Quick Hit: Casio’s G’zOne Commando is the best smartphone currently available, but not for the reasons you may think.
Review:For all you smartphone owners out there, stop what you are doing now and throw your current mobile device in the garbage. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
Now, march right on out and pick up a Casio Corp. G’zOne Commando smartphone. (Here’s a tip: Don’t actually try to say the “G’zOne” part as it’s not humanly possible. Instead, go into a store and demand a “Commando!”)
For you techies out there, you are probably asking why would I get rid of my perfectly good iPhone/Droid/Evo/MyTouch device and get something made by a company known more for calculator watches? Here is why. Grab that smartphone that you just threw into the garbage, walk to the nearest concrete sidewalk or brick wall and throw that device against that object. See all those pieces lying around that used to be your iPhone/Droid/Evo/MyTouch? That’s why you need a Commando. (Plus, now that you have destroyed your smartphone you really need to get a new phone anyway.)
What makes the Commando so different and vastly superior to any other device in my book? It’s the ruggedized nature in which it’s built. Casio seems to have figured out that it lacks the size to compete with larger rivals in the smartphone biz on technology alone and instead has designed the Commando to be able to withstand the life of a smartphone. You know, being thrown into bags, dropped on the ground, slobbered on by children. Life.
And unlike all those snap-on cases that can make other smartphones more resistant to everyday life, the Commando (Commando!) has its toughness built in and on. Sort of like a turtle, but a turtle that is also a ninja.
As per Casio’s specifications, the Commando can withstand sitting in 3 feet of water for 30 minutes, be dropped from 4 feet 26 times, can withstand 95% humidity for 24 hours (or about 23 hours more than I could stand 95% humidity), and operate at -25 degrees Celsius for 96 hours.
I tried to replicate many of these claims myself, leaving the device in the shallow end of a pool for 30 minutes, dropping it repeatedly on a variety of surfaces, using it in the Orlando, Fla., area in late July to approximate extreme humidity, and left it in my freezer for several days. I even called someone using the device from the shower. The Commando laughed off all challenges.
Sure, it’s not indestructible, but compared with just about every other smartphone out there it will seem as if it was.
It costs approximately the same price as all the other smartphones out there. Sports similar specifications and will not explode into a million pieces the first time it slips from your hand.
Heck, it has a cool textured surface that should make it less likely to fall out of your hand to begin with. It has a 3.6-inch display, which is about average for most high-end smartphones and runs Android 2.2, which is all anyone really needs.
The phone also runs on Verizon Wireless’ CDMA2000 1x EV-DO Revision A network, which depending on who you believe is the most extensive and capable network out there.
Downsides? It does lack support for Verizon Wireless’ LTE network, but does playing Angry Birds, making a phone call, sending a text message, shooting a picture or tracking you GPS coordinates really need speeds faster than EV-DO Rev. A? Also, instead of just playing Angry Birds, you can actually throw the device at a bird and make it angry. How cool is that?
For all the tech-heads out there, the device does 99% of what you need as well as masks 99% of the butter-finger incidents you will encounter.
And as a capper, it even has a calculator. Now only if I could strap it to my wrist.
The Decision: Casio’s G’zOne Commando is not a smartphone that will wow you with the traditional cutting-edge technical specifications, but a few everyday “incidents” with the device will prove its worth. This durability along with capabilities that will satisfy virtually everyone looking for a smartphone and the most bad-ass name going lands the Commando an A+.
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