Samsung Fascinate / Mesmerize (Galaxy S)
Phone Scoop Review
Sep 9, 2010 by Philip Berne
The Samsung Fascinate brings the Galaxy S family to Verizon Wireless, and The Network teaches this Android every trick it knows. Is this the Galaxy to explore? read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
Didn't quite meet expectations
After using the Samsung Galaxy Tab since April, I had high hopes for this phone. Unfortunately, my expectations far surpassed what I actually got from this phone. My love for the tab's performance made me believe this phone was an obvious choice for me, however, I quickly realized that wasn't the case. I only had the phone for a few days before I began having problems with dropped calls. From there, the problem eventually turned into not getting any calls at all followed by text messages not being sent out. I found myself restarting my phone half a dozen times a day. Once those problems began, my screen also stopped responding to touch and when it eventually worked, it was beyond sluggish. I also had some problems with apps opening on their own: I wasn't too pleased when I heard the Angry Birds theme coming from my pocket in the middle of a meeting. I decided to bring the phone back and when they quickly evaluated the it, they believed that the internal antenna was damaged, but couldn't explain the screen problems. The phone was replaced with the identical model, which low and behold, suffered the exact same problems. Samsung is a great brand and I still believe that maybe, just maybe, I got 'the bad one of the bunch' or should I say 'the bad two of the bunch.' I eventually traded the second phone in and was scared away from Androids altogether. On the positive side though, the screen was beautiful: videos looked awesome and music sounded awesome. Too bad this phone didn't work out for me.
FREE PHONE FRIDAY
First weekend In October and thanks to Phone Scoop I saw the story on Free Phone Friday. I was up for a upgrade and I was holding out for a Storm 3 and well most of know that RIM gave up and keeps reproducing the same old phones over.
I LOVE the phone and with anything there is a learning curve. I am still finding some cool new things on it.
Not sure what everyones problem is with "BING" or what the story is about 2.2
PROS:
1) Sound is great
2) Battery is great
3) Swype kicks is cool
CONS:
Can not find one.
R.I.P. iPhone
The Super AMOLED in this phone is great! Very clear and crisp screen. EXCELLENT sound quality. Samsung really went above and beyond with this device.
Swype is an excellent alternate to simply typing with the virtual keyboard, although, at first takes some getting used to.
The USCC variant (Mesmerize) replaces Bing with YND (Your Navigator Deluxe). YND is by far superior to Bing, and even easier to use.
Battery could be better, however, when you have a 4" Hi-Res Super Amoled...what do you expect!!! Turn off some extra functions you don't want to use to extend the life a little bit.
The only thing I don't like on this device versus HTC Android phones, is the UI. HTC has it down to perfection with Sense.
Pros - POWERFUL hardware
- Beautiful screen
- Sound quality
- Swype is great
- Android...nuff said
Cons - Battery Life
Overall...ridiculous phone. Apple really needs to kick it up if they are ever going to catch up with Android with phones like these out there.
great phone
Now I work for Sprint and I have worked for Verizon and I have had different phones in the past, I have also had the chance to experience the 4G network for Sprint ( if only Verizon had it like really!!!) This phone is almost as close as Incredible as possible without the feature of the LED notification ( fixed with the free app from these reviewers) I do love this phone but sometimes it is a pain because sometimes on good days the battery will last until like maybe 6 or 7PM and then on the charger all night. I do a lot of traveling so I do use the Google Maps and not paying the extra 9.99 a month for the VZNav, HOWEVER... the GPS takes about 10 minutes to actually get the route that you want which to me being a traveler is something I don't like very much. So to make this a lot shorter
Pros:
GREAT AMOLLED SCREEN!!!!! I will never go back to anything but an Amolled
Camera is great I cant wait until Samsung comes out with the update for the front screen
Swype is amazing and very responsive there is nothing i can say bad about this because it is the fastest way of texting
and
The quality of the pictures and websites are incredible!
CONS
Battery- needs to last more than it does sometimes traveling to NYC and by 7pm its dead in a conference is no good
Force closes some applications but nothing too bad.
GPS- needs to find the signal faster than it does especially for someone who is always out of the office and traveling to different cites where I have no idea where these places are
Overall great phone. if I didn't have the Negative part of this review this phone would be getting a 5 rating. Just hope that samsung releases their upgrade soon so skype would work better instead of calling I can video chat with my family in Portugal and Italy. If any of you Reviewers have any idea when they are coming out with the upgrade please post!
Almost perfect
Had the Incredible (Great device, but only above average phone) and the Droid X (Great device and phone, but simply too big and square to pocket comfortably).
Finally got the Fascinate. This is slick!
Pros:
Fast
Best screen yet
responsive touch screen
speaker
battery life
form factor
weight (4.1 ounces? are you kidding me? its like it is not even there!)
Cons:
Voice integration could be better
Google integration is a must (no offense to Bing! but it is just not the same seamless interface across all uses, search, nav, voice, etc)
If Google is fully integrated with 2.2, then my rating will be a 5.
The X killer!
