Talk me out of Samsung Fascinate™ a Galaxy S

[Vdubchaos]

I'll be getting a new phone within next 2 weeks or so, and just exploring my options. I can have pretty much any phone out there....

No Apple products/recommendations please

so I've been mostly looking at Samsung Fascinate Galaxy S and Motorola Droid X. Any other good choices? Not really a big fan of HTC (mostly due to battery life).

3g vs 4g is a none issue as I will hardly be using internet on it anyways....Verizon guy did say new HTC is coming out at the end of Feb, but I don't really want to wait.

So there is +/- for both Droid X and Samsung.

Not really a fan of the camara bulge in the Droid X. Also the screen itself, it's just nowhere near as nice/vibrant as Samsung.

Speed seems to be on Samsung's side as well.

So far I'm leaning towards the Samsung, mostly cause of the screen. Just wondering what else people recommend.

PS. This will be my first Smartphone....I have a 5 min commute to work/never travel and in general I will probably never use it for anything other then phone anyways.

 

[Red Storm]

PS. This will be my first Smartphone....I have a 5 min commute to work/never travel and in general I will probably never use it for anything other then phone anyways.

So... why exactly are you buying a smartphone? Seems your best bet would be to save yourself a ton of money and just get a regular phone since you "will probably never use it for anything other than phone anyways."

 

[Vdubchaos]

So... why exactly are you buying a smartphone? Seems your best bet would be to save yourself a ton of money and just get a regular phone since you "will probably never use it for anything other than phone anyways."

Sorry, forgot to add.

My job is getting it.

Answer = for the heck of it, it will be nice to have when I travel with family etc and a nice kids toy/reward thing I'm thinking of hehe

 

[Red Storm]

Oh, well if work is paying for it then by all means...

As far as I know Samsung is slow with updates, but if you're into rooting that might not be an issue.

I did have the Droid X and I really liked the phone, great battery life and nice screen size. I also liked the physical buttons on the X instead of the annoying capacitive ones, but that's up to individual tastes.

Either way, you're getting a good phone.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Droid X has better battery life.

Both are good phones though. Samsung is slow with updates but I'm not sure Motorola is much faster.

 

[Chapbass]

Droid X all the way. I love mine to death. In playing with the Fascinate it was alright, but for me screen size is king, and something about the DX profile just did it for me.

The battery life is icing on the cake, but its a great feeling to know that I'm not tied to the wall.


Also, if using it for a phone will be its primary purpose, the DX gets almost unparalleled talk time battery life. I believe the Droid2 is the only thing that beats it.

 

[Bateluer]

Droid X has better battery life.

Both are good phones though. Samsung is slow with updates but I'm not sure Motorola is much faster.

Slow, defined as 'never'.

 

[Pliablemoose]

I wouldn't recommend anyone buy a Samsung phone. And moto's bootloader is a problem, even still

 

[NYHoustonman]

As others have said... The Fascinate is the more capable platform, but Samsung's support has been piss poor (not just with this phone, mind you). I have the Fascinate and love it... But I don't really want to send more business Samsung's way until they change they improve their software update turnaround time.

 

[Vdubchaos]

I'm kind of learning about droids in general. Not sure if updates is a big deal to me, I'm not really anal about it like I am with my PC.......YET

From what I understand I can pretty much go around anything Verizon throws at me...assuming I even want to. I don't see how base phone with bunch of cool apps won't do the trick.

Not really sure about OS differences between 2.1 and 2.2 but if it's something minor, I'm not sure if I even care.

Give me phone, GPS app, some music (maybe) and couple of other apps and I'm good to go.

I'm really not a fan of the screen on Droid X, do any other smart phones have screen like Samsung, that thing is just beautiful. I don't mind screen size, but screen quality is a big one on my end.

 

[scott916]

You can get them for damn near free and their form factor/screen/performance is excellent. I use a custom froyo rom which makes it WAY better, but they're not easy to install for someone who isn't much of a techie.

 

[Vdubchaos]

You can get them for damn near free and their form factor/screen/performance is excellent. I use a custom froyo rom which makes it WAY better, but they're not easy to install for someone who isn't much of a techie.

Well......6 years in IT and 100s of PC builds would probably qualify me for "techie".

hehe

What does Custom Froyo Rom bring to the table? Is this some kind of custom OS?

Sorry, kind of learning all this stuff now/researching.

 

[Bateluer]

Well......6 years in IT and 100s of PC builds would probably qualify me for "techie".

hehe

What does Custom Froyo Rom bring to the table? Is this some kind of custom OS?

Sorry, kind of learning all this stuff now/researching.

