fascinate or dinc

[mikeymopar]

I've read the threads regarding the Fascinate vs the dinc in the dinc forums but nothing comes up in the fascinate forum (so obviously it's biased towards the dinc). Wondering about the views of fascinate owners who have experience with both phones.

I currently have a Captivate that has been on Darkys 9.3 ROM for a few months now and I'll HATE losing it. But due to poor AT&T signal coverage, limited data plan, and the opportunity to get either the fascinate or the dinc free, I'm considering jumping to Verizon.

Thanks for any comments!

 

[curley]

Both are GREAT phones. I don't know if I could go to the smaller Screen on the DINC. Also, that Super AMOLED screen is just sick. If you play games the GPU on the Fascinate is better.

8MP camera with dual flash and HTC Sense is sweet on the dinc, but the 5MP on the Fascinate, competes perfectly.

I would say, play with them both, since Gingerbread has leaked for both, there is a lot of modding available.

Good Luck

 

[s14tat]

I don't see the dinc having any pros over the fascinate esp on the hardware dept. I'm wondering what those guys over there are talking smack about. The dinc is nothing more than a smaller evo4g and we all know how slow a evo4g is.

 

[mikeymopar]

Thanks....I'm already leaning towards the Fascinate since I'm used to my Cappy. Was just wondering if there were any big differences between the two especially in the modding area.

 

[BoomerFZ1]

How is the Evo slow? It has crap battery life but I'm not sure you can call it slow.

 

[mikethemedic]

I am completely biased in my opinion but I believe there are not many threads regarding fascinate vs xyz because the fascinate is just a solid phone. I am completely comfortable using the fascinate because it does everything i need it to without to many hiccups.

We have a great community here. That helps as well. Personally I don't think I will get another phone until this one dies completely.


As i said biased but that is my .02 worth.

 

[fortesquieu]

Since you were using Cappy, then Fassy would be a better choice for you. Having using both phones, I can say that Fassy is a little better (hardware wise) than Dinc.

Dont get me wrong, I loved Dinc, it was a great phone with LOTS of ROMs to choose from.

But 3.7 AMOLED is not as good as 4.0 Super AMOLED.
Hummingbird eats the first generation Snapdragon for breakfast.
and so on...

 

[curley]

I do like that you can get the 1800 mah battery for the Dinc. But I could never go that small again. And the Fascinate can still keep with the best of the new phones on the market. The only thing is lacks is that front camera, but the dinc does not have it either.

GSF has a better processor and one you get one, flash voodoo on the Commrom and you will never want anything else.

 

[s14tat]

How is the Evo slow? It has crap battery life but I'm not sure you can call it slow.

Slow as in laggy with stuttering when you scroll. It can't multitask to well either. Not to mention basement level of graphic performance. Thing can't even do double digit frame rate in nenamark2. Our phones rivals the dual core phones at 23 frames per second vs 7 on the evo lol.

the evo does get surprisingly good battery life once you run cm7. My friend get over a day (24 hours)on his evo. Stock wise thee battery is horrible since sense is such a resource hog.

 

[Chris3D]

Wondering about the views of fascinate owners who have experience with both phones.

I don't know what the Incredible is like, but one thing to be cautious about with the fascinate is the signal strength. There's no two ways about it, it's pretty bad. If you're in or frequent a generally low signal area in Verizon's network, the Fascinate could run into issues. Both my wife and I have signed up for Skype plans for calling from home since we get such lousy reception at our house. Our phones (both fascinates) have just proven to be unreliable at home, dropping calls or having really poor call quality.

In hindsight, I would not have purchased the Fascinate.

 

[s14tat]

Good point chris. Luckily the signal issue appears to have improved based on the feed back from people running the leaked ginger bread build.

 

[bespinct]

OK - Sometimes I hate the forum software. I just wrote a post that was deleted because it all of a sudden decided that I wasn't logged in anymore...so here's my abbreviated take:

First - The EVO and DInc are like apples and oranges, the same in shape only. There is no lag on my DInc or my brother's. Limited sample size? Yup, but seems to be consistent with most reviews. As far as performance between the two - aside from games where the Fascinate excels, I'd say they are pretty comparable, at least when they are both running CyangenMod.

Second - If you like playing with ROMs, the DInc is a better choice. There is a larger variety of good quality ROMs and CyanogenMod is fully supported. The Fascinate has a great development community and I enjoyed CommRom, but HTC devices (at least last year's) are easier to develop against and there are a number of AOSP Roms available. CyanogenMod is now usable on the Fascinate with some known issues and bugs (no light sensor or MMS), but it is rapidly coming up to speed and I hope will have an Official Nightly release soon.

Third - Focus on the form factor too. I like both of my phones, but find that I tend to the Fascinate because the 4" screen is more usable for reviewing office documents and watching video. I also prefer SuperAMOLED to SLCD. You haven't mentioned the Droid X at all, but if you do, be sure you like physical buttons. I don't like them, which kept me from really considering the Droid Charge.

I'm not sure how you would buy the phone, but you could just buy the one that's free where you want to buy. I bought the DInc on launch day and had it for more than year when an upgrade opened up. I didn't really need a new phone, but I wanted something different to play with and the Fascinate was free at Best Buy. I splurged, and spent the $30 for the Buyback Protection program and will get $300 if I decide I want something new in the next six months. Chance are, that will bring the cost of my next phone to the off contract price allowing me get the latest and greatest for the upgrade price without extending my contract and effecting any upgrades available on my account.

OK - so maybe not so abbreviated, but it's my few cents!

