If you like a physical keyboard on your smartphone, you now have one more option from Verizon. The carrier is now offering a new mid-range smartphone, the Samsung Brightside, that features a QWERTY keyboard in addition to the touchscreen.

The Brightside features a 3.1-inch touchscreen display and full QWERTY slide-out keyboard. It is however, a 3G phone, not 4G like most new phones, so downloads and uploads will be a bit slower.

Users can use the document viewer feature to open Microsoft Office documents saved on the microSD card.

Additional features:
—One-touch access to contact list, messaging options (text, picture and email), camera function and Social Networks application, including Facebook and Twitter, allowing customers to update their status and upload photos instantly
—Full suite of messaging options, including text, picture and voice messaging and mobile email
—3.2-megapixel camera with timer, brightness control and shooting modes (single, continuous, panorama, mosaic and frame); scene modes (landscape, sports, party, beach, sunset, dawn, fall, night, backlight, fire and candlelight)
—Document viewer feature – view documents in the following formats:
—Microsoft Office formats, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint
—Adobe PDF
—ASCII documents
—HTML documents
— Images: JPG, BMP, GIF, PNG

The Samsung Brightside is available in Verizon Wireless stores and online for $99.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement. Customers will receive the rebate in the form of a debit card, which can be used as cash anywhere debit cards are accepted.

For more information on the Samsung Brightside, visit www.verizonwireless.com.

Matt Myftiu can be reached at matt.myftiu@oakpress.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattMyftiu