Samsung Gleam User Reviews

I'm stuck with this phone for another week.My upgrade is next Thursday.It may look nice, but the performance is no. Sometimes I would drop it, and it would just shut off. That doesn't happen anymore, but that kinda annoys me. The battery is ok, but if you're on the phone for a really long time, it will drain the battery in about an hour or two. I've had this phone for a year, my mom has been using it the past two years before me. I drop this phone alot, and its actually pretty durable. Mines old and scratched, so I'm surprised.However, yesterday, I was in the middle of a call, and suddenly, it says 'signal lost' and ends the call. Not only did it do that, but it shut off, saying it had low battery when it showed three bars. And sometimes, when I'm sending a text, it shows as still sending. It sends when it really already sent, and it gets really annoying. The camera is eh, if I want a decent picture, I have to hold the camera still. The video quality is really bad, and the speaker is LOUD.And the keys are touch-sensitive, so I've had a few cases where I accidentally hung up on some people.But its ok, I'm not crying to upgrade, I can stay with it for another week.Overall, the design is great, but it wears out after a long time.

it looks fantastic , is incredibly durable , battery lasts for 16 hours without a charge with normal use after 19 months , has been dropped , hit with 480volts at my work , and dropped on a 450 degree surface for over 10 minutes. the boulder isnt this durable. i have yet to see a phone that keeps a charge after this much use. why in gods name was it discontinued?

Well, I've had this phone for a little over 7 months now. There is no problem like over heating and not sending text messages for me like there are for other people. This phone has a nice style and cool features to back it up. The only negatives are that it only comes with 6 dumb ringtones and that the buttons on the side of the phone don't tell the time on the screen when pressed. Call quality is good. No dropped calls at all. In other words...AWESOME PHONE!

I'm on my 3rd gleam within the past year. When I first got it I loved it, it looked good and worked fine. About 3 weeks after having it I noticed that the reception was terrible. I missed almost ALL my phone calls (4/5). I tried updating it and everything. After about 3 months I returned my phone and they gave me a knew one, the same problem continued to happen. Than I started to notice that sometimes when I would try to set a picture as my background it would say that my memory was full (when it wasn't) and my background would turn black, the battery life started to suck and I would have to charge it almost every night (in my case, I text a lot so this probably caused the problem) don't buy if your a huge texter, also my phone would start to over heat when I plugged it in my charger and would randomly start beeping. I usually keep my phone on vibrate and when its in my back pocket, I never notice it. When I would save a picture as one of my contacts ID.. and say my phone died.. I would turn it back on and go through my contacts and it would have deleted the name (not the number) of the contact, so I would have to re-edit the name everytime I saved a picture to a contact ID. The camera on the phone is horrible (with no flash).
 
I'm now on my 3rd phone, and i'm finally up for my renewal. So lets just say I won't be dealing with this phone anymore.

Ok the microphone doesn't work when people call me. It turns itself on high while closed, causing some close calls at school. Sometimes the speaker just totally goes bezerk on me. It shuts off when it feels like it, and sometimes it won't send any text messages unless i restart it. People will call me at least five times before it actually rings, and it will have full signal!! Do not buy this phone!!!!

On my 3rd (and final) one of these. Same problem every time.... shuts off whenever it wants, gets hot, drops calls- turns off,  have missed several calls- I actually tested this from a landline and received 2 out of 5 calls with full signal!! Since this is a business phone, will not be getting another one. Bought it for the look and features, and that's about all you get from it.

My old phone, for some reason, had the screen turn white all of a sudden, and since it was time for an upgrade, I got this phone. At first I really liked it, the Espresso Display theme is nice, the design is slick, and at first, the pictures were ok. But thats about it.
On the other hand, I am on my third of these. I swithched it for the same problem every time,plus a few others, and when I went to exchange for my third phone, they automatically gave me a new one, seeing as they have so many problems with these. On all three phones I've had different problems, except for one big one they all had, which had to do with the texting.
On my first one, it was good ( aside forom the fact that these phones come with 6 really bad ringtones =(    ) except for that after texting for like 15-20 minutes, this thing starts happening where I will send a message and it will keep saying that it is sending when it already has, which gets annoying, and sometimes, it tells me it sends when it really didn't.
On my second one, the same thing happened with the texting, except for for some calls, the microphone didn't work, and people couldn't hear me. On my third one, the camera is screwed up where everything is redish, so I have to change the white balance every time I have to take a picture, which also get annoying. It also has the txting problems, but i still haven't exchanged it since I'm waiting for a better phone to come out.
All in all, it is a nice looking phone, but that doesn't mean anything when it comes to preformance...

I have the Muse through Alltel which is the same phone with a few changes. I am majorly displeased with this phone.
Problems:
+Will not acknowledge that I have an SD card in+Drops calls when it says I have full bars+Overheats on the charger, I am afraid to set it on paper or fabric in case of fire! +When I put it on charger, it will beep for no reason 1 - 5 minutes later+If I change what color I am video taping in or taking a picture in then change it back to normal, it will not adjust back to color. It will be black and white and if I move it around to video tape, it will change between black and white and color+It takes forever for it to load your images or videos+When I email "divided shot" photos from my phone to my email through a text, they appear messed up and diffferent than they were on my phone

Had this phone for a couple of days. So far so good. I love how it looks, and the display is nice and crisp. Calls sound OK.
I knew about the fingerprint issue before I got it so this doesn't really bug me.
But there is one thing that really does bug me - when the phone is on but closed, pressing buttons on the side of the phone does NOT show the time on the front display; it stays off. You have to open the phone to get the time to display. Very aggravating. I contacted Verizon support chat and they confirmed it works this way (or more accurately, they confirmed it does not work). Weird.
(By the way, the front display and side buttons do work as expected when there's an incoming call; you see the caller ID and you can press any key to send the call to voicemail).
 

I bought this phone back in February based on the reviews that I read of it. My Razr was worn out and my contract was up, so I wanted something new and more reliable. When I said new, I didn’t realize I was in for a new phone every month. A week later, I was back at the store getting a new one. The call quality was absolutely abysmal. I could not understand a word anyone was saying, and constantly had the same complaint from people I was trying to talk to. I wrote it off as a lemon and didn’t really think anything more of it. After all, my husband had the same phone and his was fine.

The second phone lasted a little longer, but not much. Long story short: it is now August and I am on my fourth one of these and it is going back this weekend. Even if I yell and over-enunciate all of my words, no one can understand anything I say. It's the same on my end, regardless of whether the caller is on a cell phone or land line. All four phones have had exactly the same problem. Words come through garbled and distorted. I feel like I’m translating everything people say to me (which, although amusing at times, is more annoying than anything). I think every other sentence out of my mouth has become some version of: “I can’t understand a word you’re saying.”

The battery life is pretty terrible, but I’ll admit that I do talk a lot. I have to charge it about every day and a half at best, and I generally use it for 2-5 hrs of talk time a day. With my Razr, I had become accustomed to charging it at least once a day, so that doesn’t bother me nearly as much. It’s sleek, it’s sharp, and it takes tolerable pictures. But call me old fashioned: I’d just like a phone that I can use to talk to people. Imagine that.

PS - It also comes with only about six (awful) ringtones, so be prepared to buy more.

I have exchanged 4 phones. They all have an issue with microphone. Just happen when the caller call, I can hear the caller but the caller can't hear me. Techs at Verizon store never accept this is the phone problem since not too many people complaint about this issue yet.

I have had 4 of these phones in the last 6 months. At least on one of five calls, I can hear the caller but the microphone does not work and the caller cannot hear me. Evidently, this is not an uncommon problem according to the tech support personnel at the phone store. The phone looks great, but this defect is driving me crazy. I am going back to Motorola.

This is the worst phone I've had from Verizon. The battery has over heated on the last three phones in two months. I keep getting a new one and then it does the same thing. It over heats and shuts off. You lose all your memory on the phone.

this phone is prolly the worst phone i ever got from verizon. i went thru 3 in three days. the RAM memory crashed numerous times, it would show screens with the menu screen in the background, then it would freeze, it hung up my calls if they were over a minute and it would not send any of my texts.

So I bought this phone and I loved it. I actually left an opinion of it after about a month of having it because it was working so beautifully. I had the phone for a month and a half and it started turning itself off when I was using the Get It Now programs; so they sent me a new one (not refurbished because the phone was too new). I got the second one on a Friday and the next Monday I had to order yet another new one because it was doing the same thing plus a few added bonuses. My contacts erased themselves and then several hours later came back but any contact that had a picture didn't have a name anymore. It freezes for text messages...Ug I could go on and on. Anyway they ended up sending me a third one that broke less than two hours after I activated it. Doing all the same stuff.
Pros:
Style...

Cons:
Fingerprints, fingerprints, fingerprints
resetting itself when in any get it now program
freezes when you get a text message
erases contacts
take the battery out to get to the sd card
battery gets insane hot when you charge it
games are glitchy
when you take the sd card out it will reset all of your settings
like i said, I could go on and on.

In conclusion, do not fall for the hype. This phone looks awesome and does some really cool stuff but the software is messed up in a big way. Three phones in less than two months. Verizon HEARD from me!

i love this phone! verizon wireless's like best flip phone i have to say, since ive been with verizon since 2002. it's really a nice edition to Samsung Mobile. one other thing is- well yes- i do i have to remove the battery to get the sd card and rinse the inside memo tablet if it gets dusty. nothing too big- but irritating. overall, i would give this phone like a 8 or something. i truley like it.