Steve in CT

PS - I have both my DInc and Fascinate(both running CM7) on my desk at work were the reception is much worse than at home. They both have similar DB strength indicators: -87 on the DInc and -89 for the Fascinate. I know from experience that both phones will drop a call at the same intersection on my way home from work. To the point - I have seen no difference. But, I've only had the Fascinate for 6 weeks or so and may not have experienced the issues that early adopters have.

 

[s14tat]

excellent post, but i don't see how the dinc and the evo are not alike. they both are running the exact same hardware except for a smaller amoled screen on the dinc, and you get a optical track pad on the dinc. Everything else appears to be identical.

Also yes when running cm7 it does make the phone faster in day to day processing, but it still lacks horribly in 3d benchmarks or 3d games in general. Did you ever try playing dungeon defenders in both phones? That game is brutal for any phone since it runs on the unreal 3 engine. Game is unplayable on any htc phones, yes even the one with the scorpion processors. This is were the Samsung blows the doors off the htc phones. Any galaxy s variant is listed as high end supported device, while the evo and dinc is not even listed. The scorpion processor htc phones like the g2 and etc are considered medium level phones.

Also let me clarify when I say studder and lag. I'm talking about when you put your finger tip on the screen and your going left, right, left, right, left right as fast as you can or swipe across all 5 homescreen as fast as you can, can the phone keep up? When you open up a app does it open instantly? Can you switch from thing to thing in a snap? When you go straight to the app draw, is the scrolling ultra smooth and you do a quick swap, does the apps keep on scrolling without hiccup? The fascinate ( with voodoo )is better at all of this, and the smoothness is definitely a step or two above the htc esp when you do it side by side.

 

[bespinct]

Thanks. I don't have any of that lag running GO Launcher and CM7on my DInc. I did notice some issues with LPP. Screen transitions are quick and apps generally load quickly. However, as you mention games run much better on the Fascinate. It was in the original post that was lost and should not be overlooked.

I'm not sure why the EVO is different, but I do recall Phil noting that performance was impacted by the larger screen.

Steve in CT

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk

 

[Chris3D]

Good point chris. Luckily the signal issue appears to have improved based on the feed back from people running the leaked ginger bread build.

I recently gave the leak a try, and the actual signal strength wasn't effected at all. On 2.2 I was typically at -96 dbm at home, and on 2.3 I was... still at -96 dbm. The icon in the notification bar was changed from a 4 bar icon to a 5 bar one. With a little upward rounding, that makes what was previously a 1 bar signal display 2 bars, what was 2 bars, 3, and so on.

Honestly, I don't think there's much that can be done in software at this point to improve the signal, so I think they've resorted to smoke and mirrors to mask the problem - the phone just has a very week antennae.

 

[mknollman123]

I recently gave the leak a try, and the actual signal strength wasn't effected at all. On 2.2 I was typically at -96 dbm at home, and on 2.3 I was... still at -96 dbm. The icon in the notification bar was changed from a 4 bar icon to a 5 bar one. With a little upward rounding, that makes what was previously a 1 bar signal display 2 bars, what was 2 bars, 3, and so on.

Honestly, I don't think there's much that can be done in software at this point to improve the signal, so I think they've resorted to smoke and mirrors to mask the problem - the phone just has a very week antennae.

lol they learned that trick from apple - iphone 4 anyone?

 

[papa54]

Since you were using Cappy, then Fassy would be a better choice for you. Having using both phones, I can say that Fassy is a little better (hardware wise) than Dinc.

Dont get me wrong, I loved Dinc, it was a great phone with LOTS of ROMs to choose from.

But 3.7 AMOLED is not as good as 4.0 Super AMOLED.
Hummingbird eats the first generation Snapdragon for breakfast.
and so on...

AMEN,

 

[Chris3D]

lol they learned that trick from apple - iphone 4 anyone?

Yea, but at least they saved us the cockamamie explanation and just did it. I just shook my head when I read Apple's letter - that they looked into the issue and were shocked, *shocked*, to discover that they had been using the wrong algorithm to calculate bar display. Yea, right, ok.

 

[papa54]

I recently gave the leak a try, and the actual signal strength wasn't effected at all. On 2.2 I was typically at -96 dbm at home, and on 2.3 I was... still at -96 dbm. The icon in the notification bar was changed from a 4 bar icon to a 5 bar one. With a little upward rounding, that makes what was previously a 1 bar signal display 2 bars, what was 2 bars, 3, and so on.

Honestly, I don't think there's much that can be done in software at this point to improve the signal, so I think they've resorted to smoke and mirrors to mask the problem - the phone just has a very week antennae.

OK heres a question i've been pondering... just where is the antenne located on the fascinate? in what general area .? once there was little wire antenne that you stuck in the older cdma phones and its kinda helpoed in some cases to gain signal mstrength..
i have thought about wrapping my battery with a small strip of aluminum foil (away from the contact points) or where ever or whichever end the antenne is supposed to be located.. seems i get a better sig.. when i lay the phone flat and use the speakerphone to make or recieve my calls..any thoughts.

 

[mikethemedic]

OK heres a question i've been pondering... just where is the antenne located on the fascinate? in what general area .? once there was little wire antenne that you stuck in the older cdma phones and its kinda helpoed in some cases to gain signal mstrength..
i have thought about wrapping my battery with a small strip of aluminum foil (away from the contact points) or where ever or whichever end the antenne is supposed to be located.. seems i get a better sig.. when i lay the phone flat and use the speakerphone to make or recieve my calls..any thoughts.

Per the user manual it is located in the back of the phone near the speaker.