Samsung Fascinate Android Phone - Buy Cell Phone | Cell Phone Review | Best Cell Phone Deals

We got two of these phones three weeks ago, since then we have found a lot that we like and a little that we really dislike. The dislikes are all things Verizon did to the software.

In the comments someone points out that it may be possible to just burn Android 2.2 on to the phone. That is rumored, but isn’t something most people will do. The rumor mill says Spain will get the Froyo release in late October ’10 and people are going to try using that. Verizon has also announced that they will make the Google search engine available on the official 2.2 release, however they won’t be making it the search engine for other services, so when another application starts a search it will still be redirected through the Verizon search portal to Bing. So this is no real improvement over deleting the Bing boxes and installing Google from the marketplace, so their big announcement saves you a couple of minutes whilst making no difference to the software. Another method is to rip-off the Google search elements from another Galaxy S model and install that and a third party application launcher which will then use it, but this is probably more low level messing around than most users will want to do. They shouldn’t need to. If you decide to do that you need the SDK, which you can download for free, and some instructions you can find in the Android forums.

Verizon has disabled some of the functionality of Google’s Android operating system and replaced it with their own shoddy software in a cynical attempt to con people in to paying them more. The Google search engine has been excised from the system and replaced with Bing, you can’t remove Bing from the system and you can’t replace it for some purposes. I don’t want earn money for Verizon by allowing MS to show me things MS is being paid to sell me. I’d rather they pay Google to show me things they have been paid to sell me because I prefer their style. It seems a fair return to Google for providing free maps and navigation.

But anyway… as well as removing Google’s search functionality they have also removed Google’s GPS functionality and maps. That has been replaced by Verizon Navigator and Bing maps. Verizon Navigator is very poor and is expensive. Why should I pay ten bucks a month for a poor application that replaces the free one that Google built into the Android operating system? I had hoped that using Android would mean I didn’t have to put up with Verizon’s tinkering with the O/S. My past experience would suggest that they aren’t very good at it.

Happily you can download Google apps from the ap store, but you can’t re-integrate them into the phone. You also can’t eliminate the bloated load of garbage that Verizon added as a revenue minefield for the unwary. If you could I’d have deleted a whole bunch of it by now, things like VCAST, VZNavigator, City ID, Skype and Blockbuster. It’s not just that they are there, even though I don’t use them they get started and use battery and performance; right now my phone is running voice commands, music player, video player, car cradle, bing, City ID and Skype mobile – I haven’t started any of those. I might use the music and video players but the others are either entirely unwanted or just useless.

As an alternative to paying ten bucks a month for Verizon Navigator (No, really, don’t do that), you can use Google which is probably the best navigation deal for the phone. Alternatively Waze is a popular and sometimes amusing collaborative GPS solution. If you are going to be off the network CoPilot looks like very good value, for $20 you get a full GPS with maps of the whole of North America. CoPilot plotted a route from San Jose CA to Vancouver BC in a couple of seconds, a Motorola TN765T costs a couple of hundred bucks and won’t do that, it can’t route across borders.

When you use the Samsung car cradle, which is very good, it automatically starts the car mode. Unfortunately that just offers all the pre-installed pay-per-use software and no apparent way to customize it. Surely there must be?

Now the good stuff.

Android 2.2 Froyo may be available around October ’10 for this phone, that is rumored to significantly improve performance.

This is a really fast little computer with a network connection and a phone application. The menus fly around, most of the time. Occasionally they get bogged down, no idea why, but this is a known issue and supposed to be fixed in v2.2. You can scroll through long lists with the flick of a finger. It’s pretty easy to set it up to connect to wireless networks. Bonding to a Bluetooth headset was simple. The device arrives with a 16Gb MicroSD card and I expect that will keep me happy for a while.

