Samsung Fascinate- Thoughts?

I'm thinking of getting a new phone (the Samsung Fascinate) and I want to know what people think of it. I've heard many good reviews, but I've heard some bad ones as well. Tell me what y'all think about...hmm.. the battery life, reliability (not dropping calls, good reception, etc.), texting (Easy-to-use keyboard?), and an overall rating of this phone. Thanks.

Accepted answers

mdram4x4

benandmargi wrote:
I'm thinking of getting a new phone (the Samsung Fascinate) and I want to know what people think of it. I've heard many good reviews, but I've heard some bad ones as well. Tell me what y'all think about...hmm.. the battery life, reliability (not dropping calls, good reception, etc.), texting (Easy-to-use keyboard?), and an overall rating of this phone. Thanks.

batt life: i easliy go from 6am to 11pm and have 70% of batt left, and i do not run any task killer

dropped calls: none that i can remember

reception: fine

gps: no issues.

texting: i dont text alot but it seems fine to me

its a good phone, theres alot of dev support if your into that stuff, but its a warranty violations

remeber its still on 2.1, so if you need 2.2 for flash, and some other things, you may wanna wait a bit.

samsung has released the 2.2 source, but vzw has not annonced anything about an update yet

All comments

mdram4x4

benandmargi wrote:
I'm thinking of getting a new phone (the Samsung Fascinate) and I want to know what people think of it. I've heard many good reviews, but I've heard some bad ones as well. Tell me what y'all think about...hmm.. the battery life, reliability (not dropping calls, good reception, etc.), texting (Easy-to-use keyboard?), and an overall rating of this phone. Thanks.

batt life: i easliy go from 6am to 11pm and have 70% of batt left, and i do not run any task killer

dropped calls: none that i can remember

reception: fine

gps: no issues.

texting: i dont text alot but it seems fine to me

its a good phone, theres alot of dev support if your into that stuff, but its a warranty violations

remeber its still on 2.1, so if you need 2.2 for flash, and some other things, you may wanna wait a bit.

samsung has released the 2.2 source, but vzw has not annonced anything about an update yet

benandmargi

Thanks! That's really helpful. I'm thinking of going to a Verizon store to check one of 'em out.

wildcat1935

It also supports Family Locator and NFL Mobile something the Thunderbolt doesn't.

ts87016

Anyone with info on syncing your Outlook contacts and calendar with the Samsung Fascinate? I just got the new phone and haven't explored yet how to do this. I was told it could be done by Verizon but not sure how easy it is or if there is a third party app required. Any info appreciated. Tahnks

GBinHockley

Generally very happy. Display is GREAT. Swype is GREAT. Slim, Light. Would trade weight for better battery life. Trouble with 2.2 update :smileysad:

vlrech

I also am having problems with the update. It is really draining my battery. I talked with service and they want to do a restore on the phone. I am not ready to do that, I will have to restore all my apps and everything I have downloaded. I have heard conflicting information. I read that anything you download that is free, needs to be downloaded again. Losing everything already stored (if playing games etc, is everything lost) Lots of time spent on some of these and not ready to give that up. Today I was told that gmail somehow would help to get all the apps back. Didn't have this problem before the update. Very annoying.

LKOLIVER

My phone went through the update and that was the end of it. Now when I hit a button I have to wait anywhere form 30 seconds to two minutes before it will register and go through, and texts are a waste at this point. Texts I sent last week are just leaving my phone and going through today.

I went to the Verizon Store and they did a full reboot on the phone to see if that would fix it. It didn't, but they did manage to delete ALL of my contacts, both work and personal, and were not able to get them back. So now I am starting from scratch waiting on Verizon to ship a replacement phone to my house. Hopefully the next one will be better. I really liked the phont up until the last two weeks or so when all the problems started.

tduke100

Hope you haven't bought a Samsung Fascinate. Wait until they fix the 2.2 update issues. I would NOT recommend the Fascinate right now. Mine has all sorts of problems.

AyaniB_VZW

Hi LKOLIVER,

I am happy to see we were able to send you a replacement and hopeful your issues will be resolved. Please keep me posted.

