New Facsinate

[cdposey26]

Hello, I am new to the forum and new to android phones, leaving my blackberry and getting with the times. I actually ordered from verizon's website and it will be delivered Monday. I went round and round on which phone to buy. There is no 4g in my area and reading reviews of different phones began to make my head spin a little. I upgraded to Fascinate for $49 and the price and features was my determining factor.

I see the 2.2 update recently came out and some people have had a few issues. I figured since I am getting it right of the box factory settings no apps, I would like to make any adjustments right from the start. So I know its a vague questions but I would love to hear some suggestions on must do's right out of the box.

Thanks for your help and I look forward to getting to know more of you.

 

[FearTheGhost13]

Hello, I am new to the forum and new to android phones, leaving my blackberry and getting with the times. I actually ordered from verizon's website and it will be delivered Monday. I went round and round on which phone to buy. There is no 4g in my area and reading reviews of different phones began to make my head spin a little. I upgraded to Fascinate for $49 and the price and features was my determining factor.

I see the 2.2 update recently came out and some people have had a few issues. I figured since I am getting it right of the box factory settings no apps, I would like to make any adjustments right from the start. So I know its a vague questions but I would love to hear some suggestions on must do's right out of the box.

Thanks for your help and I look forward to getting to know more of you.

First I suggest updating via OTA to Froyo, the latest build number is ED01. Then go about setting up your accounts and apps and such. I would play around with stock for at least a couple days to get a feel for things. While doing so, research the very informative threads found within these forums to familiarize yourself with all the possibilities you have available for this phone. Read up on things that interest you and if it's something you see yourself wanting to do, learn it in detail and follow directions EXACTLY as they are described and you won't go wrong! I wish you the best with your new upcoming device and lastly, but not least, welcome to android central! We're here to help the best we can!

 

[RunSilent23]

If you're coming from a Blackberry, there are two things you will likely find to be a downgrade with the Fascinate: Battery life and email.

In regards to battery life, you will find a lot of helpful advice on the forums to stretch the time you can operate on a charge. Most of the suggestions are turning off GPS/Wi-Fi when not in use and minimize syncing from apps like Facebook, etc. There are apps like Juice Defender that others have had success with as well.

Your experience with email will depend on where your accounts are hosted. The default email app works excellent with Exchange email and Gmail. For many other POP3 accounts, however, you may experience significant delays in receiving email even if you select the option to check every 5 minutes. After I missed receiving a few emails, I started to wish I had my old Blackberry Storm back.

If you want a experience that is closer to what you had with Blackberry, you DO have a couple of options. The first is to download an email app like K-9 mail. Most K-9 users don't seem to have the same delays and are happy with the software. The second option (and the one I recommend) is to link your POP3 email accounts with Gmail. You have a Android phone that is powered by Google so embrace the ecosystem. When you link the accounts, you will 1) get your email instantaneously, 2) you can still elect to compose and reply from your old accounts if you want (provided you're on Froyo 2.2.1), and 3) you have access to all of your email anywhere you have internet access. After I went that route, I liked it better than what I had with my Blackberry.

Enjoy your Fascinate. I know I do...

 

[cdposey26]

Cool info thanks. I have a gmail account that i do not use very much, but sounds like a good plan for my emails. I do like instant emails. I am sure once I get rolling I will have more questions and I appreciate everyone helping out the new guy. I just wanted to make sure when I opened the box I started in the right direction according to the experts anyway.

 

[cdposey26]

How is the reception quality on the fascinate? One thing I hate about my blackberry are the dropped calls. Especially at home, I drop calls on probably 75% or more of calls over 2 or 3 minutes. I consistently show 3 bars reception but it just always randomly drops to no service. It may just be a service issue but I am hoping the fascinate improves this. I have had tmobile and att and had even worse problems so at least verizon is a little better.

 

[FearTheGhost13]

How is the reception quality on the fascinate? One thing I hate about my blackberry are the dropped calls. Especially at home, I drop calls on probably 75% or more of calls over 2 or 3 minutes. I consistently show 3 bars reception but it just always randomly drops to no service. It may just be a service issue but I am hoping the fascinate improves this. I have had tmobile and att and had even worse problems so at least verizon is a little better.

I personally have great cell reception for the area I live in, and this area isn't known for the greatest reception with the many valley's etc. around. Call quality is the best I've had on any phone thus far. I'm very content with this phone and have no plans of upgrading to a new device anytime real soon. There are some threads within the forums to elobarate on battery life and tips that may help improve battery life. I actually just put one together last night. Like I mentioned before, just do some research within the forums and you'll learn more than you ever thought possible

 

[eibbed0001]

I had a good experience changing my POP email accounts to SMTP. With SMTP I have access to all my messages on my phone just like at home. If you host your own email domain you might see if SMTP is an option for you. Previously I had POP and K-9 email running and it worked well. I just wanted to be able to see everything on my phone without syncing since Android won't sync directly with MS Outlook.

The Gmail linking is a good option as well.

As far as apps, if you read the threads here on the forum about Top Ten, etc. you'll get an idea of what you might want. You also can use the Market to see what the most popular ones are in various categories. And there's always Googling - run a search on "best Android apps" or something like that and see what people are saying.

Enjoy the new phone!