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Help Love the phone, but probs...

My wife got this on the day it was released to see if she wanted it as a newbie and I got the fascinate -we are both trying to figure out what will be best for us. These are our first Android phones. I figured I better go in with a entry level type phone and ended up going bigger then I originally thought and my wife who didn't want an Android, ended up getting what I had been looking into, the Vortex.
It's very nice and a lot quicker then you might think! Every thing I've accessed within the phone and online has been w\i 1 sec roughly of the fascinate. Obviously doesn't have the screen or size of the fascinate, but it's a nice size\fit and all the 'live wallpapers' look very good. It's actually heavier then the Fascinate-usually that's a good thing (better guts). It feels very tough, like your not going to hurt if you tend to be rough. I feel like I need to be VERY CAREFUL with the Fascinate- NOT the Vortex, feels like it can physically handle anything you do to it. :
NOW THE BAD.... got the phone at 8:30p at Best Buy and in the morn it was acting up. Would try to select almost anything and it would select something half way down the page instead of what I was trying to select. It would also start scrolling out of control if I was in the contacts screen or a menu you could scroll in. Not all the time, but very often. It lasted for a couple hours and only stopped acting like this if\when I turned it off or disconnected the battery. Few hours later went back to Best Buy and you guessed it, couldn't replicate it again, so they said to play around with it and hopefully it won't happen again. That evening my wife was leaving for work (50 miles away) and it started as soon as she was about to leave. I recorded it doing what it does on my phone to show proof. Lasted her whole drive. NO WAY will she have a phone that may act up with the drive she has!! Now she also couldn't 'end' a call. It wouldn't end when you touched the end soft key. Took it back in the morn with video proof this time and they swapped it out. Was fine for 24 hrs but now will not let you end a call again unless you shut off the phone. It also now will not ring from time to time if you call her or sometimes when you call her it will ring, but no info will come through showing you have a call at all. Even if you wake the phone up while it's ringing nothing shows on the screen about an incoming call, just the home screen and since there are no physical answer buttons nor a soft answer button (because there is nothing showing your getting a call), then you have no way to answer it. SO, we turn it off and hope that person calls back(crossing our fingers the phone is now working properly). YES, I have all these on video for proof again.
So she is beyond upset and I'm very curious because LG makes great phones and this is nothing more then a Optimus S\T copy for Verizon. One Best Buy rep said it's because LG doesn't know how to make touch screens and hasn't been making them for too long???? I told him they were one of the first and most of their phones are among the best out there!! He didn't say anything after that and I went to the rep I bought it from to discuss further.

I tried to talk her into the Fascinate when I got mine, but she didn't think she would need\want it (too big, to much overall, not as good quality compared to our prev experiences w/LG, and $150 compared to FREE). We both know this has got to be a fluke-they're not going to release a phone that just doesn't work. I noticed on line that there have been some other phones that have some similar probs and they all have Froyo 2.2-could this be the cause? -the Moto Citrus has a few reviews out there that it freezes up too, just not sure as to the detail those are having with it. I'll be back to Best Buy tomorrow but not sure what to do-swap it out again, get some other 'entry level' android(even though I feel this has got to be considered 'mid range', not entry level with how fast and good it is-or could be), or go with one of the big boys. She liked the HTC Inc. and the Fascinate, but does not want to spend the money. Please give us your opinion.

Thanks and sorry soooooooooooo long.
 
I tried to talk her into the Fascinate when I got mine, but she didn't think she would need\want it (too big, to much overall, not as good quality compared to our prev experiences w/LG, and $150 compared to FREE).

They just released the Samsung Continuum, which is pretty much the Fascinate but with a second screen (a "ticker"). It is about the same height as the SF but not as wide. The Continuum screen is .6" smaller than the SF.

I'm still up in the air about the Continuum (I have the Fascinate); not sure how running the apps constantly for the ticker screen will affect battery life. However, I love my Fascinate and may also get a Continuum still....So, if you like the Fascinate, see if you can convince her to check out the Continuum since it sounds like you're still within your 30 days. However, if you haven't exchanged a phone before, just know that you can only do this kind of exchange (different phone) once in the 30 days. ;)

Also, try going to a Verizon Wireless corporate store (not one of the retailers or Best Buy). I was in a store recently, and they have some "private sale" going on where certain customers are eligible for special pricing. The Continuum may be $100 after rebate instead of $199. You can call Customer Service to see if you're eligible (611 from your phone).
 
