So I did it, finally, after 7 years I've given up on the G'Zone line. From the Type-S, to the Rock, through the two Commando phones.
My wife got me an UP24 fitness band for my birthday. I was excited to use it, after all, the Commando 4G supports Bluetooth V4, right? Bzzzzzt. Apparently, the API's that Casio baked into Android 4.1 are not the standard BluetoothLE API's. The standard API's didn't arrive in Android until 4.3. So I bought a used HTC One, which has Android 4.4.
The Gz'Ones were awesome ideas that were suboptimally executed. As far as I'm concerned, in the Commando line reliability was a huge issue. I went through 5 devices on the first gen Commando, and 6 devices on the 2nd gen Commando 4G. And my latest Commando is doing what all the others did before it- after it's been running a few months it gets to the point where it locks up solid every 12 hours or so, requiring battery removal. Sometimes a factory reset fixes this, other times it doesn't.
The G-Shock watch is a great example of suboptimal execution. It seems as if the marketing department had them write G-Shock support into the Commando just as an afterthought. It was never really right, the link dropped often, requiring a lot of manual intervention. However... running the G-Shock app on the One works GREAT. I can walk away from the phone, the watch vibrates because the signal is lost, then I walk back to the phone an hour later and it automatically reconnects.
It's a shame they dissolved the phone division of Casio, and it's the end of the line for the Gz'One phones. But if you needed anything more than a phone that does basic stuff and is extremely rugged, the Casio wasn't the best option.
My wife got me an UP24 fitness band for my birthday. I was excited to use it, after all, the Commando 4G supports Bluetooth V4, right? Bzzzzzt. Apparently, the API's that Casio baked into Android 4.1 are not the standard BluetoothLE API's. The standard API's didn't arrive in Android until 4.3. So I bought a used HTC One, which has Android 4.4.
The Gz'Ones were awesome ideas that were suboptimally executed. As far as I'm concerned, in the Commando line reliability was a huge issue. I went through 5 devices on the first gen Commando, and 6 devices on the 2nd gen Commando 4G. And my latest Commando is doing what all the others did before it- after it's been running a few months it gets to the point where it locks up solid every 12 hours or so, requiring battery removal. Sometimes a factory reset fixes this, other times it doesn't.
The G-Shock watch is a great example of suboptimal execution. It seems as if the marketing department had them write G-Shock support into the Commando just as an afterthought. It was never really right, the link dropped often, requiring a lot of manual intervention. However... running the G-Shock app on the One works GREAT. I can walk away from the phone, the watch vibrates because the signal is lost, then I walk back to the phone an hour later and it automatically reconnects.
It's a shame they dissolved the phone division of Casio, and it's the end of the line for the Gz'One phones. But if you needed anything more than a phone that does basic stuff and is extremely rugged, the Casio wasn't the best option.
