I really wanted to like this phone...

[ggp]

I got sucked in by the screen, and admittedly didn't thoroughly research. I've had HTC and Moto android devices, and just kind of assumed some things would be the same on this one... Please tell me if any of these are user error!

*disclaimer: these are simply my experiences and are not meant as final judgment of this device.

-no LED... truthfully, if I HAD realized this before, I probably would have gotten it anyway, not realizing how much I rely on that little light since I have to have my ringer very low or on silent at work. I use NoLED, but it's awkward and sluggish at best, and at worst, doesn't work at times.

-Turning the volume down doesn't turn the notification sound down, so if you want to quiet your ringer, an SMS can still come in loud, unless you turn it all the way to vibe. HTC & Moto have a little check box to make notification and calls the same volume.

-Unable to send some callers straight to voice mail by default (Ex's, bill collectors, etc.) I sleep late due to my work hours, and friends/family know not to call unless it's an emergency, so I like to keep my ringer on, but some companies call me early, and I get cranky when I don't sleep enough.

-The owner's manual says there's a selection within edit contact to select a specific ringtone, but I'm not seeing it. When I try to set it from the music player, it only shows me my phone contacts, and not my google contacts, which is where I've got everyone.

-No 2.2 yet

-gps, yeah, I'd like it to know where I am when indoors. My droids could even tell what side of the house I was on. Sure I know where I'm at... but imagine the frustrations this is causing my stalkers!

-the voice search for me is not as accurate in bing as they were on google. forget asking it to navigate anywhere. Am I supposed to be saying a different word instead of "navigate?"

Sure, there are lots of wonderful things about this phone aside from the screen. I love the size, and it's a sexy phone. It's not a bad phone by any stretch, but just not functional the way I'm used to. I'll keep it for the full month to make sure I'm not missing anything, so please tell me if I'm off on any of these!

 

[dopepope]

sounds like this phone isn't for you. as for me, with little to no effort its the most responsive, best looking, best feeling phone available from verizon. nope, not perfect for me either, but compared to the other options, its the best i can get and im honestly quite pleased with it.
i honestly wouldn't wait the full 30 if i were you, what is the point? you know you wont get 2.2 in that time period, your gps wont magically be what you want it to be, and though there are other options besides noLED it looks like you're not planning on flashing new kernels to your phone or doing any moderate amount of 'hacking'.
go back to the x

 

[sean76]

I agree...its not perfect...but no phone out there right now is! But the form factor, the awesome screen, and the hope of 2.2 by the middle of Nov makes it one of the best choices on Verizon right now..You have to weigh the options as far as android goes. The incredible while great, is just a battery hog, and is a little on the small side, however it is the zippiest phone on there network IMO. Then you have the Droid X, its like a big giant 18 Wheeler, big and in charge, battery life in my experience is good after a few full charges, but the screen is a little washed out to me, and it tends to run a little slow sometimes. I'd say its a crap shoot with build quality on any of the 3, and call quality is as well, some say the calls are loud and clear, some say its horrid on any of the 3.

All comes down to what works for you, I happen to like all 3! However, I believe the Fascinate will be the top dog when 2.2 gets pushed out. For now it feels a tiny bit under cooked when you get passed the awesome screen, but 2.2 should fix just about all issues that exist, for the exception of the indicator light... a trend the iPhone followed on all of its models, and Samsung followed as well with the Galaxy line. Different strokes for different folks..good luck with your search for an every day device.

 

[trego]

Hope you find the phone for you. The fascinate works fine for me but thats different from your needs. I wouldn't wait the full 30 days to swap. Why put up with a phone that doesn't fill your needs. Best of Luck to you.

 

[nitsuj17]

to each his own. every phone falls short of perfect for every person and if the fascinate has too many quirks for you than there are plenty of other options out there. samsung made many poor choices in many key areas and some things require root to fix.

i tend to forget at times that not everyone roots and some people just want to activate their phones and be ok with them like that

 

[ggp]

Thanks folks, for all your input.

I would love to root, but for business reasons I must keep my phone unrooted.

So, I figured I'd import my contacts as phone contacts from my sd card in hopes of picking songs for my contact ringtones, and although it shows all contacts as phone contacts, when I select a song, it gives me a very abbreviated list of contacts. Has anyone else experienced this?

Any work around for the ringtone volume issue, or is that just me?

 

[nitsuj17]

Thanks folks, for all your input.

I would love to root, but for business reasons I must keep my phone unrooted.

So, I figured I'd import my contacts as phone contacts from my sd card in hopes of picking songs for my contact ringtones, and although it shows all contacts as phone contacts, when I select a song, it gives me a very abbreviated list of contacts. Has anyone else experienced this?

Any work around for the ringtone volume issue, or is that just me?

this may not be the most ideal way (or only way) but on the sf i use ringdroid to assign ringtones to different contacts. It only works on the ringtones I make from mp3s in the program, but thats how I did it.

as for the ringtone/media volume issue you could download audiomanager from the market. its a widget and you can click it and change all the sound settings a lot easier than going into the system.

 

[ggp]

Thanks, yeah, I finally figured out the ringtones, now that I have my contacts added back in as phone contacts, when I go to "edit" I need to specifically select phone contact to see the ringtone field.

I'll give audiomanager a try!

