Incredibly frustrating phone... January 11, 2013

Reviewer:  Gimp  (Monroe, NY) -

Hands down, this is the worst phone I've ever owned. The touch screen is an absolute joke. Sometimes, it registers a "touch' while sitting idle on a table. Other times, I might be poking at something repeatedly on the screen with no response. Once, the phone erased all of my text messages while sitting in my pocket. The other day, I used the hands-free dialing feature and said "Call Marco Home" slowly and clearly. The phone responded "Did you say send a text message to Jeff?" I can't think of two phrases that are further apart!

I have taken it to the Verizon store, but they said everything was normal. I can't wait for my 2-years to be up so I can get something else...it's really, really bad.

Samsung Brightslide worst phone ever January 8, 2013

Reviewer:  Edwin Degenhart  (IMPERIAL BEACH, CA, US) -

I purchased a Samsung bright slide March 2012 and am totally dissatisified with this inferior product. I bought the belt clip holder accessory with the phone. When you try to remove the phone from the clip, you hang up the incoming call. I switched to carrying it in my pocket and when you touch the screen while removing it from the pocket, you hang up the call. Even if you get the phone out of your pocket, I've experienced problems sliding the screen to answer the call and the caller hangs up before you can get the call. The finger slide screen feature has inherent design issues and when you open the screen it automatically goes to other features you did not select. There is no locking feature for the screen which ultimately renders the phone usless for me to receive calls ie; I have to call the caller back each time. Also the speaker button does not work when I try to press it to switch to speakerphone mode when talking on a call. Real piece of work Samsung!

A nicely featured phone with unfortunate bugginess December 10, 2012

Reviewer:  Barbara C. French "Barbara F."  (Rochester, NY United States) -

Update, 1/31/2012: I have had two weeks of hell with this phone, now two months old. It's been extremely buggy, won't turn on reliably, and is on its second battery. The previous battery went through periods where it wouldn't seat correctly, then wouldn't charge completely, and then wouldn't turn on the phone. We'll see if the new battery fixes the issue. I still like the phone, but don't trust it to work anymore.

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Original review:

Like many here, I'm not interested in paying for a smartphone. My previous phone was an LG Octane, which suited its purposes well but had developed a loose connection with the charging cord and wouldn't charge properly. Having read a lot of reviews of the Brightside, I decided to take a chance with it.

So far, I have been reasonably pleased. Although many complain about the lack of customization (for example, you can only pick two color schemes, orange or green, neither of which are very attractive), the information display is customizable enough for my tastes. I can put those buttons on the display that I use (messages, calendar, notepad, My Pictures, etc) and move all the others that I never use (mobile web browser, social networks, My Music, etc) onto the back menu page. I like having the Favorite Contacts on the front, so the four people I call the most are just a single touch away.

The Voice Commands works quite well; I've become quite addicted to it. So far, the battery life seems good. The camera takes nice pictures, although the editing tools are rough. However, it's easy to drag pictures back and forth from the phone to the computer, and I strongly prefer Photoshop anyway to any piddling little editing tools available on a phone.

I got a hard rubber case for it right off the bat, and am happy with how it doesn't interfere with the sliding keyboard. It does add a little bulk to the phone, but it also seems to absorb some heat. My old phone used to get fairly hot after just a few minutes' use, so it's nice to have a cooler hand.

I also like how it keeps texts together in a conversation -- texts traded with the same person over a period of time will stay together in a scrollable format so you can read the entire exchange on one page. My old phone didn't do that.

There are some minor downsides. The default ringtones universally suck, so I spent about $18 having all my old ringtones transferred to the new phone. Other than the incoming message beep, there wasn't one of them I wouldn't be embarrassed to have as a ringtone.

The keyboard is both a good and bad thing. I really like the slide-out keyboard on the overall -- the keypad feel is good and crisp. However, with the case on, the top row is a bit crowded, and it's possible to hit the key below it by accident. And I have very small thumbs. Someone with large hands would definitely want to try out this keyboard with a phone case on before buying it. Unfortunately I think the hard case is pretty much a necessity, since the phone would probably be in deep trouble if dropped even a short distance.

Is it a good phone? So far. Is it a great phone? For that, you'll need to pay the extra $30 a month for a smartphone. It is what it is.

