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3 Responses to “Samsung Fascinate Android Phone (Verizon Wireless) Reviews”

1. Chris Hann says:

   May 23, 2011 at 11:22 am

   192 of 202 people found the following review helpful:

   
   Pretty nice phone – with annoyances, September 10, 2010

   By 

   Chris Hann (Alameda, CA United States) –
   
     
   
     

   This review is from: Samsung Fascinate Android Phone (Verizon Wireless) (Wireless Phone)

   Update: On 2/28/11 I obtained the Odin software needed to upgrade the phone to the leaked and jail broken Froyo Androidcentral forums. The procedure went exactly as described and now I have what the phone should have been delivered with. The changes aren’t vast but they are significant. The biggest change is that during post-installation setup you get to choose not to use Bing and after that the search works as you would hope, with Google, even from the search button. Some applications suddenly admit they can work as widgets. It’s a nice detail cleanup that the phone should originally have shipped with and seems to undo the heavy handed commercial damage Verizon did to line their pockets. No guarantees the official version will be as nice though, if it ever arrives. This may not now be the best Android phone, but they have worked out well for us. End of update.

   We got two of these phones three weeks ago, since then we have found a lot that we like and a little that we really dislike. The dislikes are all things Verizon did to the software.

   In the comments someone points out that it may be possible to just burn Android 2.2 on to the phone. That is rumored, but isn’t something most people will do. The rumor mill says Spain will get the Froyo release in late October ’10 and people are going to try using that. Verizon has also announced that they will make the Google search engine available on the official 2.2 release, however they won’t be making it the search engine for other services, so when another application starts a search it will still be redirected through the Verizon search portal to Bing. So this is no real improvement over deleting the Bing boxes and installing Google from the marketplace, so their big announcement saves you a couple of minutes whilst making no difference to the software. Another method is to rip-off the Google search elements from another Galaxy S model and install that and a third party application launcher which will then use it, but this is probably more low level messing around than most users will want to do. They shouldn’t need to. If you decide to do that you need the SDK, which you can download for free, and some instructions you can find in the Android forums.

   Verizon has disabled some of the functionality of Google’s Android operating system and replaced it with their own shoddy software in a cynical attempt to con people in to paying them more. The Google search engine has been excised from the system and replaced with Bing, you can’t remove Bing from the system and you can’t replace it for some purposes. I don’t want earn money for Verizon by allowing MS to show me things MS is being paid to sell me. I’d rather they pay Google to show me things they have been paid to sell me because I prefer their style. It seems a fair return to Google for providing free maps and navigation.

   But anyway… as well as removing Google’s search functionality they have also removed Google’s GPS functionality and maps. That has been replaced by Verizon Navigator and Bing maps. Verizon Navigator is very poor and is expensive. Why should I pay ten bucks a month for a poor application that replaces the free one that Google built into the Android operating system? I had hoped that using Android would mean I didn’t have to put up with Verizon’s tinkering with the O/S. My past experience would suggest that they aren’t very good at it.

   Happily you can download Google apps from the ap store, but you can’t re-integrate them into the phone. You also can’t eliminate the bloated load of garbage that Verizon added as a revenue minefield for the unwary. If you could I’d have deleted a whole bunch of it by now, things like VCAST, VZNavigator, City ID, Skype and Blockbuster. It’s not just that they are there, even though I don’t use them they get started and use battery and performance; right now my phone is running voice commands, music player, video player, car cradle, bing, City ID and Skype mobile – I haven’t started any of those. I might use the music and video players but the others are either entirely unwanted or just useless.

   As an alternative to paying ten bucks a month for Verizon Navigator (No, really, don’t do that), you can use Google which is probably the best navigation deal for the phone. Alternatively Waze is a popular and sometimes amusing collaborative GPS solution. If you are going to be off the network CoPilot looks like very good value, for $20 you get a full GPS with maps of the whole of North America. CoPilot plotted a route from San Jose CA to Vancouver BC in a couple of seconds, a Motorola TN765T costs a couple of hundred bucks and won’t do that, it can’t route across borders.

   When you use the Samsung car cradle, which is very good, it automatically starts the car mode. Unfortunately that just offers all the pre-installed pay-per-use software and no apparent way to customize it. Surely…

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2. Robert Berry says:

   May 23, 2011 at 11:43 am

   65 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

   
   Great phone with only trivial issues, September 11, 2010

   By 

   Robert Berry (North Carolina) –
   
     

   This review is from: Samsung Fascinate Android Phone (Verizon Wireless) (Wireless Phone)

   I’ve had the Fascinate for a couple of days now and have been very happy with it so far.

