I traded in my ole Type - S for this phone (which was almost perfect). When I say the "AK-47 of cell phones" what I mean is it may not be the most refined, nicest, prettiest, highest functioning, "feature packed" that is out there, but it gets the job done every time. I want to know that when I need to text/make a call, it will work. Be it recently dunked in mud, dropped 10 times already that day, or laid out in the sun for hours, it will work every time. I'm a law enforcement officer, and a phone will get all sorts of abuse, because it need to go everywhere I go, and I can't simply "leave it in the car" or "put it in a nice case." I had a blackberry, glide, razor, etc., and the casio series blow all the other ones away. If you need a phone to actually work, and don't give a crap about frilly features like nice touch screens, email from the office, or a really pretty camera, this one is for you.
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I ordered this phone being fairly confident with Casio's products. After making an order for the cellular phone over the phone with Verizon as a replacement for my BlackBerry I read some reviews on the Gzone Boulder. Practically all of them were negative. My normal response was to think great, now I'm going to have to deal with getting my phone swapped out without even getting it yet. Even worst was that I usually check into something before buying it, but I wasn't due for an upgrade but got one anyways for being a VIP customer and being with Verizon over the Last 8 years; I was put on the spot for a one time opportunity. Well here's the verdict... I got the phone and it works great. It sounds a little muffled, but that's normal with water resistant phones because all the ports have to be sealed off. The muffled sound isn't bad though and only affects call quality slightly; I can hear over the phone without a problem. I've had worst phones without being to military standard. I can't understand why so many people would bash a good product that does exactly what it's made to do without taking into consideration design limitations or affects to the sound because of design, seems like common sense.
Pros. I live out in the boonies and tend to have trouble getting a good signal, I haven't had any problems with this phone yet. I figured with it being a fairly standard flip phone that I needn't have such high expectations, but they were more than exceeded. The phone is also physically solid and fits in the grove of the shoulder well. The desktop charger is ingenious sense you don't want to be opening closing ports on the phone too much. After time they would wear out (as on any water-proofed product), but that was taken into consideration; props to Casio for longevity. The best part of this rugged beast is that it is a slim phone for being rugged and fits in the front pocket well. I've had a few nextels and never had the experience of having durability and confort of being able to fit it in my pocket like a regular phone.
Cons. I don't care for the silver keypad. The silver makes it difficult during evening hours to see with overhead lighting because the finish is reflective. The back light is also orange. One of my old phones used plain white lighting for the keypad back lighting and that seems to be most friendly on the eyes in dark conditions. The battery is good for 1-2 days of light use. As long as you charge it nightly u should be fine. If not get an extended battery. My last critique is the display. It's very small and makes it difficult to read text when browsing the web.
Overall I'm overly satisfied with this aesthetically pleasing phone and can see it hanging around for a long time. Hope this review helps. Take care.
After hearing eveyone else complaining about sound quality I was scared and I had already ordered the phone. But once I activated it Verizon did a automatic software upgrade. The sound quality was not that great at first because the volume was maxed out but once I turned it down a little it was fine. Called my mom who lives several states away and she said she could hear me just fine and I had no problems hearing her. I am glad I went ahead and got this phone. I am not a outdoors person but I am very rough on phones and with three kids and working as a nurse I needed something that could take being dropped over and over again. My husband got the same phone and he is really happy with it too.
I am on my second Boulder and was going to give up on them because of lousy call quality. I got a tip on a software update, and after doing the update yesterday the call quality is much improved.
Many have complained about the battery life and I agree that it is way too short. However, it could be that the update will help with the battery also.
Bottom line, get the update done as soon as you get the phone and you will probably be happy with this phone if you are looking for a rugged phone with basic features.
This phone came highly recommened by the Verizon agent at the Mall Kiosk. They had to order a phone for me and they sent it Fed-Ex. I waited 4 days for this piece of crap! I had this phone for less than an hour and wanted to throw if off a cliff. When talking on the phone I was unable to understand what the other person was saying. It sounded like I was under water with ear muffs on. When I brought it back to the Kiosk in the mall they said that they never get any complaints about this phone, Yeah right!!!! So they ordered me another phone and I waited another 4 days. Oh no, I think they sent me another broken one.... NOT! This phone was just as bad as the first one. I figured that I would let others listen to the wonderful audio and wouldn't you know it, everone said that it was horrible. So I brought the phone back as second time and after an hour finall received a replacement. Once again they claim that they have no complaints about this phone. I can only imagine that the person(s) that approved the relase of this phone must have been spies for Nextell and figured that they would get back at Verizon for stealing their Push to Talk Network. I mean really, who else would have put their name on it intentionally? Bottom line, DON"T BUY THIS PHONE< IT SUCKS!
I've been hunting around for reviews of this phone to see if anyone else was having a similiar audio experience. I'm glad I finally found some opinions.
They could have had a major success here if they had gotten that most basic of features right; sound quality. At first I thought maybe I had just gotten a lemon, and I'ld exchange it, but now I guess I'll have to get a different model. I really would have loved this phone to have been a winner.
