Casio's rough-and-tough G'zOne Brigade: Splish, splash, take a QWERTY in the bath

The first time I laid eyes on one of Casio's ruggedized G'zOne phones, it was sitting in a fishbowl, under about a foot of water.

Actually, before the G'zOne was in the fish bowl, it was in the hands of a PR guy, who handed it to me but let it go a little too early; the big, clunky phone splashed into the strategically placed tank, and the Casio rep cried, "Oh my God, what did you do?" I blurted out an apology ... and then realized that yes, the joke was on me.

Anyway, that was a few years back, and now here's the latest G'zOne: the Brigade, the first of its kind to boast a full-on QWERTY keypad, good for tapping out text messages in the bathtub.

Set for release through Verizon Wireless before the year is out—no price tag just yet—the Brigade is no skinny mini, that's for sure. Verizon reps didn't have a spec sheet for the Brigade on hand (nor did they have a fishbowl, a major oversight if you ask me), but I'd say the thing was easily three-quarters of an inch thick, although it felt a little lighter than I expected (maybe four-and-a-half ounces, if I had to guess).

But of course, a sleek design isn't really the point, now, is it? (Although with its round, silver-lined porthole of an external display and bolts in the corners of its shell, the phone sure looks cool.) Build to meet military specs for water resistance, humidity, drops, and dust, the Brigade looks to be one tough hombre ... and yes, you can even dunk it in water if you want to, although it'll start to get water-logged beyond a meter down or so.

Besides its rugged credentials, the Brigade marches onto the scene with support for Verizon's 3G network, push-to-talk, access to V Cast streaming videos and music, a 3.2-megapixel camera, and VZ Navigator for turn-by-turn GPS directions (perfect for finding your way in the jungle, so long as you don't stray from Verizon's U.S. coverage area, of course).

Look for the Brigade to go on sale before the holidays, I'm told, but don't expect it to come cheap; based on the price tag of earlier G'zOne models, I'm guessing the Brigade will arrive in the $199-with-contract ballpark.