The camera seems nice enough from the few pictures I have taken. The LED flash is years ahead of the LG Dare, it actually illuminates the image pretty well and doesn’t turn it all blue. It works. The shutter is a bit slow, but I was trying to take pictures of our black cat who wouldn’t sit still! Video quality is also excellent, it does a better job of compressing 720p video than my Panasonic camera.

Once Google maps was downloaded the GPS turned out to be pretty useful, if I have any further comments on that I will be back. I used it to make my 50 mile trip home, I usually use an old Garmin GPS which is pretty much accurate to the minute, Google agreed to within two minutes. For me the voice navigation was useless, but maybe it just doesn’t work on deep English voices? I’ll let my better half try and report back. If I had had to use the voice entry I’d still be stuck at work.

The live wallpaper is really trick, something MS tried to do years ago on Windows and caused a lot of crashing. The standard background is a sort of fake rock pool, the ‘water’ ripples when you touch the screen. I switched to the live map background, for now at least, it shows the local map… with traffic. Phones have certainly come a long way in the last few decades.

Loading music was fairly easy, you need to set the USB in to sync mode, but after that it will talk to Windows Media Player. Initially I tried Winamp but that doesn’t work, or at least it was easier to just switch to Media Player than to experiment, so that’s what I did. I dragged some albums on the the phone and then told it to sync and it did. Not as fast as loading an iPod, but fast enough. The music player on the phone isn’t fantastic in the UI area, but it works. I’ll certainly try something else though.

I thought I had problems using the device on a charger, but then I noticed that I had got the cable mixed up with one connected to some appalling no-name Chinese charger, swapping to the Samsung charger fixed the issue… but something to be aware of if you plan to recycle all your old micro-USB gear for use on the new phone.

Would I do it again? Would I still buy this over the Droid X or 2? Yes. I’m not returning it tonight, but I will probably be rooting it so that I can eliminate the annoying Verizon bloatware. This reminds me of the days when MS integrated IE into Windows, they got in to deep legal problems and I don’t see how Verizon/MS removing Google functionality is different.

If you want to use this in a car I recommend you get the Samsung windshield mount and a car charger with a long enough straight cable to reach where you decide to put it. The Samsung mount is very good compared to the collection of broken generic ones I have used in the past, the only down side is that neither it nor the phone come with a suitable power supply. Verizon has the mount and there are many MicroUSB chargers on Amazon. As stated earlier you should probably avoid the no-name types and stick to a major manufacturer, I have used LG, Samsung and Motorola chargers and a USB cable connected to HP and Dell computers, so I don’t think it is too choosy about chargers.
Rating: 4 / 5

We got two of these phones three weeks ago, since then we have found a lot that we like and a little that we really dislike. The dislikes are all things Verizon did to the software.

In the comments someone points out that it may be possible to just burn Android 2.2 on to the phone. That is rumored, but isn’t something most people will do. The rumor mill says Spain will get the Froyo release in late October ’10 and people are going to try using that. Verizon has also announced that they will make the Google search engine available on the official 2.2 release, however they won’t be making it the search engine for other services, so when another application starts a search it will still be redirected through the Verizon search portal to Bing. So this is no real improvement over deleting the Bing boxes and installing Google from the marketplace, so their big announcement saves you a couple of minutes whilst making no difference to the software. Another method is to rip-off the Google search elements from another Galaxy S model and install that and a third party application launcher which will then use it, but this is probably more low level messing around than most users will want to do. They shouldn’t need to. If you decide to do that you need the SDK, which you can download for free, and some instructions you can find in the Android forums.

Verizon has disabled some of the functionality of Google’s Android operating system and replaced it with their own shoddy software in a cynical attempt to con people in to paying them more. The Google search engine has been excised from the system and replaced with Bing, you can’t remove Bing from the system and you can’t replace it for some purposes. I don’t want earn money for Verizon by allowing MS to show me things MS is being paid to sell me. I’d rather they pay Google to show me things they have been paid to sell me because I prefer their style. It seems a fair return to Google for providing free maps and navigation.

