Considering a Fascinate? Consider the fate of the phone in the ROM communities hands.

[Discover]

Long story short. sadly my DROID 1 was stolen. as a replacement Asurion offered me an ERIS or a devour... as we all know both these phones don't hold up to what the DROID was.


With that said, after playing with the Fascinate and its clumsy UI i looked deeper and took a gamble that our community would make this phone.

The phone itself is fast, but there is SO much worthless crap running in this thing... if you take a look at the APK list compared to other Android devices the list feels 20 miles long.


*Need for speed?
*Tetris?
*BING....... = worst part about this damn phone. ( i am rooted, of course. and i have *installed the google.apk thats out there for this phone.)
*Samsung DLNA.. to me is worthless. even though i own a samsung TV
*Android 2.1... honestly with any new phone 1ghz or higher 2.2 should be default.
the custom UI has its perks i like the colors.... but its to much iphone for me. which is funny cause its almost like samsung tried to copy the iphone with the square icons and design of the actual phone..
*sadly this phone reminds me of my voyager days.. when verizon took a great phone, loaded it with a bunch of advertisements and trials and complete useless trash that it almost makes the phone pointless.

I can only hope that the android community sees what i saw in this phone as potential to be great. I think if someone took 2.2 stock, added the vender support for the samsung i have no doubts this phone would dominate.

im almost tempted to pay the 35 dollar restocking fee and getting a DROID 2 or HTC Inc..

If you are considering this phone. please understand that unless we get good roms for this phone.. i would consider something that isnt full of Microsoft Bing, EA, Blackbuster, Vcast, Vnav, Vcrap!!

SAMSUNG and Verizon took a promising phone and let corporate greed money destroy it.

 

[OSX2000]

Getting offered an Eris or a Devour to replace a Droid is a slap in the face; especially when many claims are being settled with a shiny new Droid 2. I'd keep calling Asurion, and asking for supervisors. The higher you climb the totem pole, the more likely you are to get a decent replacement model.

 

[mrdroid]

The bloat installed on the fascinate had no impact on performance whatsoever so I'm not sure what your complaint about it really is. If it really bothers you that much just remove it.

The Galaxy S, Droid X and Evo are the best phones out right now. The fascinate gets the win in my book for the best overall performance even with stock launcher. Install ADW and it's even faster. Plus with its slightly smaller screen its the perfect size.

Sent from my Samsung Fascinate using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Discover]

OSX2000 thats exactly how i felt. after asking to talk to someone and talking to a floor supervisor i was told that due to the overwhelming orders and loss all they could offer me was those two phones. and on top of that it would take 7 DAYS!! what the hell am i paying premium insurance for if i get phones that arent even close to what i purchased. and i was told when i bought the insurance 2 years ago that if they didnt have my phone they would replace it with whatever model replaced my phone... what a crock of lies that turned out to be.

The bloat installed on the fascinate had no impact on performance whatsoever so I'm not sure what your complaint about it really is. If it really bothers you that much just remove it.

The Galaxy S, Droid X and Evo are the best phones out right now. The fascinate gets the win in my book for the best overall performance even with stock launcher. Install ADW and it's even faster. Plus with its slightly smaller screen its the perfect size.

Sent from my Samsung Fascinate using Tapatalk Pro

I agree, playing with the Droid X it was much larger then i had anticipated. however i feel like SAMSUNG tried to take the android OS and change it to something outside of what it is (which is their right i suppose with open source) i just wish i did more research before buying this phone. not having google as default is a huge issue for me (thats supposed to change in the 2.2 update) . Also i have removed most the items i felt didnt need to be there but like i said the list is so long im having issues with what samsungs system needs and what i can remove safely. i would like to see a bare bones ROM (which im sure in time will come) even with custom mods like BB and Cyanogen to see what this phone has to offer over stock.

I guess coming from a droid and having such a small list of programs, to a phone jam packed full of useless programs and games has me a little shell shocked and it feels to corporate driven with BING/Microsoft, EA, mobile IM plus the rest of verizons program line up. if you are on these forums you should at least understand that, its the reason i rooted my first phone, and probably the reason most everyone else does.

you might not feel like its an issue. and im not trying to say the phone itself is bad. however i used to hate AMAZON MP3 but now id take amazon over all the junk that i have to remove on this phone. my post was just trying to give anyone else considering the upgrade a heads up. that while this phone is good. it will be EVEN better when the community support starts rolling in. thats all.

