Yea, it works great. I tried it as I was leaving Best Buy with phone in hand. Worked great. Tried it as I was driving. Worked great. I just tried it as I am now sitting in my apartment. Keep in mind that I am on the bottom floor of a 2 story apartment building. It took a little longer to pinpoint my location but it did it in a matter of seconds.
Some thoughts after handling both and playing games and apps on them side by side:
As for the Fascinate, all I can say is wow. The screen was impressive. However, the Droid X didn't look as bad as I thought it would after playing on the sammy for a while. 3D games like NFS were smoother.
This is going to be a tough choice. After playing with the Fascinate I'm leaning back towards it now. It certainly feels much more comfortable in the hand than the Droid X.
Just to report, I have a rooted Droid X with Launcher Pro. I've killed some of the bloat and use AutoKiller and no other task managing app killing programs. I have battery life set to the Smart plan.
It's been unplugged for over 20 hrs now, and there's still 30% charge left, which is amazing. I've browsed the web, made about 3 hrs of voice calls, used the flashlight several times, played games on it, and let some of the kids I work with play games on it. I've also emailed and texted quite a bit. Haven't needed the nav. I only need it when I go to a new client's house, and I have a full case load now, so I won't likely need it for a while, but I'm sure it works fine. I don't have it enabled though. I do enable wi-fi on and off throughout the day depending on where I am.
The Droid X battery life, call quality, and reception are just staggering. The root was crazy-stupid-simple. With launcher pro everything is fast, smooth, responsive, and pretty much perfect. And I really like the stock music player with it's corny visualizations. This phone has a lot to love.
Now, after handling the Fascinate, here's where I now realize that it falls short:
1. Screen: No surprise here, but not as far short as I thought it would. The Droid X screen is actually a great screen that really impresses. The Fascinate's screen is simply
extraordinary.
2. The hump: Not a big deal, it's just weird, and where the Fascinate takes ZERO "getting used to" in the hand, the Droid X is still not comfortable for me yet, and part of the reason is the odd hump.
3. The square edges: I realize that the square edges probably play a part in allowing this design to accommodate an extra 54 pixels over the 4" droids. However, it's simply not as comfortable in the pocket or the hand because of this.
4. Power/screen on button: What in the HECK was Moto thinking when they put the power button on the top-middle of such a large phone, and by that extra thick hump?? What a bunch of malarkey!! I can't get used to that at all, and it's very difficult to naturally and comfortably pull off with a one handed grip. You can just push the home button with your thumb, but that's so close to the edge it's not natural or comfortable either. The samsung button is PERFECT. They could not have put it in a better place. When I grab the phone it's automatically and quite naturally right were my finger is. A simple push and the screen is on. If I'm holding it right handed, it's right there with an easy push of the thumb. Volume buttons are on the exact opposite side. Why couldn't the Droid X do this??
5. Physical buttons: I actually usually tend to prefer physical buttons. I just like them. Call me old fashioned. However, when using the phone in bed, the click is audible enough it bugs me in a silent bedroom, and could possibly wake my wife. I read on the phone enough at night to justify wanting the silent touch buttons. And the sound the vibrate makes on the Samsung is a touch quieter than the vibration on the Droid X. I like the vibrate feedback to know I touched something, but it's more subtle on the Fascinate.
6. Gaming: In non 3D games, which are many, the 3D graphics is not so important. In 3D games, even though the Droid X is great, again, the Fascinate is extraordinary. The NFS demo for example is perfectly playable on the Droid X, but it was LIQUID SMOOTH on the Fascinate. I'm not exaggerating ONE BIT. It was killer. I thought I was on a mini PS3 or something ...
7. Video playback: I've had to format all movies to H.264 MP4 files in order to get them to playback on the stock droid video player. While they look fantastic and playback exceptionally smooth, you're limited heavily on supported formats, and resolutions.
Now that the gripes against the Droid X are out of the way, time to lay aside a couple of original fears I had about the Fascinate:
1. Battery life: Should come to within 10-15% of the Droid X with its extended battery. I reckon you'll get even closer with some tweaks and bloat removal post root. And if the Droid can make it 26 hrs on one charge, 16-18 on the Samsung will easily get me through a workday. And again, I think with some rooting, tweaking, and a big fat 2200 battery we can do even better than that!
2. Build quality: I thought it looked like stupid glossy plastic. I thought it would feel cheap. It is glossy plastic, but it doesn't look stupid in person, and it doesn't feel one bit cheap. It feels like a classy, polished, sleek, and elegant phone. Yet it protrudes a simplicity with it's minimalistic and very black design that with the screen off, it definitely doesn't look like a spaceship. It honestly looks like the most perfectly ergonomic and sleekly designed phone I've ever seen in my life.
Don't take this lightly. I minored in art, and I love things that look good. This is BY FAR the best looking designed Galaxy S phone. BY FAR. I realize that this is my opinion, but it's based on seeing and personally using, selling, activating, returning, or owning hundreds of phones. This phone looks and feels SICK. I tend to like the rubberized matte stuff, but this stupid Fascinate has won me over to the "dark side". It's phenomenally well executed. Even the Verizon guy couldn't believe how well it felt and looked. It was a little small town partner store that only got one phone in, and he hadn't even opened it - never seen one in person yet. I was in there looking at it with him and a friend of mine. We were all impressed with the Droid X already, but the Fascinate
blew us away.
Those are the initial thoughts. Here's what I lose if I switch:
1. Gobs of internal memory.
2. A little battery life. (won't be an issue with ext. batt.)
3. Google search/nav. (I'm sure we root-happy folk will see Bing-free ROMs and fixes down the pipe ... I HOPE!)
4. HDMI out. (this is only partially to mostly functional on the DX. You'd have FULLY functional standard def video all the time on the Fascinate, so it's not a total loss by any means)
Anyhow. Hope this is helpful to folks that are considering both phones, and folks that haven't gotten (or won't get) a chance to have a hands-on with the Fascinate. I am leaning back towards the Fascinate now, and honestly I had to play with one to see that screen, feel the sleek feel, and actually use the buttons in my hand. The day to day experience with the design of the Fascinate, in my opinion, will be much more smooth and ergonomic, and buttons will be silent and automatic. Those things are aspects of a phone you have to deal with EVERY TIME you use it, and they certainly stack up against the lack of some internal memory or an HDMI port. You've got to weigh the usability and comfort factors against the raw feature factors because they are just as important on a device you're going to be spending so many hours on, for both work and play.
. Luckily I never go there, I simply voice in my google browser widget "Navigate to nearest gas station" and voila. I will wait to see if you really can de bing it and retain all of the google stuff via apps. I am skeptical. Cnet says you can't but what do they know and of course they act as if rooting does not exist. Only another day to find out. The GPS signal is a deal breaker too if it is bad. I rely on my D1 for all navigation and it is superb. This fascinate has to be as good.
going to get mine in an hour or two..