But anyway… as well as removing Google’s search functionality they have also removed Google’s GPS functionality and maps. That has been replaced by Verizon Navigator and Bing maps. Verizon Navigator is very poor and is expensive. Why should I pay ten bucks a month for a poor application that replaces the free one that Google built into the Android operating system? I had hoped that using Android would mean I didn’t have to put up with Verizon’s tinkering with the O/S. My past experience would suggest that they aren’t very good at it.

Happily you can download Google apps from the ap store, but you can’t re-integrate them into the phone. You also can’t eliminate the bloated load of garbage that Verizon added as a revenue minefield for the unwary. If you could I’d have deleted a whole bunch of it by now, things like VCAST, VZNavigator, City ID, Skype and Blockbuster. It’s not just that they are there, even though I don’t use them they get started and use battery and performance; right now my phone is running voice commands, music player, video player, car cradle, bing, City ID and Skype mobile – I haven’t started any of those. I might use the music and video players but the others are either entirely unwanted or just useless.

As an alternative to paying ten bucks a month for Verizon Navigator (No, really, don’t do that), you can use Google which is probably the best navigation deal for the phone. Alternatively Waze is a popular and sometimes amusing collaborative GPS solution. If you are going to be off the network CoPilot looks like very good value, for $20 you get a full GPS with maps of the whole of North America. CoPilot plotted a route from San Jose CA to Vancouver BC in a couple of seconds, a Motorola TN765T costs a couple of hundred bucks and won’t do that, it can’t route across borders.

When you use the Samsung car cradle, which is very good, it automatically starts the car mode. Unfortunately that just offers all the pre-installed pay-per-use software and no apparent way to customize it. Surely there must be?

Now the good stuff.

Android 2.2 Froyo may be available around October ’10 for this phone, that is rumored to significantly improve performance.

This is a really fast little computer with a network connection and a phone application. The menus fly around, most of the time. Occasionally they get bogged down, no idea why, but this is a known issue and supposed to be fixed in v2.2. You can scroll through long lists with the flick of a finger. It’s pretty easy to set it up to connect to wireless networks. Bonding to a Bluetooth headset was simple. The device arrives with a 16Gb MicroSD card and I expect that will keep me happy for a while.

The camera seems nice enough from the few pictures I have taken. The LED flash is years ahead of the LG Dare, it actually illuminates the image pretty well and doesn’t turn it all blue. It works. The shutter is a bit slow, but I was trying to take pictures of our black cat who wouldn’t sit still! Video quality is also excellent, it does a better job of compressing 720p video than my Panasonic camera.

Once Google maps was downloaded the GPS turned out to be pretty useful, if I have any further comments on that I will be back. I used it to make my 50 mile trip home, I usually use an old Garmin GPS which is pretty much accurate to the minute, Google agreed to within two minutes. For me the voice navigation was useless, but maybe it just doesn’t work on deep English voices? I’ll let my better half try and report back. If I had had to use the voice entry I’d still be stuck at work.

The live wallpaper is really trick, something MS tried to do years ago on Windows and caused a lot of crashing. The standard background is a sort of fake rock pool, the ‘water’ ripples when you touch the screen. I switched to the live map background, for now at least, it shows the local map… with traffic. Phones have certainly come a long way in the last few decades.

Loading music was fairly easy, you need to set the USB in to sync mode, but after that it will talk to Windows Media Player. Initially I tried Winamp but that doesn’t work, or at least it was easier to just switch to Media Player than to experiment, so that’s what I did. I dragged some albums on the the phone and then told it to sync and it did. Not as fast as loading an iPod, but fast enough. The music player on the phone isn’t fantastic in the UI area, but it works. I’ll certainly try something else though.

I thought I had problems using the device on a charger, but then I noticed that I had got the cable mixed up with one connected to some appalling no-name Chinese charger, swapping to the Samsung charger fixed the issue… but something to be aware of if you plan to recycle all your old micro-USB gear for use on the new phone.

