Commando Review

[mgc107]

It's going on three weeks since my company switched from Nextel to Verizon and issued some of us Casio Commando smart phones. I've been through most of the posts on this forum about this phone and the Android system and have picked up many useful tips. Thanks for the posts. Thought I would share my impressions of the Commando. I've read a lot of posts about rooting, overclocking and various other tweaks. Because this is a company owned phone I won't be undertaking any of these options but I'm wondering why you would want to. This is not a phone for techies and geeks. It is what it is; a rugged tool for those of us who work in the muck and the mire, dirt, dust, mud, water... You don't modify a hammer, screwdriver or wrench and I have found no cause to modify this tool either. I can put it in my pocket or holster and not spend the day working while trying not to break the raw egg in my pocket, metaphorically speaking. This phone has done everything that I've asked it to and done it in a reasonable amount of time. Many of the complaints I've read are simple fixes accomplished by RTFM and going into the settings to add or delete a check box. I can see where battery life can be an issue for those of us who have been used to a flip phone. I've not had any battery life issues that can't be coped with. I throw mine on the charger any time I get 10 minutes or more in my vehicle or office. I use the control panel widget to turn off the wireless, GPS and any other feature I don't need at a given time and place it in airplane mode when I'm in areas of the plant where I know I've got limited signal strength and I keep track of what apps are running and close those I don't need. In a 10 to 12 hour day with moderate to heavy phone usage I haven't gone below 50% battery. Verizon's PTT feature is a little slower than Nextel's Direct Connect but we're talking about seconds. Seems we've been spoiled by expecting fractions of seconds wait times lately. Criticisms about the phone appearence I find silly and trivial. It's a two and a half by five inch rectangle like just about every other smart phone on the market so what's the issue? If you want the latest, greatest, fastest, etc... on the market this may not be the phone for you.For everyone else I don't think you'll be disappointed.

One year later: This phone has held up to a year of abuse in a stone quarry including falling off the back of a truck at 30 mph and landing in rock. Been dropped in water and fallen out of pocket to the ground 30 feet. Yup, it's rugged as a brick and ALMOST AS SMART AS ONE TOO! IT'S A P.O.S. (as in piece of sh@t); slow, unreliable and prone to reboots and freezes at the most inconvienient times. Verizon and Casio should be embarrassed to have offered this phone.