Samsung Glyde is finally being released by Verizon Wireless, most probably at the end of this week, as official images with the long-awaited handset have surfaced today.

In case you don't know, Glyde is a full QWERTY slider that looks really nice, both when open and when closed. Being the US version of Samsung F700, which was released in Europe in December 2007, the Glyde brings about the same features. Its official features include: a 2.8 inch TFT touchscreen with 240 x 440 pixels and 256K colors, dual-band CDMA connectivity, built-in GPS to work with VZ Navigator, full HTML browser, Music and Video players, Verizon's V CAST Music, 2.5mm audio jack, the latest Bluetooth and USB versions, at least 100MB of internal memory, microSD card slot (up to 8GB) and so on. The handset's exact dimensions are not known, but they should be around 4.40 x 2.20 x 0.62 inches (112 x 56 x 16 mm), at a weight of about 4.90 ounces (140 grams).

While the F700 model has a 3.2 Megapixel camera, the one packed in Glyde was, for an unknown reason, downgraded to only 2 Megapixels. Sure, that's not that bad, especially since the camera also features flash, digital zoom, multi-shot mode and video recording, but 3.2 Megapixels would have been, obviously, more attractive.

Samsung Glyde is Verizion's second handset (from the 2008 line-up) to pack both a touchscreen and a full QWERTY keyboard. The first device of this kind is LG Voyager, currently available from the V carrier for $299 with a 2-year contract agreement. And since we're talking about prices, Glyde will apparently come for a similar price (with the same 2-year contract condition): $249, after a $50 mail-in rebate. Not that cheap, but after all the new Samsung is a pretty nice handset.

Update: Samsung Glyde will be available as of tomorrow (May 9), both online and via Verizon's retail stores.