Verizon officially launches the rugged, text-friendly Casio G'zOne Brigade

Just yesterday we were saying that Casio’s built-to-be-beaten G’zOne Brigade would be launching today — and sure enough, it just went live on Verizon’s web site.

As a rugged phone, it’s flagship feature is that it’s.. well, a rugged phone. These things usually don’t pack much functionality beyond that. This one, however, sneaks a full QWERTY keyboard into its clamshell body, along with push to talk, visual voice mail, and a 3.2 megapixel camera with flash.

Alas, durability doesn’t come cheap; the G’zOne will set you back $299 on a 2-year contract, though they’ll knock that down to $249 if you buy it online.