Sad, this is Verizon's best feature phone. September 30, 2012

Reviewer:  Ken F 

At first this appeared to be a decent "feature phone" Unfortunately the firmware in the phone is is unstable at best. You can't count on the alarm to work. The touch screen is unpredictable. It goes from being overly sensitive, beeping as I walk down the hallway to being totally unresponsive when I want to answer a call. I ordered 5 of these for my family, In 5 months time, we have returned 6 phones for hardware repairs. Let's see, 1 display cracked while in my pocket, 2 had touch screen quit, 1 had radio die, 1 of the replacement phones never accepted more than 15 text messages at a time and after 3 month of this, Verizon agreed to a swap.

The sad thing about this. It is Verizon's best feature phone.

Sensitive but AWESOME!! July 12, 2012

Reviewer:  Papillon Chic  (Urbandale, IA, US) -

...A really great non-smart phone. VERY much like a smart phone. It's fun to operate and is got great clarity and volume. The keys on the keyboard are larger than my last phone (an Extravert) so I can text super quickly in comparison. The biggest positive is my only negative -- it's so sensitive, even with having to 'drag off the screen' to use the phone, it does so itself in a purse or even just walking around with it in your hand. Going to try a cover and hopefully it'll resolve itself.

P.S. Make sure you upgrade your phones on Amazon. This phone was $119 in the store, $100 on-line, but only 1 cent on Amazon!!'

I admit, I like it March 23, 2013

Reviewer:  Murphy  (USA) -

I am still not ready to pay 50 bucks or more a month for an iPhone and this was the next best thing.

PROS
In a case, it is pretty indestructible. I have dropped mine and had the back pop off and it come apart and yet, I snap it back together and it works like a charm.

You can personalize it much better than the older phones

I love the blue icon grid (used to just have green and orange and now has green and blue and the blue is AWESOME)

Holds quite a few pictures, videos and songs

You can customize the front grid so whatever you want is on there

I actually like the Qwerty keyboard. I am a big fan of those and they work very well for me. I know some people hate them but I am not one of them

Holds a charge for quite a long time

Sets multiple alarms (my last phone didn't do that but it was pretty old)

Great music sound

The loud ring is really loud and the vibrate is pretty strong so you do feel it

The notepad feature is pretty good. I use it a lot for my grocery list

I love the fact that you can set world times so that all you have to do is click the icon and it will take you to the time of the city you are looking for. I have friends or relatives in several cities around the world and I find myself using this more than I thought I would.

CONS
It is not as "cool" as the iPhone

It is easy to punch a button by accident (like your voicemail)and that is super annoying

The videos have to be put into another format to play on the Brightside and its a little annoying to put them on

The bluetooth settings are not very good and its very hard to get it to be compatible

It needs more fonts and needs a larger font for people who have difficulty seeing. The large font is not very large and the normal font is tiny

You cannot set the phone so that it locks after a few minutes. This was a great safety feature on other phones and this phone does not have it and I don't know why. If it is stolen, it can be used by the thief. The security features on the iPhone are much better than this phone and the older flip phones were much better than this phone.

The camera is awful. The pictures are dark and grainy. I have used it but it really is awful.

It only has two languages, English and Spanish. If you wanted Russian, Hebrew, Yiddish, Chinese etc....don't go with this phone, go with another phone.

Very hard to use it with voice prompts but it says it has those. It may be that bluetooth is very hard to set up and that is why.

CONCLUSION
All in all. I am happy with it but in a few years when only smartphones are offered, I will have to bite the bullet and I will get an iPhone and get one and I know it will be better than this one but for now, this one is ok and as I share a service plan...I only pay $15 a month and rarely go over my minutes.

Terrible phone concept February 17, 2013

Reviewer:  J. Hays "EasternKing"  (Jax, FL) -

I received an upgrade with my contract, and my carrier had this phone. Just not a good phone concept. It's great if you sit in one place all day long, but have to move around or pull it out of a pocket, etc. and the faults become evident. There is no - and I repeat, no - case out there that really functions well to protect this phone. I've had several and they just don't hold up; if you're on the go a great deal, then don't get this phone. I would gladly revert to a flip phone over this. It has everything you want except the things that you need: function.

Samsung Brightside Phone February 6, 2013

Reviewer:  JennaMay  (Oregon) -

I got this phone and did NOT like it. You can only choose between orange or green home screen for one thing and everywhere I carried it I accidentally bumped buttons that turned it on. It was very frustrating dealing with this phone. Thankfully I was able to return it.

