First smartphone, leaning towards Fascinate

[oneiztoomany]

Hey everyone, been looking at whats available for Verizon for smartphones, felt like the droid x is too big, droid 2 is too heavy and want to get one that doesn't have a slideout keyboard,

the two that i am torn between are the incredible and fascinate. the only thing that freaks me out is the comments about battery life on the incredible. although that seems to be easily remedied with an extended battery. however the phone gets much bulkier after that.

for now i have no plans to root my phone as i am a newbie and don't feel like messing my phone up somehow.

any feedback/thoughts from members here?

 

[esn]

I have had all three and I am keeping the Fascinate it is the better phone IMO. The Incredible has a poor battery life compared to the Fascinate and the screen is much nicer on the Fascinate. You will hear call quality issues but so far crystal clear! The GPS takes likes 30 seconds to lock but no big deal.

 

[oneiztoomany]

I have had all three and I am keeping the Fascinate it is the better phone IMO. The Incredible has a poor battery life compared to the Fascinate and the screen is much nicer on the Fascinate. You will hear call quality issues but so far crystal clear! The GPS takes likes 30 seconds to lock but no big deal.

cool thanks!

i have a Tomtom and even that takes a while to lock sometimes with GPS. I'd be using Tomtom for nav anyways so that issue won't matter to me.

Seems like the only real gripe with this phone is the Bing thing but that also seems easily remedied by downloading Google maps app and bookmarking Google on my browser.

Another benefit of this phone over Incredible is having Swype right?

 

[ironhorse]

cool thanks!

i have a Tomtom and even that takes a while to lock sometimes with GPS. I'd be using Tomtom for nav anyways so that issue won't matter to me.

Seems like the only real gripe with this phone is the Bing thing but that also seems easily remedied by downloading Google maps app and bookmarking Google on my browser.

Another benefit of this phone over Incredible is having Swype right?

Yes The fascinate has swype.

 

[jroc]

The thing about battery life, yea it can be fixed with an extended battery on the Inc. But if the Fascinate has better battery life out the box cuz of the technology, than an extended battery on the Fascinate is still gonna have better battery life than the Inc., if its the same size battery.

HTC kinda handicapped the Inc by shipping it with the smallest battery of any current Android smartphone, so its kinda hard to tell about battery life on it. But for battery life I would go with the Fascinate.

 

[II Kings 9:20]

Fascinate for me on 10/27. I have been reading and lurking for several weeks. Have spent over 2 hours of play time at the VZW store. I like the X and Dinc, but the SF, as Alabama sang, "close enough to perfect for me".

 

[jamesnmandy]

i think the Fascinate is a solid choice. it got bad press because it was the first phone to break bad with Bing search widget, but you are correct, set your browser homepage to google and be done with that. if you want to go a step further you can root it and load the googlesearchprovider.apk file which will replace the Bing search widget with Google.

the hardware is top notch, better than any of the Droid models. whats going to be nice is as soon as there is an official Froyo kernel in the wild (which the Samsung Captivate sister Galaxy S phone has now) there will be a ton of customization available and much more performance.

personally i think this phone will actually be getting Gingerbread 3.0 once it springs where some of the older Droid models may not as their GPU lacks the horsepower the Fascinate's has, so in my opinion the future is brighter for the Fascinate

 

[sean76]

Fascinate is an awesome phone, can't go wrong.

 

[saps]

Hey everyone, been looking at whats available for Verizon for smartphones, felt like the droid x is too big, droid 2 is too heavy and want to get one that doesn't have a slideout keyboard,

the two that i am torn between are the incredible and fascinate. the only thing that freaks me out is the comments about battery life on the incredible. although that seems to be easily remedied with an extended battery. however the phone gets much bulkier after that.

for now i have no plans to root my phone as i am a newbie and don't feel like messing my phone up somehow.

any feedback/thoughts from members here?

Well you're likely to get some biased opinions here in the SF forum; although a few of our SF owners are former DInc owners.
You really just have to ask yourself what you are looking for from your device and then go play with each model and see what fits the bill better. You cannot learn everything in the store in 20 minutes but you can learn a lot. Form Factor, ease of use, typing performance on the touchscreen are all things quickly assessed.

FWIW, rooting is not difficult. No law says you have to but if you ever made the choice, after you were done you'd smile when you realized how easy it was. My sig is no accident

 

[linds0390]

would you guys recommend that i wait until the update is out to buy the fascinate? or should i just go buy it now and i will still get the update when it comes out?

 

[jamesnmandy]

If you dont root it or modify it heavily you will be guaranteed to get the update over the air. If you do root before you may have to unroot first or reroot after the update..no biggie.

 

[g-android10]

would you guys recommend that i wait until the update is out to buy the fascinate? or should i just go buy it now and i will still get the update when it comes out?

hopefully toward the end of the 30 day window (which would be Nov.) the update will be available or some more official news on when it'll come will be provide. I'm prob. going to go ahead and order mine this week (after delay so long) and that's what i'm hoping

 

[saps]

would you guys recommend that i wait until the update is out to buy the fascinate? or should i just go buy it now and i will still get the update when it comes out?

What update are you referring to? If you mean 2.2 Froyo that could be quite the waiting game for you to play. If you like the SF get it now if you can; it will only get better with 2.2

 

[makemehavefun]

... the only thing that freaks me out is the comments about battery life on the incredible. although that seems to be easily remedied with an extended battery. however the phone gets much bulkier after that.

