ACT XXI

Samsung Glyde Review

This is a post in which I sound like I know what I'm talking about when I really don't. I thought I'd confess that upfront instead of trying to hide the fact.

Mom and Dad bought me a Samsung Glyde as payment and thank-you for doing Dad's resume and to replace my first generation Chocolate which had decided that it was in charge of which calls and voicemails I would receive. I had read bad reviews online of the Glyde, especially regarding the glitchy user interface. The guy at the Verizon store explained that the Glyde is heat-sensitive instead of pressure-sensitive, which makes it a little less accurate, but I don't like the dual screen of the Voyager, so I went with the Glyde anyway.

There have been a few times when I can't seem to poke the right part of the screen and I toggle between the main menu and a sub-menu for a few moments before I either get the button or give up and use a different shortcut. I'm getting much better at being precise with my poking and that problem happens much less frequently. I think it just takes some getting used to. Cody has trouble using it still because his fingers are bigger than mine and not quite as agile.

The huge screen is bright and beautiful and the spring-assisted sliding, er, glyding motion feels very good. The keyboard is a little anti-intuitive because the Function key stays selected until you de-select it, so instead of typing just one exclamation point, you end up with a string of symbols that look like you're cursing in a comic. The scrolling action took a day to get used to also. Instead of scrolling down, like on a computer, you flick the menu up. It's fun to flick, actually.

All of the speakers are remarkably clear. Speakerphone works much better than the chocolate, but the microphone is also bigger. I can hear the person on the other line much more clearly also, and they seem to have no trouble hearing me. Disconnecting a call takes longer than I'm used to because the phone locks up, so usually I wait for the other person to hang up so it's not even an issue. I guess hanging up on someone would be difficult, but it's rude anyway.

The phone is very good for texting. The buttons are fairly firm, which is good since they're about the size of tic-tacs and it's easy for larger fingers to miss they key. The keys light up very bright. One thing to mention is that some of the menus work much better in the vertical than the horizontal orientation or vice-versa, but the screen doesn't clear when the phone is open or closed mid-menu so it's easy to switch back and forth. For example, I use the vertical orientation for almost everything, but when I need to type something I open out they keyboard and then close it again when I'm done typing. It works very well that way. The battery lasts more than a day with very heavy use, and I imagine it will improve as I calm down about the phone.

It did take me a short while to get used to the phone, but once I learned how to use it I completely fell in love with it. Good job, Samsung.

posted by Jess @ 11:02 AM