Love it - just upgraded the rest of the famiily to this phone! December 22, 2012

Reviewer:  ccr 

Got this phone for my daughter in August. Love it so much that now that the rest of us are eligible for an upgrade, we are all getting this phone. We'll have to make sure none of our cases are the same so we don't get mixed up! Love the set up of the screen, great sound, great pictures, have had this keyboard on other phone and love that as well, and Verizon Wireless is the best coverage - have had them forever. Happy it was still available. Great option if you don't want to pay the extra monthly charge to have a smartphone.

Headache December 7, 2012

Reviewer:  analog808 

I bought this for my daughter, and 7 months later it's broke. Although it powers up, I can't get into some of the sub menus (Such as tools and settings). It just takes me back to the main menu. The keyboard doesn't work well. When I type a key, it shows on the screen for a fraction of a section, then gets deleted. It also shuts down on its own periodically. I can't reset it because I can't get to any of the administrative menus. So now I have a daughter who can't text (yes her social life is ruined for now). Perhaps that's a good thing? This is the first phone that one of our family members owned that actually malfunctioned (out of something like 15 phones). Bottom line, there is a reason so many people rate this a 1 star. Because it breaks!

Does not work December 7, 2012

Reviewer:  Do Not BUY 

Great looking phone. Like some of the features. Unfortunately, the alarm and calandar stops working. I have been late to work at least 4 times since buying this piece of crap.

The alarm does not work if you are setting it for the next 24 hours. In otherwords, if it's 7pm and you set an alarm for 9pm, it will work. If it's 7pm and you set an alarm for the following morning, it will not work.

The only way around this is to a do master reset on the phone and therefore you will spend a good hour each time re-entering things like your notes, calandar events, alarms, just about everything it's customized for.

If yours works now, consider yourself lucky. Verizon is in total denial that there is an issue. Run, don't walk away from this busted piece of garbage.

Does all I need! November 13, 2012

Reviewer:  Ian "Ian"  (Glendale, Ca) -

After 4 years of running out of battery on my HTC Incredible, than my Rezound, when I needed to use the phone most, I decided to go to a, "Dumb phone," so I could actually
do what a cell phone is intended to to; make calls!

I tried the LG Intensity, but unless you have fingers like sewing needles, the slide out qwerty isn't much use, so I went with this one. There seems to be a love hate relationship with
this phone, but 3 of my friends have it, and love it.

I won't whine about the, "Ugly screen," as I knew it wasn't pretty going it. Lack of customizing isn't an issue, as you can move the icons around. The phone going off in you pants? Lock the screen with Settings>Phone Settings>Security>Lock Screen Now. Solved.

The pictures won't win any Ansel Adams awards, but it has a camera, and even takes video's. Not broadcast quality, but again, I'm not expecting $300.00 worth of technology in a $39.00 phone. The call quality is perfect on speaker, and hand set. I hooked up my Samsung bluetooth up in about 2 minutes, and it works perfectly.
Yes, texting is taking a little getting used to, because my "Smart Phone," had a predictive keyboard, but hey, saving $30.00 a month, ($360.00 a year) is worth typing the words out. The keys are big enough for even my fat thumbs, so I'm very pleased there.

The Ring is loud, so I never miss a call. The tools, (Calculator, alarms, Calendar) work just fine for me, and best of all, I'm getting about 3 days, not 4 hours out of a battery!!! I can talk on this phone for an hour, and the battery MAY go down 1 bar. That's better than 1/2 on my Rezound.

Ok, is this phone as nice as my Rezound?? Is a Hyundai Sonata, a BMW 5 Series?? We're dealing with two different worlds here. One is basic, and works as dependably as my Sonata does, the other is flashy, fast, and cost's a fortune for upkeep.

I've had no issues with this phone. Go into settings, and play with security, and sound settings. You will find the answers to most of the, "Problems," folks are pissed about there.

The touch screen is sensitive, but no more sensitive than my Rezound. I love this phone. It makes calls, text's my friends, gets my e mail, and even has an opera browser! At the end of the day, after heavy use, I have at least 1/2 battery life left! I use this phone, ALLOT. I'm on the music business, and need a dependable phone, like a spaceman needs oxygen. No problems here.

Do your research, and find the forums which address the problems folks talk about. There are easy fixes for them, though I've not encountered any at this point.