AMAZING... I'm blown away by this phone... the screen, Oh The Screen! I used to have the X and after being disappointed for 28 days I switched over to the fascinate just after it released. Bing is kind of annoying but its quite easy to make google your home page and just use google in the browser. the camera is amazing as well. The 8mp camera on the droid x has less quality in taking photos than the 5mp camera on the fascinate. video quality on the x is slightly better than the fascinate but when you cannot see the screen in the sunlight whats the point? I was having an issue with the brightness of the pictures and video on the x and on the fascinate its near perfect.
I love this phone, the 4 inch screen is absolutely perfect. 4.3 is a little overkill. AMOLED all the way... with these touch screens these days its nice to be able to see your screen and have gread HD video on the phone. I recommend this phone to everyone at my store! Great job on making enough to supply your customers samsung.... Bad job Motorola... i have a 20 person waiting list for the X and I would prefer everyone to just pick up a Fascinate because I know there will be at least 15 returns on the X... what a marketing campaign for a phone that no one can get! boo on you motorola!
I wont be disappointed!
Great phone when you hold it in hands in the store. However, after short usage I found that it has a few usability shortcomings.
1. No LED for notifications. But easy fixed it with NoLed free app from market.
2. Inconveniently located hardware buttons, so one always tends to change ring tone, when pressing power button. Not a biggie again.
3. Very weak vibrate mode. Often do not feel it in the pocket.
4. Official Samsung accessories do not allow any protection case used. If used then dock will not accept the phone in the case. One need to remove case every time. I guess same about car holder. Really Samsung?
5. I've noticed few software bugs, but nothing serious so far.
6. Screen is not very well suited for extremely small text, because of PenTile matrix.
7. Slow GPS. But just initially when started. Otherwise works fine.
8. Major problem is Verizon trying to push some limitations on the soft. Skype over 3G only is great example.
On the plus side.
1. Decent battery life.
2. Vivid screen. Great for pictures and videos. Readable outside.
3. Decent soft out of the box. Like it better than stock.
4. Extremely pocketable. Lightest android phone in comparable class.
5. Fast.
6. Samsung opened source code, so expect great support from open community.
7. Decent sound quality. Not exceptional, but decent.
8. Bing is not a big deal. I do not care what will be used for local search in phone. Always used Google in browser if needed. I guess community will fix it pretty soon.
I took two phones for a test drive.
I had Droid before. My wife came from iPod. And we both decided to keep our phones.
If I can get better accessories then I will be absolutely happy with that phone. And you better give it a try.
Maybe the best cell phone yet
The display is gorgeous. The sound quality/clarity is sensational. Speaker is loud. Software is smooth and fast. Size is perfect. The phone works better than expected. Build quality is on point. I think it may be the best out there right now, period.
_jr
love it- AMAZING device!!
A bit of my background: I am a store manager of a wireless retail store and have had over 5 years of experience in the industry with 3 different carriers.
I've been carrying a smartphone since the Samsung i730 and data has always been my specialty. Since I have had the chance to personally own and use a Motorola Droid, Droid 2, HTC Incredible, the Droid X, and various other devices, I feel as if I'm somewhat qualified to leave a review... And YES- the Fascinate was the one that I've decided to keep
I'm going to base my focus off three of the top Verizon PDA's of current, including:
*HTC Incredible
*Motorola Droid X
*Motorola Droid 2
I want to start off by saying that this phone is NOT for everyone. Novice users will most likely be the most comfortable with the HTC Incredible, as the incredible is ultra smooth and user friendly right out of the box...
The fascinate is just as smooth, but there are definitely tweeks that I've made to adjust the phone to my liking...
Pros:
-Perfect Size
-Amazing Screen
-Good Battery Life
-Light Weight
-FAST, benchmarks proved faster than the incredible and the X
-For those who care: Lowest SAR rating (.57 I believe)
-Camera Quality
Neutral:
-Call Quality
-Plastic Back Cover
Cons:
-Bing/Bing Maps
-Touch Wiz
-bloatware
Most of the cons that made it to my list can be changed. If you search hard enough, there's always a way... lol I use google search and maps on the fascinate, as well as bing, which I actually don't find that bad... I've also installed launcher pro, and the system handles it all like a champ.
I will soon get around to rooting the phone and uncover a few more options
After having this phone for a while, I can't go back to the X or the incredible. I love it that much...
OMG !! What a phone !!
I am usually not compelled to write a review of a phone, but this has to be the most satisfying phone that I have owned. I have had other androids, none come even close to this including the Droid X. Had the Iphone also, and this is the first phone that doesn't make me miss the Iphone. No phone is perfect, this comes very close.
PROS
* Excellent bright brilliant screen
* Super fast with hummingbird processor
* No lags when running apps and had yet to freeze up like the Droid X did for me
* Screen surface with gorilla glass is as good as Iphone's screen surface
* Excellent battery life
* THIN
* Great camera and picture quality
* Great size at 4.0" screen, Droid X a bit too large
CONS
* Unlock button on side somewhat inconvenient
* Notification alerts not that loud
Again overall great phone. I have no regrets from changing from the Droid X. You won't be disappointed with this phone.
