Samsung Glyde: A Nice Touch
About.com Rating
Manufacturer's Site
Touch-screen phones are all the rage these days, but many of them are little more than iPhone wannabes. That is not true of the Samsung Glyde, a nifty touch-screen smartphone that’s truly impressive. The Glyde, which is available from Verizon Wireless, packs in 3G network support, a 2.0-megapixel camera, GPS, and support for Verizon’s VCast music store.
Design
The Glyde is a slider-style phone; when closed, all you see is its handsome midnight blue case, its 2.8-inch touch screen, and a home button that sits below the screen.
It looks a whole lot like an iPhone, though the screen is smaller and the phone itself is slightly thicker. That thickness is due to its secret weapon: The full QWERTY keyboard that slides out for easier typing.
PROS: The Glyde’s touch-screen is excellent. It features haptics technology, which means the phone gives a slight vibration when your touch registers on the screen. Anyone who has wasted time tapping pointlessly at an iPhone screen will appreciate this feature.
CONS: With the keyboard pulled out, you hold the phone horizontally for typing; the contents of the display rotate to landscape mode automatically, though without the wow factor of the iPhone. The Glyde is comfortable to hold for thumb typing, but the keys are too flat for my taste. I also found them a little too close together. Still, the keyboard is an appealing alternative if you dislike using a touch-screen for all data entry.
Making Calls
PROS: Weighing only 4.1 ounces, the Glyde is light and comfortable to hold next to you ear.
You can dial a number using the touch-screen or the keyboard. Voice quality was decent to very good, though the variation is likely due to the cellular signal more than the actual Glyde phone itself. Verizon says the battery will provide 3.5 hours of talk-time; it seemed to do better than that in my tests.
Browsing the Web
PROS:The Glyde features a full HTML browser, which lets you visit any Web page you’d like. The display automatically switches to landscape mode when you launch the browser, which helps you to see more of the sites you visit.
Data speed is another strong point for the Glyde. It supports the high-speed EV-DO network, and surfing the Web was notably faster than doing so on an iPhone that supports only the slower EDGE network.
CONS: Get ready for plenty of scrolling. At best, the screen lets you see a snippet of the top of the website. You can tap the screen and drag the web page around to view other sections, but you can’t zoom in and out with a pinching motion as you can on the iPhone’s Safari browser.
CONS: The Glyde will let you send and receive e-mail, but this is not the phone’s best feature. You can either access your Web-based e-mail account through the phone’s browser or pay $5 per month for a dedicated e-mail application through the Verizon’s Get It Now service. The application, called Mobile Email, allows you to send and receive messages via POP3 and IMAP e-mail accounts, in addition to Web-based accounts.
Mobile Email is quick to install and easy to use, but paying an additional fee just to manage e-mail is annoying. Get It Now also offers an application called Wireless Synch, which will send messages from both personal and business accounts to your phone; it costs $20 per month.
Software
PROS:The Glyde comes with Verizon’s VZNavigator, which provides turn-by-turn directions and basic GPS features. It works better than some dedicated GPS devices I’ve tried.
CONS: You won’t find much in the way of productivity software on the Glyde. If you’re looking to edit office documents while you’re on the road, this isn’t the phone for you.
PROS: The Glyde’s 2.0-megapixel camera includes a flash and autofocus.
The Glyde supports several of Verizon’s V CAST services, including V CAST Music and V CAST Video. V Cast Music lets you download songs directly to your phone for $1.99, or to your PC for 99 cents. Tracks downloaded to your PC can be transferred to your phone. V CAST Video, which delivers video clips, including sports highlights, news, weather, and entertainment to the phone, is available for $10 per month.
CONS: The autofocus is a nice touch when you’re photographing someone who is willing to stand still through its noticeable delay, but you may have trouble photographing anyone else. My attempts to photograph children were for naught, though: My subjects ran off before the lens could focus on them.
Another con: The V CAST services work well with the Glyde’s high-speed connection, but they are pricey.
Verizon Wireless is offering the Glyde for $200 with a two-year contract, after rebates and discounts. Overall, this is a good-looking phone with a host of impressive features. It’s just too bad that so many of them cost extra.
