Samsung Slyde m540

KEYBOARD:

I bought this phone instead of a BlackBerry and HTC product, simply because the keyboard was the nicest one I had ever tried. It has spaces between the keys for fewer mess ups, easily pressed and comfortable for quick texting. Fantastic.

I realised I was buying a cheaper product, so there had to be some drawbacks.

CAMERA:
Zooms in only on low quality picture setting.
Does well in daylight.
No Flash.
Makes a sound when taking picture EVEN WITH SOUND SET TO "MUTE".

VIDEO CAMERA:
Setting takes a few menu options to find.
Can Zoom in and out before filming only.
Pretty basic function.
Pretty limited sound recording range.

TEXTING:
Fast and easy to use keyboard. The best I have ever used.
Flaws in the programming, sends as picture message if msg is more than 100 or so characters in length.
Can glitch after you have selected recipient, and prompt you to select a second recipient.

INBOX/OUTBOX:
Does not save messages as threads, but as seperate messages one must access one at a time.

With Inbox, one may scroll through the messages with ease, whether opened or looking at a list. 100 messages stored max.

In Outbox, one must open every single message on it's own, scrolling only in list menu. 100 messages stored max. Date & time are not displayed with message.

In "Saved" and "Drafts" folder, can only store 20 messages each.

SOUNDS:
Makes sounds seperately from muted volume settings:
When sending texts, makes beep,
When receiving texts, makes beep IF ANY OTHER APPLICATION IS OPEN INCLUDING ANOTHER TEXT.
When browsing the internet, makes beeps after pages load.
Camera/Videocamera, while taking pictures, adjusting lighting and zoom, makes sounds. Impossible to take pictures quietly.

MEMORY SETTINGS:
Even though the Memory for Messaging is 4.0MB, The maximum messages saved is 100 in and 100 out. One NEVER EVER uses more than 2MB for messaging.
Inefficient usage of memory capabilities.

PHONE CALLS:
Fine. Better reception than Blackberry and HTC phones. Longer battery usage too.
I'm very happy with this.

CALENDAR:
Glitches when it comes to erasing items, will often erase item just above or below it instead of the item actually selected. Inefficient use of memory kicks in here, with a maximum of 50 events being saved at once. 32 characters maximum per event description.. finicky date and time setting.

FRONT NUMERICAL KEYS:
Tiny .. too tiny. I hardly use it, kind of a waste of space.

WEB BROWSING:
Does not play videos.
Often displays yahoo searches with 1 sentence per page.
Tiny pictures.
Often requires extra security to be "Ok"'d 3 or 4 times before loading a simple google search page.
Generally capable for text and picture pages.

SUMMARY:
I love the keyboard so much that I bought the cheaper phone, which had larger limitations in other areas.

The Samsung Slyde was great for around 6~8 months but then it starts to go weird.
I've had problems like the screen not rotating when i slide the phone,White screen during start up,and it restarting itself periodically.
Overall i would recommend this phone for prepaid users but not for Month to Month users.
Pros:
Good battery~better than my current phone
Great keyboard~ Personally its better than the rumor 2
Loud speaker~It's really loud
Durable~ Dropped it a few times on concrete and it didn't break.

Cons:
Poor screen~ the resolution is very bad YouTube is almost UN-viewable
Glitches~Often happening once or twice a day
Size~ It's very thick, A case doesn't help it either

I dropped my Samsung Slyde once, from a super short distance, like from my bed to the floor. The LCD screen on this phone is both crap and VERY delicate. It's been a downward fall for this phone and myself. Before it was when you touch the screen it went brighter, then it turned white, and now it's permanently white but when you touch it SOMETIMES it goes back to normal. The entire phone is just crap. My numbers and words sometimes go backwards. (?!) And sometimes when I touch the screen it goes all zig-zaggy and weird. Do not get this phone, please! I'm going to get a Blackberry in March.