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."

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.

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.

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.