Deal Killer

[RCB]

OK, just got SF and syncing my "Google contacts" with the SF(a Google phone) it will not bring over the groups and then you have to import your contacts to the phone memory so you can add custom ring tones to them.
I had the moto droid and DInc which sync find.
My question is this a Bing thing or a Samsung thing? And do you think that 2.2 will be any better?
I know I can root it but right now I would like to kept it stock for the next 25 days.

 

[dewalist]

What do you mean about it not bringing over the groups? When on contacts, press the menu key and go into Display Options. I have Phone and Google listed, and when I click on each one, I get a list of my groups and I can choose which ones to sync... Is that not what you are looking for?

 

[RCB]

You have to import from your google list to get it the phone list.If you don't use the phone listing and just use your google list it wont show the groups. If you make a change in the phone list it will not sync with your google list.
I use an app called Better Contacts and when I had both phone & google list it would see double contacts.

 

[dewalist]

Oh - I see. I don't use groups so I never noticed that there isn't a way to display them that way on the phone. I can see how not having that would be annoying...

 

[NOsquid]

Bring it back, get a less capable phone that syncs your contacts the way you like if it makes you happy. This is a choice we all have to make.

 

[RCB]

NOsquid why would you say that other phone are less capable?
I like the phone for its screen and the size but dont instand why samsung would mess with android os much.
Is there a plan vanilla 2.2 rom with google for this phone?
In my opinion I think its just a shame that you need to root this phone to make it work correctly.

 

[NOsquid]

The Fascinate has more potential - better hardware/GPU/screen. So that's what I mean.

The software that comes with it is not great. If you don't want to root, no question the Incredible with HTC Sense would be a solid choice, or the DroidX. Every phone manufacturer messes with Android, Samsung just does a little shittier job of it. You need root to get the most out of pretty much any Android phone, but it's true the Fascinate is relatively more crippled out of the box.

There is no 2.2 for the Fascinate yet, Samsung needs to release it for someone to make a vanilla rom from their source code. There is some leaked source and people are working on it, but if you're miserable I wouldn't hold out on this, it probably won't officially get Froyo for at least a month.

There are very plain 2.1 roms available if you like. Personally I'm not too concerned with 2.2, this thing flies on 2.1 with some fine tuning.

I have no idea about your contact syncing problem, but root might not solve it. For me that's not a significant issue, but again if it's a deal killer bring it back. No point being unhappy, you're paying good money for a smartphone + plan.