Who's buying it and what's your gameplan?

[tystevens]

Wierd that they would have to few phones.

On-line ordering seems to be working pretty well for me. I got 2 Fascinates for $99, after Verizon gave me an extra $50 NE2 discount. Placed the order around 1:30, just got the shipping notification about 3 minutes ago, so less than 2 hours after placing the order. 2 phones for $99, free overnight shipping, automatic discounts, have the phone tomorrow by 3:00 pm, I'm pretty happy.

 

[TheAlmightyDrew]

I don't know. The Verizon store opens at 9am and the Best Buy opens at 10am. So I will play with the Fascinate and Incredible for about an hour then go to the Best Buy. The guy said it was first come first serve and the next closest Best Buy is 50 minutes away.

 

[MysterE]

I pre-ordered the phone through Best Buy, just waiting for the call to pick it up. But I'll probably end up rooting the phone, removing all the crapware, installing all the google stuff, and running LauncherPro or ADW. AND just hope for the best on the GPS issue (hopefully a fix comes out soon, maybe it'll be part of 2.2).
I think after doing this, the phone is going to kick butt, it's got the hardware and software to be a great phone, but you have to work at it to unlock its potential. (which sucks that you have to do that, but it'll be worth it)

 

[Araliss]

Still trying to decide whether to jump on the Fascinate or hold off and see if the HTC Evo-like device is coming out on Verizon in December.

For me the biggest thing is how good the radio/transmitter is on the Samsung Fascinate. I live in a poor 1x/3G signal area, so reception/audio quality in a phone are at the top of my list. Please post back when you get the Fascinate as to the quality of the phone's audio and how it holds a signal.

Agreed. I have the Epic and thats going back tomorrow because of this very thing. I do know I get a better Verizon signal. I have a Droid X and a Fascinate coming tomorrow. I'll probably keep the one with the better signal.

 

[substring]

I am planning to keep the phone as is for at least 2 weeks. Set the baseline performance and expectation. Do a gap analysis and go from there. I try not to have to root the phone as much as possible because Bing and TouchWiz do not bother me at all. I will continue to subscribe VZ Navigator anyway. But if I discover something else that is bad enough to push me over the "rooting" edge, I might consider that option.

In my humble opinion, if you root the phone immediately, you will never know what is the gap, if any.

 

[rushmore]

Due to the poor effort of integrating Bing, the portal pimping app, non-rooters are better off with the Incredible. Why??

1. Flash now and no (at least) three month wait for 2.2 and Flash.
2. Bing portal forced upon thee against thy bidding

That is about it really..... Even with the suckness of Bing, still great for audio and video playback. just do not cry about no Flash or 2.2 for months Really.

 

[TheAlmightyDrew]

Due to the poor effort of integrating Bing, the portal pimping app, non-rooters are better off with the Incredible. Why??

1. Flash now and no (at least) three month wait for 2.2 and Flash.
2. Bing portal forced upon thee against thy bidding

That is about it really..... Even with the suckness of Bing, still great for audio and video playback. just do not cry about no Flash or 2.2 for months Really.

Where are you getting this information from? Or is this just an educated guess?

 

[kranbes]

Due to the poor effort of integrating Bing, the portal pimping app, non-rooters are better off with the Incredible. Why??

1. Flash now and no (at least) three month wait for 2.2 and Flash.
2. Bing portal forced upon thee against thy bidding

That is about it really..... Even with the suckness of Bing, still great for audio and video playback. just do not cry about no Flash or 2.2 for months Really.

Where are you getting at least 3 months? The best source we have is Samsung themselves, and they've said 2.2 and the GPS optimization will be out by the end of this month...

 

[erasmogjr]

Would it be possible to do the pay online pick up in store at best buy. That would be perfect for me. Not sure if anyone knows but I am waiting for midnight or early tomorrow to see if its available this way, just another option for everyone. Went into bestbuy today they will only have 6 units coming in and they only have 2 preorders to fulfill the guy there said get there when they open and he will overlook one behind some droids for me

 

[g-android10]

i think he's getting the 3 months from the Verizon comparison guide that had "end of the year" for 2.2, but everywhere else i've been getting end of month

 

[Vihzel]

I'll be getting the Samsung Fascinate only from Walmart... if they ever decide to get it. It's much cheaper MSRP as compared with other places to get it and have one of the best return policies. I'm going to do a long comparison with it and the Droid X and see which one I like better in the end. I definitely will have to test the GPS on both devices and the 3G connection. My X has a tendency to just lose 3G, so I need to either find a replacement or get a new phone.

 

[hanano17]

Where are you getting at least 3 months? The best source we have is Samsung themselves, and they've said 2.2 and the GPS optimization will be out by the end of this month...

Samsung said GPS fix by the end of Sept, they never said 2.2 for the U.S. If they did, I must have missed it. It's coming, but I doubt in Sept, my guess would be Oct or early Nov.