I love this phone. The only problem that I have is that you have to remove the battery to get the sd card out. If that is the only problem that I could find then the phone must be pretty good. Everything about it is great. A wonderful value for the money.

Unable to configure most of the stupid options.

Unable to move pictures off of the phone without paying a hefty fee.

Unable to add ringtones or sound easily without paying a hefty fee.

Lame.

1. Its battery is very wierd. The indicator might show a lot left, but the phone would die overnight.

2. To replace a memory card, you have to remove battery. Very inconvenient. It doesn't help that the Windows application to transfer stuff without removing the card is a lame iTunes wannabe and requires Administrator privileges to run.
I'm not that stupid to work with admin privileges, even less to give these to my kids (this is why I haven't got any nasty stuff on my computer). So the application is useless, and I don't like iTunes concept anyway; prefer old fashioned directory-based music collection.

3. It doesn't allow to connect through USB in a disk mode, to easily transfer files. You have to remove the SD card and put it into a reader. Again, the application is useless.

4. It doesn't allow to assign a MP3 file for ringtone. In Europe, pretty much any phone can do that. I guess American providers are just greedy and want the customers to use tones from their collection only. 3 dollars for some lame melody - that's a ripoff.

5. Speed dial 1 is permanently assigned to voice mail. Isn't that arrogant? I want to be able to reassign speed dials as I like; voice mail is not the first priority for me. For some people - maybe, but not for me.

6. MP3 player doesn't understand directories. If you copied a directory into an appropriate folder of your SD card, it won't pick files there. Lame.

I have had this phone for almost 2 months.
Bad:
1) Having to remove the battery to get to the micro SD card
2) Key pad makes it easy to type wrong number
3) Touch pad front will turn on MP3 player if you don't let the lighting display to time out
4) Only decent reception
5) Camera is only decent

Good:
1) Small/Thin
2) Looks cool
3) Good alternative to other thin Verizon offerings
4) Nice phone for people like me who only want a small pocket PHONE
5) Nice sounding MP3 player
6) Quality is there

I'll briefly give the main points

- nice deseign
- no lagging
- great sound quality
- poor battery life
- Mediocre signal
- average keypads
- 3 themes and they are not too bad.

Honestly, i think its a great phone for its worth.

This one boggles my mind folks. Samsung and Verizon put out these phones and push the s**t out of them from an advertisement standpoint, but this one they said, ehhhh it'll sell itself.

This phone has it all. I will repeat, this phone has it all.

First off lets hit the negatives.

1. The color (dont worry, theres more coming, purple from what i have seen). The gold is cool, and different, buuuuut...FINGERPRINTS!! It will drive you nuts if you like a clean phone.
2. Battery life. The battery is good, as long as you arent playing back videos or using online features or VZNavigator. From just calling and texting I managed to get a legit 48 hours from it. Using the other side, less then 12.
3. Whos bright idea was it to make it so you have to remove the battery to get to the memory card? Its annoying.

Ok now lets go with the good.

1. The reception on this one is incredible. I get signal everywhere.
2. The volume is very very loud, and the speaker is nice on playing MP3's. It does not crack and it holds up very well.
3. There are a ton of options for customizing the appearance. From the racing gimmick, to the "living wallpaper". (its kinda cool seeing your background get darker as it gets darker outside).
4. The camera is great. In lower light situations, not so good...but in good light...very impressive.
5. Thank you for ensuring that your T9 learns. From swears to nicknames, to slang, it will learn it after you type it 2-3 times. Good stuff.
6. Light and exceptionally durable. A friend of mine had this fall off of his cars roof at over 40mph and it was simply dented on the side in 2 spots.

All in all, if you want a good phone at a pretty good price that you will feel like you got your moneys worth, then this may be the fella for you.

I highly encourage anyone looking at mid to upper mid level devices to not overlook this gem

This phone is superficial and more hype than performance. The menu layout is poorly designed, and the keyboard's tactile set looks as if it is unfinished. The racecar theme is hard to turn off, and can only be replaced by two other equally stupid themes. Colors in the menu and calendar can not be customized, or at least customized from any option menu in the display settings. The phone is as light as a feather, but as equally as fragile. Phone reception was tinny and poorer than late model lg phones. Standard battery with verizon is 800 mAh, the same as other current phones but much less than even an lg vx5200. If you care more about appearance than performance, this phone is for you.

This phone is exceptional in all areas. Reception is a s good as phones with antennas. Only negative is battery strenght could be a bit better. Highly recommend!

The phone is nice it has every feature I want on a phone. Besides it looks like it's made out of gold and thats awesome. This is a phone someone gets when they get divorced just like me. YEAH!!!