Manufacturer's Site
Manufacturer's Site
Touch-screen phones are all the rage these days, but many of them are little more than iPhone wannabes. That is not true of the Samsung Glyde, a nifty touch-screen smartphone that’s truly impressive. The Glyde, which is available from Verizon Wireless, packs in 3G network support, a 2.0-megapixel camera, GPS, and support for Verizon’s VCast music store.
Design
The Glyde is a slider-style phone; when closed, all you see is its handsome midnight blue case, its 2.8-inch touch screen, and a home button that sits below the screen.
It looks a whole lot like an iPhone, though the screen is smaller and the phone itself is slightly thicker. That thickness is due to its secret weapon: The full QWERTY keyboard that slides out for easier typing.
PROS: The Glyde’s touch-screen is excellent. It features haptics technology, which means the phone gives a slight vibration when your touch registers on the screen. Anyone who has wasted time tapping pointlessly at an iPhone screen will appreciate this feature.
CONS: With the keyboard pulled out, you hold the phone horizontally for typing; the contents of the display rotate to landscape mode automatically, though without the wow factor of the iPhone. The Glyde is comfortable to hold for thumb typing, but the keys are too flat for my taste. I also found them a little too close together. Still, the keyboard is an appealing alternative if you dislike using a touch-screen for all data entry.
Making Calls
PROS: Weighing only 4.1 ounces, the Glyde is light and comfortable to hold next to you ear.
You can dial a number using the touch-screen or the keyboard. Voice quality was decent to very good, though the variation is likely due to the cellular signal more than the actual Glyde phone itself. Verizon says the battery will provide 3.5 hours of talk-time; it seemed to do better than that in my tests.
Browsing the Web
PROS:The Glyde features a full HTML browser, which lets you visit any Web page you’d like. The display automatically switches to landscape mode when you launch the browser, which helps you to see more of the sites you visit.
Data speed is another strong point for the Glyde. It supports the high-speed EV-DO network, and surfing the Web was notably faster than doing so on an iPhone that supports only the slower EDGE network.
CONS: Get ready for plenty of scrolling. At best, the screen lets you see a snippet of the top of the website. You can tap the screen and drag the web page around to view other sections, but you can’t zoom in and out with a pinching motion as you can on the iPhone’s Safari browser.
Messaging
CONS: The Glyde will let you send and receive e-mail, but this is not the phone’s best feature. You can either access your Web-based e-mail account through the phone’s browser or pay $5 per month for a dedicated e-mail application through the Verizon’s Get It Now service. The application, called Mobile Email, allows you to send and receive messages via POP3 and IMAP e-mail accounts, in addition to Web-based accounts.
Mobile Email is quick to install and easy to use, but paying an additional fee just to manage e-mail is annoying. Get It Now also offers an application called Wireless Synch, which will send messages from both personal and business accounts to your phone; it costs $20 per month.
Software
PROS:The Glyde comes with Verizon’s VZNavigator, which provides turn-by-turn directions and basic GPS features. It works better than some dedicated GPS devices I’ve tried.
CONS: You won’t find much in the way of productivity software on the Glyde. If you’re looking to edit office documents while you’re on the road, this isn’t the phone for you.
Multimedia Features
PROS: The Glyde’s 2.0-megapixel camera includes a flash and autofocus.
The Glyde supports several of Verizon’s V CAST services, including V CAST Music and V CAST Video. V Cast Music lets you download songs directly to your phone for $1.99, or to your PC for 99 cents. Tracks downloaded to your PC can be transferred to your phone. V CAST Video, which delivers video clips, including sports highlights, news, weather, and entertainment to the phone, is available for $10 per month.
CONS: The autofocus is a nice touch when you’re photographing someone who is willing to stand still through its noticeable delay, but you may have trouble photographing anyone else. My attempts to photograph children were for naught, though: My subjects ran off before the lens could focus on them.
Another con: The V CAST services work well with the Glyde’s high-speed connection, but they are pricey.
Verizon Wireless is offering the Glyde for $200 with a two-year contract, after rebates and discounts. Overall, this is a good-looking phone with a host of impressive features. It’s just too bad that so many of them cost extra.
Manufacturer's Site
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