Review: Samsung Glyde
As far as sliders go, the Glyde is relatively compact. One thing that appears to be common with sideways sliders is that they can be a tad on the beefy side. The Glyde is no different in that respect. It's overall footprint is small, but from front to back, it's a little thick. Otherwise, it is very pocket friendly. It is narrow enough that it is easy to hold in your hand, no matter how big or small they may be.
It is made of smooth plastics that feel good. Running your fingers around it (c'mon, you know you caress your phone), is nice and there are no ridges or lines that interrupt the flow of the phone. The weight and balance feel perfect to me. It isn't too heavy, nor is it too light (which would make it feel cheap).
The front is dominated by the large screen. There's a small bezel for the earpiece speaker above, and a single button below the screen. This button always takes you to the home screen. It is a small little button, but sticks up from the surface so it is always easy to find and use. It has good feedback and travel, so you always know you've poked it.
The left side of the Glyde is free of any buttons. There is only the hatch for Samsung's charger port. It peels off easily enough. The right side of the phone is where all the action is. All three buttons here are silver dashes of varying lengths. The topmost is the power key. It is smaller and recessed more than the others. One long press will power the Glyde up or down. Below it is the volume toggle. This button is about an inch in length and feels just right. The action is fantastic. Perfect amount of "click." Last is the camera key. It is set apart from the other two and falls closer to the bottom of the phone.
Popping open the phone to get at that keyboard is easy, breezy, beautiful. There's little resistance and the spring assistance is well tuned. With the Glyde open, you have a full QWERTY keyboard for text entry. The keyboard feels good for the most part. It is recessed ever-so-slightly below the plane created by the bottom half of the phone. What this means is, you feel a little ridge on your thumbs when your type keys that fall in the bottom row. I found it distracting. I am sure with everyday use, any annoyance felt by this will go away. On the plus side, I often find that hitting the top row of keys on sideways sliders can be tough if they are placed to close to the top half of the phone. With the Glyde, the top half of the phone is angled away from the keyboard, so it doesn't get in the way at all. The keys themselves are also very flat. There is nothing to differentiate the way they feel when you slide your thumbs over them. Once you get used to the key lay out, it was fairly speedy for text input. I was definitely faster on the Glyde than I was on something with a software-based keyboard, such as the Voyager or iPhone.
The Glyde has a 2.5mm headset jack on the top of the phone. Opening the hatch is not a problem, but the jack itself is pretty far recessed into the cavity. You may want to bring any headsets you have with you to a Verizon store to make sure they fit before buying.
The slot for the microSD card is under the battery cover. Thankfully you don't have to remove the battery to get at it. So yes, hot swappin' is possible.
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