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Ended up taking it back to Best Buy and my Fascinate too. Since we were in our '30' day time frame for return -Best Buy has it for $1.00 fri and they said if we were there before 5a., then we'd have a pretty good chance to get the fascinate @ $1.00 ea., if not then they said they'd price match another dealer for $89.00 ea, so if we can not get one friday for a buck, then I'll just get it at $89. and save myself a lot still.

My daughter is up for new every 2 soon and if Verizon comes out with the new "talk, text and data promo" which is unlimited for those plus 1400 mins then we'll get her the Vortex and see how it goes. It's $19.00 for ea addtnl line instead of the $9.99 but you get unlimited data and text and that is a life saver for a teenager!!!
 
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Ended up taking it back to Best Buy and my Fascinate too. Since we were in our '30' day time frame for return -Best Buy has it for $1.00 fri and they said if we were there before 5a., then we'd have a pretty good chance to get the fascinate @ $1.00 ea., if not then they said they'd price match another dealer for $89.00 ea, so if we can not get one friday for a buck, then I'll just get it at $89. and save myself a lot still.

My daughter is up for new every 2 soon and if Verizon comes out with the new "talk, text and data promo" which is unlimited for those plus 1400 mins then we'll get her the Vortex and see how it goes. It's $19.00 for ea addtnl line instead of the $9.99 but you get unlimited data and text and that is a life saver for a teenager!!!

Yeah. I was told about that deal. I looked it up online...Best Buy shows they'll have black AND WHITE Fascinates on Friday. I've never seen a white one!! LOL But that's ok, I have a black soft cover on mine anyway, so the white wouldn't matter.

As far as getting the Vortex for your daughter, that's what I did for my son. The deal is already out. You have to get the $29.99 unlimited data package and then they'll credit the $9.99 service fee for that family line for 24 months. Which plan are you talking about for $19.99?? Is it new? Because the one I just signed up on just started last week. Do tell!!

Good luck in line on Black Friday! :D
 
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Here is a screen print of the offer, but is only in a certain market for testing.
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email.vzwshop.com/servlet/website/ResponseForm?OSPEUT_9_9_z_UU_0Hsr_.2eHmH_wkhthE

I called on it once and the rep had no idea about it, but looked around a bit and found it in his system and didn't say I couldn't get in on it, but did say to make sure I got the phones we wanted first then call back because you'll have to start your contract over and would lose your new every 2.

I'll be calling them probably next week to inquire. If not, then I'll be asking about the one you were talking about until the testing for the other is ava for the rest of us. Probably not for a few mo's though.
 
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Here is a screen print of the offer, but is only in a certain market for testing.
moz-screenshot.png
moz-screenshot-1.png
moz-screenshot-2.png
email.vzwshop.com/servlet/website/ResponseForm?OSPEUT_9_9_z_UU_0Hsr_.2eHmH_wkhthE

I called on it once and the rep had no idea about it, but looked around a bit and found it in his system and didn't say I couldn't get in on it, but did say to make sure I got the phones we wanted first then call back because you'll have to start your contract over and would lose your new every 2.

I'll be calling them probably next week to inquire. If not, then I'll be asking about the one you were talking about until the testing for the other is ava for the rest of us. Probably not for a few mo's though.

I am unable to see the screen prints/links :(
 
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Can we talk more about the phone itself than the deals on it? I was looking to upgrade my Ally to D2 or SF. Then this nice looking LG vortex came out available with much lower price. I like both D2, SF, but not sure if they are worth nearly $100 more than Vortex. I wonder how vortex screen looks in terms of clarity, visibility and how good is its battery life relative to D2, SF. I still see no major reviews on it, but its sibling phone Optimus S seems to be received well by reviewers.
 
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Can we talk more about the phone itself than the deals on it? I was looking to upgrade my Ally to D2 or SF. Then this nice looking LG vortex came out available with much lower price. I like both D2, SF, but not sure if they are worth nearly $100 more than Vortex. I wonder how vortex screen looks in terms of clarity, visibility and how good is its battery life relative to D2, SF. I still see no major reviews on it, but its sibling phone Optimus S seems to be received well by reviewers.

I have spent a lot of time at the store playing with the Vortex and I have a Fascinate. Personally, the Fascinate is definitely worth the extra money.

