It may not be a smartphone, but it's not dumb

Samsung Brightside For Verizon 4 of 5 Stars.

• Simultaneous QWERTY and Touch Screen Input 
• Integrated Social Networking 
• One-touch Shortcut Keys 
• 3.2 Megapixel Rear-facing Camera and Camcorder 

Today I'm going to introduce you to my new phone, the Samsung Brightside for Verizon, I've had it for about 3 weeks now, and I was well over due for an upgrade, it wasn't exactly that there was anything wrong with the LG Env3 that I'd had for the last few years, (sure it has issues with randomly shutting off, but it wasn't bad) I just wanted a new phone.

Really I wanted a smartphone.

But that data plan, whew, I simply cannot afford to upgrade my entire household (an extra $100 a month all told) nor could I really upgrade my own and no one else's, you see the quandry? It became apparent as I shopped around that:

1. "Basic" phones are really basic
2.  Some of them are rather expensive for the lack of features they have
3. There aren't a lot of "basic" or "feature" phones available
4. The ones that are available are often missing a key feature I want
5. A noticeable lack of QWERTY keyboards

I went first to Verizon, thinking that they'd sent me enough emails to upgrade that there should be some options, and there were, if I was getting a smartphone. Their basic and feature phones were not only mostly out of stock but, well, see the list above.

I next went to Amazon, its my favorite shopping site, and I figured that even if I didn't buy from there I'd at least get a more extensive list, I ran into the same five problems on Amazon that I had at Verizon, however two of the phones that had fallen under problem #2 at Verizon were decidedly more affordable at Amazon.
After a few more days of research on these two phones, (really, I research electronics to death before I purchase them), I decided to go ahead and get the Samsung Brightside.

The reviews I'd read prior to the purchase had been mixed, mostly though the biggest gripe seemed to be a lack of ability to customize the main menu which personally isn't a big deal.  I did also notice a few reviews that griped about the speed and Internet accessibility of the Brightside but that was in comparison to a smartphone, and really comparing a feature phone to a smartphone is almost apples and oranges, it goes without saying that they're different and you shouldn't expect your feature phone to act like a smartphone.

That being said. I mostly love this phone, it has a few drawbacks but is there really a "perfect" phone?

First off there is the lack of inability customization to the main menu that I mentioned, again this is not a huge problem for me, but I like the color green, if you don't like green or orange I'd stay away from this phone because what you see in the picture is pretty much what you get.

 The touchscreen is very responsive, (almost too responsive as I've called my voice-mail a few times by accident), I expect that some of the sensitivity will diminish once I get a screen protector for it, but normally a light and quick tap is all I need to access features.  Occasionally I do have to double tap a key but these incidents are few, and I tend to attribute them to either not making a good enough contact with the key or, cold thumbs.

The keyboard is great for the most part, I love that the keys are slightly upraised, and that the touch screen is still active when the keyboard is in use, the keyboard is a full featured keyboard, there are 36 alpha-numeric-symbol keys, normal right? eeeh, kind of, but the Brightside adds some extras, press the Fn key and G and you get .com, A and S get you ¡ and ¿ respectively, as well as a few more symbols that you don't normally find on a keyboard, this is mostly cool, but as its a different set up than my old phone, and I'm still not used to it, well, I've had some odd typos.

Speaking of typos, there is one big issue with this phone, which doesn't bother me, but it is something to take into consideration. There is a glitch that causes the phone to freeze when you try to activate predictive text. Again, not a deal killer for me, I don't care for predictive text, I know I'd eventually end up on damnyouautocorrect if I had it, but for some people it is a must have. If it is for you I'm going to say right now you shouldn't get this phone.

The Brightside runs Opera mini, which is much fast than the browser on my previous phone, and it renders web pages a lot better than the Env3 did.

The camera is great, the quality is a lot better than my old phone and the shape and feel of the Brightside along with the placement of the camera key makes taking pictures a snap. There is also a camcorder feature that I haven't used yet, but if the sound quality of my ringtones and the image quality of the pictures are any indication then I'd assume the camcorder to be perfect for short videos of kids or pets.

This phone really can't be beat if you want more features than basic calling and texting but don't want to fork out the money for a data plan, I am very satisfied with it, I can surf, update my social sites, and even chat with friends and family via a IM app. I can't imagine a better feature phone.

I give it four stars over all, the only thing keeping it from that fifth star is the fact that its customizations are limited, and that predictive text glitch.  Even though these issues don't bother me, they are still issues, and I have to take them into consideration.

But all in all I would and do recommend this phone to anyone who doesn't want all the bells and whistles (and price) of a smartphone, but still wants to be able to access email and social networks.