Root Rooted Moto Droid (1), Considering Fascinate...Yea or Nay?

[JasonRK]

Has anyone switched who wants to provide an opinion? I haven't seen a comparison on these forums, and it's not always about specs. I'm rooted and ROM'd and fairly happy with my phone. Once I get the Fascinate de-Binged, is it a better device? Is there anything I'll miss? I haven't used the kb much.

The wife is considering a Fascinate and it's buy-one-get-one, and that screen is impressive. Of course, I'll have to start carrying around a roll of quarters in my pocket to account for the lost weight...

 

[saps]

Has anyone switched who wants to provide an opinion? I haven't seen a comparison on these forums, and it's not always about specs. I'm rooted and ROM'd and fairly happy with my phone. Once I get the Fascinate de-Binged, is it a better device? Is there anything I'll miss? I haven't used the kb much.

The wife is considering a Fascinate and it's buy-one-get-one, and that screen is impressive. Of course, I'll have to start carrying around a roll of quarters in my pocket to account for the lost weight...

No one can answer this question for you. Only you know if you like/need a physical qwerty. You really need to just test drive the SF and then either make the plunge or not. For everyone who rants someone else will rave. Take a few laps around the track with it in store and make up your own mind.
I mean I came from a physical qwerty. I always said I need the buttons and I cant do the touch only thing. However, within a day or two on the SF I was very proficient with the touch only and was able to adapt to swype et al. But thats just me, you might be completely different.
My GPS is near letter perfect [accurate within 2 meters] but some people have horrid tales. This may or may not be an issue for you.
Some people depending on their work environment find the reception to be less than many other devices.
Most questions can be answered by just toying with the device in store but somethings will just have to be answered in the first weeks of ownership

 

[PJnc284]

I made the switch from rooted, overclocked Droid to the Fascinate and couldn't be happier. I rarely used the slide out keyboard and had the swype beta on the Droid so I really didn't have to make too much of an adjustment.

Out of the box, the Fascinate is a lot smoother than a stock droid but daily performance is about the same when compared to a rooted, overclocked droid running a 3rd party launcher like ADW. I don't use the search button and use Dolphin HD which defaults to google search so aside from seeing the icon in the app drawer, I don't even notice it's there. The screen is just amazing and the size is a good compromise between the compactness of the Droid and the over-sized droid X.

It does come with its minor annoyances though:
- The backlight on the soft touch buttons only stay on for about 5 sec before going off which can be really annoying in the dark.
- Laggy gps lock on cold starts. Some have trouble with it some don't but it seems like everyone I know personally has the issue. It's spot on after the initial lock but I have to wait 3 minutes or so before it will start routing in Google Nav if I haven't used GPS in a while.
- NO notification led which may be a deal breaker for some people.

The first two are supposed to be fixed in an upcoming software update and the latter can be solved by using NoLED from the market which will put an alert on your screen when you receive a text, email, etc. Cell and wifi reception seems to be slightly weeker than the Droid but I haven't had any issues with dropped calls or wifi disconnects. It is worth noting that the Fascinate is already an amazing phone and it will only get better when Froyo is released in a couple months.

 

[ckochinsky125]

I also made the switch from a rooted moto droid and now have rooted my fascinate and personally i love it and i would recommend it to anyone although it is what works for you and what you want should be the ultimate deciding factor

 

[anaphora68]

I switched from a Droid, to a Droid X, and now to a Fascinate (I just sold my X).

I love the Fascinate. The screen is amazing, and the phone is blazing fast, especially compared to an original Droid.

The bootloader is also unlocked, which means that it is very easy to install new kernels, and new ROMs. Koush has announced that an official port of CM is in the works.

 

[saps]

Koush has announced that an official port of CM is in the works.

Amen. Source Code is out and we're just counting the days now

 

[JasonRK]

Thanks for the opinions, they gave me some new questions to ask. I went ahead and upgraded (because, seriously, $20!). I think she's a keeper. The one thing I hadn't seen in any review that may bug me is that the Fascinate doesn't have a status LED. Time will tell.

I'm finding the Fascinate to be a lot easier for reading web pages & news feeds, navigating the OS, and Swype typing (the latter two because I have big thumbs). Even though it's bigger than my droid it fits easier in my pocket, partially because it's so light. If Koush is working on it, I figure no worries on anything else.

If you bought at a store, did you have the experience of the salespeople dropping not-so-subtle hints about rooting? I thought this was funny, and I went in on two days and had two salespeople tell me I could, to paraphrase, Google (such irony) ways to remove the Bing and Blockbuster apps.

 

[anaphora68]

You can download an app called No-LED from the market for notifications.

Honestly, I think it's refreshing to not have the LED notification...but the above app helps with it.