From Incredible-> Fascinate-> Droid X : A Comparison Review.....

DougFNJ

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I read plenty of inquiries pop up periodically asking about which one should they get. I have owned all 3 and am happy to throw out a little simple real world comparison review. If I miss anything, please feel free to add to it. I started with a Droid Incredible that I liked a lot, but after it updated to Froyo, I found too many bugs that were making the device more of an inconvenience than it should had been, particularly reboots. I then had one of my early upgrade dates moved up and purchased a Fascinate. Great phone, excellent in between alternative size-wise between the Incredible and the X, however, they released it a bit too early, as that also had bugs that affected the things I needed it to do which warrented a switch to the Droid X which as been a pleasure. So let me begin......

Droid Incredible.

The Good:

It is small and incredibly thin. Many complain of the battery life. To me, I need a device to last without a charge from around 8AM until I go to bed sometime between midnight and 2AM. It's standard OEM battery was not enough to get that. Usually I would get up until the end of the workday around 5, but it would be dead by around 7PM. I got an OEM HTC Ozone battery rated at 1500MHz and that got me where I needed it to be. This is considering heavier emailing and text, very light internet use, some GPS, and a few calls. We are all obviously familiar with Android. The Sense UI is fast and smooth, it flows very well and offers some great Widgets. The Camera takes great photos, and the screen shows those photos very well This is a great phone if you are looking for Android OS with a fast processor and like the look and feel of Sense. The Keyboard spellcheck is great too, I have large thumbs, typo's can easily happen, and this one was great at correcting those mistakes for the most part. When you need to navigate to a word to correct, you could move to the letter with the small thumb pad.

The Bad:

Then they released the Froyo update. To me at first it seemed like it added some great functions to an already great phone, but then all of a sudden at least 3 times a day it would randomly reset. I wouldn't had even minded the resets, except for the fact that it happened too many times while on a phone call. This is unacceptable, particularly that you have to wait for the phone to boot up to be able to call back. Using this for business, that is NOT good especially when you are flowing in a train of thought when this happens. The other thing that killed me was that the screen was completely unreadable when outdoors in a strong sun. Not just due to glare, the screen would be completely washed out. It's stunning indoors, but useless outside. The Camera is very vulnerable, you put the phone down on it's back, and the protuding lens is waiting to get scratched. Not a lot of accessories to choose from, no desktop dock, form fitting cases are limited due to the device height. The speakerphone was a mixed bag, you could hear the other party fine, but my voice regularly cut out. Another very annoying bug after the update would be while typing. If I was typing something fairly long, sometimes as I would be typing, it would suddenly type as if I touched the middle of the paragraph and disrupt as I would have to delete what was typed, and scroll back to the end and start typing again. Calendar also didn't allow for landscape input.

Samsung Fascinate:

The Good:

This device has a GREAT form factor. It is a nice in between if the Incredible is too small, and the Droid X is too large. The screen is crisp and vibrant and HEY, you could see it outside in the sun. The speed is overall snappy, and the battery life met my needs easily getting a full day out of it. TouchWiz makes makes Android extremely easy to work with, it gives off an iPhone look. I particularly liked the customizeable bottom dock, and the ability to add and remove screens. The camera took great photos, the speakerphone for the most part was nice and clear, and calls were perfect on the Bluetooth earpiece. The Keyboard was easy to type on, and you had the choice of the TouchWiz keyboard to Swype.

The Bad:

I really wanted to like this phone, but the bad spots were a bit too important. No Notification light, this was a BAD omission Samsung. You could use a software LED substitute, but it slowed down the phone for me, and it would regularly make me have to Force Close. As mentioned, speakerphone and bluetooth were good, and they had better been because using it as a regular phone was not a great experience. Any outside noise would make me hear my own voice in the earpiece, and it would make it sound like I'm talking into a fan. This was VERY annoying. GPS would take anywhere between 2 and 10 minutes to lock in so I never really felt comfortable using it for navigation. The Signal was never on par with what I normally get, it was consistently 1X on Data and 2 bars below other phones sometimes losing connection completely. And one of the most important issues which I cannot believe this was overlooked, the calendar. You have Phone Calendar which does not synch to anything, and of course Google Calendar which synchs it to my Google account. The Fascinate defaults to Phone Calendar, you cannot change the Default. So when going into New Event, you add your appointment, you have to make sure to tap it as a Google Calendar Event. If you saved it without making sure to save it as a Google Calendar Event, it would not let you edit and change it, you would have to delete the entire event and re-do it. If you wanted to set an appointment by long pressing the time on the calendar day, since the default was Phone Calendar, that event would not be backed up, and of course you could not edit to change that. That was what sent me over the edge and had me looking into the......