Thank You,

Frezurasov

I am having the same issues. So to no response when touching the widgets and icons. Battery life lasting about 6 hours with less then 5 phone calls. They sent me a refurbished Fascinate to solve the issue. I've had it two days and am having them send another one because this has the same issues. Also, I get a "Sorry! Process com.sec.android.app.twlauncher is not responding" message all the time now.

My options through Verizon were to get another Fascinate shipped (#3), buy a pre-owned certified off the website, or buy a new phone. Options #2 and #3 would be money out of my pocket with no return for a 1 year old $400 phone! I am going to have the continue to ship me a Fascinate until they give me a better option then that! I am willing to pay for an upgrade, but not a retail price with no money back for this thing.

marstellerd

I'm having problems with the Fascinate. It worked GREAT when I first bought it, then it went through the "update". Now it freezes constantly. I have to take out the battery and restart anywhere from 3 -4 times a day. People have tried to call me and it "force closes" phone calls.

The biggest joke is thinking that Verizon will help you. They truly, truly do not care. They care when it comes to selling you phones, but when it comes to helping you with problems - you're better off talking to a wall. It truly is a shame how disgraceful their costumer service is.

Adam114

The phone sucks. It looks nice, but is very slow and has a lot of issues. I purchased this phone in November last year, and today I got my 4th replacement! Every time it has been replaced has been for different issues. I have had more down time than up time with this phone. I have gotten to the point where I use my work phone for everything and don't use this one because it is so slow and breaks so often.

1st replacement - Verizone sent update, lost the ability to text/email

2nd replacement - screen went out....told Verizon about it for weeks and they didn't care, until it went completely out

3rd replacement - turns off by itself, will not load icons or screen after closing out of a phone call, or any app

4th phone - just got it today, already worse than the previous 3! certified like new is {word filter avoidance}

Stay away from this phone!

kpoole2287

Download two apps, home switcher and GO launcher EX. I highly recommend the full line up that GO DEV offers. GO SMS pro, launcher EX, widgets, all of them. It has a handy task killer widget that does not require any additional downloads. I absolutely hated my fascinate before I started using SMS pro and now launcher EX. It easily increased the speed of my fascinate five times and I could not be happier. It does take some tweaking to get it how you want it, but I enjoy that. I can fully customize how my phone looks and operates all with a simple home screen launcher app. I was considering switching to the iphone 5, but after realizing tonight everything that GO launcher EX can do I will never leave android. I work at Radioshack and install this on almost all of my customer's phones who are tech savvy enough to use it.

dag4192

I have to tell you the Samsung Fascinate is the worst phone I have ever owned. I have to pull the battery every couple of days, because if I do not I cannot receive or send any messages. And when this happens I have no way of knowing it. I hate this phone. I never have service - it is bad.

phillythekid59

Good evening, I have the Samsung Fascinate, I have had it since Feb.. I love it, I bought it online, it was refurbished. I do a lot of texting, it works well, I have had no problems with it.

phillythekid59

Hello, I have the Samsung Fascinate, I have had it since Feb. I have had no problems with it, the battery is good it lasts me about a day and a half, I do texting, there are no problems there either. I bought it in verizons website refurbished. it was pretty cheap. It has been a great phone so far.

randallg

My wife & I have had ours since January this year. The only problem I have had is that I keep getting e-mails with the date of 12/31/1969 and nothing else...I get 3-7 per day, but just delete all e-mails at the end of each day anyway, so no big deal...I don't do much texting and my battery lasts from 6 am to noon the next day before having to charge it. My wife has had zero problems with hers...we will upgrade when our contract is up in October 2012. I'm happy.

scham

Seriously Verizon. If you must, go ahead and fill my phone up with stupid bloatware when I first buy it. Just let me uninstall it if I"m not one of those users that are too stupid to know any better. It looks like I'll have to root my phone just to get rid of Bing.

BTW making your Verizon Navigator the default navigation program and charging $10 a month is pretty scandalous too. I can see someone like my mother totally falling for something like that and just not realizing she's totally being ripped off. There is no way any sane person would prefer to pay $10 for a service when there is a better one that is totally free, it is purely just Verizon showing that they have no integrity. They don't make software, they make shady deals and run scams.