Froyo, officially known as Android 2.2.x, is the largest install base of the Android OS right now. Most of the Galaxy S phones, the Vibrant, Captivate, Fascinate, and Epic run Android 2.1, also known as Eclair. Froyo's most notable upgrades are the JIT compiler and Adobe Flash support. There's a bunch of others, but the JIT/Flash ones get the most attention.

Samsung is extremely slow with their updates, even though they release 'new' phones with the new OS, their older phones don't get upgraded. Despite having nearly the same hardware as the newer phones. Pretty much everything Samsung makes is powered by their custom 1Ghz Hummingbird SoC and its PowerVR SGX540 GPU.

Bottle line is, if you buy a Samsung phone, be prepared to never get an OS update unless you want to root and void your warranty in the process. People bash HTC for rehashing hardware, but Samsung is going down the same path.

 

[Vdubchaos]

Not sure if I really even care for Flash or JIT, but I guess they are nice to haves.

So in general Motorola does better on updating?

So its down to Update or better screen hehe (it seems like)

 

[vshah]

between those two, droid x for sure.

although I prefer HTC phones due to easier rooting/flashing custom roms. but verizon's HTC phones are almost a year old now.

 

[Vdubchaos]

between those two, droid x for sure.

I need some more reasons.

 

[gsaldivar]

Samsung would be my last choice.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Go look around XDA Developers, and see if you might want to tinker with your smartphone.

Also, buy whatever you want, just be prepared to live with your choice for a while

 

[preslove]

Unless you're going to root it, the gps will very likely be terrible.

 

[Bateluer]

Not sure if I really even care for Flash or JIT, but I guess they are nice to haves.

So in general Motorola does better on updating?

So its down to Update or better screen hehe (it seems like)

Well, JIT does give a pretty big boost to performance. In general use, its not very noticeable unless you're really perceptive. Does help a lot in more demanding tasks though, games, video playback, etc. Samsung's Hummingbird/SGX540 combo is pretty potent, probably the most powerful single core A8 design out there, so people cut them a lot of slack despite the lack of Froyo.

On Motorola, Moto is better at updating their highend/flagship devices. The Droid 1, Droid 2, and Droid X have all gotten multiple OTA updates. However, their low and midrange devices have been pretty hit or miss. The CLIQ got a 2.1 update, but its nearly identical CLIQ XT is going to be stuck on 1.5 permanently. The Droid X is going to be getting a Gingerbread update eventually, and I think there's a few leaks of it. How long the Droid X gets updates though is up for debate. Because of the locked boot loaders, its not the developer's paradise the Droid 1 was. There's some good ROMs for it, don't get me wrong, but there's a LOT of limitations because of the boot loader problem. There's some discussion going on on whether the same boot loader will come to their Tegra based Droid Bionic handset. The assumption was 'Yes', but then there was that business with MotoMobile's tweets that they were working on a 'developer friendly' solution. It could also be a plain delaying tactic, keep people form purchasing the Thunderbolt until after the Bionic is released.

On the screens, the Super AMOLED screens are damn nice, there's no argument there. I'd argue that the SLCD/IPS displays used by Samsung's competitors are just as good though, unless you're extremely perceptive. I'm not a fan of Samsung's build quality either, their phones feel extremely cheap and plasticy. Some people like this, I don't. Feels like I can break the phone in half with two fingers. Some people want an ultralight phone though.

Samsung has a long history of not supporting their devices though, going all the way back to their first Android devices, the Moments and Beholds. While you can root and apply a number of excellent community ROMs, I'd rather people not purchase their handsets and support their business model. Samsung just sees sales, they don't see or care really how many people flash a custom build to them. By buying their products, customers send the message that their business tactics are acceptable.

 

[Vdubchaos]

Unless you're going to root it, the gps will very likely be terrible.

I hear GPS in general isn't very good on Droids.

Why would i have to root it for GPS to be good? 2.1 sucks? or?

I did notice that this Samsung comes with Bing...which I'm not a fan off, would prefer to use Google and Google maps, but that's just a matter of a new shortcut? (I believe)

 

[Vdubchaos]

Well, JIT does give a pretty big boost to performance. In general use, its not very noticeable unless you're really perceptive. Does help a lot in more demanding tasks though, games, video playback, etc. Samsung's Hummingbird/SGX540 combo is pretty potent, probably the most powerful single core A8 design out there, so people cut them a lot of slack despite the lack of Froyo.

On Motorola, Moto is better at updating their highend/flagship devices. The Droid 1, Droid 2, and Droid X have all gotten multiple OTA updates. However, their low and midrange devices have been pretty hit or miss. The CLIQ got a 2.1 update, but its nearly identical CLIQ XT is going to be stuck on 1.5 permanently. The Droid X is going to be getting a Gingerbread update eventually, and I think there's a few leaks of it. How long the Droid X gets updates though is up for debate. Because of the locked boot loaders, its not the developer's paradise the Droid 1 was. There's some good ROMs for it, don't get me wrong, but there's a LOT of limitations because of the boot loader problem. There's some discussion going on on whether the same boot loader will come to their Tegra based Droid Bionic handset. The assumption was 'Yes', but then there was that business with MotoMobile's tweets that they were working on a 'developer friendly' solution. It could also be a plain delaying tactic, keep people form purchasing the Thunderbolt until after the Bionic is released.