If you're looking for beauty, super fast processing speeds, Portrait photo quality, this isn't it, though even after a Rezound, this phone is plenty fast. If you want make calls you can hear,
and have a simple, well laid out, dependable phone, that won't leave you with a dead battery, when you need it most, give this a try.

Good luck in your search.

Great Basic Phone! May 11, 2012

Reviewer:  Sarahdb91 

I've had this phone for a few days now and have gotten to know it a little bit.
Pros: Great touch screen. Barely any Lag. The Sound is great(even the people I'm talking to have noticed it). the Qwerty keyboard is smooth and the keys are spaced out enough for my clunky thumbs.
Cons: On occasion when I'm texting on the screen and I hit the T9 button the phone will restart. I don't like that there is no QWERTY keyboard on screen. The texts you sent get deleted if your mailbox is full without your permission.

Overall its a great phone for the price. I'm on a family plan and only pay $30 a month which is nice. You can access the web if you want to pay for it. People say that they had issues with the main screen being a menu, well you can customize it. And if you learn to lock your phone then you'll have no issue what so ever!

Too many bugs April 3, 2012

Reviewer:  larryhat "larryhat"  (Texas) -

I was told at the Verizon store after returning another non-smart phone that the Samsung Brightside is the best in class. I bought it because of the slide keyboard. However after having it a couple of weeks, here is what I have found.

Good:
No $30 per month data fee
Talk clarity is not bad.
Nicely laid out keyboard

Bad:
As mentioned in other reviews, it is way to sensitive and I am constantly going into areas I did not want to go...voice mail is the big one.
Horrible speaker phone quality.
Received text message are cut off short for no apparent reason.
When the phone is locked, it will unlock by itself in your pocket...calling VM or the web!
Camera quality is of phone produced 3 yrs ago.

Very fragile June 23, 2012

Reviewer:  Jberd 

I had this phone for 2 weeks and thought it was great. I enjoyed the camera, but the touch screen was very sensitive. I bought the protective case and my phone had dropped to the floor, about a 2 feet drop, and instantly the touch screen stopped working. There isn't a scratch or ding on the phone...it wasn't a hard fall at all. I have dropped other cell phones numerous times even where the battery comes flying out, and those falls all still worked. I called Samsung and of course there is nothing they can do for me except charge me an arm and a leg to fix it. So now I have a 2 week old phone that doesn't work. Don't get this phone if you think there is a chance you might drop it!!

Most frustrating phones my husband and I have ever had April 8, 2013

Reviewer:  Lorri 

My husband and I each got one o these phones and we both wish we hadn't. I will list the reasons I'm giving this phone 2 stars.

1. You can make and receive calls. Although it will disconnect fairly often all by itself, I think because your face touches something on the screen during your call. It once dialed a 3 way call during a conversation I was having. I have no idea how, I don't even know how to do that. It ended up disconnecting a very important phone call that I had waited 2 days for.

2. You can send and receive texts. The touch screen doesn't work well, it misses letters or adds words that you don't want. I finally gave up on it. Thankfully, it has a keypad so I use that exclusively for texting.

3. Battery life is short.

4. The touch screen is way too sensitive. You constantly end up calling voice mail, or connecting to a service that requires internet or a media package, which I don't have, so it charges a ton every time the phone connects on it's own. Even something as simple as disconnecting a call and carefully locking it, and putting it in my purse can somehow dial the voice mail or connect to the internet more times than I can count.

5. When I check voice mail, the numbers won't even stay on the screen long enough to dial my 4 digit code. I have to open the qwerty pad and use that to dial my 4 digits in. The touch screen allows me to dial 3 digits then goes black.

That's all I can think of right now. We hate these phones, and would rather have a basic flip phones. My husband accidentally drove over his and left it in the rain overnight, and I'm jealous because that means he is finally rid of it! I might have to do something like that "accidentally" too, LOL!

Sorry to be so negative but there is seriously not much good I can say about this phone, and I have had lots of phones. This is the worst one I have ever owned, and the most frustrating in general.

My advice: Don't buy it!

Not designed for people. April 4, 2013

Reviewer:  Chiaroscuro 

The phone conceptually is good - key pad and 1.3Meg camera, no data plan needed. That's why I bought it.