Smeckers

Hello, a little late to the conversation here, but I'd like to throw in my 2 cents about the Fascinate.

I got mine in April of this year, along with Verizon as my wireless carrier. The Fascinate has amazing graphics and a gorgeous screen but ever since I got the phone, it has been nothing but problems.

The first one I bought would freeze, couldn't find service in my house, even though Verizon said I was about half a mile from a tower, the power button on the side would not work and the screen would stay on. So Verizon did a system restore, and it did nothing to help. They sent a replacement. The replacement would drop service and I would have to reset the phone several times to get it back, it would freeze and the GPS could never find where I was. So they sent a replacement. Same problems with the first phone, would drop down to no bars, internet and all data was extremely slow, and I would have to press the keyboard very hard to get it to work. I am now on my 4th replacement phone, and what do you know, same problems. Drops service, battery life is HORRIBLE. I hardly use it but I am usually in the yellow by the end of the day, and texts only go through when they feel like it. Ususally after reseting the phone. I've had Verizon do several system restores that lose everything but don't help.

I'm not sure if this is the phone that is having the problems or Verizon, since I haven't had any other phones with them. They keep sending replacements that are exactly the same as the previous phones, if not worse. All this was happening before and after the update. I'm thinking of just paying the ridiculous fee and breaking my contract and finding a different carrier.

Anyone with the same problem?

:smileyhappy:

phillythekid59

hello, I have the Samsung fascinate, I got it in Feburary, I love it, I have had a little problems with it freezing, but I dropped it. it is quick so it isn't a problem, my battery isn't bad I have to charge it about every other day.

joe71730

I could not recommend this phone to anyone, I have had problems with the dropped calls and voicemail not coming through The battery life is horrible!! I have to recharge it during the day if I make many calls (2-3) If I do any emails it is worse. Dropped calls are a real problem since I need it to work! I do not get reception inside my house and VZW blames the construction of the house!! They want me to spend another $250.00 for a booster for it to work there.

I have a iphone and I could recommend it for the battery life is unbelievably long, but the phone had worse reception! Sometimes you just can't win.

smatsuda

I am getting my 3rd Samsung Fascinate Overnighted to me. I sell real estate and use my phone in combination with e-key program which has been troublesome since the very first Samsung Fascinate and I never had a problem with my Blackberry! I have to manually go into my settings every time before I show a home and turn my blue tooth off and then wait 5 seconds, turn it back on before I can open the lockbox. I am not eligible for an upgrade at the "discounted" price for another year and I am so ticked off at how many other quirks this phone has. The battery life is pathetic and I think when they know that a phone is having issues like this one since the update to 2.2, they should give us loyal customers to the chance to get another phone for the discounted price. I'm seriously thinking of paying to get my whole family out of our contracts and going to Alltel who has much better rates too. My sister loves them and says their customer service is much better than Verizons...PLEASE HELP!!!!

Lettie

I agree with most of the posts here regarding short battery life, constant dropped calls, slow to open and run apps, having to do multiple resets, etc. My thoughts? If you would like to keep your sanity and not spend the next 18-24 months fighting with Verizon, I would choose a different phone. I wish I would have. :smileysad:

bcblaylo

I would choose a different phone and carrier.

phmckleroy

My family and I purchased 4 Samsung Galaxy S Fascinate phones April, 2011. We have had NOTHING BUT PROBLEMS with all of them. They lock up, drop calls, delete pictures out of your gallery, will not download pictures through text messages and the battery life is about 4 - 5 hours, if you use it a lot, unless you get a battery saver app like Juice Defender. I have taken them back to the Verizon Store and they say there is NOTHING wrong with the phones. I have called customer service and told them the problems we are having and they run us through some type of update/maintenance and they work OK for a few days then it's back to the same old problems. We cannot wait until December when we can upgrade to a new phone. We all agree that these Samsung Galaxy S Fascinate phones are a piece of junk!

