Who has a Fascinate?

V

vage

2[H]4U
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So I got a Droid 2, and its OK, but honestly I don't really like it all that much. I thought I would be texting and emailing a ton, and so I would like the physical keyboard. However I really find that I do not text or email enough to justify the weight that the keyboard adds to the phone, and I really don't like having it in my pocket. On top of that, the phone does not perform very well IMO. I have tried a lot of different things for it, ROMs, etc. and because the bootloader is locked, the reliability of the device is not very good with the current ROM choices.

I got a chance to get a Fascinate for free from a co-worker, but I would have to give him my Droid 2. He is letting me test it out for a while though to make sure that I like it. I have had it for about a day now, and I really do seem to enjoy it more than the Droid 2. I have already taken care of the crappy UI, I love how light it is and the screen is amazing. But I am really having a hard time deciding.

Who out there has a Fascinate and what (if any) are your pros and cons about it?
 
i think it's a great phone too bad it's still on android 2.1 and nothing has been really said as to when it'll get an upgrade only speculation. as for my droid x i love it.. although it's showing it's age now. but latest rumors suggest may be getting gingerbread this month...
 
If you are willing to root and load a custom ROM on to it, its a great phone.
Mine is running Super Clean 2.9.2 Voodoo. Its Android 2.2.1, and with the Voodoo lag fix the phone flies.
Pros: Its Fast (with a Voodoo lagfix, Samsung's RFS sucks).
It has the best screen available on any phone.
Light and slick
Cons: 1. All of the ROMs based on leaks of builds from Samsung have elements of TouchWiz in them - even the ones like Super Clean that have TouchWiz removed. AOSP ROMs don't have everything working yet, however that should change rather soon because Samsung just released the Froyo source yesterday.
2. GPS antenna sucks. Phone takes too long to lock a GPS signal, and accuracy on the GPS signal is rather shitty as well. If your phone is your primary GPS, I would think twice about getting a Fascinate. Sucks having to pull over and wait for it to lock when you turn the GPS on after missing a turn.
3. Only 320MB ram. The Droid 2 and all other Galaxy S variants have 512MB.
 
Although I'm on a Captivate...

Pros:
A lot of the Samsung apps are much better than their AOSP counterparts such as the calander, dialer, contacts, and especially the camera. They got some things right.

Great screen and camera.

Fast CPU/GPU combo.

Flashing roms on any Galaxy S is a breeze. They near unbrickable.

Cons:
Stock rom is god awful. Flashing a custom one with voodoo sound/lagfix/color is highly recommended.

GPS blows. Period. Almost unusable.
 
RavenD said:
*snip* .
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Hmm, interesting that you posted about the RAM. I had read earlier that it has 512 MB, but you said it was less. So I did some research, and they advertise it as having 512, but only has about 340 of system RAM, and then uses the Sd card for any other it needs, which is definitely pretty lame. It does still seem faster than my D2 though.

I definitely don't have any problems with rooting/ROMing, I had done so on my D2, and plan on it with any phone I have. I believe this would be easier because the bootloader is actually unlocked.

I have a GPS in my car, so I really don't ever use it. I had read about the GPS issues, but its not really a factor to me I don't think.
 
That's not totally correct. All Galaxy S variants do have 512MB of RAM, physically. I believe you can actually see the chips (four 1Gb 40nm chips). Some of it is reserved/unusuable for whatever reason. This is not limited to just the Vibrant. Some ROMs reclaim some of that lost RAM (by default I think we tend to have 311MB, some ROMs I think go up to 342MB).

It's lame either way.
 
It's a great device.

Froyo source code was dropped yesterday, so expect BIG things in the coming weeks. They're nearly finished with an overclocked, undervolted, voodoo sound/color/lag fix kernel.

Gingerbread will be soon too. Woo.
 
This thing freaking flies already and is impossible to brick. I'm running the Superclean Froyo custom rom as well. Huge difference over stock rom. If you are already impressed with it now....well.....you ain't seen nothing yet. This Fascinate is worlds better than that Droid2 in every way.
 
RavenD said:
If you are willing to root and load a custom ROM on to it, its a great phone.
Mine is running Super Clean 2.9.2 Voodoo. Its Android 2.2.1, and with the Voodoo lag fix the phone flies.
Pros: Its Fast (with a Voodoo lagfix, Samsung's RFS sucks).
It has the best screen available on any phone.
Light and slick
Cons: 1. All of the ROMs based on leaks of builds from Samsung have elements of TouchWiz in them - even the ones like Super Clean that have TouchWiz removed. AOSP ROMs don't have everything working yet, however that should change rather soon because Samsung just released the Froyo source yesterday.
2. GPS antenna sucks. Phone takes too long to lock a GPS signal, and accuracy on the GPS signal is rather shitty as well. If your phone is your primary GPS, I would think twice about getting a Fascinate. Sucks having to pull over and wait for it to lock when you turn the GPS on after missing a turn.
3. Only 320MB ram. The Droid 2 and all other Galaxy S variants have 512MB.
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I'm running the same. My GPS is working fine. I get a lock in less than 10 seconds on most occasions. Accuracy is less than 10 feet. Prior to updating, my GPS was horible. I would often get to my destination before the GPS locked.

As for the ram, the Fascinate does indeed have 512. From what I've read at XDA, the missing ram is used for system & graphics.

