Worst phone I've ever had. November 26, 2012

Reviewer:  BEWright 

This is literally the worst phone I have ever had. I have a memory card in it and it will only let me store 300 messages so sometimes I have to erase my inbox multiple times a day. Not only that but the texts come in individually, and are not separated by sender.
Also, the camera is terrible. The pictures are almost all blurry. Worst of all, even with my memory card in it I can only save like 20 pictures. Since the phone has 9 default pictures that you can't delete it's more like 11. Often I will delete every single picture in my inbox and when I go to take a picture it still says memory full.
The battery only lasts for 24 hours without using it at all and even less if you text or make calls at all whereas my last non smartphone could hold a charge for 2 or 3 days.
I paid over $100 for this phone and needless to say I am EXTREMELY disappointed.

Really bad phone November 18, 2012

Reviewer:  Dale 

The Samsung Brighside is the worst phone I have ever used - even worse than cheap disposable phones I have used in the past. About half the time I try to answer the phone it hangs up the call. Sometimes when I am on the phone it hangs up and starts dialing voice mail. You can't handle the phone without it trying to call your voice mail or connect to the internet or do some other function. It rolls to voice mail so fast that unless it is in you hand when it rings you will miss the call. This phone is junk.

Alright phone but with major issues November 15, 2012

Reviewer:  ace opinion 

I got the Brightside about 8 months ago after reading the initial reviews (which were mostly positive at the time) on the phone, as time goes on I find that I dislike this phone more and more. The phone wants to pass off as a cheap alternative to a smartphone. I originally liked it because of the sliding QWERTY and the touch screen. It does not has a convenient way of password locking the phone. This is troublesome because touchscreens can unlock by being in your pocket and dial out calls when you don't want them to do so. (I have personally called my voicemail countless times unknowingly.) There is no real "front screen" to the phone; with most phones we expect to unlock the phone to see a colorful background with an icon for the menu at the bottom of the screen. With the Brightside, once you unlock the phone you immediately get the menu. I can understand how developers would think this is convenient by immediately taking taking you to your destination, but it is nothing but troublesome when the phone can easily unlock on its own by being in your pocket. The camera has not zooming capabilities, which makes the first camera phone that I have ever had that was without zooming. Lastly, the music player on the phone does not allow for multi-tasking, such as listening to music and sending a text and the same time. If you receive a text while listening to a song, the song will pause and resume only after you leave the screen for texting.

A few good points about the phone: buying it from Amazon costs you practically nothing, the sound quality for the music is good, there are many preloaded ringtones to choose from, sliding QWERTY, and durable (I have dropped mine several times and it stills works).

DO NOT BUY THIS PHONE! NOT NEW, NOT USED, JUST DON'T BUY IT! November 11, 2012

Reviewer:  pjb515 

This phone is horrible, do not buy it! I needed a phone that didn't require a data plan but still played music (There's not as many of those out there that you might think), and this fit the bill. I'm sorry I bought it. Purchased from the phone department at Staples. I've owned it for a few months.

-You can't keep it from unlocking when it's in your pocket. Yes, technically, it locks but once in your pocket, the unlock will easily happen. Happens to me every day, and I've had it in both front, rear, thigh, and jacket pockets with NOTHING ELSE IN THEM and it still unlocks, and sometimes dials someone while it's at it. This also means that music will get abruptly cut off if you're playing something.
-It always shuts off on it's own, too, same reason as the unlock, the buttons just get pressed too easily.
-It doesn't necessarily disconnect you from whoever called you until either they hang up, or you tap the "End" button on the screen. You can not press the physical disconnect button on the bottom of the phone, it won't disconnect. It also does this when leaving a voicemail, you finish speaking and unless you're quick about getting to the End button on the screen, you'll leave a long period of silence at the end of your message.
-Music player drives me crazy because although it will shuffle your songs, it has to play whatever song is alphabetically first out of all songs on the phone. So, you hit the shuffle button, then you have to skip to the next one, which will be a random song. The next time you want to shuffle, it will again play that first alphabetical song then randomize after that. Sounds minor, and it is, but as a computer tech I can only classify this as blatant laziness on Samsung's part. It would not have been hard at all to code the extra line or two into the phone's programming to really just shuffle instead of playing the first alphabetical song, then shuffle. Also, you have to be careful which buttons you press, it will easily exit the player instead of just stopping the music.

Once I find a job, this phone will be incinerated and replaced. Normally I would give it to someone or recycle if nobody I know needs one, but I don't want to subject anyone to the anger and frustration I feel every time I use this phone.

Terrible Phone! November 8, 2012

Reviewer:  Ts 

My wife liked the style of the Brightside phone. That's about the only thing good about it. She is on her second phone. Verizon contends there is nothing wrong with the phones. Everytime she puts in her purse it goes on line. you don't have to touch the touch screen for it to be activated. Gets constant "you have a new text message message, and there is nothing there only to find out later our son was texting her. On some calls the caller sounds like a computer generated voice, on others just a lot of crackling. She/we HATE this phone. Of course Verizon says too bad and you can change it in two years. We are just waiting to hit a price point that wil enable us to take a smaller loss on this piece of junk phone than just tossing it out the window. Once again, WE HATE THIS PHONE!!!!! I have spent hours and hours on the phone with technical services, to no avail. Verizon WILL make some extra money off of us, because there is NO WAY we can put up with this for 21 more months.