Have become frustrated in daily use-

1. Perimeter buttons of phone are over-sensitive. If I switch hands, I'm likely to hit a button and end up switching to the second line no longer hearing the person on the first line. Or I disconnect the call entirely. And my hands aren't big! If I use an earphone and bend over, I will often disconnect the call. Sadly, people I call regularly have come to expect something to happen during the call. I can lock the phone, and as I put it in my pocket, my fingers will somehow unlock the phone which leads to:

2. I pocket dial regularly - usually, it will call the last number dialed - without my knowing it. My friends and girlfriend have enjoyed overhearing my conversations. After a call I'll key dial voicemail and quickly hang up so that if it does auto dial, it will only bother voicemail. (Why is this necessary?)

3. The alarms will randomly turn off. If you were using it to wake up or remind you of an important appointment, it's a dice roll or it plain doesn't work. I've seen others complain online about this design flaw, so it's not just my unit.

4. It has a limited number of calendar events. I might have twenty events in a month and go to add a third event in a day and it blocks it saying "the maximum number of events has been exceeded." I have not been able to find a solution or instructions for this, which limits the phone's utility and renders it impractical as a personal calendar.

5. Auto brightness doesn't work. It's too bright in the dark if your eyes are trying to get accustomed to the screen and too dark outside so you cant read the screen. It's hard to switch to manual brightness control if you cant see the icons in the daylight. You have to get in a shaded area to manually change the brightness.

6. The texting program has a number of design flaws. There's no way to key to jump to the beginning or end of the line (e.g. function + -> ). Also, if you do a linefeed to start a new paragraph, it defaults to a lower case letter rather than a capital. Also the Function and Caps keys don't always switch off, so if you hit an apostrophe, the next key, too often, appears as another special character instead of the desired letter (this may be me, but it happens a lot).

On the plus side, the phone sound is clear and I usually hang on to the signal if the phone doesn't act up.

Conclusion:

If you research the phone a lot of these complaints are design flaws and Samsung has not come up with fixes since the phone came out years ago. Verizon won't allow me to turn the phone in and get a replacement. If I could, I'd do it today. So, I'll have to wait until the contract is done. As a concept it should be great. In real use, it's terribly flawed. Look elsewhere.

Mediocre at Best February 5, 2013

Reviewer:  Kyle Z 

I tried to research this phone before I bought it. I wanted kind of a pro/con list to compare what I need to the features. Couldn't find one, decided to make one myself. This is certainly not all inclusive but what I find relevant. Let it be known, I'm pretty easy to please, cell phone-wise.

Pro:
The keyboard makes for quick texting.
Camera takes good photos, can use large display to view them.
(I'm really struggling to think of any more)

Con:
The side buttons are constantly getting hit, so not having a case is not an option.
The alarm does NOT regularly work.
The keyboard backlight goes off quickly, making it difficult to see the small buttons and letters.
The volume button gets stuck.
The screen backlight flashes on and off at times, so if you have to use an automated system, it gets frustrating.

All in all, this is a cheap phone given some superficial touches to make it look better than it actually is. Since it has a lot of the touch screen functions but a poorly made touch screen, things go wrong regularly. I don't recommend this phone.

Love this phone January 26, 2013

Reviewer:  Kindle is #1 

For the money this phone is great. I don't have a data plan or any high price plan. I wanted a reasonably priced phone with a qwerty keyboard for texting, bluetooth capability, a camera, and an SD card. The camera is better then what I had in my last LG phone. For the price and for what I wanted the phone for I have no complaints and would recommend it highly.

Worst phone I have ever owned! October 24, 2012

Reviewer:  JHam1123 

I bought three of these phones for my family back in the summer when it was time to upgrade. I wanted a feature phone because I don't want to pay extra for a data plan. At the time this looked like the best deal. Big mistake! The touch screen is way too sensitive and seems to have a mind of its own. (By the way I have an android tablet and love it, so I'm used to a touch screen. )Functions start themselves and it makes calls even when I don't touch it. Calls are dropped constantly. After a couple of months all my alarms ceased to function. I discovered the only way to fix them was to delete them all and all events in my calendar. Then I recreated the alarms. They work now, but I stopped using the calendar because it conflicts with the daily alarms. Customization is ok, but limited. A number of functions were better on my old flip phone. I gave it two stars because I do like the keyboard, which isn't to say that couldn't be found on another phone. I would change phones, but with my Verizon contract I have to pay full price plus a $30 activation fee and we have three of these things. Looks like I'm stuck for another year and a half.