We were hoping for Verizon's take on the Samsung F700 - the "Glyde" - to surface at CTIA a few weeks ago.  No such luck.  But the QWERTY-packing smartphone does exist and is on tap for a VZW release sometime before too, too long, as evidenced by the latest set of spy shots to surface over on Engadget Mobile.

Looks like Glyde is still an F700 with a watered down camera and custom VZW menus in place of Samsung's Croix UI (at least they kept the camera flash, right?).  I got a few minutes of hands-on time with a Vodafone-branded F700 last fall, and seeing these photos kind of makes me want to get an unlocked 700 to play with a bit longer. 

QWERTY board and camera flash are my two biggest wants for iPhone 3G, and F700's got 'em both, though Samsung's known for less than stellar cameras in their handsets.  At any rate, if you can get past its rather chunky form factor, Glyde promises to be a nice alternative to the LG Voyager in Verizon's high-end QWERTY phone lineup.  You know, when it finally appears for real.