I had a bad string of phones last summer - started with my og Droid in March but I went through 7 of them - 5 refurbs, then a new Droid 2, then the Fascinate - until September. When my brand new Droid 2 crapped out I was absolutely fed up with Motorola. I had my choice of any phone in the store and I picked the Fascinate because they advertised it to be way better than it is. The screen's nice, the design is okay, but it's so light, plasticy, and chinsy. Since day one I've had something rattling inside my phone whenever I slightly move it. It's so outdated after almost 6 months it disgusts me. I guess I wanted to see if I was the only one completely underwhelmed by this phone, and if anyone has ditched it and paid retail for something better.
I hate this phone :(
- Thread starter packerbacker
- Start date
WOW!!! somebody needs a hug.
i think the phone is awsome. i love it. very thin, light, the screen is awsome. 2.1 is a very underperforming os. have you tried one of the froyo roms?
Bond32
Well-known member
- Jun 27, 2010
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If you have been through that many phones and still aren't pleased or think they are all broken, maybe you should look at your expectations and how you use the phones. That many replacements? I mean come on. If you still aren't happy the only other phones you would like would be the Droid incredible and iPhone, thunderbolt maybe too.
I know exactly how you feel about it seeming outdated pretty fast. I was sick of all the issues with the GPS and erratic behavior caused by all of Verizon's added junk. It was very frustrating to watch the phone get WORSE with new maintenance updates that would fix one thing but break something else in the process.
Once I rooted the phone and upgraded to the super clean Froyo leak, for the first time the phone actually started to feel like it was running the way Google intended it to - fast, intuitive and clean.
I keep mine in a Verizon shell that lets it lock into a belt holster. With that added it feels very sturdy. I was never a fan of the design of the back cover - like you I think it makes the phone feel flimsy. But with the shell attached it is very sturdy.
Your rattling might be the volume rocker, and not something inside. Hold the volume rocker with your thumb and shake the phone to see if it still rattles. If it does, something may indeed be loose inside, and the phone probably needs to go back to Verizon before it fails. If it's just the volume rocker, it's no biggie.
On this phone, rooting has reached the point where it is not too difficult and doesn't take a long time. With root access, you can back up your phone before you apply any major changes or updates, and always go back to what you have today if you experience problems. Once you have root access, you need to install ClockworkMod (CWM) Recovery to back up the phone's OS, apps, and configuration (also known as a "Nandroid Backup"). Titanium Backup is an application that is used to just backup apps and settings. With these backups you can go up/down/left/right with OS upgrades, downgrades and enhancements and always get back to where you were before you started. I now do a Nandroid backup at least a few times a week, and before I do anything to the phone that may have the potential to not work out, so I can go back to a working setup very quickly.
One of the cool things about having a rooted phone and installing new OS versions and enhancements for me is that every time I load an OS or enhancement it feels like I'm using a new phone. It gets addicting if I'm not careful - eventually I have to stop and say "IT'S GOOD ENOUGH NOW!" and just enjoy the phone.
Most of us here hate the Fascinate as well, you've come to the right place. I went through 1011 Fascinates (sorry, one of the bad phones I got screwed up my brain and I can only speak in binary now), and then they said I could have "Any phone in the store" too. What an awesome day that was, Verizon felt so bad that they closed the store and let me come in by myself and pick out ANYTHING I wanted! King for a day!
You are so right about this phone being ridiculously outdated. I'm embarrassed for people to even see that I have this phone. This guy on the train was like "You have an AMOLED screeen? Pffffffftttt!" And just last week I had a woman literally walk out on me at dinner when she realized my phone still had Eclair on it. You could wear Zubas pants and a Button Your Fly t-shirt, or carry a Fascinate, its the exact same effect.
The only thing worse than the Fascinate is the morons that are developing roms for it. Or maybe the pathetic losers that moderate this forum. Plus all the poor saps that come here every day to talk about their red-headded stepchild phones.
Like I said, welcome, you've come to the right place to bash the Fascinate!
I kinda know what you are feeling. Not about the Fascinate since mine hasnt gotten here yet lol but I felt the same way when I was a die hard Palm user. Loved my Centro. Then I went to a Sprint Pre. Loved it for a bit and then it got boggy and annoying. Went to a Blackberry for a bit and liked it but it was no Palm. Went back to the Pre which had been given a few updates and was loving it. Then we switched to Verizon (actually saved money switching) and I gave a Pixi+ a shot because my Pre slider was loose. What a mistake. I hated the Pixi+. Not so much the phone but it just wasnt fun to use. Yeah it did what I asked of it but it was so freakin slow. After listening to me complain my husband told me to get something new so I got the Droid X. I love the X and Im a tad nervous about switching to the Fascinate but Ill still be keeping the X so I can switch back if need be. I just feel like the X is so big and bulky and my ringer is acting up. So Im trying something new. I know Ill never leave Android now that Im here. Loved WebOS but something about Android calls my name.