There is another user on here who came from the DINC and had the extended battery. I remember him saying that he wasn't exactly impressed by any increase he saw and that it still didn't outperform the stock battery in the SF.

 

[JJBetty]

I had the incredible but returned it. Battery was a bummer and I didn't have the best call quality. I ended up returning the phone instead of swapping out for another. Glad I did. I got the fascinate during the Best Best free fridays cell phone deal and couldn't be happier. Best call quality then any other phone I have had. Gorgeous screen. Set my bookmark to google and waiting on 2.2. No regrets.

 

[intense]

Great thread here... I also was trying to decide between the SF and the Dinc. Ultimately it came down to battery life and screen quality. I'm coming from an iPhone 4 so both are a concern to me. After reading tons of reviews and watching youtube videos I went with the SF because I felt it was a better device.

Having said that, I just ordered mine today and should be here on Thursday so I'm quite happy about that. I'm eagerly awaiting the 2.2 update but until then I plan to root and explore what android has to offer.

 

[SirKronan]

Great thread here... I also was trying to decide between the SF and the Dinc. Ultimately it came down to battery life and screen quality. I'm coming from an iPhone 4 so both are a concern to me. After reading tons of reviews and watching youtube videos I went with the SF because I felt it was a better device.

Having said that, I just ordered mine today and should be here on Thursday so I'm quite happy about that. I'm eagerly awaiting the 2.2 update but until then I plan to root and explore what android has to offer.

I think you will enjoy it. It's easy to root and mod, and lots of roms are going to be coming down the pipe. The Galaxy S variants worldwide have a huge and very supportive following.

I completely bricked my sister's fascinate while rooting and de-bloating. Took me an entire day to fix it, but fix it I did. I'm nothing if not persistent ...

Anyways. I finally got it working again, rooted it, de-bing'd it, de-bloated it, and launcher pro'd it (which doesn't take long at all provided you don't brick your phone!!!) The screen of this phone, the ergonomics, and the battery life are the main things that make this phone a champ of a smartphone. I am loving mine, and my sister is loving hers, and we both love our Fascinate's more after rooting.

Is it a requirement? No. Is the phone great without it? No, it sucks. HAHAHA! I kid, I kid!! Even not rooted, this is still a beauty of the phone, and installing launcher pro, which is well worth it, doesn't require root.

There is a wealth of information on these forums that will literally help you make the Fascinate (or most modern Android phones for that matter) into your perfect phone.

I read some advice on this forum, and I can't remember who wrote it, but it is so true, and so golden for making your decision.

Make your choice based largely on the HARDWARE that best fits your needs. Why base it on the hardware? Because the software issues of these phones will be taken care of by future updates. And if Samsung doesn't fix these issues, THE ANDROID COMMUNITY WILL.

I have owned a Droid X, which is another excellent device that also benefits from rooting, but has advantages and disadvantages over the Fascinate. I'd look into that one too, especially if you're in a shaky reception area, or use your phone in a lot of noisy environments.

Or hate glossy plastic on the back of your phone....

 

[xguy]

i think the Fascinate is a solid choice. it got bad press because it was the first phone to break bad with Bing search widget, but you are correct, set your browser homepage to google and be done with that. if you want to go a step further you can root it and load the googlesearchprovider.apk file which will replace the Bing search widget with Google.

the hardware is top notch, better than any of the Droid models. whats going to be nice is as soon as there is an official Froyo kernel in the wild (which the Samsung Captivate sister Galaxy S phone has now) there will be a ton of customization available and much more performance.

personally i think this phone will actually be getting Gingerbread 3.0 once it springs where some of the older Droid models may not as their GPU lacks the horsepower the Fascinate's has, so in my opinion the future is brighter for the Fascinate

So is the Fascinate faster than the snapdragon 1ghz in the HTC Incredible? Just curious since I only have 2 days left to return it.

 

[Fynx]

So is the Fascinate faster than the snapdragon 1ghz in the HTC Incredible? Just curious since I only have 2 days left to return it.

My wife has the Incredible and I have the Fascinate. I see them as very comparible. I like the design of the FAS over the shrink wrap body of the INC. They both are very snappy and responsive, but the screen is better on the FAS, imo. Google integration is better on the INC or Droids than the FAS and GalaxyS, again imo, with Sense over TouchWiz, not considering rooting and\or launder pro.

I think you'll be happy with either, but I'm sticking with my Fascinate and hiding it from my wife so she does not accidently take it.

Check this out too There is no Fascinate, but I have include the Captivate and Vibrant

 

[xguy]

My wife has the Incredible and I have the Fascinate. I see them as very comparible. I like the design of the FAS over the shrink wrap body of the INC. They both are very snappy and responsive, but the screen is better on the FAS, imo. Google integration is better on the INC or Droids than the FAS and GalaxyS, again imo, with Sense over TouchWiz, not considering rooting and\or launder pro.

I think you'll be happy with either, but I'm sticking with my Fascinate and hiding it from my wife so she does not accidently take it.

Check this out too There is no Fascinate, but I have include the Captivate and Vibrant

Better hide it good- I know how wives can be! lol!

Thanks for you help! Having both you would certainly know! I have never owned a Samung phone, but may give it a try.

 

[MutantCheese]

I just went on a 30 minute joyride and used the Fascinate to stream Pandora and had navigation guide me around town at the same time. I had the SF plugged into vehicle power and the battery actually charged 10% during that time. Color me impressed because my Dinc and iPhone 3G would loose charge in that same situation.