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.
I always have to make clear....the best for ME.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram