Please help me decide

[andonakis]

There are some very important things that are holding me from getting the fascinate.
I have been reading that some people are reporting not very good phone quality which to me is the most important thing. Can some of you tell me please and honestly how is your phone quality when talking to others?(give me some good situations like being outside when windy or a room full of people and backround noise is horrible) Plus is the reception good? Because I read that samsung's reception isn't as strong as the Droid X.
What's up with facebook? Does it work uploading pictures or no? I heard pictures when viewing are horrible. Or maybe someone can clarify the facebook problem.
Is 2.2 update suppose to take care of all these problems????
And one more thing, what is touchwiz? And how does it compare to motoblur or the htc's sense? What is that? And why is sense considered better than all of them?

Sorry for all the questions but I'm really torn as to which android phone to get. One day it's the X. Than it's the Incredible or the samsung. The screen size of the fascinate is the sweet spot of all them but need to know if it can take care of the most important feature all, making quality calls.

 

[NickA]

I'll comment on the signal strength. Mine isn't as good as it was on my Droid (or my Curve, or even my iPhone if you can believe that!). I haven't dropped any calls however, and the reception is clear. I will say though that I was unable to make a call last weekend in a department store because I had no service. And most of the time I'm around -96 dBm, whereas I'm normally in the upper -80's on my other phones.

TouchWiz is what Samsung puts on top of the stock Android UI. A lot of users will run other UI's, mainly LauncherPro, but it's really up to what you feel works best for you. I like TouchWiz, but will run LauncherPro sometimes when I get bored with TouchWiz. I've never had a phone with Blur or Sense, so I can't comment.

Go for the Fascinate, and if you don't like it, return it within your 30 days and get something else.

 

[TripSixes]

There are some very important things that are holding me from getting the fascinate.
I have been reading that some people are reporting not very good phone quality which to me is the most important thing. Can some of you tell me please and honestly how is your phone quality when talking to others?(give me some good situations like being outside when windy or a room full of people and backround noise is horrible) Plus is the reception good? Because I read that samsung's reception isn't as strong as the Droid X.
What's up with facebook? Does it work uploading pictures or no? I heard pictures when viewing are horrible. Or maybe someone can clarify the facebook problem.
Is 2.2 update suppose to take care of all these problems????
And one more thing, what is touchwiz? And how does it compare to motoblur or the htc's sense? What is that? And why is sense considered better than all of them?

Sorry for all the questions but I'm really torn as to which android phone to get. One day it's the X. Than it's the Incredible or the samsung. The screen size of the fascinate is the sweet spot of all them but need to know if it can take care of the most important feature all, making quality calls.

I haven't noticed any problems with making calls in any scenario... phone, bluetooth, speakerphone.. in quiet room, in loud room, outside... they're all fine. I live in Dallas/FtWorth area, so, my reception is always very good.. so, i'm probably not a good voice for spotty areas.

As for Interfaces.. you have to remember that there are really very little differences between the manufacturers... from what I can tell the extent of their replacements is mainly eye-candy, with the underlying "function" of the phone being the same for all.

HTC Sense is considered the best because it's the most polished, it functions very well.. has great looking widgets..

Touchwiz is very similar... clock/etc widgets are different (samsung seems to like analog clocks better than digital clocks)

I've never played with Motoblur.

BUT, any of those can be replaced by launchers from the marketplace such as ADW and Launcher Pro ... My personal opinion, is that both of these are MUCH better than the 3 mentioned above. Not so much in the widgets/etc (which any interface can have, and many widgets can be got from the marketplace).. but more for the AMAZING amount of customization that can be done with these other launchers.. Check out the Screenshots thread; most of those examples are either ADW or LauncherProPlus.

There is no "change-log" for the Fascinate's 2.2 update yet, so, no-one can truly answer what will be fixed/changed/broken once the new update is available.


And, I swore off of Facebook a few months ago, so, haven't even tried any of the Fascinate's abilities along those lines..

 

[andonakis]

Any one having call quality issues?????

 

[TripSixes]

Any one having call quality issues?????

the first sentence of my last reply....

-----

I haven't noticed any problems with making calls in any scenario... phone, bluetooth, speakerphone.. in quiet room, in loud room, outside... they're all fine.

 

[kenshell]

I'm at a crossroad.
Fascinate, DX or wait for the Next super Samsung to come out.

 

[French]

Incoming call quality is great...outgoing...well you can tell I'm on a cell phone but it's not awful.

Reception is definitely better than what I had on my Storm 2. I've been pleasantly surprised.

 

[OB1J3D1]

My reception has been great. But, I'm in the Los Angeles area where Verizon is generally great on any phone.

Audio quality while on a call is fine. But, I must say it sounds a bit less "robust" than on my Droid 1. No echo no loss of sound... Umm like different equalization if that makes any sense. The Droid was more bass heavy whereas the Fascinate has more treble. I suppose that would help boost vocal clarity in some cases though.

I do seem to be having trouble logging into facebook's mobile page via the browser. But, I use the application instead (which works just fine) and most of the time I do Facebook from a computer anyway.

My two cents.

HTH

 

[roberte1342]

I picked up a Fascinate for my wife yesterday. After deBinging it I am impressed with it. It is fast and so far more stable than my X. The only complaint I have with it is the missing notification LED and the screen has a lower resolution making it impossible to read small print. Doesn't bother her but would bug me having had the X for 2 months.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[318sugarhill]

Personally, I think MOTO makes junk. I'm not really a hacker, but the lockdown of the droidx and droid 2 bothers me. My wife has a droid 2 and I have more options to customize than her. I have been using Launcher Pro Plus recently and I am liking it more than sense for the most part (I have an Incredible) but it's really not a huge improvement. Never had a samsung, but I would stay away from MOTO. The incredible is so good, that I have no desire to see if the fascinate is better or not. There will always be a newer better phone on the horizon, but if you like one, stick with it. For the person talking about getting one, and then taking it back, I disagree. It will cost you $35 to restock, then you have to learn a new UI on top of it. Great if you really DON'T like the phone you bought, but not good for comparing unless you got money to burn.

 

[superstar1213]

I just wanted to comment on the original post. I started out in the Droid 2, then quickly saw trainings for the Samsung Fascinate and exchanged mine. I currently sell VZW, and get to handle all the phones and play with them all the time. I personally find the Samsung to be superior. TouchWiz is the touch interface that Samsung uses that includes their own Samsung widgets. I like it, but do prefer to use Launcher Pro Plus, only because I want more than 4 abilities in my dock.
On the Facebook note, I have had very little issue with Facebook at all. I just uploaded a picture straight from my facebook profile, because theres this great little icon of a camera that allows me to take the picture, or upload an existing right there on my profile tab. The only complain I ever had was that I had to check it for notifications, which was minor, and I purchased an app for around a dollar that actually works quite well to notify me called Blue Notify.
Personally the big win was the much more vibrant and beautiful screen over the others. I know the X is slightly bigger, but found its body to be strange and awkward where the Fascinate is flush. The X also has 4 physical buttons where as the Fascinate is touch and flush. I'd agree that I think Samsung > Moto any day.
Also, call quality is just fine. Never a dropped call or problem there. As with any phone, when its windy, you'll get the feedback.. Not too many phones out there with noise cancellation. Look for a bluetooth to do that. Hope this helps!
And, honestly.. go play play play until you've really honed in on a device you really like. Thats what the displays are for.