Today, when I opened the Camera function, the vertical bars on the left and right side of the screen that normally contain all the options were just gray.  Nothing but gray.  I turned the phone on and off and took out the battery, replaced it, and it is still the same. (Earlier in the day, i used the camera- no problems)

Related or unrelated, i don't know, but earlier in the day.. i think it was shortly after i used the camera function... the phone turned itself off and would not go back on until I took the battery out and replaced it.

One little glitch here and there can be overlooked, but it seems like the above two, combined with the phone's sudden self-restarting episodes reported by many, and many other dysfunctional quirks are worrying me.

How long will this $350 phone last?  Will there continue to be more problems like these?


Anyone else having similar experiences and/ or thoughts?

Yes, you make a good point- for $350, it's worth the relatively minimal monthly charge for insurance.

However, there is some deductible amount for a replacemetn ($80 or something). 

But this seems more like a defect than something I should have to use my insurance for...

Anyway.. thanks for the response.

My phone restarts all the time, but when I had the Samsung messager it did the same thing.  I think its just a samsung thing, when it is doing to much it just starts over.

REally the bigger concern of this post is the camera issue- the bars on the sides are just gray, no buttons to touch...

That,combined with the restarting and contact info being lost here and there and other quirks people have reported are cause for concern, when taken together (synergy- the whole is greater than the sum of the parts)

aside from that, help on the camera problem?? anyone?

The post above me is exactly the answer. Just tap the screen and it rotates through 3 modes.

Awesome! Glad I could help!