On the screens, the Super AMOLED screens are damn nice, there's no argument there. I'd argue that the SLCD/IPS displays used by Samsung's competitors are just as good though, unless you're extremely perceptive. I'm not a fan of Samsung's build quality either, their phones feel extremely cheap and plasticy. Some people like this, I don't. Feels like I can break the phone in half with two fingers. Some people want an ultralight phone though.

Samsung has a long history of not supporting their devices though, going all the way back to their first Android devices, the Moments and Beholds. While you can root and apply a number of excellent community ROMs, I'd rather people not purchase their handsets and support their business model. Samsung just sees sales, they don't see or care really how many people flash a custom build to them. By buying their products, customers send the message that their business tactics are acceptable.

Thanks, good post.

Well, I def don't want to support their bad business. But in general their products have been very good from my perspective....but then again, I never needed ANY support between my monitor, TV and 2 cell phones I have.

That's def something to think about, I'm not a fan of supporting bad business or business with bad reputation (and fueling it with my purchase).

Voting with my money (in this case my companies) money is important to me.

hmm

 

[Bateluer]

I hear GPS in general isn't very good on Droids.

Why would i have to root it for GPS to be good? 2.1 sucks? or?

I did notice that this Samsung comes with Bing...which I'm not a fan off, would prefer to use Google and Google maps, but that's just a matter of a new shortcut? (I believe)

GPS works very well on the Motorola Droids. My Droid 1 will lock my location to a couple meters before the screen times out. The Samsung's going to search for much longer, and then lock you to 30-50 meters. And once you start driving, its likely going to drop the lock. Seems to be the result of a combination of cheap GPS chips used by Samsung and poor drivers. Rooting and flashing one of the fixes alleviates the problem somewhat, but its still sub-par in comparison. The Fascinate and Epic supposedly have much improved GPSs over the Vibrant and Captivate models, which are still nearly completely broken.

On Bing, you can DL the Google Search Widget, but any time you hit the Search button, it'll default to Bing. This can be addressed if you root and make some changes though. Supposedly the Official 2.2 build will do away with Bing, but don't hold your breath for it.

Oh, not sure if its been mentioned yet, but the I believe all the Galaxy S models lack LED notification lights. You'll have to use something like NoLED to use light up the capacitive buttons when you've received an email, text, or IM.

 

[dpodblood]

I would go with the Droid X. Samsung lack of support is disgusting in my eyes. Are custom roms a possibility? Sure, but the customer shouldn't be forced to do that. It's that type of terrible business model that makes Apple so popular...

 

[Vdubchaos]

GPS works very well on the Motorola Droids. My Droid 1 will lock my location to a couple meters before the screen times out. The Samsung's going to search for much longer, and then lock you to 30-50 meters. And once you start driving, its likely going to drop the lock. Seems to be the result of a combination of cheap GPS chips used by Samsung and poor drivers. Rooting and flashing one of the fixes alleviates the problem somewhat, but its still sub-par in comparison. The Fascinate and Epic supposedly have much improved GPSs over the Vibrant and Captivate models, which are still nearly completely broken.

On Bing, you can DL the Google Search Widget, but any time you hit the Search button, it'll default to Bing. This can be addressed if you root and make some changes though. Supposedly the Official 2.2 build will do away with Bing, but don't hold your breath for it.

Oh, not sure if its been mentioned yet, but the I believe all the Galaxy S models lack LED notification lights. You'll have to use something like NoLED to use light up the capacitive buttons when you've received an email, text, or IM.

Thx, I'm starting to lean towards DroidX now...somewhat unacceptable.

And what you said about GPS is 100% correct, I've seen many videos/reviews talking about the same issues.

Since GPS would be a pretty important feature I would use...this can be a deal breaker.

I would go with the Droid X. Samsung lack of support is disgusting in my eyes. Are custom roms a possibility? Sure, but the customer shouldn't be forced to do that. It's that type of terrible business model that makes Apple so popular...

Since I'm extremely anti Apple......def don't want to support that kind of business model.

I'm probably going to head over to Verizon store and check out both before I decide. Maybe the screen on DroidX isn't that big of a deal...I just remember my bro in laws Captivate had an amazing screen. My co works have Droid1 and Droid Global and although it isn't bad...it's more of a neh.

Might come down to "eye candy" vs function.....in most cases I go for function, we shall see.

Keep them coming.