Would I do it again? Would I still buy this over the Droid X or 2? Yes. I’m not returning it tonight, but I will probably be rooting it so that I can eliminate the annoying Verizon bloatware. This reminds me of the days when MS integrated IE into Windows, they got in to deep legal problems and I don’t see how Verizon/MS removing Google functionality is different.

If you want to use this in a car I recommend you get the Samsung windshield mount and a car charger with a long enough straight cable to reach where you decide to put it. The Samsung mount is very good compared to the collection of broken generic ones I have used in the past, the only down side is that neither it nor the phone come with a suitable power supply. Verizon has the mount and there are many MicroUSB chargers on Amazon. As stated earlier you should probably avoid the no-name types and stick to a major manufacturer, I have used LG, Samsung and Motorola chargers and a USB cable connected to HP and Dell computers, so I don’t think it is too choosy about chargers.
Rating: 4 / 5

I’ve had the Fascinate for a couple of days now and have been very happy with it so far.

I agree that Verizon’s decision to make Bing the unchangeable default search engine was unfortunate. But after using the phone for a while, I can say that it’s really a trivial issue. You can still get to Google Search easily from a Web browser if you prefer; you can still install Google Maps and Google Navigation, and when you do so, you also get Google Voice Search.

And in fact, the default Bing search works just fine. Every time I’ve used it, it found what I was looking for. If the search works, I don’t really care whose branding is on it.

If you really want to get around the Bing issue, it isn’t hard to find instructions on how to do so (you don’t even have to root the phone if all you want is the Google Search widget, and Google mapped to the search key). But for the vast majority of users, I’d say this whole Bing controversy is a non-issue.

If you want an Android smartphone from Verizon, I highly recommend the Fascinate — especially if you think the Droid Incredible is a little too small and the Droid X is a little too big, and if you don’t want a hardware QWERTY keyboard. The 4″ screen of the Fascinate is the perfect size, the AMOLED display is spectacular, and the phone is light and slim and feels great in the hand.

I’ve been pleased with the battery life, and the GPS has worked well when I’ve tried it. Others may say differently, but I can only report on my own experience. Do I wish Verizon had made some different decisions regarding the preloaded software? Sure, but those annoyances are minor at best. I’m very happy with this phone.
Rating: 4 / 5

I’ve had the Fascinate for a couple of days now and have been very happy with it so far.

I agree that Verizon’s decision to make Bing the unchangeable default search engine was unfortunate. But after using the phone for a while, I can say that it’s really a trivial issue. You can still get to Google Search easily from a Web browser if you prefer; you can still install Google Maps and Google Navigation, and when you do so, you also get Google Voice Search.

And in fact, the default Bing search works just fine. Every time I’ve used it, it found what I was looking for. If the search works, I don’t really care whose branding is on it.

If you really want to get around the Bing issue, it isn’t hard to find instructions on how to do so (you don’t even have to root the phone if all you want is the Google Search widget, and Google mapped to the search key). But for the vast majority of users, I’d say this whole Bing controversy is a non-issue.

If you want an Android smartphone from Verizon, I highly recommend the Fascinate — especially if you think the Droid Incredible is a little too small and the Droid X is a little too big, and if you don’t want a hardware QWERTY keyboard. The 4″ screen of the Fascinate is the perfect size, the AMOLED display is spectacular, and the phone is light and slim and feels great in the hand.

I’ve been pleased with the battery life, and the GPS has worked well when I’ve tried it. Others may say differently, but I can only report on my own experience. Do I wish Verizon had made some different decisions regarding the preloaded software? Sure, but those annoyances are minor at best. I’m very happy with this phone.
Rating: 4 / 5

I am a professional that needs a phone to perform quickly, and have a supportive community behind it for updates, apps and the random question.