 

[fegriffith]

Bedside is a nightime clock you can use to make the phone an alarm clock. It's very customizable and includes the ability to have a "white list" of people you want to hear from...so you could set up immediate family as your white list and should not get
any telemarking calls. It's not free but I think the app is worth every penny...I love how customizable the screen dim and numbers are.

I'm not sure what I've got different than yours but when I turn my phone down to vibrate it changes sounds for all my stuff...sms as well as phone calls.

 

[dmcromer]

I got sucked in by the screen, and admittedly didn't thoroughly research. I've had HTC and Moto android devices, and just kind of assumed some things would be the same on this one... Please tell me if any of these are user error!

*disclaimer: these are simply my experiences and are not meant as final judgment of this device.

-no LED... truthfully, if I HAD realized this before, I probably would have gotten it anyway, not realizing how much I rely on that little light since I have to have my ringer very low or on silent at work. I use NoLED, but it's awkward and sluggish at best, and at worst, doesn't work at times.

-Turning the volume down doesn't turn the notification sound down, so if you want to quiet your ringer, an SMS can still come in loud, unless you turn it all the way to vibe. HTC & Moto have a little check box to make notification and calls the same volume.

-Unable to send some callers straight to voice mail by default (Ex's, bill collectors, etc.) I sleep late due to my work hours, and friends/family know not to call unless it's an emergency, so I like to keep my ringer on, but some companies call me early, and I get cranky when I don't sleep enough.

-The owner's manual says there's a selection within edit contact to select a specific ringtone, but I'm not seeing it. When I try to set it from the music player, it only shows me my phone contacts, and not my google contacts, which is where I've got everyone.

-No 2.2 yet

-gps, yeah, I'd like it to know where I am when indoors. My droids could even tell what side of the house I was on. Sure I know where I'm at... but imagine the frustrations this is causing my stalkers!

-the voice search for me is not as accurate in bing as they were on google. forget asking it to navigate anywhere. Am I supposed to be saying a different word instead of "navigate?"

Sure, there are lots of wonderful things about this phone aside from the screen. I love the size, and it's a sexy phone. It's not a bad phone by any stretch, but just not functional the way I'm used to. I'll keep it for the full month to make sure I'm not missing anything, so please tell me if I'm off on any of these!

See the thread below for solution to your difficulty associating specific ringtones with contacts

Fascinate - Support and Troubleshooting Can't associate ringtones with contacts

 

[ggp]

Bedside is a nightime clock you can use to make the phone an alarm clock. It's very customizable and includes the ability to have a "white list" of people you want to hear from...so you could set up immediate family as your white list and should not get
any telemarking calls. It's not free but I think the app is worth every penny...I love how customizable the screen dim and numbers are.

I'm not sure what I've got different than yours but when I turn my phone down to vibrate it changes sounds for all my stuff...sms as well as phone calls.

Thanks! Can you tell me the name of the application you use as an alarm clock that allows me to white list? That sounds perfect!

Also yes, when I turn to vibrate it does silence everything, but when I simply want to turn my volume to low, I find it only turns my call ringtone low, but not my sms ringtone. I've downloaded another app listed in a previous post that has helped me with that.

See the thread below for solution to your difficulty associating specific ringtones with contacts

Fascinate - Support and Troubleshooting Can't associate ringtones with contacts

Yes, thank you, per my post yesterday at 12:25, I did finally find that and with some exporting/reimporting as phone contacts, and finding where to select to edit the phone contact, I did finally find the custom ringtone option.

 

[OfTheDamned]

-no LED... truthfully, if I HAD realized this before, I probably would have gotten it anyway, not realizing how much I rely on that little light since I have to have my ringer very low or on silent at work. I use NoLED, but it's awkward and sluggish at best, and at worst, doesn't work at times.

NoLED - Free in the Market

-Turning the volume down doesn't turn the notification sound down, so if you want to quiet your ringer, an SMS can still come in loud, unless you turn it all the way to vibe. HTC & Moto have a little check box to make notification and calls the same volume.

AudioManager Widget - Free in Market

-Unable to send some callers straight to voice mail by default (Ex's, bill collectors, etc.) I sleep late due to my work hours, and friends/family know not to call unless it's an emergency, so I like to keep my ringer on, but some companies call me early, and I get cranky when I don't sleep enough.

Call Block Unlimited - Free in Market

-No 2.2 yet

Next month or so is what we know right now.

-gps, yeah, I'd like it to know where I am when indoors. My droids could even tell what side of the house I was on. Sure I know where I'm at... but imagine the frustrations this is causing my stalkers!

Updates will be coming in the next month or so along with 2.2 and should fix many of the GPS issues people are having.

-the voice search for me is not as accurate in bing as they were on google. forget asking it to navigate anywhere. Am I supposed to be saying a different word instead of "navigate?"

"Map to....." used to work for me, but that was on 2.2. You may want to give Vlingo a try.

 

[skibum1983]

Quick profiles is also GREAT for sound profiles and you can customize the volumes for notifcations against your ringtone, bluetooth, wifi, etc. This is nice as you can set a "work" profile where notifications are quiet or on vibe with your phone still on high. Timerific is also nice if you want something that depending on the time of day, adjusts your audio settings automatically. My schedule is a little sporadic so I was as big a fan of this but check em both out and see which you like.