vB Easy Archive - Gz'One Type S

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Gz'One Type S - First Impressions
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Posted by: jazzkat

Howdy Folks,

Just thought I'd give my first impressions after 1 day of the Gz'One Type S.

This Gz'One is like a Jeep Wrangler. It is very quirky, and definitely not something for the masses who want to download everything and it's brother, BUT... for those things it does, it does them very, very well, better than anything else on the planet. And according to the reviews I've read it's rugged as all get-out.

I got this to replace my VX9800 (the EnV predecessor). I was not impressed with the 9800 after two years - the ringer completely stopped working, and the battery life was ~2 minutes. I was going to get a Blackberry Pearl but couldn't justify the high price. Then I found the GzOne and thought it was bada$$. Yeah, I may miss the querty keyboard, but the GzOne allows you to store frequently used text messages, so this might not be such a bad drawback.

Besides, I thought that I could use my PDA with a BlueTooth thingee, if I really needed to do that kind of thing. (Yes, DUN *does* work on the Gz'One, at 1x speeds - about ISDN, or 115k. This is impressive considering on my 9800 I only got 0-1 bars due to my location.) Here's how to do DUN:

http://homepage.mac.com/jrc/contrib/mobile_office/

The GzOne has some major plusses:

1. Keyboard. This is not a micro-mini phone by any means. When folded, it is approximately the same size as the 9800. But the keyboard is flippin PERFECT. I have had many phones over the years, and the last time I had a keyboard this easy to use was when I had the Motorola StarTac. All of the new phones have buttons that are too small to easily press with a thumb, but the GzOne is Perfect in this regard.

2. Reception. This is one of the few Verizon phones with an external antenna, and it seems to get much better reception than my 9800 did.

3. Full clamshell design. I always hated, with the small bar phones, that it seemed like you're talking into the air. So when you're trying to have a private conversation or give confidential information, you have to move the microphone to your mouth to whisper, and risk not hearing the other party say something. Not so with the GzOne - the mic is right there by your mouth all the time.

4. Ruggedness. I haven't been able to test this yet, but many others have. This is a major plus if it works as advertised. The holster on my 9800 broke in the second week because it was so wimpy, and as a result my 9800 got dropped a lot, buried in the snow, etc. Now, the GzOne doesn't have a holster at all (cheap money-grubbing bastages at Verizon!!), but it shouldn't need one.

Those plusses far outweigh the negatives, which are:

1. Bluetooth. It only supports mono audio and DUN. I attempted to transmit my contact list from my 9800 only to find that the GzOne doesn't support the importing of contacts!! arrgh! Also, you have to specifically enable the bluetooth each time you want to use it (call settings -> data settings -> port -> bluetooth).

2. No querty keyboard.

3. Camera is mediocre, OK for up close shots but that's about it.

I think I'll definitely keep it.

Posted by: jt325i

Congrats. What color did you go with? Your impressions pretty much sum up this phone. I do wish there was a way to get the digital compass like the Japanese model's (Type-R etc) have but nobody has figured out if it is possible to even enable it on the Type-V or Type-S. The camera on the Type-S sucks, but other than that I like the phone. (I have the all black version) My previous VX8100 had a much better camera (1.3mp), an mp3 player (which was nice but I didn't use it as much as I thought I would) and a much better screen (higher res and larger) but the solid feel of the G'zOne and good reception help make up for it's short commings.

Posted by: jazzkat

Quote:

Originally Posted by jt325i

I do wish there was a way to get the digital compass like the Japanese model's (Type-R etc) have but nobody has figured out if it is possible to even enable it on the Type-V or Type-S.

I got the red version, I think it looks good.

Has anyone actually taken the time to disassemble the phone and see if there is a compass chipset in there? It may be a software tweak if so. I would disassemble mine, but I do not want to break the water-proofness, as I like to make phone calls while scuba diving.

Kidding.

In any case - oddly enough, I could view ALL of the directories on the phone with bitpin... as far as I could tell there weren't any locked down. I may try to back the whole thing up and see what's in the files, to see if the firmware is hackable to enable a compass or any such thing.

Later,
-J

Posted by: doropallo

What cable and where do you get it to use with bitpin?

jazzcat, I use mine with a jawbone and never have to turn on the bluetooth for each use, once I set it up that was it.

...and I really love this phone.