Honest opinions

[shallow runner]

I am upgrading my droid soon and was considering getting the commando as I tend to be rough on phones and I heard it was pretty durable. What is the overall consensus on this device so far. I have read a lot of the post on this forum and know there is an issue with bloatware bogging down the CPU but that seems to be assuaged with rooting which I am familiar with. Following the root and freezing/removal of the bloatware did you find it increased speed and battery life to a significant level to justify the root? Also how was it out of the box? And is the durability really as great as suggested by Casio? They claim military specs but does it stand up to that? Is the camera quality as bad as I have seen in reviews?

I plan on getting it and trying it out for the 30 days and seeing for myself but obviously I can't root a device I may return. Just wanted to get an informed opinion so to balance my decision. My other consideration is the Razor or the Incredible but as I said before; I am rough on phones so this may be a better option even considering the performance tradeoff. Cheers.

 

[BLACKTOOTHGRIN]

I don't find the bloatware to really slow the phone down, because I don't use any of it.
I do find it to be a pain in the ass because it takes up a good 70MB of space
on a devise that only had 400MB of on board memory.
If you're going to root, don't even let it bother you because you'll be removing it right?
Even if you don't root, I find the performance out of the box to be fine,
(I would suggest a launcher change though)
BUT IT'S NO RAZR in the speed dept! That's an apples and oranges comparison.

IMO...the camera is pretty bad.
Other think it's fine.
That's probably completely user preference.

Overall I like the Commando very much as it suits my lifestyle.
Military spec....eh...bla bla bla...it all depends on the user if you ask me.
It's plenty durable for an active person, DEFINITLY MORE SO THAN ANY OTHER SMARTPHONE AVAILABLE.
Durable or not, if you abuse the thing, you're asking for trouble.

If you want a solid ass phone that has acceptable performance,
the Commando will fit the bill.
If you're looking for a speed demon, the Razr is the way to go.

 

[jova33]

I'm a G'zOne follower. I didn't get a smartphone until one had the G'zOne label on it. It is definitely the smart phone for the dropsy guy, the manual labor guy, and the military guy. Its not the fastest, best phone out there but, can an iPhone go underwater?

 

[john58ford]

Honest opinions?
Well it's no speed demon, the screen is a little small and I find it easier to type one handed portrait mode on a larger device. It is a water proof smartphone until you beat on it, balance your wants and needs and see if its for you. I am a stock user, I like to try and get from a device what the engeneers thought it should do; I can run this phone standalone GPS with a cached map service for 4 hours continuous, I can take this phone out on a small boat and not worry about it, I can not out run any other modern phone in a side by side and we don't usualy choose my phone to gather around at work to see that new hot video on youtube. That said it always works, always and I'm never scared to take it out of my pocket. I usualy get 40-ish hours in a charge if I just use it as a phone, text, and ocasional music/google device. If you want to see a video a real user shot in a real day to day enviroment I shot a couple videos of my son in my living room, check for my screen name on you tube, just the videos of him are from the commando.

Honestly, I wouldn't pick any other phone for me because of what I do for a living, but for my wife we did pick a different phone a little more advanced internaly but not nearly as sturdy, she didn't need a tough phone working in a dental office.

Good luck with your choice

 

[Gone Commando]

I'm a G'zOne follower. I didn't get a smartphone until one had the G'zOne label on it. It is definitely the smart phone for the dropsy guy, the manual labor guy, and the military guy. Its not the fastest, best phone out there but, can an iPhone go underwater?

Ditto. My wife now has my previous G'zOne. The Commando has been very dependable. I was not concerned about the speed as much as the durability. The google NAV with GPS is spot on. I would trust VZ navigator to find a restroom.

 

[TJGoSurf]

My only complaint is the camera. Its awful coming from the htc sensation. Other than that its awesome.

I love that the gps and compass work even with no signal.

 

[kb0nly]

What is it that you guys don't like about the camera??

Have to ask cause i see a few of you saying you hate it, i love it, best camera phone i have owned yet, clean, crisp photos, the zoom works great, the flash is great my last phone didn't even have flash, the adjustments for lighting and balance all seem to work as good as my big digital camera...