I bought the Vortex for my son and had it shipped to him. He seems very happy with it. I haven't heard any complaints, other than he's having an issue with the time on it. Since I can't get my hands on it, I can't see what the problem is, but I'm sure it's either user error or it's fixable :p He's only 14 and doesn't know as much about these devices as I do.

While I can't give any specifics on the Vortex, I can say it seems to be a good phone. The display is decent...nice. Nothing near the Fascinate...but nice. And the UI is simple.

One thing to note: I think it's because of the slower processor, but even though it comes with Froyo, Flash is not much of an option. For example...I still could not watch South Park episodes (on southparkstudios.com) on the one I used in the store. I had read about this in another forum somewhere (not necessarily Android...could've been either phone arena or cnet forums). I use the SouthPark site normally when checking to see what's running flash and such. So, even though it's got 2.2 it doesn't have all the features you could use on 2.2 on another phone.

and a quick note on the Fascinate...still no Froyo on it and no date yet for release. Lots of threads in the android forums about this though. Still...I suggest the Fascinate. I'm loving my phone, even with its shortcomings (um....look up the GPS issues on the Galaxy S phones also, which I hear are better or fixed with 2.2).
 
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Thanks for your take on the Vortex. For me, the biggest unknown is the screen quality. I don't expect it to be close to SF, but just reasonably clear, sharp. No flash video is ok with me too. I'd rather get fast browsing without flash slowing things down.
I know SF is very nice, but no 2.2 froyo yet and GPS issue is bugging me. I think I should take look at the working demo of Vortex myself to decide.
 
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Thanks for your take on the Vortex. For me, the biggest unknown is the screen quality. I don't expect it to be close to SF, but just reasonably clear, sharp. No flash video is ok with me too. I'd rather get fast browsing without flash slowing things down.
I know SF is very nice, but no 2.2 froyo yet and GPS issue is bugging me. I think I should take look at the working demo of Vortex myself to decide.

The Vortex screen is nice. It is slower than my Fascinate though....but if you haven't owned a smart phone yet with a 1Ghz processor, you're not likely to notice. I thought I read you were upgrading from the Ally (I've been all over the forums today so I can't be sure. LOL). From what I've read, I think the Vortex has the same processor as the Ally.

Yeah, the GPS issue sucks. I use mine daily with a social GPS app (totally cool! you should check it out! waze) but it's quite functional for what I need. When I don't know where I'm going, it totally still gets me from point A to point B with no problems. My biggest gripe is how long it takes to lock...up to 10 minutes depending on where I'm at. But it seems to be better lately....about a minute or two.

I had my son install Waze on his Vortex and I followed on my app as his dad drove him from Los Angeles back to Arizona. It was nice....and accurate.

For the price, from what I've seen...it's a good little phone. ;):D
 
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Vortex is very nice and very quick. I like how it felt in my hand when using it. Screen is very nice-obviously not as nice as the Fascinate, but nothing is:D. Look online for deals-Best Buy had it online for free w/upgrade or new contract this last weekend. They may still have the deal or someone else might.

IDK what their terms are, but Wirefly.com has them for free for a new and renewed contract.;)
 
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I took a look at Vortex at bestbuy display though it was not a working demo. I wanted to compare it to Continuum side by side, but they didn't have Continuum on display yet.
But the Vortex feels very very nice in hand. Very light, simple and sleek looking compared to Ally. Also I just figured its screen clarity wouldn't be too bad by calculating the dpi number (pixels/inch). It's actually a little better than iPod touch 3G, which means Ally's dpi is so good, close to retina display on iPhone4. Though it's a little risky without seeing real demo, I decided to switch to Vortex.
 
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My wife got a Vortex, her first Android device, and so far she's ok with it. One thing that sucks is that so far, I can't seem to find a way to link her phone contacts with her FB contacts, like I can on my Incredible. Also, the unlock screen constantly shows unread messages if their not read in the stock messaging app, even if she checks them in Handcent, which I have her using, so that kinda pisses her off. I'm hoping that this phone will catch on just enough so some people will do some development with ROM's and what not. I might just switch her to an Incredible anyways, since I have one myself and know the ins and outs of it. The Vortex is alright for a basic phone and more than my wife needs, and a Dinc would be even more overkill, but I'd kinda rather her have someone I know better myself, and with more Dev support. We'll see, she just got it Sunday so I'll give it a few weeks :)
 
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I will be getting Vortex tomorrow evening. So I will post my first impression on it soon afterwards. The Ally is not a bad phone at all for beginners, but it's just limited in internal memory size (both RAM, storage) and with 2.1. It's got good keyboard and sharp screen, but I found myself not relying on keyboard as much as I thought. As for the previous comments on trouble with Vortex, it sounds like small software glitches that can be fixed with future update or rooting. I'll see if I can link FB contact to phone contact list.
LG is definitely stepping up their android offerings with this mid-range Optimus and super-fast Star coming soon early next year.
 