I really wanted to like this phone because a rugged, waterproof, no frills cell phone is something I've wished for. I read some negative reviews about the sound quality but
thought perhaps the reviewers were just picky.
I went to the Verizon store and the clerk claimed it was highly rated by Consumer Reports. Turns out she meant the previous type S model.
This phone is absolute garbage. The sound quality is unacceptable. Calls are so tinny and static filled that two tin cans with a string might be a better option. No matter how good the other features are, what is the point of a cell phone if you can't understand the person on the other end?
Next on the list is battery life. I fully charged the phone, then started playing with ring tones, settings and other features. After a half hour of this the battery was down to two bars.
I could deal with the battery life by buying two if everything else about the phone was fine, but with the call quality, forget it.
Just to make sure it wasn't me, I gave the phone to my wife to make a call without telling her a thing about the sound quality.
A few seconds into the call she asked me if there was something wrong with the phone because she couldn't hear the other person clearly.
I don't see how a phone like this could be released to the public. Wasn't there somebody at Casio who actually made a call on the thing?
The new Casio G'zone Boulder has a crappy hinge that was at once loose and feels generally cheap. The phone feels like plastic.The display is small. I went rafting with the new one and it got water behind the screen (the older model never did). The Call Quality is the worst I've experienced (my T'mobile prepaid phone is better). Generally the new G'zone looks cheap, is built cheap, and sounds cheap... My old G'zone (type V) is a solid performer with a 2mp camera that can drive nails and go swiming every day all day long ... I bought another Type V slightly used for less money and I'm big time happier!!! Remember ( I gave the new G'zone two tries) I took back the first hoping that it's pour performance and sorry build quality was a mistake, it wasn't...
I initially tried the Motorola V750 for a few days at the advice of a Verizon sales associate and due to poor reviews for the audio quality of the G'zOne (which is what I was initially looking into). But after a few days of trying the V750 out I realized that I just really didn't like the it. Could just be that I didn't like the thin Razor design since the phone didn't seem to fit well in my hand while texting on the go for example or that the phone had this hideous red stripe around the front screen and an equally repulsive red accented side button but I just didn't feel right with it and that was enough to try something else.
Unhappy with the V750 and after reading a review stating Verizon had provided an update for the V'zOne programming that may have improved the audio quality, I went back to Verizon a few days later and gave in to those two words that don't often describe a cell phone: "water resistant." I do a lot of whitewater and snow sports and I don't like trusting my dry box alone so I felt justified enough to at least try the G'zOne out. I've now had the G'zOne for several few days now and LOVE IT. It's a bit chunky for some people's tastes (including my friends who love the new shiny sleeker phones) but I actually like it's somewhat more aggressive look. More importantly, it just feels solid and is loaded with useful features. The two most notable and unique examples in my mind are the compass function and the stopwatch function, both of which can be used on the front screen with the touch of a side aux. button. The phone even feels like a real stopwatch with the way it's set up (unlike most other flip phones with a stopwatch tool). The drop-in charger is also a huge bonus for practical purposes and aesthetic reasons as well. Many of the other aspects I like about the phone are more due to my personal tastes and similarities to my old phone which I would've kept if not for its overall declining condition largely due to its daily abuse.
Now, in terms of the audio... The best way to put it, is that it's you'd expect from the casing, etc. The sound's not as great as a lot of other phones, but it's not all that bad either. I used it in the city today in a fairly congested area and I could still hear the other end clearly (just avoid turning the main volume all the way up at which point it starts to crackle, etc). The seemingly improved audio quality from what earlier reviews had stated may be due to the programing update that automatically starts when the phone is activated (took about 3 minutes after asking for my confirmation).
Anyway, if you're into sleek sexy phones with somewhat gimmicky features like a touch screen (though I will admit the G'zOne is full of its own little gimmicks itself, of course) or if you need a high audio quality phone with a long battery life you may want to go with something else. On the other hand, if you're looking for something really solid and willing to sacrifice a little bit of audio quality than this could be the phone for you.
From the first call I got dismal sound quality with normal calls. Speaker phone calls were OK but not spectacular. Call quality was highly dependant upon the phone on the other end in my case. The othe rparty allways hear me fine. But depending on whothe other person was or what phone they were on I could not hear them clearly. Tinny, not clear, distorted, overall bad audio. Turning the volume down did help but if you have to turn the volume down so far that you can not hear then forget about it. I was at the end of my chain and had already decided that it was time to return the phone. Then Verizon Pushhed a Firmware update yesterday when I left the phone in my car. When I got back the phone had "Automatic Update in Progress" or something to that effect on the screen. I phushed OK to clear the screen. The very next call was quite a different experience so I called my automatic teller at my bank which was inaudible before. It also worked fine. I have made several calls since and all have been fine. Even the hands free that was fine before is even clearer. The ringer which I thought was loud enough (probably because I choose the obnoxious ringtones) just rang scared the crud out of my daughter and me.I'll give it one more week to mess up but I'll bet I'm keeping this one now. They saved it by the skin of their teeth. Other features seem to be OK but honestly I've only had a quick run through and used each a few times. Ipersonally like the screen I received some high res pix via mms and they looked great.