Verizon Wireless offer G’zOne Boulder

How do you treat your gadgets? Do you try your best to take good care of them, but do suffer from the occasional lapse of concentration that caused you to drop them on the floor? Well, if you’re suffering from a documented case of butterfingeritis, then the G’zOne Boulder clamshell cell phone from Verizon Wireless would make for an intelligent choice - after all, it was specially built to military specifications to withstand shock, water and dust environments. In addition, the G’zOne Boulder enables customers to access Verizon Wireless’ Push to Talk service via Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) Revision A (Rev. A) network. You will be able to choose from black and silver or orange colors, making this more of a manly handset than anything else. Further details on the specifications are available after the jump.

• Rugged design that meets military specifications - 810F standards for water, shock and dust resistance; immersion; vibration; salt fog; humidity; solar radiation; altitude; and low and high temperature storage
• Flashlight
• Electronic compass
• VZ Navigator-capable - audible maps, turn-by-turn directions and location information to more than 14 million points of interest that customers can share with others
• Field Force Manager-capable - a resource management tool that provides businesses with the ability to locate, monitor and communicate with their mobile field workers
• 1.3 megapixel camera
• V CAST Music with Rhapsody-capable
• Built-in music player
• microSDHC memory card slot
• Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity
• Advanced speech recognition with dedicated voice dial key
• Alarm clock, calculator, calendar, stop watch, countdown, timer, world clock
• Voice commands
• Speakerphone with dedicated speakerphone key
• Bilingual interface - English and Spanish language
• Phonebook with up to 500 entries with multiple contacts
• Hearing aid compatibility = M4/T4
• Internal 2″ 240 x 320 65k color TFT display
• External 1.2″ 96 x 96 Mono STN display

The G’zOne Boulder can be yours for $129.99 after you send in a $50 mail-in rebate and tie yourself down to a new two-year customer agreement.

Press Release

• Email to a friend
• Leave a comment
• Share

6 Comments on “Verizon Wireless offer G’zOne Boulder”

Allie Says:

I cannot even read the opening paragraph of the article because of the Fujitsu ad at the top. It is stuck overlapping the article!

Chykin Says:

The thing looks pretty cool aesthetically.

W. Says:

I got one last Thursday. Yes, it looks cool aesthetically and is built the way all phones should be. Reminds me of my much-missed Audiovox CDM 9900 in that regard.

But the accolades end there. This is a terrible phone that shouldn’t have been released — especially considering the high reviews for the first-gen Type V and even (slightly lesser) the 2G model.

Every call sounds like talking to someone laying in a coffin full of jello. I have had to ask everyone to repeat themselves numerous times, to the point where my wife won’t call me on it until I get a different model. In all honesty, my Nokia from 2000 sounded twice as good.

Secondly, and perhaps even worse, the battery is pathetic. This phone is brand-new, and today, for instance, I took it off the charger at 10 a.m., have made three calls and a handful of texts since, and it’s already at half-power. Yesterday it died by sunset. They’re hyping this phone for adventurous, outdoorsy types, but if you want to go tramping around in the woods during a downpour, using the gimmicky (and fluky) digital compass — be sure it’s a suburban woods and electrical outlets are aplenty.

If anything, this phone should have TWICE the battery of “civilian” models, not this.

There are also software glitches, which, while not deal-breakers in themselves, add to the annoying disappointment that this phone has been.

I’m sending it back, and I’m certain there will be thousands more like me. Verizon deserves to lose their shirt on this one. Should never have been released.

InlineRacer Says:

I received an Orange one last Thursday (a week ago now), and am very pleased with it.

Several folks here and otherwise have complained about two things, audio quality and battery life.

The “audio quality” issue is a common error that many people make. Look at the phone - the speaker is very small (they have to make it waterproof after all!), and it is way up at the top of the phone. Several people I’ve seen try to use my phone put there ear up to the screen, which is below the speaker! The audio quality is bad if you try to listen to the screen. Move the phone down so that the tip of the phone where the speaker is located on or even in your ear. The audio quality is fine if you listen to the speaker.

I have to admit that the microphone and speaker are not the best I’ve ever used/heard, but think about it, the mic and speaker are waterproof in this thing. The sound quality is probably slightly muffled since it is waterproof, but it is better than most cell phones I have used.

The battery life can be a problem, but is usually due to using flash animated wallpaper (the default surfer you get with the phone, or the football or mountain biker flash animations that come with the phone), or setting the phone timeout settings too high. The other issue with the battery is that there are two batteries, a small one and a high capacity one. The phone comes with the small battery.

Here are the default settings for the phone, if you set these higher than this, you’ll significantly decrease your battery life (these settings are all under Settings & Tools/Display Settings):

Display backlight: 7 seconds
Keypad backlight: 7 seconds
Power saver: 2 minutes

The last one seems to be the real killer, setting this to 10 minutes drains the battery quite quickly.

And also under Display Settings is the Wallpaper setting. This significantly affects the battery life. If you choose any of the Flash animations from “Fun Animations” (the surfer (default Wallpaper setting when you get the phone), football or MTB mountain biking), these use up your battery very quickly. Choose a still picture and that should help quite a bit.

There are two batteries, the “standard” one which is 800mAh (the VZ website says 810, but I’m looking at the battery itself, and it says 800), and an “extended battery” which is 1680mAh. That should help quite a bit, although it looks a bit bigger and is probably heavier as well.

No I don’t work for VZ or Casio or own stock in these companies, no connection.

Ron Says:

How do you get the larger extended battery

R. Says:

Worst phone I ever had. Only have had it for a total of four days and it will be going back tommorrow. Battery lasted a about 6 hours total before requiring recharging, my Nokia lasted 4 days, if you want a larger battery you need to purchase one. Was in the woods camping needed it and it was almost dead after only 6 hours if you need a reliable phone for the outdoors this is not the one. Look elsewhere, and leave this phone with Casio.

External speaker sounds like a old AM radio you have to have it turned down to understand it, but then you can only hear it with your ear against it.

If this is as good as it gets then believe me keep your old phone, choose another, or use your landline, but do not buy this phone.

Post a Comment