Verizon Announces Casio G'zOne Commando Rugged Android Smartphone

Verizon will soon be serving Froyo in a nearly indestructible dish: The carrier has just announced plans to release the rugged Casio G'zOne Commando Android OS 2.2 smartphone in the very near future.

The Commando won't sport the latest and greatest in hardware, but that's not its angle. The device will instead be traversing the more difficult path of the rugged smartphone, called upon to stand up to the most physically and environmentally demanding users and situations.

Toughness Features
The Casio G'zOne Commando has been tested against and met Military Standards 810g for immersion, rain, vibration, salt fog, humidity, solar radiation and altitude. The Commando is also going to be shock and dust resistant, and can be stored in lower or higher temperatures than the average smartphone. The display, normally the most fragile aspect of the majority of smartphones, will be made out of Gorilla Glass.

The smartphone is also going to feature a number of components (or what Verizon refers to as "lifestyle features") that contribute to its functionality for rugged users. These include an on-board compass, thermometer, walking counter and sun/moon/tide trackers. It will also sport a GPS and turn-by-turn navigation software.

Hardware Specs
The Commando isn't necessarily a slouch when it comes to normal specs, although it probably wouldn't fare too well in a race with most recently released high-end models. It will feature an 800MHz processor and 512MB of RAM. It will support a microSD card up to 32 GB, and will be running the aforementioned Android OS 2.2 (Froyo). 

On the outside will be a 3.6-inch 480 x 800 (WVGA) capacitive Touchscreen and a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera with auto-focus and LED flash.

The Commando will be exclusively on Verizon’s 3G network, and will include Wi-Fi b/g/n and Stereo Bluetooth. It will be able to share its cellular connection with other devices over Wi-Fi.

Price and Availability
The Casio G'zOne Commando will become available on Thursday, April 28 and will sell for $200 with a two-year contract. Buyers will need to subscribe to a data plan.

This is just one of the new Android models Verizon is going to launch this week, though it will be the only rugged one. Also on the docket is the Samsung Droid Charge and HTC Droid Incredible 2.

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