Fascinate tomorrow! (thoughts?)

[pullumpkin]

Brand new to the forums here, been browsing the info for a few days in preparation of buying my new Fascinate tomorrow. I broke my old env2 just the other day (thank god, that thing was worse than trash), got pissed, then realized it was time for a new phone. Sat down hands-on with all possible options, wasn't as impressed with anything else verizon is currently carrying (super amoled got me). Shot down the idea of the iphone due to no expandable storage/removable battery/horrible apple software (will never install itunes on a box I own for the rest of my life)/ better selection of free apps. This will be my first smart phone, plan on rooting it and customizing the hell out of it. Is there any contractual issue with VZ that will arise from this? Will I be able to return my phone within 30 days if I do this? Another thing that came up was the listed ram, seems like it is listed in the 300's in several places, where competitors have 512? Does this have a significant impact? I am currently looking to get my hands on the phone tomorrow (when my update is due), and figure if the next wave of phones is better I can just return the phone and get something better. Any opinions or advice would be appreciated.

ps. froyo in the next week or so? just heard that today.

 

[atomD21]

The Fascinate is an awesome phone, great choice! Only word of advice would be to not get your hopes up for Froyo in the next week or so. They've been promising Froyo for a while.

 

[PSkeptic]

Technically, any kind of rooting or loading custom ROM's voids the warranty. However, most goofs can be fixed, and the phone returned to factory specs.

 

[saps]

Official froyo is due any week, the leaked versions are already out and work fine for most of us

 

[nitsuj17]

The fascinate does have 512 lb of ram but a good chunk of it is tied up by video and not available to you

 

[ecc444]

Depends on what you want? Do you want a phone that works well right out of the box? Or do you want a phone with hours and hours of endless tinkering and headaches? If I had to do it again I'd stay far far away from this phone!

 

[PSkeptic]

Depends on what you want? Do you want a phone that works well right out of the box? Or do you want a phone with hours and hours of endless tinkering and headaches? If I had to do it again I'd stay far far away from this phone!

IMO, this phone performed fabulously out of the box... My incessant need to tinker with everything is the only reason I mod it.

 

[grin0048]

The fascinate does have 512 lb of ram but a good chunk of it is tied up by video and not available to you

Please keep in mind that the 512 pounds of ram in the Fascinate can severely impact portability...always have a dolly at hand.

 

[ecc444]

IMO, this phone performed fabulously out of the box... My incessant need to tinker with everything is the only reason I mod it.

Not so much for me. Apps were buggy and performance lagged. Phone would freeze when I tried to hang up or when I got a text while on a call. GPS lock is horrible and still it. I could go on but I'm trying to be a glass-is-half-full kinda guy lol

 

[nunyazz]

... well many of us love the Fascinate and are not having the issues you are having.

 

[Blue218]

I love my Fascinate and mine isn't rooted yet....lol. I am running ADW launcher EX though.

 

[jamesnmandy]

Official froyo is due any week, the leaked versions are already out and work fine for most of us

Any week? Lol....theres only 47 weeks left this year!

 

[jamesnmandy]

Not so much for me. Apps were buggy and performance lagged. Phone would freeze when I tried to hang up or when I got a text while on a call. GPS lock is horrible and still it. I could go on but I'm trying to be a glass-is-half-full kinda guy lol

I loaded DL30 Froyo on mine and all of a sudden i dont have any of those problems, gps is locked in seconds, and its easily twice as fast as before....like a new phone man really. You should try using whats available instead of complaining.

 

[n0ct3m]

I got my Fascinate last week and just rooted and installed DL30 with the Superclean 1.0 rom. I must say that this phone is great. I had an Eris before this which came out of the box with Dialer Lag, Silent Call bug and Sense. This phone worked just fine right out of the box for me. I am happy.

 

[pullumpkin]

thanks for the responses, guess I'll wing it, suppose I can wipe it clean before return if it is the worst thing in the world. have played with many phones, and all on vz, pretty happy with what I'm seeing form the fascinate so far. people will bitch no matter what. chalk it up to first world problems.