   I agree that Verizon’s decision to make Bing the unchangeable default search engine was unfortunate. But after using the phone for a while, I can say that it’s really a trivial issue. You can still get to Google Search easily from a Web browser if you prefer; you can still install Google Maps and Google Navigation, and when you do so, you also get Google Voice Search.

   And in fact, the default Bing search works just fine. Every time I’ve used it, it found what I was looking for. If the search works, I don’t really care whose branding is on it.

   If you really want to get around the Bing issue, it isn’t hard to find instructions on how to do so (you don’t even have to root the phone if all you want is the Google Search widget, and Google mapped to the search key). But for the vast majority of users, I’d say this whole Bing controversy is a non-issue.

   If you want an Android smartphone from Verizon, I highly recommend the Fascinate — especially if you think the Droid Incredible is a little too small and the Droid X is a little too big, and if you don’t want a hardware QWERTY keyboard. The 4″ screen of the Fascinate is the perfect size, the AMOLED display is spectacular, and the phone is light and slim and feels great in the hand.

   I’ve been pleased with the battery life, and the GPS has worked well when I’ve tried it. Others may say differently, but I can only report on my own experience. Do I wish Verizon had made some different decisions regarding the preloaded software? Sure, but those annoyances are minor at best. I’m very happy with this phone.

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3. Julian Lloyd says:

   May 23, 2011 at 11:45 am

   67 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

   
   Fascinate? More like Fantastic!, September 14, 2010

   By 

   Julian Lloyd (Los Angeles, CA USA) –
   
     

   Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)

   This review is from: Samsung Fascinate Android Phone (Verizon Wireless) (Wireless Phone)

   I am a professional that needs a phone to perform quickly, and have a supportive community behind it for updates, apps and the random question.

   I am coming from a Palm Pre, which was a wonderful device as well; simple, but easy-to-use. unfortunately the touch screen on that device went out, and I decided to switch to an Android based phone. What a WONDERFUL choice that was.

   Having Google at your fingertips (literally,) is amazing; automatically syncing calendars, contacts, and the multitude of Google-powered services like Google Voice, Maps and Navigation. So 5 stars for the Android OS, development, and community.

   With respect to the phone, it’s simple. Objectively, it’s the best hardware available for the Android platform on the market, and definitely one of the best in general (beats even iPhone 4.) It’s incredibly fast, smooth and reliable. People have reported call quality, headphone jack and GPS issues–all of which have not been experienced by the large majority of Verizon Fascinate users, as demonstrated by the communities at XDA-Developers, Androidcentral, and the new [...]. I repeat, it does NOT have these severe issues people are seemingly complaining about.

   Subjectively, it’s a gorgeous phone; Samsung’s proprietary SuperAMOLED screen looks incredible. It’s chrome ring around it’s all black exterior makes it look like what the iPhone 4 wishes it could be. The only thing I think it’s missing, is an external LED notification light–however there are work-arounds, including the NoLED app which uses the screen to indicate various types of notifications (SMS, email, missed call, etc.) The battery life is fairly good, impressing most users–especially if you turn the (already ridiculously bright) screen brightness down.

   Now the Bing issue. It’s not one–it took me MINUTES to remove all traces of Bing from my phone, and restoring all respective Google features. See below** for details. Verizon has stated however, that when Google releases Android 2.2 (Froyo,) it will re-introduce Google and replace Bing… without the need for rooting, or and tinkering. So, don’t let that hold you back from an amazing phone.

   Pros:
   - Gorgeous body, and screen. Visually one of the most stunning phones ever created.
   - Very fast. The processor and memory rival the best currently available.
   - HUGE community support. I can’t emphasize the importance of this.
   - The BEST video card on the market (good for games, and smooth interface animations.)
   - Available for as cheap as $79 on the internet, with a 2-yr contract.

   Cons:
   - No exterior notification LED, and requires 3rd party apps for this feature
   - If you’re not willing to spend a few minutes rooting your phone, you will be stuck with BING until Android 2.2 comes out.

   **NOTE: I would greatly advice even the most inexperienced users, to follow this fantastic (and VERY simple) step-by-step guide here:

   [...]

   This will allow you to root your phone (in MINUTES,) allowing you to remove all the Bloatware (all that unwanted Verizon stuff they put on your phone,) and all traces from Bing from your phone. Then, by installing the .apk here:

   [...]

   You can restore ALL Google search, map and navigation functions. All you’ll need is Titanium Backup (a FREE app) after you’ve rooted, to remove whatever applications you’d like.

   Conclusion:

   Do yourself a favor, and get this phone–it’s literally AMAZING, and everyone who has seen mine has drooled.

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