Looking for a tough, durable, cell phone that has the 3G features you need. It’s here!
Casio Brigade Review-It's one cool phone
Just made available yesterday at Verizon, the Brigade is the latest in Casio’s G’zOne line. The Brigade, new brother to the Casio Rock and the Casio Boulder, is a monster of a phone. It meets mil-spec standards for shock, vibration, dust, moisture, and temperature extremes. It is made from extremely tough materials and, consequently, weighs a little more and is a little thicker than some. It truly feels as though you could run over it with a tank.
Casio Brigade is One Tough Cell Phone
I’ve seen videos on YouTube boiling it’s brothers in a pot of water, freezing them in Jello, running over them with a car, throwing them off of buildings multiple times and like the old Timex commercials they keep on ticking.
The Outside of the Casio Brigade
The Casio Brigade carries forward the circular exterior displays on the front. It has a monochrome display with the time and status indicators. Beneath the external display is a full numeric keypad with a number of keys dedicated to specific actions such as the music player, camera and messaging applications. The keys on the front of the phone were easy to find, but travel and feedback were minimal.
The Brigade offers push to talk. The button on the push-to-talk services, and the controls for that are on the side of the device. And, the button is red, which makes it stand out nicely from the otherwise gray coloring.
The Inside of the Casio Brigade
Because the Brigade is a sideways clam shell, it opens up to reveal a secondary display and full QWERTY keyboard. This keyboard feels fantastic. It has nice big keys that are nicely spaced, have a good shape to them, and provide excellent travel and feedback.
Casio Brigade Review
The interior display is generous, and looks good. It’s nice and bright and provides ample room to interact with Verizon’s menu system.
The Target
The Casio Brigade clearly targets the user who is working in an outdoor environment, the working man, or at least people who spend a lot of time being active and otherwise beating up their phones. The Brigade brings a new form factor to that group of users, and gets most aspects right. I had my previous phone, an LG VX8300, for almost four years because I couldn’t find a phone as durable and dependable.
The Verdict of the Casio Brigade
Until today I have not seen a phone with a QWERTY board for texting that would last me through a week. Touch screens are popular, but not very durable for those of us who like to ruff it up a little. They also usually have tiny keys not fit for my fat fingers. Not so in the case of the Brigade. When I found this one I was finally impressed enough to buy it.
Priced at $249 at Verizon after a $50 mail in rebate. I like it!
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Maybe you can enlighten me… I’ve searched the web high and low for some kind of info on the internet and supposed “full HTML” browser. Does the brigade actually open normal web pages like a smartphone, or just the sorry excuse for mobile web that Verizon has on simple feature phones? This one extremely unclear feature is going to be the deciding factor on whether or not I buy it or shoot for the smart phone, which may be a bad idea. I’m rough on phones and have had nothing but G’zOne phones for the last 4 years. Problem is, I need full internet access sometimes to search for parts and what not when I’m in the field doing service calls. Nobody wants to review the HTML browser on the Brigade.
It is not as fast as my daughters droid, however it goes everywhere hers goes on the net. It took me a little bit to understand how the verizon home page worked, but once I figured it out I had no problem opening pages or searching. Screen could be larger to make it easier to read for old eyes.
Thanks Papa Boomer. I may hold out for a month or two to see if the price drops a little, but that makes my decision. I appreciate the feedback.
I have now had this phone 1 week. I really like it. It has far exceeded my expectations . Now that I understand how to use it the 3g features it is awesome. I highly recommend it! Papa Boomer
I have now had this phone 1 week. The longer I have it the more I like it! Internet access is great!
This isn’t a bad phone. It’s very solid and well built, and great on a construction site or the beach. The problems I have with it are:
1. Very over priced
2. No G’zone Gear like the other Verizon rugged phone has (Compass, Pedometer, Moon phase, Tides). Way too much money not to include these features.
3. It only comes in the typical Verizon dull grey. Where are the bright yellows or blues, or even army olive drab? It’s a construction and survival phone, for rough out door use, not corporate board rooms…..so lets make it highly visable!
I have had to send my Brigade phone back twice and am on my third one.
The challenge is that people can’t hear me on the other end. A good bluetooth helps but if you pay this much for a phone people should be able to hear you when talking normally.
this phone is far from water resistent the first one i had was ruined by steam from being in the bathroom during the shower my next 2 replacment phones had bad mic’s and the next one got wet with all hatches sealed up, not happy at all with this phone, wouldnt be that bad if verizon kept replacments in stock but wating 2 days for a replacment that dosent work anyhow is getting old
Love the phone, but cant get it to connect to my PC(s). Put a 8gig card in it expecting to transfer stuff back and forth and it gives an error msg stating to check my connection. any ideas?
Does anyone know what’s next? Brigade, although able to be purchased, is off the shelves at my local Verizon store. I was impressed by the Brigade until I noticed that it doesn’t have G’zGear applications. I thought i had final found the perfect phone. So does anyone know what’s next? When is the next installment of the Brigade due to launch and will it have the 6 G’zGear application like the Ravine?
My son got this phone from Verizon last week and dropped it a couple of feet onto a carpetted floor yesterday. Both the hinge and inner screen broke. I called both verizon and Casio and they both said that the warranty doesn’t cover the phone if it is dropped.
i have had the brigade since july i love the phone but the speakers on it suck cant hear it ring when people call me, speaker phone sucks randomly dies on me and sometimes it seems like its slower dial up internet. and now its having problems charging. any advice on the charging is greatly appreciated. i dont feel like dealin with the bs of getting a new phone so i wanna make this one last.
very unhappy with this phone. as stated before when this phone gets wet no one can hear me and the mic is bad. the phone takes a good 3-5 minutes to send a text, if it even feels like sending a text at all. the phone shuts off constantly. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS PHONE TO ANYONE
got this phone the end of march and now for the 3rd time it will not send or receive text messages.. For how much this phone costs it should be better than this. Now I have to call verizon again and get phone #4 and this time they will be giving me a different phone for sure!!!!!!!!!!
oh and it likes to reset its self all the time too