 

[tallnerd1985]

Hi Discover,

Welcome to DF! You do have some valid points but you are also being a little impatient with development on this phone. It,took a solid month before the Droid actually got a stable recovery and some decent roms to start. Trust me, this phone will be the choice phone for devs since all major carriers have the lineup of this phone and development will grow pretty fast.

 

[Discover]

Hi Discover,

Welcome to DF! You do have some valid points but you are also being a little impatient with development on this phone. It,took a solid month before the Droid actually got a stable recovery and some decent roms to start. Trust me, this phone will be the choice phone for devs since all major carriers have the lineup of this phone and development will grow pretty fast.

hahaha ok fine maybe im a little impatient but i think people are reading what im saying wrong or im just not saying it right. which is possible. :biggrin:

i know great things will come to this phone.

i guess im just disappointed with touchwiz, Android 2.1 on a new phone, the software packages..

but all ive got is time and im super excited to see what the brilliant minds bring to us.

dancedroid

 

[tonamaste]

My thoughts exactly... I looked passed the VZ pre-installed crap and saw the hardware for what it is. I admit I almost went with the X because the Fascinate looked a little too Iphoney but, thats just as stupid as a mac user or iphone user knocking our droids and my ass kicking hotrod PC which produces professional A/V on the regular!
*****MY QUESTION: OK now that we're rooted and waiting for roms, is there a list of available tweaks for us yet?
:blackdroid:

 

[tallnerd1985]

My thoughts exactly... I looked passed the VZ pre-installed crap and saw the hardware for what it is. I admit I almost went with the X because the Fascinate looked a little too Iphoney but, thats just as stupid as a mac user or iphone user knocking our droids and my ass kicking hotrod PC which produces professional A/V on the regular!
*****MY QUESTION: OK now that we're rooted and waiting for roms, is there a list of available tweaks for us yet?
:blackdroid:

At the moment, the biggest tweaks are the lag fix which makes an ungodley improvement in speed and Quandrant scores compared to any other android handset in the market. Other than that, removal of bloatware is the other key thing until the custom recovery is made besides Clockcrap(no offense, just,has too many issues on any handsets) which I think is coming out soon.

 

[bizzshow]

You understand the same junk apps minus vz navigator and bing come on the d2 and x verizon is loading these new phones with alot of garbage most of which I want to remove. Motorola's dlna sucks also. Honestly I would stick with the fascinate as it has the most potential out of the bunch

 

[illtema]

maybe i'm the only one, but i gotta say, I really like touchwiz

 

[Steeeler]

maybe i'm the only one, but i gotta say, I really like touchwiz

No, your not alone. TW definitely does have some nice stuff! I am loving the calendar, the music player, and the notification pulldown that has the power control controls on it.

Now that I am rooted and all the bloat is off, its really running fast.

 

[Discover]

Do we have an official list of what bloat is safe to remove? ive removed much of the things i feel i dont need or will never use. like 4 different clocks, and a bunch of the live wallpapers and a bunch others... just wondering if anyone has put together a list of "essentials" vs "non essentials" for the phone yet?

 

[mrdroid]

It doesn't buy you much to go deleting things just for the sake of deleting them. If its questionable just leave it.

Sent from my Samsung Fascinate using Tapatalk Pro

 

[JollyRoger]

I'm new at this, but could someone let me know how to remove all of the bloat apps? When I go to the Settings>Applications and select the App I want to get rid of I do not see the Uninstall option. Only on the ones I have added from the Market. Again, quite new to this, so be gentle.


NM. I guess the phone has to be rooted in order to do it. I do not have enough confidence in myself to root the phone and not permanently screw it up. I guess i will live with all the crap for now. Maybe somewhere down the road I will give it shot, but since i just picked up the phone, don't want to brick it.

 

[bdubnpaw]

Hey just installed Titanium Backup from the android market and installed it(phone rooted of course). Went through and was able to remove a bunch of stuff that I didn't want....including....da da da da....BING! Then hit the search button and phone asked if I wanted google to be my default search. YES!!! Downloaded the google maps ap, and now life is good. Except for the whole wireless tethering thing I can't figure out, but that's a different post....http://www.droidforums.net/forum/sa...nt/79774-wifi-tether-samsung-fascinate-4.html

Awesome work everyone! Can't wait to see what else develops!

B