Droid X:

The Good:

The screen may not be AMOLED, but this screens LCD holds it's own. There is a lot of screen Real Estate to type on, swipe, or should I add, swype. Multi-Touch Keyboard, so you can hold shift while typing another letter. The size of the screen also makes for a more accurate touch experience.....have I mentioned it is a pleasure to type on? The phone is fantastic, the most clarity I have enjoyed on a Cell Phone since I switched from dumb phones to smart phones. 3 Noise Cancellation microphone create almost landline quality. The phone feels solid. Photos, video, and sound are excellent. And FROYO works great for me. Please keep in mind I upgraded before I restored everything from backup, to my understanding the update gets really buggy if you do not do it on an empty phone. There's a fix posted in a sticky on the forum you may want to read before you do the upgrade. Widgets are customizable. You can adjust the size. Camera is excellent for the most part and offers some great features that you would normally get in a standalone phone like the panoramic shooting. I have found what I am looking for.....an Android phone that just works.

The Bad:

Occasional lag, it is not as zippy as the other 2. The phone is big, not as compact, not sleek, it's got more of an industrial look and feel. When you put the phone on it's back on a cushion, or anything that may disrupt the speakerhole, the sound is non existent. Data occasionally requires a reset as sometimes it seems to freeze. Reading through the forums, it appears there will be a fix released for that, changing battery status to performance seems to had cleared it up. One other thing the browser doesn't do is reformat web pages to fit the screen when zooming in. It does on some, but not most.

I found that I could live with the bad points on the Droid X a lot easier then I could with the incredible and the fascinates shortcomings which became large problems from a business standpoint. The voice quality alone may make the Droid X a phone I could see myself holding onto throughout the next year minimum, aim curious to see what Motorola could do to top this.

I hope this serves as a good resource for those on ten fence with the three devices. Like anything, what works for one or is more forgivable could be a deal breaker Or the wrong device for someone else. Please feel free to share your experiences with these devices as I am sure I have missed some points.
 
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xliderider

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Root, Deodex the rom, then do the builprop mod on your X... the lag will be gone.

How does one change the shortcuts on the bottom dock on the Fascinate's TouchWiz? My wife has a Fascinate, but I have been unable to figure this out. :eek:
 

fatmaninc

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thanks for this.. since i don't think verizon is releaseing any phones in the next two months, i was choosing between driod x and incredibe this helped a lot. one more thing u can add is the performance on each of them.
also i forgot to say is that was it just ur incredible that suffered the reboot or was it a bug?
 

Bond32

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Very nice write up. Its good to finally read a post with legit stuff like this, as opposed to "WTFBBQ wheres my FASCINATE!!111!! Droid X teh sux!!1! I went thru eleventy 1 replacements and still suxorz!!!11!!"
 

harryj

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My X became problematic after OTA 2.2
I wiped and restored, wiped card etc...
I went to store to see about trading in on Facinate or Inc.

I spent a lot of time with each.

I have read so many rave reviews about the Facinate's screen.
Well... I agree it looked great for pics and graphics, it was horrible IMHO for text. It was actually hard to read. What the hell were they thinking" Jeeez

So after much comparison, I had them replace the DX.

I wanted to like the Samsung so much!
I like how it is not locked.

I just hope that devs are able to support the DX after both MOTO and Verizon move on.

I came from the Storm 1 and felt very betrayed. It was a horrible mess.
The only good thing was that devs were supporting it.

Has the DX been totally unlocked at this point? or is the boot loader an on going issue?

Thx

HJ
 

DougFNJ

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Root, Deodex the rom, then do the builprop mod on your X... the lag will be gone.

