more about 35 degrees which rounds my face when I hold it to my head. The part touches my ear is kind of comfortable… I’ve had better and worse.
Battery Life: I agree with some people here… it’s pretty weak for what you would expect a ruggedized phone to have. My old LG even after 1.5 years of the same battery holds a longer charge than my 3 week old Boulder. I did follow the directions as well… it isn’t TERRIBLE but it leaves much to be desired. I will get the extended battery in probably 8 months or so. With maybe 1 hour of talk time and text messaging/bluetooth, I usually have about 1 bar left at the end of the night.
Features: Pretty standard Verizon phone, the compass is kinda cool but… who cares really.
PTT: Sucks. The speakerphone sounds terrible and static-y. You can be in the middle of txt messaging someone and if someone PTTs you, it kicks you out of anything you are in to show the alert. Very annoying. Plus, if anyone calls you while you are in PTT, it doesn’t go straight to voicemail, it just rings and rings as if you are not answering.
Call Quality: I don’t know what everyone is talking about, mine sounds fine. I do have the newest firmware update but it sounds great to me, better than my Samsung i760. Again, the speakerphone is crap; makes everyone sound like they’re talking out of a kazoo.
Overall: Not bad, leaves some desire in certain areas. Not a bad phone if you want just a simple phone that can take a beating. Buy a car charger. Forget you even have a speakerphone. Switch to Nextel if you want PTT and if you are in a situation where survival depends on the digital compass, you’re screwed anyways.
G’zOne OK. However, I want to DISABLE voice commands, picture and video, and push-to-talk.
If you notice, the people who report terrible and excellent battery life are both getting about the same — down to 2 bars by sundown with moderate use. I don’t own the Boulder, but can’t fathom how someone can make a phone with less than 3 days of standby. My 2-year-old LG phone’s battery is lasting 3-4 days and that’s “dying,” because it used to last 10. The sound I understand, because they had to seal the speaker, but what about waterproofing/ruggedization requires a battery that can’t hold a decent charge?
It’s too bad, too. I’m harsh on my phones, and absolutely would’ve gotten the Boulder, but it would spend more time charging than in my pocket.
Just bought mine the other day. I can’t say I’ve used it enough to find out about battery life yet but I can tell you that there must be something to it because they started including an extra battery in the package. I wish there was a way of charging that battery without it having to be in the phone though. That way I could have one charging while using the other one.
I am completely satisfied by this phone.. I have gone through several phones the past two years.. This one has taken the beaten and still works great…
I work in the wind turbine industry. While up tower I mistakenly left my phone in my front shirt pocket and leaned over for an inspection.. When I leaned over, the phone slipped out my chest pocket and slid down into the bottom of the turbine housing and out the bottom opening.. Thinking my phone was completely demolished falling 300 feet and landing on hard frozen gravel. But when i climbed down I found it buried in the gravel with a few missing plasitc pieces and the battery popped out… Dusted it off and reinstalled the battery. Phone works perfectly…
I cannot complain about a phone that can take a 300 foot fall and still work….
GREAT PHone.!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just my Boulder and I must say i am much happier with this phone than any other phone I’ve ever had.
Like mentioned though, if you do what I did and used the phone right away before charging the battery, it will lose power quickly. But after a while, after wearing the battery down all the way and charging it up, I have found that the battery life is not quite as good as past phones, but good enough to fit my operating needs fro mday to day.
10 out of 10 for this one