I went from the Droid to the Fascinate. It's a no-brainer the OP should do the same.

I'd also like to point out that while we wait for Verizon to push Froyo (2.2) to the Fascinate, the awesome devs at XDA should have Gingerbread (2.3) to us within the week.
 
RavenD said:
If you are willing to root and load a custom ROM on to it, its a great phone.
Mine is running Super Clean 2.9.2 Voodoo. Its Android 2.2.1, and with the Voodoo lag fix the phone flies.
Pros: Its Fast (with a Voodoo lagfix, Samsung's RFS sucks).
It has the best screen available on any phone.
Light and slick
Cons: 1. All of the ROMs based on leaks of builds from Samsung have elements of TouchWiz in them - even the ones like Super Clean that have TouchWiz removed. AOSP ROMs don't have everything working yet, however that should change rather soon because Samsung just released the Froyo source yesterday.
2. GPS antenna sucks. Phone takes too long to lock a GPS signal, and accuracy on the GPS signal is rather shitty as well. If your phone is your primary GPS, I would think twice about getting a Fascinate. Sucks having to pull over and wait for it to lock when you turn the GPS on after missing a turn.
3. Only 320MB ram. The Droid 2 and all other Galaxy S variants have 512MB.
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I believe it has 512, but not all is accessible. Mine shows 349mb accessible.
 
I can only add one thing. My Fascinate battery is great! Rooted on 2.1, UV kernel, and getting 1 day 18 hrs on normal use. Hard use, a day. I couldnt get anywhere near close with anything except a Blackberry, which wasnt even an option. Fascinate is truly an excellent phone!
 
The Fascinate also has superior hardware to the other Droid1/Droid2/DroidX Snapdragons, not to mention they still have locked down bootloaders.

The Hummingbird with it's SGX540 integrated GPU is far more powerful than any of the Droid models and is roughly on par with the new generation of Snapdragons found in the HTC Thunderbolt for instance. But in a package that doesn't weigh as much as two phones. Sure you don't have LTE capability.....which for a lot of people means nothing.

With Wifi on it, if you use it, most places you go these days has open WiFi, and it's going to be faster than LTE in most cases....so unless you want the fastest data speeds in areas that dont have WiFi then LTE is fairly useless.
 
As an added note, early benchmarks show the Galaxy S phones beating Tegra 2 phones in all catagories. That may change in 6 months, but for now we rule the world. LOL.
 
Thanks for all the input guys! Yeah after using is throughout the weekend, I definitely like it more than my Droid2. It is missing a few features, but the stability of it, the beautiful screen, and the lightness all outweigh what it is currently missing. Most of what it is missing can be fixed with ROMs too. The guy that let me use it will not let me ROM is unless I decide for sure that I want it, but I am 99% sure that at this point I definitely do.
 
nobody_here said:
The Fascinate also has superior hardware to the other Droid1/Droid2/DroidX Snapdragons, not to mention they still have locked down bootloaders.

The Hummingbird with it's SGX540 integrated GPU is far more powerful than any of the Droid models and is roughly on par with the new generation of Snapdragons found in the HTC Thunderbolt for instance. But in a package that doesn't weigh as much as two phones. Sure you don't have LTE capability.....which for a lot of people means nothing.

With Wifi on it, if you use it, most places you go these days has open WiFi, and it's going to be faster than LTE in most cases....so unless you want the fastest data speeds in areas that dont have WiFi then LTE is fairly useless.
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Couple things..... I believe all the Motorola Droid variants use TI chips, not Snapdragons.

Also, I have never seen a public WIFI that can come close to the 12-18 m/bit sec LTE speeds.

My wife got the Fascinate the same time I got my Thunderbolt. In stock form the Fascinate absolutely blows, but I was going to root and run a custom ROM to fix most of the phones issues. That was until most ROMS that I seen had mostly broken bluetooth, that was a deal breaker for her.

We took it back the next day and got her a Thunderbolt. :D
 
Well, the Thunderbolt or any other 4GLTE device is not an option for me at the moment, its only between the Droid2 and the Fascinate.

Quick question for you guys. On the Droid2 it had an application called "Corporate Sync" which was an exchange email client. I really liked it because when I read an email in Outlook, it would mark it as read on the phone too. I notice that the stock email client on the Fascinate can do exchange, however it does NOT mark a message read if I have read it in Outlook. Is there a corporate sync type application for the Fascinate?
 
Exeodus said:
Couple things..... I believe all the Motorola Droid variants use TI chips, not Snapdragons.

True, my point was the Hummingbird is the better hardware.

Also, I have never seen a public WIFI that can come close to the 12-18 m/bit sec LTE speeds.

He is asking about between a Droid2 and Fascinate, and to be honest, LTE speeds don't impress me. There's nothing I do on my phone that WiFi speeds can't handle.

My wife got the Fascinate the same time I got my Thunderbolt. In stock form the Fascinate absolutely blows, but I was going to root and run a custom ROM to fix most of the phones issues. That was until most ROMS that I seen had mostly broken bluetooth, that was a deal breaker for her.

Bluetooth is broken on AOSP. It clearly states that it doesn't work in the xda thread. The Superclean rom however works fine.

We took it back the next day and got her a Thunderbolt. :D

Congrats?
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so many points, replied in quote
 
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