Samsung Fascinate Galaxy S Release Thread - Keep all phone discussion here

[FAUguy]

The Samsung Fascinate is now listed for sale on the Verizon site:

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/s...edPhoneId=5528

[Joe12304]

The Not-so-Good:

-TouchWiz: Uggh. If you thought Blur on the Droid X and 2 was laggy, wait until you get a minute with TouchWiz. Overall it looks really pretty, has a bunch of flashy colors and live wallpapers, seems to function in a semi-intelligent way, and then you actually use it. What’s with the puzzle piece theme? If this is going to compete with the manly Droid lineup, adding kid toys to your OS skin might not be the direction to go. I also found that doing something as simple as setting a ringtone for a specific contact was quite the chore.

-Android 2.1: We thought about giving TouchWiz a break and blaming everything on Android 2.1, but that’s not really fair. However, having Android 2.1 on a phone launching weeks after phones have begun to launch with 2.2 is simply not OK. What makes it even worse, is that Samsung has yet to give us any definitive timeframe as to when their Galaxy S lineup will receive an update to 2.2.
-Software Package: An Android phone not coming pre-loaded with the entire Google mobile app package is about as odd as Paris Hilton not spending monthly scheduled drug bust time in jail. Bing? Really? It doesn’t even include multi-touch in its map feature. Spare me the competitors, just give me Google and life will be grand.

-GPS: Every GPS I’ve used on a phone since the Droid 1 has been pretty poor and the Fascinate falls right in line. One tip that will save you some frustration though, is to make sure all of your location services are checked or the phone may never find you. It’s not the worst I’ve used, but it definitely struggles at times, even while connected to wi-fi and sitting on a non-enclosed deck.

-ButtonsKeys: The lock button on this phone is about enough to make me chuck it out the window. I’m still trying to figure out why Samsung thought it would be intelligent to put this button on the side of the device. Try locking your phone without hitting the volume rocker switch. It’s impossible. The soft keys were also a little irritating at times. Not only do they go to sleep in 1.5 seconds, but you are then left guessing as to where they might be on a completely black glass screen.

-Camera: This actually started out in the “Good” section and as I continued through the review, it had to be moved. 5MP? Really? The picture quality of shots taken with the camera aren’t bad at all, but with the Incredible and Droid X both sporting 8MP beasts, you’ve got to come strong.
Look: It actually does resemble an i*od Touch or i*hone 3GS quite a bit. Bad news.

http://www.droid-life.com/2010/09/07...cinate-review/

Oh well. Back to waiting for that HTC device that recently posed for pics.

[Martian21]

It is available with Buy One Get One Free (BOGO). I have sucessfully ordered two of them.

Also, it appears they have removed the instant rebates from online orders. You will now have to do a mail in rebate same as upgrading in store. This really stinks since it removes the advantage of ordering online however that minor inconvenience is tempered by the fact that I got one free (with contract) on launch day.

Martian21

[sapasion]

Yeah I was tempted to order online to save the MIR hassle but know Im just going straight into the store Thursday AM to get two. I will actually get them faster that way. Not to mention I can fiddle with this sucker and see if my mind gets talked out of it after actually using it a bit.
Maybe Im different than everyone else who is crying about bing and gps. Im still looking for confirmation that the Fascinate does not have FM radio; it seems it does not

[vaxick]

It's now available for order online!!!

Free overnight shipping as well so if you order before 3pm on Wednesday, you'll have it on Thursday!

It also took the $100 rebate price off my order as well. People are saying Verizon will correct this so it'll be a mail-in-rebate, but it seems as of tonight it isn't corrected yet.

Can't wait to finally get my hands on this phone.

[Icyhot1966]

Are you confusing the number of MP's with good picture quality?? I have had Sony Ericsson 3.2MP camera's that would smoke the 8MP camera on the X. And the iPhone 4 which is 5MP is better than any of the 8MP phones currently out.

[87wrangler]

"Have US wireless carriers gone mad? Samsung Fascinate crippled by Verizon"

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/cell-phone...y-verizon/4617

I'm probably going to wait until it's been rooted before considering buying it...

[suzook]

I'm probably going to wait until it's been rooted before considering buying it...

It is rooted already. There is a one click root app on the market. It dosnt get any easier.

[87wrangler]

It is rooted already. There is a one click root app on the market. It dosnt get any easier.

Specifically for the Fascinate? I checked the Cyanogen website yesterday and there was only a placeholder for the Fascinate page.

[Bandit390]

It is available with Buy One Get One Free (BOGO). I have sucessfully ordered two of them.

Also, it appears they have removed the instant rebates from online orders. You will now have to do a mail in rebate same as upgrading in store. This really stinks since it removes the advantage of ordering online however that minor inconvenience is tempered by the fact that I got one free (with contract) on launch day.

Martian21

I guess they already saw the phone not selling well...... Probably all droids will be BOGO right before Christmas(maybe except the X).

[Martian21]

The hardware and form factor on this phone are truly top notch. The software experience appears to be anything but... The good news is that the Galaxy S phones are very open and almost impossible to brick unlike the latest Motorola phones.

IMO this is the best hardware you can buy on Verizon. I'm confident the android community will "fix" the software in short order. It is a shame that the phone's software is so crippled out of the gate. It's like buying a PC now - the first thing you need to do is format the hard drive to get rid of all the crap the manufacturers advertising partners think you need. Unfortunately with phones it's a little harder than with PCs.

[jamis_quest2007]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A400 Safari/6531.22.7)

Waiting for froyo and disable bing/google options

[vaxick]

Are you confusing the number of MP's with good picture quality?? I have had Sony Ericsson 3.2MP camera's that would smoke the 8MP camera on the X. And the iPhone 4 which is 5MP is better than any of the 8MP phones currently out.

This is one of the problems I have with phone reviewers. So many of them lack the professionalism you'd expect from one who calls themselves a journalist. I always cringe reading most phone reviews scratching my head as to why information is skimmed over and why so many reviewers seem to not really be that well educated in the technologies they are writing about. It just seems strange to me since I used to write for a website and communicate with companies of whose products we reviewed.

[suzook]

Specifically for the Fascinate? I checked the Cyanogen website yesterday and there was only a placeholder for the Fascinate page.

Yea...it works fine

[terriblephonema]

So the verdict is... hardware = good , software = bad.

Definitely still a buy for me. If I can root it and get rid of all the bloatware, change from bing back to google, and get rid of touchwiz (less concerned about this), this phone will be perfect for me. I could understand some people don't want to have to root their phone to enjoy it, but I don't mind.

I haven't heard much about the GPS though. Some reviews said not so good, others didn't even mention it. If it is a problem, I hope it's something that has a fix in the works. If not then ignore the perfect phone for me part lol.