Stress-Testing the Verizon G'zOne Cellphone

abkaiser writes "You can dunk it under water. Put it in the oven and crank up the heat. Drop it, smack it, treat it like the hunk of plastic that it is. And yet this is a cellphone. I got my hands on the Verizon G'zOne (pronounced 'G-Z-One'), a phone designed for high-abuse environments. Come for the test methodology, stay for the photo of a cellphone cooking in an oven."

Comments

High abuse environments...

[patio11]

... seems to describe the marketing staff's relationship to controlled substances. "G'zOne" is not an electronic device, it is a name for a freaking Klingon. Come back when you have given up the faux hipsterism. Even *authentic* hipsterism isn't an endearing trait.

I wonder how resistant the LCD is to cracking

[antifoidulus]

I swore off ever buying an expensive phone after I broke my old one by stepping on while taking off my pants after a night of drinking. I was only on it for half a second, but the stupid main LCD(the secondary one on the outside of the clamshell was fine) cracked. The phone still worked as a phone, but I could never tell what I was dialing and if I hit the wrong button I could end up in some weird menu and not even realize it. No SMS to boot. From then on, it was sub-$20 phones. If I break them, I don't really care.

Re:I wonder how resistant the LCD is to cracking

[Intron]

Here's the link to what you need.

Re:I wonder how resistant the LCD is to cracking

[Odiumjunkie]

I dropped my Treo in a parking lot after taking some hefty back-pain meds... When returned the next day, the LCD was cracked but the left side worked. I have to cut-and-paste text messages then add carriage feed returns so I can read the text... $100 for new screen $200 for new (replacement) treo $300 for new treo version Too cheap and lazy to upgrade or fix it now...

When I broke the screen on my sony ericsson T610 about a year ago, I was given a quote of about $200 for a new branded screen - I went to my local asian-run backstreet electronics store and got a new generic screen installed for $30 including labour (although labour is nothing, I could have installed it myself). Anyways, it was hugely cheaper than a branded part, and brighter than the original to boot! It's been working flawlessly since then.

Dotted already

[Anonymous Coward]

mirrordot

Clearly the most ridiculous name for a phone yet

[John Nowak]

A gzone sounds like an italian sort food filled with cheese... with an environmentally-concious twist... for Gnome... err

Special permission?

[Rob T Firefly]

Disclaimer: I was given special permission by Verizon to stress-test the G'zOne. Verizon and I both agree: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. These tests were performed so that we as consumers can validate Verizon's claims without you having to test them yourself. If you break your own equipment, you're the one responsible.

I understand why the reviewer would want a disclaimer of some sort, but since when does a product reviewer need "special permission" from a vendor to do a proper review?

Re:Special permission?

[Mononoke]

since when does a product reviewer need "special permission" from a vendor to do a proper review?

He probably signed papers requiring him to return it in the same condition as it was given to him. He wouldn't be able to truly test it without facing the possibility of destroying it and violating that agreement.

Who needs it?

[weinrich]

I hate my company cell phone so I abuse it every chance I get, yet the damned thing keeps on going like some undead zombie from a B-rate horror film. Why pay extra for a feature that's already built into sucky phones like mine?

Yet another user for...

[LaTechTech]

...the "EuroStyle" vibrating massager. Also, another "G-zone to use it on."

So they're building things like they used to.

[gfxguy]

We've become so accustomed to crap that when someone builds something the way they used to it becomes news.

For the record, I washed AND DRIED my Motorolla v70 a few years ago (in the pocket of my cargo pants).

I had to replace the antenna, and the microphone made me sound like crap, but it worked.

Re:So they're building things like they used to.

[clonmult]

Likewise. My first phone, a Nokia 6130 (branded Nk702) took a major dip in Tango, which just made the keys a bit sticky, open up, clean keyboard, and it was fine.

After it got retired, I passed it to my son for use as a kiddies toy, and it took years of that abuse. Never really checked to see if it worked, but then realised it had a bunch of numbers in it I needed. Powered it up after 3 years of being a toddlers toy (hate to think the abuse it experienced), and everything worked perfectly.

Menu was snappier than most of the current batch of phones as well. And battery life was considerably better. Progress, eh?

Re:So they're building things like they used to.

[flimflam]

Agreed - most things suck. But for the record, I spilled an entire pint of Guinness into my brand new (at the time) 12" Powerbook a couple of years ago (well, actually my two-year-old daughter did it. Please don't ask what she was doing with a pint of Guinness). I quickly pulled the battery, drained the computer and let it dry for a couple days, and except for some stickiness in a few keys (that went away after a couple months) and a distinct smell of burnt beer (that lasted about six) it's been fine ever since. I've also dropped it 3 times -- once hard enough to bend the case enough that I can no longer eject the DVD that's inside. I seem to have good luck with these things.

On the other hand my mom has had a succession of Macs that she's had nothing but problems with. (Though it may be related to the fact that she always goes for the cheap models - starting with the god-awful Performa 6360 and leading to a 12" iBook).
 

Any relation

[edmicman]

to the Pizza Hut P'ZONE?

