Samsung Captivate Glide (AT&T)

AT&T has plenty of smartphones, but it doesn't have plenty of keyboarded smartphones. Sure, there's the Sharp FX Plus?(Free, 3.5 stars) and the RIM BlackBerry Torch 9810?($49.99, 3 stars), but neither of those devices are particularly cutting edge. Enter the Samsung Captivate Glide ($149.99 with contract). It's a lot like the popular Samsung Galaxy S II?(4.5 stars, $199.99), with the addition of a full, slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a slight bump down in specs. It's our Editors' Choice for keyboarded smartphones on AT&T.

Physical Features, Phone Calls, and Internet
The Captivate Glide measures 4.9 by 2.5 by 0.5 inches (HWD) and weighs 5.2 ounces. Made out of lightly textured black plastic, the Glide looks unassuming, but feels well built and comfortable in your hand.

The 4-inch, 800-by-480-pixel Super AMOLED display is gorgeous. It has fewer subpixels than the Super AMOLED Plus display on the Galaxy S II, but it still looks excellent. The screen can get very bright, but darker colors maintain a luxurious depth and richness. Four haptic feedback-enabled functions keys sit beneath the display, which are suitably responsive. Typing on the on-screen QWERTY was fine, but I suspect most people are looking to the Glide for the real thing. The phone slides open to reveal a large, four-row physical keyboard. The keys are large and backlit, with comfortable, even spacing. They're a bit flat, but it shouldn't take long to adjust to typing on them.

The Glide is a good voice phone. Reception is average, and calls sound rich, clear, and natural in the phone's earpiece. The speakerphone also sounds good but volume doesn't go loud enough to use outdoors. Calls made with the phone are clear, though voices can sound thin and background noise cancellation is just average. I had no trouble connecting to a?Jawbone Era?Bluetooth headset ($129.99, 4.5 stars) and calls sounded great. Thankfully, voice dialing works better here, using Android's native voice-dialing app, than it does on the Galaxy S II, which uses a version of Vlingo that had difficulty recognizing names.

The Glide is a world phone that uses AT&T's HSPA+ 21 network and 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi. It also works as a Wi-Fi hotspot with the right service plan. Download speeds averaged 4Mbps down, with peak speeds of 8Mbps, while uploads were around 1Mbps up. Those numbers are good, but they're no match for AT&T's blazing 4G LTE speeds on devices like the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket?($249.99, 4.5 stars). This isn't too big a deal, though, because AT&T only has LTE in 14 cities right now. Battery life was excellent, at 10 hours 3 minutes of continuous talk time.

Processor and Apps
The Captivate Glide is powered by Nvidia's 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 processor. It scored well in our benchmark tests, easily overpowering single-core devices, though not quite at the top of the dual-core heap.

The phone runs Android 2.3.5 "Gingerbread" with Samsung's TouchWiz extensions. There are some useful add-on apps, including Media Hub, a downloadable music and video store with reasonable prices, and Social Hub, a combination Facebook/Twitter client. There's also some bloatware from AT&T, including FamilyMap and the U-Verse Live TV app, which are both deletable. Other apps, like AT&T Navigator and an AT&T 'Featured Apps' store, are not. The Glide should be compatible with most everything in the Android Market, which currently has over 250,000 apps.

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Letters: Debt 'supercommittee' let down country

If I went to my boss and told him I couldn't get a job done, I am sure he would find someone who could. I would expect this ("Panel's inability to cut debt deal reflects divide").

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  By Mark Wilson, Getty Images

  Capitol : House Speaker John Boehner, right, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

By Mark Wilson, Getty Images

Capitol : House Speaker John Boehner, right, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

The 12 senators and representatives on the "supercommittee" should tender their resignations because they have failed this country. Instead, because there are no term limits, they will probably be re-elected.

Thanks for nothing, Congress.

Willson Blake; Savannah, Ga.

Political gain trumps progress

My challenge to both House Speaker John Boehner (" 'I did everything possible' ") and Majority Leader Harry Reid ("Democrats backed balanced plan") is to introduce, as legislation, the parts of the proposals they supposedly supported in the supercommittee negotiating room.

However, they won't because they favor political gain over any benefit for our country. Proof we no longer elect statesmen and women who put the interest of the country over political or special interests.

Larry Nielsen; Benton Harbor, Mich.

Letters to the editor

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We often select comments that respond directly to USA TODAY articles or opinion pieces. Letters that are concise and make one or two good points have the best chance of being selected, as do letters that reflect the vibrant debate around the nation on a particular subject.

We aim to make the letters platform a place where readers, not just writers representing institutions or interest groups, have their say.

Time to Occupy Congress

A good first step in cutting the federal deficit would be to start with Congress itself. Once again, this privileged club of incompetent adolescents has demonstrated it lacks the ability to organize even a one car-funeral or a two team tournament.

Occupy Wall Street activists should focus on Congress. Occupy Congress. Demand term limits. Outlaw lobbyists. End government by bribery. Reduce the salaries and princely perks of everyone in Congress and their staff because they certainly do not earn their current paychecks.

Philip J. Brunskill; Mayville, N.Y.

Elect true leaders to office

The demagoguery and finger-pointing coupled with the very sincere self-righteous indignation expressed by members of Congress from both parties is beyond disheartening.

However, the American people have only themselves to blame for the current situation. We voted these non-leader/non-decision-makers into office. Perhaps it's time to vote them all out, Democrat or Republican. We need real leadership and courage.

Frederick Creamer; Lancaster, Pa.

Problem of partisanship

This failure to act by these committee members is no surprise to most Americans. The members of the committee are not Americans; they are just Democrats (stubborn donkeys) and Republicans (flat-footed elephants).

We shouldn't have expected them to put the best interest of America first!

Joanne Sheppard; Long Beach, Calif.

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