Verizon offers the Brigade C741 for $249 on contract (after a $50 mail-in rebate), and it should sell it nationwide starting March 14.
Like the Casio Rock, the Casio Brigade C741 is a rugged phone. The main difference is that the Brigade is a horizontal clamshell with a full QWERTY keyboard. The handset has a “solid build quality” and features Push-to-talk, Bluetooth and a camera with LED flash.
I'm happy to finally see a rugged phone with a clamshell design. I think this will definitely be a big seller for Verizon and would definitely recommend it to anybody who is hard on their phones.
A friend of mine has the Env3 and I can't tell you how many times it has been dropped - I'm sure there are several out there who looked past the Rock because of the fact it did not have a full keyboard.
This will definitely put an end to sacrificing durability over design.