Verizon shows off Casio G'zOne Brigade - a water-proof full-QWERTY phone

Casio Brigade

Casio Brigade

Casio Brigade

Casio Brigade

Today at a press event in New York City highlighting its 2009 holiday season cell phone portfolio, Verizon showed off the as-yet unannounced Casio G'zOne Brigade, the company's first rugged, push-to-talk cell phone with a full QWERTY keyboard.

Casio has been making tough handsets for Verizon under the G'zOne brand for a number of years, but this is the first G'zOne handset to feature a full QWERTY keyboard. The keyboard on the Brigade sports 4 full rows of keys that includes a shortcut key for messaging and a dedicated row of number keys. Like other G'zOne phones, the Brigade meets the MIL-STD-810F standard for water, vibration, dust, and a host of other tortures that would disable a lesser phone.

But the Brigade can do more than just take a beating. It is also equipped with an autofocus 3.2 megapixel camera with LED flash that can record videos as well as still photos. The phone sports a document viewer and features a text-to-speech function that can read text, picture, and email messages aloud to the phone's user. A large speaker with speakerphone capability is also on-board.

Standard Verizon services are offered on the Brigade, including VZ Navigator, V CAST Video, and V CAST Music with Rhapsody. Purchased and created media files alike can be stored on memory cards that can be fitted into the phone's microSD memory card slot.

No release date or pricing information has been released for the Casio G'zOne Brigade yet, but we are told to expect to see the device available soon. We hope to add a brief video of the Casio Brigade shortly, so stay tuned.

Casio Brigade

Casio Brigade

Casio Brigade

Casio Brigade