 

[allmondjoy87]

If I didn't hate apple products so much I would have gone iPhone and one of these. However, I'm extremely satisfied with the commando.

 

[BLACKTOOTHGRIN]

What is it that you guys don't like about the camera??

Have to ask cause i see a few of you saying you hate it, i love it, best camera phone i have owned yet, clean, crisp photos, the zoom works great, the flash is great my last phone didn't even have flash, the adjustments for lighting and balance all seem to work as good as my big digital camera...

Have you looked at the pictures taken with the Commando on your computer,
or are you just going by how they look on the phone itself?
Looking at them on the phone, I agree they look fine.
Once they are on a larger screen, to me they don't look good at all.

I realize that pictures from a phone aren't going to be
anything close to what you will get with a stand alone camera,
but I've had basic phones that take pictures alot better than this one.

 

[kb0nly]

Yes i have, thats what impressed me!

I use the camera daily. I took some great on site pictures while we were doing a two-way antenna maintenance job at a water tower location. The pictures were excellent!

I uploaded them to facebook and put them on the computer to go through. I was surprised at their quality, i would say near if not the same quality as my 7MP camera that i forgot to bring with.

 

[kb0nly]

I will have to go take a picture or two, i don't have a recent one from the Commando on the computer right now that i could use as a comparison. I think i will snap a shot with my Kodak 7MP and the Commando side by side and post them to show my comparison.

But i really see nothing to complain about. I opened up a couple of pics on my computer from the Commando just now, nothing i can post publicly though, and zoomed in to 175% before i see much in the form of distortion and pixelation.

 

[BLACKTOOTHGRIN]

I'd actually really like to see a side by side comparison of the
same object taken with your Commando vs your Kodak,
because I also use a Kodak daily.
Mine is 10MP but that has nothing to do with the image sensor quality.
I have an older Kodak 5MP or 7MP (I forget)
that takes shots pretty close to what my 10MP does.
Just smaller of course.

 

[joel745]

To post pics on the internet anything over 3mp is really overkill. I had an Olympus 1.3 mp 15 years ago and net pics were excellent. A camera with mega mps is very useful in larger enlargements suitable for framing.
The Commando camera is weak, but I found the pics to be sharper when using auto focus. For the life of me I just don't understand not having an automatic flash & what's this night mode all about?

 

[kb0nly]

I will have to get some free time this weekend to take some comparison shots.

The flash is weird, it just turns the light on. The night mode actually works really good, i turned the flash off and took a night shot with it. Turned out good! As far as i can tell it adjusts the speed of the shot, kinda like my Kodak does.

Darn i tried attaching the picture, it showed up as a black pic, like all black, looks fine on computer, must be forum weirdness.

 

[cbreze]

Honestly, this is one of my all time fav phones. Is it really fast? No , but it's not slow either. Is it full of bloatware? Yes, but I hide it and never see it. All androids are full of bloat/crap ware anyway.
What I like about the commando: It's one of the most solid, well built phones I've seen and used. It's very stable and very rarely ever reboots itself. It picks up a great signal and has one of the best speakers on a phone. If your unfortunate enough to drop it, it will most likely survive, in water also. It's built like a tank yet has an awesome feel in the hand. It's a keeper imho and I would not trade it for any RAZR or other 4G droid out there simply because while it's not as quick it will get the job done and can be counted on to be reliable. Over all it is a dependable consistent workhorse.
However it is a very "niche" type device and not for everyone.
Just my opinion.

 

[NE_Phil]

My first smartphone so take it with a grain of salt. It is my second g'zone as I previously had the Boulder which I liked.
It is a durable phone, no question about that. Not a single scratch, it still looks new and I've had it since June. As this is my first smartphone I have nothing to compare it against but it's working fine for me. I have rooted it and made a few basic tweaks (Titanium Backup, Home Control using LauncherPro, JuiceDefender, etc). Battery usually lasts to the end of the day. I see there are some complaints with the camera but it's been fine for me.
Overall, I'm satisfied.