How does one change the shortcuts on the bottom dock on the Fascinate's TouchWiz? My wife has a Fascinate, but I have been unable to figure this out. :eek:

I like my gadgets, but I have never really been comfortable with rooting. I get the feeling I could cause some damage that could not be fixed. I found Facebook however was the worst offender of battery life, network, and lag.

As far as the shortcuts on the dock on the fascinate.....go to the app screen, press the little settings thing on the top left. This allows you to sort apps as well as move them up and down on the dock.....only one you can't move is the home.....good luck.

thanks for this.. since i don't think verizon is releaseing any phones in the next two months, i was choosing between driod x and incredibe this helped a lot. one more thing u can add is the performance on each of them.
also i forgot to say is that was it just ur incredible that suffered the reboot or was it a bug?

I am guessing it was a bug on my device, but reading through the incredible forum, it seemed fairly common enough that got me looking at that point at the fascinate.

Very nice write up. Its good to finally read a post with legit stuff like this, as opposed to "WTFBBQ wheres my FASCINATE!!111!! Droid X teh sux!!1! I went thru eleventy 1 replacements and still suxorz!!!11!!"

Thank you for that. I don't tend to be a fanboy of a device, I always like to read reviews helping me to decide one way or another on a particular item I am buying.....the more neutral, the better. I try to return the favor by writing them hoping to help others the same way.....particularly when you have other devices to compare with. Heh heh, I am at this point kind of bias towards X right now though lol

My X became problematic after OTA 2.2
I wiped and restored, wiped card etc...
I went to store to see about trading in on Facinate or Inc.

I spent a lot of time with each.

I have read so many rave reviews about the Facinate's screen.
Well... I agree it looked great for pics and graphics, it was horrible IMHO for text. It was actually hard to read. What the hell were they thinking" Jeeez

So after much comparison, I had them replace the DX.

I wanted to like the Samsung so much!
I like how it is not locked.

I just hope that devs are able to support the DX after both MOTO and Verizon move on.

I came from the Storm 1 and felt very betrayed. It was a horrible mess.
The only good thing was that devs were supporting it.

Has the DX been totally unlocked at this point? or is the boot loader an on going issue?

Thx

HJ

I don't think it is completely unlocked....but being that they found a way to root, I would guess it's open enough. I think people get more bothered by the principal of the locking.
 

Adiliyo

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Has the DX been totally unlocked at this point? or is the boot loader an on going issue?

Thx

HJ

not yet, the bootloader is still locked.

but there is some real progress being made currently. they have supposedly cracked it, but they aren't sure how they did it.

so here's to hoping we get a method in the coming weeks. :D
 

nevrdun

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I really appreciate you taking the time to write this up. I am juggling these three phones in my mind for my upgrade next week. Your basis for judgement and comparison seem to be very "real world" and practical. I didnt know about the LED less aspect of the Samsung very big deal to me as I work on vehicles for a living and don't need to power my phone with dirty fingers regularly to see if I have any work related emails. Also a big fan of the Motorola dock for my D1. The lack of.....any for the Fascinate was a turn off. Thanks for aiding my decision.
 

Adiliyo

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I'm already rooted and deodexed, how do I do the buildprop mod? I have rom manager installed already.

open rom manager and click on download roms

in there is a section for beesely.

open it and choose the mod that is what you want (most likely either the first one, or the 2.2OTA build.prop w/ mods)
 

packerbacker

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I went thru eleventy 1 replacements and still suxorz!!!11!!"
Did you have to go through 7 Droids because they all had speakers that blew out or batteries that fried because of the 2.2 update, etc. etc.? Consider yourself lucky if you didn't have to, but it was insanely frustrating to go through.
 

eric6052

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Nice write up. Its good to see things so well laid out. After the Fascinate came out I went to the Verizon Store to play with one. I all ready had a DX but was still in my 30 days. I kept the x. The Fascinate is a nice phone but for me the extra screen size of the X and Motorolla call quality won out for me.
 

KB3MMX

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Did you have to go through 7 Droids because they all had speakers that blew out or batteries that fried because of the 2.2 update, etc. etc.? Consider yourself lucky if you didn't have to, but it was insanely frustrating to go through.