For you I would say since you liked Motorola did you try the X? It is a very sturdy feeling phone which I like. Or maybe iphone? I cant say much about it myself. I used my cousins for a few minutes and it was enough to make me say no. But you might like it. Good luck!
For you I would say since you liked Motorola did you try the X? It is a very sturdy feeling phone which I like. Or maybe iphone? I cant say much about it myself. I used my cousins for a few minutes and it was enough to make me say no. But you might like it. Good luck!
JeremytheIndian
Well-known member
- Oct 5, 2010
- 361
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I think your being a little unfair. You can't compare the Fascinate to all the phone that just started coming out. You have to compare it to what was available 6 months ago. You really only have the Droid X, Incredible and Droid 2 and I think the Fascinate is better than all of them, especially after we got ourselves a few Froyo ROMs. Even on DL09 and DJ05 this thing performed better than any Incredible or X that I've handled. And yeah it's plastic to it's SOOOO thin and light, i love it!
All of that being said, I don't know if I would buy it again today, but that's only because of coming flood of new devices. Compared to pretty much any other 2010 I'm happy. I also only paid a penny through Amazon with a 2/yr contract
All of that being said, I don't know if I would buy it again today, but that's only because of coming flood of new devices. Compared to pretty much any other 2010 I'm happy. I also only paid a penny through Amazon with a 2/yr contract
You have to admit, if you've gone through 7 phones in a single year, you have to ask yourself what you might be contributing to the problem. Sure, phones do go bad, but it's extremely unlikely that a single person, in a single year, would somehow end up with 7 faulty phones.
As was said, perhaps your expectations are somewhat unrealistic. The placebo effect goes both ways - with people convincing themselves the phone works better with mod A, B or C (Wow, the UI feels much snappier with Voodoo), or convincing themselves there's a problem with X, Y or Z.
As to the overall satisfaction with the phone, I'm fairly happy with it, in fact, we just purchased a second one (referb for $40) for my wife. Sure, there are little issues of weaker signal strength and Verizon/Samsung's horrible track record with updated, but at the end of the day, it's a phone and I've been able to get it to do everything I want it to do. It is a little plasticy, but I wouldn't say it's flimsy, and I'm sure it'll last the next year and a half of my contract.
As was said, perhaps your expectations are somewhat unrealistic. The placebo effect goes both ways - with people convincing themselves the phone works better with mod A, B or C (Wow, the UI feels much snappier with Voodoo), or convincing themselves there's a problem with X, Y or Z.
As to the overall satisfaction with the phone, I'm fairly happy with it, in fact, we just purchased a second one (referb for $40) for my wife. Sure, there are little issues of weaker signal strength and Verizon/Samsung's horrible track record with updated, but at the end of the day, it's a phone and I've been able to get it to do everything I want it to do. It is a little plasticy, but I wouldn't say it's flimsy, and I'm sure it'll last the next year and a half of my contract.
I love the phone. [vent on] except for one thing...the battery!
I think Samsung had a good idea/plan/thought with the Fascinate, but they lost it with the battery. The battery totally sucks on this phone. There is nothing "wireless" about the Fascinate, I have to be "wired" to the wall charger for it to work for more than a few hours. [/vent off]
I think Samsung had a good idea/plan/thought with the Fascinate, but they lost it with the battery. The battery totally sucks on this phone. There is nothing "wireless" about the Fascinate, I have to be "wired" to the wall charger for it to work for more than a few hours. [/vent off]
I literally had hardware failures on all of my refurb phones, and the Droid 2 I got had a battery that got so hot the phone literally burned up within 48 hours, and I had hardly done a thing on it. I'm not a little child, I know how to take care of phones, I just had a very bad string of Droids. My first one lasted me about two months, but after that one, the others lasted a week at most. I never rooted a phone until I got the Fascinate.
I just personally am underwhelmed by the phone. And I think I made a fatal mistake when I had the option of choosing any phone in the store when my Droid 2 burned up. Should've gone with the Incredible or the X. The rattling is the volume rocker but it just bugs me like crazy and makes this phone seem so cheap. I like how thin it is but it's just so plasticy and cheap looking to me. I'm really pissed my GPS has been broken since day one, none of the fixes have worked. I'm just mad this phone was born with problems that haven't been addressed or like someone else said, created new ones.
I was mainly venting to see if anyone agreed with me. Glad to see a few do. I haven't tried to the Froyo leak. I guess I will.
I just personally am underwhelmed by the phone. And I think I made a fatal mistake when I had the option of choosing any phone in the store when my Droid 2 burned up. Should've gone with the Incredible or the X. The rattling is the volume rocker but it just bugs me like crazy and makes this phone seem so cheap. I like how thin it is but it's just so plasticy and cheap looking to me. I'm really pissed my GPS has been broken since day one, none of the fixes have worked. I'm just mad this phone was born with problems that haven't been addressed or like someone else said, created new ones.