DON'T BUY THIS PHONE November 2, 2012

Reviewer:  Edward  (NEW JERSEY) -

Not a lot of language needed for this review: GARBAGE! Pure garbage. I've owned this phone for about three months and it is now completely on the blink. And this doesn't even include the fact that after about three weeks of ownership, I noticed stress-inducing touchscreen hypersensitivity and spontaneous power downs without warning. It only cost $10 but it's worth -$100 (that is, NEGATIVE ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS - they should pay YOU to use it). Do yourself a favor: DON'T BUY THIS PHONE!

Almost Perfect Except Reception September 15, 2012

Reviewer:  David B. Murray 

To read the specs, you'd think the Samsung Brightside would be perfect for someone who wants something a little nicer than a standard flip phone, but doesn't want to spring for a smartphone. This phone has a customizable menu and a touchscreen. It's small enough that it fits easily into a pocket. It even sports a slide out QWERTY keyboard.

That's all well and good, but the fundamental point of owning a phone is to make and receive calls. I got distortion on my end, and callers often told me my voice was cutting out when I tried to make calls inside my house. From the same location, I have no problems using a Samsung Omnia II smartphone or two different brands of flip-phones.

Since I don't want to walk outside every time I make or receive a call, I returned the Samsung Brightside to my local Verizon store.

Great basic phone August 1, 2012

Reviewer:  JR  (NJ) -

I bought this phone because I did not need any extras except the email option. I only use that on occasion. Verizon seems to be headed for $30.00 and higher data plans for all their phones in the near future. Why did I give this a 5 star rating? Bingo!! It only cost me a penny! Thanks Amazon! Saved me $99.00 (cost at Verizon store.)

Best Non-Smartphone, ever!!! July 19, 2012

Reviewer:  brandonjackso 

I absolutely love everything about this phone! Buy this phone and you won't be dissapointed...I promise! I love it! I bought it about a month ago, and I have never looked back since then!!!!!(:

Brightside May 26, 2012

Reviewer:  Zoneey  (Chandler, AZ) -

I have had this phone for a week now and love it. I got it for my 14 yo daughter also. We easily customized our phones with cases rather than have just a black phone. I got a rubberized one and it doesn't slip so easily out of my hands when opening the qwerty. I researched for a new phone for over a month. I didn't see a lot of positive feedback on this phone until I got here. I don't have a problem with it. Love the screen size and pics it takes. The keys on the qwerty are bigger and work better with my hands. I don't want a data plan and it is hard these days to find a phone without and get a touch screen. Battery life is great.

Absolutely hated it March 29, 2012

Reviewer:  Jillian M. Foy 

I ordered the Samsung Brightside for myself and my mom, who is on my family plan through Verizon, from Amazonwireless. First, let me say that Amazonwireless is great. It was my first time buying anything from that site. I contacted customer support with some questions I had, and the woman I spoke to was friendly, knowledgable and extremely helpful. The website stated the phone was on backorder and would take 2 to 4 weeks to arrive. Imagine my surprise when it showed up 2 days later! That's where it all went downhill, however. The phone was hard to navigate. I was told that it supported wifi, which I later found out it did not. I had no intention of paying for a data plan for the phone, which is why I chose it over a smart phone. The touch screen was so sensitive that I called voicemail numerous times (accidentally) and accessed the web browser numerous times unintentionally. After carefully locking the screen (with the button on the side), I place the phone in my purse. I wasn't even out my door when the phone started making noise inside my purse. Somehow, the voice activation had been activated. I was told that one of the big advantages of having this phone was the fact that it is very hard to activate the screen while it is locked. That, obviously, was not true. I have an iPod touch and assumed the touch screen of the Brightside would be similar; I was wrong! Directly touching it isn't necessary for an icon to be selected; simply getting close to it will cause things to start popping up. I hung up calls I was on several times simply because my cheek brushed against the phone while I was talking on it. The screen is FAR too sensitive. It wasn't 20 minutes after activating the phone before I was ready to send it back--which I did the next day. I have no idea why this phone got such good reviews; it was terrible! I don't think I will get another touch screen phone again, unless it is an actual smartphone. The good news is, I contacted customer support and told them how much I hated the phone. They emailed me the return slips and I sent the phones back. I sent the phones back on Monday, and today they processed the return, refunded my money (all 2 cents of it), and contacted Verizon for me to cancel the account upgrade so I am able to get new phones. Thank you Amazon for the wonderful customer service! This phone, however, is worthless. Complete piece of crap.

Calendar DOES NOT work correctly June 16, 2012

Reviewer:  pbarbour 

Major issue with the calendar on this phone. When saving a event/appt it will not save properly, it will show on the calendar under the correct date but if you click on the date and then the event, the date that is saved will be a completely different date. Example: appt set for June 15, 2012 but it actually saves as July 22, 2012 thus the reminder you set will not alert you because of it saving as a completely different date. It is with all the Verizon Samsung brightsides. I had bought 3 for different members of my family and all of them have this major defect. The Verizon forum shows other customers with the same issue starting when it came out in March. Verizon is aware of it but they continue to sell this defective product. Dont buy this product if you want to be able to use the calendar for appointments and/or you want to use the alarm on the phone. go to google and search "Samsung Brightside alarm not working". You will see all the complaints about this phone. This is the worst phone i have ever had and Verizon has not corrected the issue and they continue to sell this phone, knowing it is defective.

Don't Buy This Phone April 17, 2012

Reviewer:  Rachel 

Oh my goodness. I do not like this phone at all. I have had less phone less than 48 hours and I am regretting my purchase 100%. I bought the phone from the Verizon store near me to replace a phone that I recently lost. Texting with the T9 on the touchscreen is nearly impossible, not recognizing half of the English language. It converts text messages into multimedia messages if there is more than one recipient. It restarts twice in a row randomly during texting with the touchscreen whenever I type a/b/c or it freezes for at least five minutes. I have gone through a lot of Verizon phones and I have never been so disappointed with any of them as I am now. Maybe it's just my specific phone but I know that I will not be giving it a second chance. I am returning it to the store before the end of the week. I just wanted to save anyone from making the same mistake I made. Buy a different Verizon phone; an older one of better quality or save up for smartphone and data plan. This phone is honestly the worst 158$ I have ever spent in my life.

Get the ZTE Adamant instead October 1, 2012

Reviewer:  Ketter A. Tubbs "kat"  (hilo,hi) -

Horrible Phone!! looks nice but is unreliable!! most people think this is the only decent basic phone that Verizon has, not true! I highly recommend looking at the ZTE Adamant it looks like a blackberry phone w/o the data. Although not perfect its still 10x better than this horrible phone. Verizon sells these bad basic lineup phones on purpose to get people frustrated so that they can get them on a smartphone plan, no joke!!

BRIGHTSIDE October 25, 2012

Reviewer:  SHELLEY 

I HATE THIS PHONE. VERIZON WILL NOT WORK WITH ME TO UPGRADE. I AM STUCK WITH IT TILL JANUARY 2014. THIS PHONE DOES NOT WORK. I HAVE PUT IT ON VIBRATE, DOES NOT WORK. I HAVE TRIED TO SWITCH BETWEEN CALLS, DOES NOT. TOTALLY WORTHLESS.
I AM VERY DISAPPOINTED WITH THE LACK OF HELP WITH VERIZON.
I AM SO MAD, THAT I AM LOOKING INTO BREAKING MY CONTRACT.

Poor Quality, Not Fully Vetted July 24, 2012

Reviewer:  steve 

Its pretty apparent by the abysmal selection of non smart "feature" phones like this Brightside (as compared to the competing carriers) that Verizon does not value its customers that do not have use for a pocket computer phone and their increased monthly expenses. Have you seen the pitiful selection? Four or five flip phones and three horrible keyboard phones. I selected this as the newest keyboard phone available. What a mistake.

This phone is cute but is of poor quality and large ergonomic issues. As I write this, I have only owned 4 days and I have lost count how many times it has pocket dialed someone or or attempted to download extra cost items on its own and this is with the side case lock button selected on. The touch screen is off the chart sensitive and the screen will activate even as your finger approaches it. The side lock button requires too little effort to select on or off. The phone is short so its difficult to position between your face and shoulder if desired and you wouldn't want to do that anyway because of the sensitive touch screen. The call quality and signal strength isn't nearly as good as my old LG phone and for the first time since switching to Verizon, I have experienced dropped calls. Lastly, the phones flimsy slide out construction doesn't bode well for its life span. This phone is better suited for a left handed person rather than a right handed person. If holding the phone in your right hand, you have to rotate the phone 180 degrees to slide it open.

I have been in contact with Verizon Tech Support and they simply suggested a different model phone, indicating to me that they are aware of these issues with this phone. I ended going outside Verizon and purchasing a new LG env touch on Ebay. My wife has used hers for 5 years and it has been flawless.

good keyboard but not a fan of the rest May 9, 2012

Reviewer:  morecoffeeplease  (New York, NY United States) -

I am constantly pushing or activating something I don't mean to on this phone's exposed screen and side buttons. I hit the off or volume buttons on the sides whenever I slide out the keyboard and I frequently activate something via the screen unintentionally. Camera is weak, but call quality seems fine. Maybe it will take practice but I am not a huge fan of using it so far.

Best basic phone ever. April 25, 2012

Reviewer:  F. Green 

My wife and I upgraded from an LG and a Samsung phone. This phone is superior to the old models. The voice fidelity, transmission and reception is the best we ever had. It's easy to use and the programming is intuitive.

Smartest of the dumb phones. May 19, 2013

Reviewer:  Richard Holiday 

Nearly as capable as a smart phone with Samsung's proprietary OS. No monthly data fee and great e-mail with push button QWERTY pad for only $5/month.

Great phone! May 19, 2013

Reviewer:  Janine W. Dixon 

No data plan needed! My husband loves this phone. The price of one cent was just the ticket! A steal!