Lost in translation

[Zadaz]

The -one- cool phone they bring over from Japan and they uglify it.

And strip half the features and change twice at much. Guess that's what took two years.

(Link to original phone.)

Oblig. ATHF

[Dachannien]

"G'zOne" is not an electronic device, it is a name for a freaking Klingon.

Hip College-Age Guy on TV Commercial: Dude, you're getting an OoGhiJ MIQtxxXA!

Re:Warranty?

[Bucc5062]

Oh my, what a good chuckle you gave me this morning. A telco company backing their product for any extended period of time...for free?...Tried to get my mind around the concept, but seems it is harder to grasp then imaginary numbers.

I think any major corporation that says "We stand behind our product" is really saying "We stand behind you, please bend over, this wont hurt a bit".

I will never buy another Verizon-brand phone...

[terrahertz]

...because Verizon has made it their policy to lock down the filesystem of every device they get their greedy mitts on. My first phone with their service was a Samsung a670, which worked great, allowed me to read and write to the filesystem for free (so I could get fancy with ringers, wallpaper, pull pics off quickly and for free, etc) using BitPim and QPST.

Then the time came to pick a "free" phone for work, and unfortunately I chose the Pantech PN-215, a "Verizon brand" phone. While it was more or less similar in features compared to the Samsung, the best I can do so far is just look at the filesystem, no writing allowed (to the device or to anything connected). I've tried out a few different workarounds (Verizon even went so far as to tell me there was no data cable for that model, a blatant lie I quickly disproved by doing some research and trying out an Audiovox cable), but so far no dice.

This means that if I want to transfer pics, ringers, etc I have to do that over the air, lining the pockets of the greed-machine that is Verizon.

My personal plan is coming up for renewal, and when I add my wife to it, you can be sure we will not be purchasing any phone that is locked down in this way.

Thanks a million, "Can you rip me off now?!"

Why?

[l0ungeb0y]

"a phone designed for high-abuse environments"

Hey, if you're a telco that intentionally cripples the bluetooth features on its phones to the point of uselessness and still sells it as bluetooth even after a class action lawsuit, you've already created enough of a high abuse environment for me as a customer to never want to ever return.

Citation for my gripe: http://support.vzw.com/capability/bluetooth_popup. html
"Bluetooth is a wireless networking technology designed primarily to replace cables for communication between personal computing and communication devices. For example, Bluetooth technology allows you to use a wireless headset to place and receive calls." ...While we all know that Verizon intentionally cripples the Bluetooth file transfer features to the point that you have to use Verizons pay per transfer cellular feature.

So what self respecting /. user uses Verizon? And if you use it and pay for it out of pocket... WHY???
My #1 use for Bluetooth is file transfer to store media on my 1G of built in storage on my phone as I would a USB HD, but transferable without the cables.

I switched from Verizon to Cingluar a couple years ago and have been happy to transfer files from my desktop to my cell to my laptop or other peoples computers for years now. I can also plug it in and use it as I would a USB HD. But since I am in SF and so many techies here use MacBooks, because MacBooks lets Pros work like they want, it's just easier to have BT file transfer. BT is also great for syncing my Apple Address Book and iCal to my phone, infact, it syncs multiple computers via blutooth to my contacts and calendar. Verizons crippleware requires you plug in a USB cable and use proprietary software to do this. My Motorola and Mac just use iSync, which comes with my Mac from Apple with OS X for free.

I tried switching to HELIO last month, but I found out after subscribing that their bluetooth was HEADSET ONLY. I unsubscribed within 30 minutes, that's how long it took me to get home and find that my workstation and handset could not talk to each other... my workstation could see the handset but the file browser was "FEATURE NOT AVAILABLE ON THIS DEVICE" and they wanted me to install some proprietary software/spyware. Not suprisingly, HELIO uses Verizons and Sprints networks. I'd be willing to bet $500.00 that there is a contractual arrangement for use of the Verizon network that requires HELIO (EARTHLINK) to cripple Bluetooth to headset only.

And I am glad HELIO crippled their devices in this way without making it clear. I unsubbed, returned my eqpt and went back to Cingular with the only hitch that HELIO was playing games on my number being assigned back to CINGULAR (it took 3 days!!! While Cingular had the number to SPRINT/HELIO inside that 30 minute window) Because I am now just waiting for the Apple iPhone to come out and I will gladly drop cash for that.. ESP since SF will be wifi enabled withiin a year of the phones launch and will be one of the first cell/wifi phones on the market and by far the coolest.

iPhone on Verizon????
HAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHA
HAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHA

You'll have to install so many hacks on the iPhone to get it to work like Cingular users will have it work out of the box that you might as well just sign it off as "PWNED to some hacker in Beijing".

So WHY? WHY does any self respecting /. user use Verizon?
Or does the /. crowd == the "I WANT A PHONE THAT'S ONLY A PHONE" crowd?

Re:Why?

[indigest]

Verizon phones are perfect for /.ers! You have to hack them, void your warranty, and risk bricking them in order to get them to work the way you want!

Pronounciation

[AJWM]

(pronounced 'G-Z-One')

That's "gee-zed-one", right?