I was mainly venting to see if anyone agreed with me. Glad to see a few do. I haven't tried to the Froyo leak. I guess I will.
The froyo leak definitly improved alot of things about the fascinate. I highly recommend giving it a try, it may ease your pain as far as this device goes (namely the gps issues) and the user community for fascinate has been awesome for support.
The only thing that im complaining about now is battery life, but i cant complain much about having a screen that is only topped by the iphone4, divx support right out of the box that works without having to resize and reencode my videos, and with poweramp on here, ive pretty much let my mp3 player collect dust in a drawer cause the sound quality is almost unmatched. (that is debateable though cause i have permanent tinitus, but it still sounds great)
The only thing that im complaining about now is battery life, but i cant complain much about having a screen that is only topped by the iphone4, divx support right out of the box that works without having to resize and reencode my videos, and with poweramp on here, ive pretty much let my mp3 player collect dust in a drawer cause the sound quality is almost unmatched. (that is debateable though cause i have permanent tinitus, but it still sounds great)
I actually sent back my first one because of exactly that. But I gave it another shot, and found the battery issue seems to be more from Verizon's lousy software than the actual hardware of the phone. By removing Verizon's bloatware, my battery life went from about 8 hours to easily 24 hours or more. With an undervolted kernel, I was able to get as much as 2.5 to 3 days before the battery needed charging.
That's some amazingly bad luck you've got there!
As for the volume rocker, I remember reading a bunch of people returning the phone as defective because of this. The reality is that the part you press is simply a floating cover over the actual buttons on one of the circuit boards. It'll jiggle slightly if you shake the phone, but it's not a defect. Mine does this too, but I've honestly never given it a thought much less found it annoying. Again, it's a mass-produced phone that can be had for little to nothing. I got mine for free from Best Buy, and as I said, we picked up a referb for my wife for $40.
A friend has an iPhone 4, and it is by far, the highest quality, most beautifully designed phone I've ever seen. But it's $200 a pop, you can't replace the battery, you can't add storage and at the end of the day, it's still just a phone.
So yea, the Fascinate has it's share of issues, but I guess it just depends on your priorities whether any of them are deal-breakers. For the price we paid ($40 for two of them), I'm not complaining.
You guys must have had a whole bunch of extra troll-food in your pockets or something...
8-9 phones in a year? All bad? You either have the worst luck on the planet or you aren't as "kind" to phones as you would like to think you are.
I know the X had some pretty serious design issues (my buddy went thru 4 before he got a good one) but the D2 is pretty darn nice and the SF is the top of the heap right now of VZW's lineup.
You keep repeating how flimsy and plastic-ey the phone is. Did you not pick one up and handle it in person before making your decision on what phone to trade out for? Seems like that would be a fairly obvious way to find out what you like and what you don't. If you didn't, then you have nobody but yourself to blame. If you did, then I honestly don't know why you are out in public complaining about a phone that you picked out yourself.
Might I suggest an iPhone or blackberry? They both work great out of the box.
8-9 phones in a year? All bad? You either have the worst luck on the planet or you aren't as "kind" to phones as you would like to think you are.
I know the X had some pretty serious design issues (my buddy went thru 4 before he got a good one) but the D2 is pretty darn nice and the SF is the top of the heap right now of VZW's lineup.
You keep repeating how flimsy and plastic-ey the phone is. Did you not pick one up and handle it in person before making your decision on what phone to trade out for? Seems like that would be a fairly obvious way to find out what you like and what you don't. If you didn't, then you have nobody but yourself to blame. If you did, then I honestly don't know why you are out in public complaining about a phone that you picked out yourself.
Might I suggest an iPhone or blackberry? They both work great out of the box.
The loose volume rocker drives me crazy as well. I just took a tiny piece of folded paper, stuck it between the volume rocker and the phone, and then tucked it underneath my battery cover. I just don't think its worth getting a new unit over. Problem solved - try it out!
Well no of course I'm not getting rid of this phone, especially over something so stupid. It just bugs me.
I love how people are talking to me like I'm a child. Believe me- I take good care of my phones. I barely had any apps on it and I didn't even attempt to root any of my Motorolas. The people at the store said every time it was a hardware defect that was never my fault. THey got sick of giving me new ones, but they knew I wasn't doing anything wrong.
Sorry I felt the need to vent. Really. I never should have posted.
I love how people are talking to me like I'm a child. Believe me- I take good care of my phones. I barely had any apps on it and I didn't even attempt to root any of my Motorolas. The people at the store said every time it was a hardware defect that was never my fault. THey got sick of giving me new ones, but they knew I wasn't doing anything wrong.
Sorry I felt the need to vent. Really. I never should have posted.
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