I am coming from a Palm Pre, which was a wonderful device as well; simple, but easy-to-use. unfortunately the touch screen on that device went out, and I decided to switch to an Android based phone. What a WONDERFUL choice that was.

Having Google at your fingertips (literally,) is amazing; automatically syncing calendars, contacts, and the multitude of Google-powered services like Google Voice, Maps and Navigation. So 5 stars for the Android OS, development, and community.

With respect to the phone, it’s simple. Objectively, it’s the best hardware available for the Android platform on the market, and definitely one of the best in general (beats even iPhone 4.) It’s incredibly fast, smooth and reliable. People have reported call quality, headphone jack and GPS issues–all of which have not been experienced by the large majority of Verizon Fascinate users, as demonstrated by the communities at XDA-Developers, Androidcentral, and the new [...]. I repeat, it does NOT have these severe issues people are seemingly complaining about.

Subjectively, it’s a gorgeous phone; Samsung’s proprietary SuperAMOLED screen looks incredible. It’s chrome ring around it’s all black exterior makes it look like what the iPhone 4 wishes it could be. The only thing I think it’s missing, is an external LED notification light–however there are work-arounds, including the NoLED app which uses the screen to indicate various types of notifications (SMS, email, missed call, etc.) The battery life is fairly good, impressing most users–especially if you turn the (already ridiculously bright) screen brightness down.

Now the Bing issue. It’s not one–it took me MINUTES to remove all traces of Bing from my phone, and restoring all respective Google features. See below** for details. Verizon has stated however, that when Google releases Android 2.2 (Froyo,) it will re-introduce Google and replace Bing… without the need for rooting, or and tinkering. So, don’t let that hold you back from an amazing phone.

Pros:

- Gorgeous body, and screen. Visually one of the most stunning phones ever created.

- Very fast. The processor and memory rival the best currently available.

- HUGE community support. I can’t emphasize the importance of this.

- The BEST video card on the market (good for games, and smooth interface animations.)

- Available for as cheap as $79 on the internet, with a 2-yr contract.

Cons:

- No exterior notification LED, and requires 3rd party apps for this feature

- If you’re not willing to spend a few minutes rooting your phone, you will be stuck with BING until Android 2.2 comes out.

**NOTE: I would greatly advice even the most inexperienced users, to follow this fantastic (and VERY simple) step-by-step guide here:

[...]

This will allow you to root your phone (in MINUTES,) allowing you to remove all the Bloatware (all that unwanted Verizon stuff they put on your phone,) and all traces from Bing from your phone. Then, by installing the .apk here:

[...]

You can restore ALL Google search, map and navigation functions. All you’ll need is Titanium Backup (a FREE app) after you’ve rooted, to remove whatever applications you’d like.

Conclusion:

Do yourself a favor, and get this phone–it’s literally AMAZING, and everyone who has seen mine has drooled.
Rating: 5 / 5

I am a professional that needs a phone to perform quickly, and have a supportive community behind it for updates, apps and the random question.

I am coming from a Palm Pre, which was a wonderful device as well; simple, but easy-to-use. unfortunately the touch screen on that device went out, and I decided to switch to an Android based phone. What a WONDERFUL choice that was.

Having Google at your fingertips (literally,) is amazing; automatically syncing calendars, contacts, and the multitude of Google-powered services like Google Voice, Maps and Navigation. So 5 stars for the Android OS, development, and community.

With respect to the phone, it’s simple. Objectively, it’s the best hardware available for the Android platform on the market, and definitely one of the best in general (beats even iPhone 4.) It’s incredibly fast, smooth and reliable. People have reported call quality, headphone jack and GPS issues–all of which have not been experienced by the large majority of Verizon Fascinate users, as demonstrated by the communities at XDA-Developers, Androidcentral, and the new [...]. I repeat, it does NOT have these severe issues people are seemingly complaining about.