Yeah, I'd rather have a Droid X because I preffer random reboots, terrible battery life,
ancient technology LCD display, clunky buttons and Motorola "Quality" LMAO

I bet nobody on this Droid X forum could have predicted the outcome of this
unbiased Incredible-VS-Fascinate-VS-Droid X review......LOL
 

GatorPT

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Yeah, I'd rather have a Droid X because I preffer random reboots, terrible battery life,
ancient technology LCD display, clunky buttons and Motorola "Quality" LMAO

I bet nobody on this Droid X forum could have predicted the outcome of this
unbiased Incredible-VS-Fascinate-VS-Droid X review......LOL

wow , settle down there . Remember the Droid X has the best battery life of all three listed. Atleast mine has great battery life. The ''ancient'' LCD allows me to do work outside , not just indoors . what phone do you use by the way? just curious?
 

MedlongOne

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Yeah, I'd rather have a Droid X because I preffer random reboots, terrible battery life,
ancient technology LCD display, clunky buttons and Motorola "Quality" LMAO

I bet nobody on this Droid X forum could have predicted the outcome of this
unbiased Incredible-VS-Fascinate-VS-Droid X review......LOL

you've got to be kidding me. The X is the total opposite of what you've just said. I've had a Touch Pro, two different kind of BB's, Droid 1 and now the X . best phone ever. And I prefer the actual buttons instead of the buttons the Droid 1.
 

DougFNJ

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Don't feed the troll!!!! ;)

These were just my observations that I chose to share having owned and used these devices in the real world. I wasn't looking to put together a my phone is better than yours post or thread, I am not paid by Motorola to endorse their product, and if the Droid X gave me problems, I would be happy to put that out there as fast as anyone. I have no loyalty to any brand, nor OS. If they work for me the way I need them to work for me, I am all for them.

For ME, the Droid X won over the other two primarily because of Voice Quality, better stability (again, MY experience) Notification light vs the Fascinate, battery life and I can't emphasize enough, this is a phone that works as a phone the way it should, it holds the signal, the calls are clear and crisp. 2 Weeks later since I have owned it, I have not experienced any crashes or any issues <knock wood> it's a solid phone and as far as I'm concerned, if the hardware that gets released over the next year dosen't surpass this phone ridiculously, I can see myself holding onto this one for the duration of my contract.

Just a note, I have owned Blackberrys from the old Curve to the Verizon Bold, I have owned the Palm Pre Plus AND the Pixi, I had the original Droid, as well as the Incredible and Fascinate. How do I do it? I buy them off Craigslist for cheap and sell the previous one on Craigslist at around the same price allowing me to try many phones without a large investment. All of these phones have pros and cons. Blackberry is stable, reliable, and holds decent voice quality, but the OS is waaaaay outdated, and I do not believe OS 6 will change that. Palm OS is an incredible OS, but the hardware was awful, and they are behind the times in regards to marketing and releasing new hardware, very curious what will happen to them with HP's finances. Out of all of the smartphones I have had though, nobody holds a candle to the experience I have had so far with the phone quality Droid X put out there.....
 

KB3MMX

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True, if you're coming from a RIM device or D1, the Droid X is going
to smoke them BUT that being said, it definetely isn't the best Android
device out there. If you want sheer size, it is king with the EVO next to
it. If you want highest quality gaming, screen image quality, or a more refined
and colorful UI, the Samsung Galaxy S series whips it.
 

evosaurusrex

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True, if you're coming from a RIM device or D1, the Droid X is going
to smoke them BUT that being said, it definetely isn't the best Android
device out there. If you want sheer size, it is king with the EVO next to
it. If you want highest quality gaming, screen image quality, or a more refined
and colorful UI, the Samsung Galaxy S series whips it.

im a former evo user and the x is better. the better hardware on the x plus launcher pro = awesome.

why is it that the droid x and droid. 2 are the only phones to have 8gb of app storage? the captivate and vibrant have 16gb of memory but only 1.5gb can be used for apps vs 6.4gb on the x and 2.

gaming is smooth on my x. it was ok on th evo but some 3d games were choppy.

the fascinate has the super amoled screen and slightly better processor and gpu but the difference isn't that noticeable compared with the x. I would rather have the extra memory for app storage. and the battery life on 2.2 is great. I can go over a day easily without worrying about battery life.

droid x+ 2.2 + launcher pro = smoothest and best phone on Verizon imo. it ties up with the fascinate from my experience.
 

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