Samsung Glyde for Verizon Wireless: A Step Up from the LG Chocolate

My first ever slider phone was my LG Chocolate and I just loved that phone. I thought it was the coolest thing ever! Previously they had only really sold flip phones, which are easy to break, so I fell in love with the slider. The LG Chocolate held up well, barring a few scratches, and still works great today. However, when I found out I could get a Samsung Glyde for $30 or a LG Voyager for $70 (i think it was 70), I just had to upgrade my phone once again. After much comparison, I choose the Samsung Glyde. Even though the LG Voyager was slightly larger, had a slightly cooler keyboard and seemed a little more advance. What sold it for me was that the Glyde is a slider, where as the Voyager is still a flip phone. It might not flip the same way as most phones, but it's still a flip, and therefore still more likely to break.

The Slider
The Samsung Glyde slides open just like the LG Chocolate did, except this time it slides width wise instead of height wise. When you are looking at the phone closed, the screen shows vertically, but when you slide open the phone, the screen switches to show on the wide view so that you can easily type and read the functions at the same time. One thing I constantly notice about sliders it that they are hard to break. The slide function is very stable and even if you slide it out hard or with a lot of force, it's not likely to screw anything up. Plus, it's very easy to slide open and closed with one hand so you can multitask (just don't do it while driving!)

The Screen
The touch screen is a very cool, but not necessary feature. What I mean by that is that you can still most all the functions by using the keyboard, so really the touch screen is just a flashy way to navigate. That being said, I LOVE the touch screen! The screen is auto locked so you have to touch a specific area to unlock it. This means you do not have much worry of your phone unlocking on its own. The screen has easy access to some of the most used functions such as calendars, reminders, messages, contacts and the main menu. There is a shortcut button that you can customize to display all of your favorite functions on the shortcut menu. Finally, there is a dial pad button that opens up the old fashioned dial pad so that you can make phone calls without having to slide open the phone.

Note: Make sure you put a screen protector on your phone before using it. My LG Chocolate scratched on day 1 when I had my keys in the same hand! I didn't make that mistake this time. Instead, I bought a generic screen protector pack that allowed me to cut a piece out to the exact size I needed. These protectors can be removed and replaced as needed, but at least your screen does not get scratched.

The Keyboard
While the screen is pretty easy to use, I use the keyboard a lot more because it is even easier. The first time that I sent a text message via this keyboard was the greatest! There's no more trying to remember which number to press for each letter. The standard QWERTY keyboard is just a mini version of your computer's keyboard. The keyboard has an Fn key (much like a laptop) so you can switch to turn it into a number/symbol pad as well as to use the arrows to navigate the screen. It took me a little time to get used to typing with my thumbs, but after a few tries it becomes easy.

Battery Life
One of the first things I noticed about my new Samsung Glyde as compared to my LG Chocolate was the battery life was MUCH improved. My LG Chocolate was at the point where I had to recharge it almost daily, even if I only made a 10 minute phone call. Well my Samsung Glyde does not seem to need charging nearly as often. For example, I went on vacation and halfway there I realized I forgot to bring my charger. The phone was at 3 bars, not fully charged. I avoided making phone calls but did still make one or two, and also took some pictures as well as looked at the time on my phone throughout the trip. 4 days later, my phone was still working. It was down to 1 bar but still working! I was amazed. My LG Chocolate would have surely been dead after just a day or two. I'm going to take care of my battery by trying to fully charge it every time it needs charging and hope that works.

Sound Quality
I've had phones in the past that didn't get very loud even when the volume was turned all the way up. With this phone, that is not at all a problem. The sound is loud and clear when on regular phone, and just as loud and clear when on speaker phone. On the other end, no one has ever complained about hearing me whether I use speaker phone or regular phone. I have had people tell me with ANY speaker phone that they can tell they are on speaker phone and hear a slight echo, and that doesn't go away here. However it isn't enough to annoy them or tell me to get off speaker phone so I still use it a lot for convenience when no one else is home to get annoyed by it.

Camera
I already have a digital camera to bring on vacations and special occasions, however what happens when I don't have my digital camera and something interesting happens? With my LG Chocolate, I had taken pictures and video in the past but the pictures were not very high quality and the videos were very small. Although I did not buy this phone FOR the camera, the features of the camera are a plus. Pictures can be taken with or without flash up to 1600x1200 and Fine quality. That's pretty large for a phone camera. Other features include a self timer and a multi-shot set up which allow you to take pictures back to back to back. The camcorder allows you to tape up to 30 second clips, but you can change that setting if you want. The resolution for videos goes up to 320x240 which is still pretty small. This shows that videos on the phone aren't really meant for computer viewing.

Features
Overall, the phone doesn't seem to have any special features that I didn't have before. Everything seems pretty standard as I still have my calendar, tip calculator, alarm clock, notepad and other things I used on my LG Chocolate. These features are easier to use do to the touch screen and the keyboard, but other than that they are basically standard.

I do not access the internet or email on my phone, but the mobile email preview does look cool. However, as long as I always can get to a computer, I haven't found a use for this yet. This phone does have VZ Navigator if you would like to turn that on. We always use VZ Navigator on my husband's phone so I have not tried it on mine yet. The Glyde is Bluetooth compatible and can be used as an MP3 player as well, neither of these are features I have used yet, but I may try them one day!

The final feature I can think of that I actively use is the V Cast Song ID which is free, but not available on all phones. My husbands phone does not support the Song ID, but I'm glad mine does because I use it all the time! You hold your phone up to the radio/speaker for 10 seconds and it tells you the name of the song and the artist. From here, it saves the songs title and allows you to either purchase it for download, or just to save the title as a reminder.

Overall
I love my Samsung Glyde and it was certainly worth the $30, but I would have never gotten this if I had to pay much more than that. I was satisfied with my LG Chocolate so I only upgraded due to the good deal, plus my husband already had a memory card that fit my Glyde. I bet teens and college students would love this phone as well due to the ease of the text messaging feature and the music feature. It's a very durable phone