Subjectively, it’s a gorgeous phone; Samsung’s proprietary SuperAMOLED screen looks incredible. It’s chrome ring around it’s all black exterior makes it look like what the iPhone 4 wishes it could be. The only thing I think it’s missing, is an external LED notification light–however there are work-arounds, including the NoLED app which uses the screen to indicate various types of notifications (SMS, email, missed call, etc.) The battery life is fairly good, impressing most users–especially if you turn the (already ridiculously bright) screen brightness down.

Now the Bing issue. It’s not one–it took me MINUTES to remove all traces of Bing from my phone, and restoring all respective Google features. See below** for details. Verizon has stated however, that when Google releases Android 2.2 (Froyo,) it will re-introduce Google and replace Bing… without the need for rooting, or and tinkering. So, don’t let that hold you back from an amazing phone.

Pros:

- Gorgeous body, and screen. Visually one of the most stunning phones ever created.

- Very fast. The processor and memory rival the best currently available.

- HUGE community support. I can’t emphasize the importance of this.

- The BEST video card on the market (good for games, and smooth interface animations.)

- Available for as cheap as $79 on the internet, with a 2-yr contract.

Cons:

- No exterior notification LED, and requires 3rd party apps for this feature

- If you’re not willing to spend a few minutes rooting your phone, you will be stuck with BING until Android 2.2 comes out.

**NOTE: I would greatly advice even the most inexperienced users, to follow this fantastic (and VERY simple) step-by-step guide here:

[...]

This will allow you to root your phone (in MINUTES,) allowing you to remove all the Bloatware (all that unwanted Verizon stuff they put on your phone,) and all traces from Bing from your phone. Then, by installing the .apk here:

[...]

You can restore ALL Google search, map and navigation functions. All you’ll need is Titanium Backup (a FREE app) after you’ve rooted, to remove whatever applications you’d like.

Conclusion:

Do yourself a favor, and get this phone–it’s literally AMAZING, and everyone who has seen mine has drooled.
Rating: 5 / 5

Ok, to start, I do miss the push emails coming to my phone. If you need your emails delivered in seconds and reliably I would stick with Blackberry. On the other hand, after playing with the Fascinate for the last day, I feel like I was so behind the technology curve with my Blackberry Bold. The lack of a physical keyboard has not bothered me – and I’ve had a keyboard phone for years. The GPS feature works great – no problems locking position. Battery is fine, although the Blackberry seems to last longer, I am using the Fascinate a lot more intensely, so beware of the battery comparisons you hear from reviewers. Of course you will use the new phone much more than the old, especially in the first days you have it. I have been charging every night, just like I have with every Smartphone I’ve had.

I really don’t understand some reviewers bad-mouthing this phone. I bought it for one cent! The screen is awesome. Everything works. The whole Bing issue is very much overblown. I installed Google Maps, Google Navigation, and a Google search link to my home page, so I can access Google anytime. Who cares if the Bing icon is hidden somewhere (assuming you don’t like it)? Coming from AT&T, Verizon’s call quality and overall signal coverage is much much better.

I love the fact that all my Picasa photos are accessible. The camera shoots great pictures and videos. Overall I am very satisfied with my choice. Go to a Verizon store and play with the Fascinate and the Droid 2 and X. I didn’t think the Droids were superior at all. The Droid X 8 MP camera shoots some pretty noisy photos, unlike the Fascinate. Compare original photos from both cameras, and don’t be fooled by specs alone.

Rating: 5 / 5

Ok, to start, I do miss the push emails coming to my phone. If you need your emails delivered in seconds and reliably I would stick with Blackberry. On the other hand, after playing with the Fascinate for the last day, I feel like I was so behind the technology curve with my Blackberry Bold. The lack of a physical keyboard has not bothered me – and I’ve had a keyboard phone for years. The GPS feature works great – no problems locking position. Battery is fine, although the Blackberry seems to last longer, I am using the Fascinate a lot more intensely, so beware of the battery comparisons you hear from reviewers. Of course you will use the new phone much more than the old, especially in the first days you have it. I have been charging every night, just like I have with every Smartphone I’ve had.