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I've used a Vortex for a couple of months now (yup... for that long).

Overall it does some things very well and others not so much.

First the Good:
- Screen: Bright and beautiful. Good indoors and out. Live wallpapers are great.
- RF performance: Very good in all regards (Calls, Data, GPS, Bluetooth).
- Performance: Very fast considering the CPU (660MHz).

Now the Bad:
- Battery performance: Far less than I'd like.
- Internal Memory: WAY to Small (about 130Mbs). You'll run out of space within a couple of weeks. This is the biggest reason to not get this phone IMHO. I'd never get an Android phone with less than 2GB of internal memory. And Froyo 2.2 doesn't help much since most apps can't be moved to the microSD card. :(

The Vortex might be good for a kid or someone who doesn't actually use the capabilities of the Android OS much. Everyone else should look at other higher end phones. They really are worth the $$ if you get the correct one.
 
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Well, I figured out most of the FM contact linking. I found that I had to download the Android Facebook app, it doesnt look like FB for LG does this natively. Once I downloaded the app and set it up, most of her contacts sunk up. Some of them didn't though, and not too sure why. I just wish this phone was like my Inc and would allow you to "link" phone contacts with whichever FB friend you choose. Regardless, my wife is a little happier now. She actually likes the phone a lot, so I imagine we'll end up keeping it.

I'll tell ya this much though, HTC really has Android down pat compared to Samsung and LG. I've used a Fascinate, an X, and now the Vortex, and HTC seems to just have a much cleaner and more intuitive interface than any other OEM. I'm definitely happy I chose the Dinc. It's even better with the Evo ROM I'm running, I just hope that at some point, the Vortex get's some ROM love :)
 
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Vortex is not high end phone like Dinc, Fascinate. But I think it's nice mid-range device for what it is. I also wish it's internal storage is bigger, but it's bigger than my Ally's 104mb. I saw the spec that says 150mb. I think only the pre-loaded apps can't be moved to sd card, but new apps downloaded probably can be put in sd card. Also most initial reviews say its battery is better than average. From its spec, I can see it doing better than Ally at least.

As for the HTC, sorry but that's my least favorable phone maker. I just don't like their Sense UI and most of their phones have poor battery performance. My friend with Dinc puts it back to charger very often. Its camera is also worse than Samsung, LG. It looks like its build quality looks good and maybe that's why some people like it. To me it doesn't look particularly excellent at anything. I think Samsung will rule the android game soon and followed closely by LG. They have the most hardware resources and technologies in house going into the smart phone.
 
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LG is gonna have to do better than the Ally or Vortex to be considered a player in the Android market ;-) However if Samsung continues in the same direction with the Fascinate, they have a good thing going. Still a little ways from the Evo and Inc though ;)

However, I am super jealous the SF gets the S-AMOLED, I'd kill to have that on my Dinc!
 
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I think Galaxy S is the best android phone right now hardware wise. It's just crippled by carrier's bloatwares. But it's fairly easy to root than others, and well rooted Fascinate will easily outperform any HTC phones.

As for LG, It's true that they started android game a little later than others, but they have potential and will to outdo HTC. If you were not aware, dual core LG star is coming soon early next year that will easily blow away anything HTC put out so far. And that's just beginning of many mores to come from them.
 
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FYI, you can't compare tomorrows technology against todays offerings. So bringing up the Star is kinda moot, especially given nobody knows how it will truly perform once sold by VZ. Couple that in with the fact we dont know what Samsung, HTC, or Motorola will have in the market by then, and I think you get my drift ;)

Not sure on a rooted Fasc outperforming a rooted Dinc either. I think they'd be pretty on par with each other.
 
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I brought up Star because you said that LG should do better than current offerings to be considered an android player. So they are preparing to be a player soon. I think it will hold up well even against Dinc HD coming around the same time.

Anyway, to each his own. Brand preference is something that doesn't change easily. I also give that HTC has been doing well this year though their style doesn't fit to me. Time will tell who's coming out on top next year. Let's get back to topics on Vortex.
 
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