 

[exzacklyright]

thanks for the responses, guess I'll wing it, suppose I can wipe it clean before return if it is the worst thing in the world. have played with many phones, and all on vz, pretty happy with what I'm seeing form the fascinate so far. people will bitch no matter what. chalk it up to first world problems.

coming from an env2 as well you'll love this phone. At first i was thinking I needed a keyboard with the phone (droid 2) but then realized most just get used to the touch screen after a month or 2 and then never even use the keyboard. The pros of this phone really do out-weigh the cons. Sometimes there's issues with battery life or gps but that's about it.

 

[ikadakimas]

Shot down the idea of the iphone due to no expandable storage/removable battery/horrible apple software (will never install itunes on a box I own for the rest of my life)/ better selection of free apps. This will be my first smart phone, plan on rooting it and customizing the hell out of it. Is there any contractual issue with VZ that will arise from this? Will I be able to return my phone within 30 days if I do this?

Hey Pullumkin, FYI, I believe it is now 14 days. (Be careful) If Iphone interests you then you would love this phone. User interface is very similar to the iphone. OR, download ADW or Launcher Pro (free in the market) You can customize the hell out of it without root or voiding warranty. It won't get rid of bloatware, but will take out Samsung's user interface and you can make it your very own.

I have an unrooted Samsung using Launcher Pro and Desktop Visualizer. I'm a satisfied user. Coming from Droid Incredible with Froyo user.

 

[Joeeeyg]

I loved my phone right out of the box, sure it gets laggy here and there but hopefully froyo will fix that. I can see it being released shortly after the new samsung phone drops...

 

[djb28]

I love the phone. There are a few things i dont like. With anything that comes with the territory. There is a lot to learn and you can get overwhelmed with things when you root. I had never tried such a thing and jumped right into it. But to me it was fun. A couple scares but learned you really can not break this phone if you follow a couple simple rules!
I have the Leaked Froyo now for two days and the guys already are theming for it. I am totally happy with the results and the way it runs.
I have Firefox loaded up, Playing with add ons and sync'd my personal pc info to the phone. Lovin' it! I was sitting in my pc chair earlier and was online on the phone. 20 minutes later i said. Why am i on the phone. There is a pc in front of me! lol

 

[pullumpkin]

(follow up)
Was considering buying online, but went to best buy instead. The price was 150 using my upgrade (reasonable in my eyes). I was also enrolled in their buyback program for free! I highly recommend this program, after 18 months if my phone is still in good condition the buyback price is 120. After just 6 months I can return it for 300 towards another phone if something more tempting comes out. I am absolutely in love with this phone! I find it to be way more my style than the I phone. I had some minor issues getting up and running. Once all of my info was transferred to the SF all of my old texts got re-sent for some reason (all 100+ of them), which was a little irritating. The texting capability seemed bugged out as well, for the first day my texts were not being recieved after this initial wave of re-texts. I dialed 611 and the problem was fixed remotely within 10 minutes, very helpful tech support. Have yet to root the phone, but was able to delete the bing bar and add a google search app. I am very happy with the speed of the phone, and advanced app killer helps a ton. I am going on 48 hours on my last charge with a quarter full battery charge! Will certainly be getting a 2nd battery to limit down-time. I found the phone very easy to customize, and the learning curve is mild in my eyes as a long time pc user. Was informed about the horrible software bundling, several of the apps are obviously vz trial scamware, and the whole bing thing is absolutely terrible. I will be circumventing this with a root very soon, a small price to pay for such an awesome phone. Thanks to everyone for the advice!

 

[jamesnmandy]

I loved my phone right out of the box, sure it gets laggy here and there but hopefully froyo will fix that. I can see it being released shortly after the new samsung phone drops...

it does, DL30 was good, EB01 is better, compared to the stock 2.1 operating system, its much much faster