I really don’t understand some reviewers bad-mouthing this phone. I bought it for one cent! The screen is awesome. Everything works. The whole Bing issue is very much overblown. I installed Google Maps, Google Navigation, and a Google search link to my home page, so I can access Google anytime. Who cares if the Bing icon is hidden somewhere (assuming you don’t like it)? Coming from AT&T, Verizon’s call quality and overall signal coverage is much much better.

I love the fact that all my Picasa photos are accessible. The camera shoots great pictures and videos. Overall I am very satisfied with my choice. Go to a Verizon store and play with the Fascinate and the Droid 2 and X. I didn’t think the Droids were superior at all. The Droid X 8 MP camera shoots some pretty noisy photos, unlike the Fascinate. Compare original photos from both cameras, and don’t be fooled by specs alone.

Rating: 5 / 5

This is my first Amazon review! I had to come give this phone some praise. I originally planned to wait to get a phone in January when hopefully Android 3.0 phones would be coming out, but after seeing the display in-store, I knew I wanted to go ahead and get this one. I switched over from an iPhone 3GS w/AT&T and I’m 100% satisfied with my decision. Sure, the iPhone had a better game selection, but other than that I’ve found Android to trump the iOS in every other way. I love this display, so vivid and sharp. The camera/camcorder exceeded that of my 3GS (never had an iPhone4, so can’t say for that phone). I love being able to customize so much of the phone. I immediately installed Launcher Pro and that made the phone feel 100x’s faster. The Launcher Pro interface is so much better/snappier than the Samsung default GUI, it’s the way Google intended for Android to look. Yes, the Bing search was a poor/annoying move by Verizon, but it’s easily remedied with rooting or by Launcher Pro with the Google search widget (or just wait for Froyo update some time in the next month or two, Google search will be added back). The weight and size of this phone is just right for me, not too big, not too small. My girlfriend has a Droid X and I’ve played with most other Android phones enough to comfortably say I feel this is the best Android phone on the market (with each carrier having their own version of it). Buy it, install Launcher Pro first thing, you shouldn’t be disappointed. I am looking forward to the Froyo update for the added browser speed & App installs to the MicroSD. Good job Samsung, now just give us timely updates and I will be encouraging my friends/coworkers to look at this phone for their next upgrade.
Rating: 5 / 5

This is my first Amazon review! I had to come give this phone some praise. I originally planned to wait to get a phone in January when hopefully Android 3.0 phones would be coming out, but after seeing the display in-store, I knew I wanted to go ahead and get this one. I switched over from an iPhone 3GS w/AT&T and I’m 100% satisfied with my decision. Sure, the iPhone had a better game selection, but other than that I’ve found Android to trump the iOS in every other way. I love this display, so vivid and sharp. The camera/camcorder exceeded that of my 3GS (never had an iPhone4, so can’t say for that phone). I love being able to customize so much of the phone. I immediately installed Launcher Pro and that made the phone feel 100x’s faster. The Launcher Pro interface is so much better/snappier than the Samsung default GUI, it’s the way Google intended for Android to look. Yes, the Bing search was a poor/annoying move by Verizon, but it’s easily remedied with rooting or by Launcher Pro with the Google search widget (or just wait for Froyo update some time in the next month or two, Google search will be added back). The weight and size of this phone is just right for me, not too big, not too small. My girlfriend has a Droid X and I’ve played with most other Android phones enough to comfortably say I feel this is the best Android phone on the market (with each carrier having their own version of it). Buy it, install Launcher Pro first thing, you shouldn’t be disappointed. I am looking forward to the Froyo update for the added browser speed & App installs to the MicroSD. Good job Samsung, now just give us timely updates and I will be encouraging my friends/coworkers to look at this phone for their next upgrade.
Rating: 5 / 5