Jaxle67

I got my fascinate very soon after it was first released and have kept it almost for my full 2 yr agreement. I will say that it was a excellent phone for me performing every task that i asked of it. The only issues that i ever really had was gps issues at first but was soon fixed with an update. The batterylife was decent..outstanding screen..great call quality and tough as i have dropped it more times than i would care to admit. The only reason i still dont have it is that a coworker made a offer that i couldnt refuse and i wanted to upgrade to a 4g phone. I decided on a razr maxx and have had more problems with it in a little over a month than i ever did with the fascinate. Everyone has different experiences withthem and i thought i would share mine which has been very good indeed... jesse

JazzieGirl9

I myself have had a samsung fascinate for almost a year. I have had to have the phone replaced about 6 times. It is slow I never get 3g coverage even though people with Virizon standing right next to me do. This phone has don nothing but waste my money each month I pay to keep it acctivated. I hate it. Do yourself a favor and stay away from it.

JazzieGirl9

I have been having the same problems. My boyfriend has the new Criod Razr and he absolutly loves it. You would think since we pay our bill each month and waste time and money that Virizon would give their customers a break and give them a new phone since it was them that locked a bunch of people into a contract with a phone that dosen't work anyways. What happened to customer service where companies used to care, and if something wasn't right they made it right?

charmedcat86

I know this is late, but I thought I would put my 2 cents in too. My sister was really excited when we went to look at phones and couldn't wait to get this one (I let her talk me into it cause at Best Buy when it was free and the iPhone was at least $200. I really should have listened to that voice in my head that's said over the years me and Samsung products did not, do not, and will never get along). I had no problems for the first month I had the phone, but after that I had it replaced 2 times because of problems and I just gave up after that and have been suffering since there is really nothing I can do (it's been a REALLY LONG year and a half with this piece of junk and I still have till May!! ) My sister lives about 3 hours south and she has the extended battery (which makes it VERY bulky and looks weird cause the phone doesn't lay nice, but she has a lot less problems than I do) she thought I was being a big baby complaining about it all the time. We first thought it was the battery since a cousin has this phone and has problems like I do, but the last time my sister came to visit she was getting frustrated with it too, not getting service when our parents had service or the stupid thing randomly taking screen captures till the only way to get it to stop is to take the battery out and restart the phone (which made me happy since it proved to her that it's not just me ), plus the internet is slow and takes forever to load the keyboard and it fails about a third of the time so I have to exit and start all over again. I can't wait till I can get the iPhone (I don't care what anyone says, I have a MacBook Pro, an iMac, and an iPod and I LOVE Apple products and can't wait to have an iPhone then my phone and my music player are combined (I know this thing plays music, but I have an auxiliary plug in my car that hooks up to my iPod, so it just makes sense to have the one for both).

Verizon_Support

Hi Charmedcat86, Let's restore the confidence that you had in the phone during the first month that you had it! Do you have the exact same applications that you had on the phone prior to replacement? Does the keyboard only fail in the browser or with other applications as well? I would be honored to continue working with you to help bring satisfaction back to your device experience!

Thank You,

YaleK_VZW

Follow us on Twitter @VZWsupport

roff54

The biggest problem with the Samsung Fascinate is that it is a piece of crap. I had 4 on my plan. 1 has been replaced 5 times, 2 others replaced twice, and I hit the jackpot because when I returned mine, I was given a Charge instead. Each time there is something wrong, customer service told me to just do a factory reboot. That is worthless advice. It doesn't fix the problem, just puts a band-aid on a gun shot wound. The problems returned and the same advice was given. The other 3 Fascinates on my plan have been counting the days until they can throw the phone away. We've seriously considered leaving Verizon altogether because of the lack of assistance from them. As soon as November arrives, we'll see what the best offer is for plans and phones. If it weren't for the Charge being so nice, I would never consider another Samsung product again.

Verizon_Support

Hello roff54,

Yikes! Sounds like you have been through a lot with the Fascinate devices on your account, but no worries I'm here to help. I know you stated you previously preformed factory resets but the problem returned, what were the original problem your device was experiencing? Did all of the phones have the same issues? We would hate for you to leave us because of a phone, especially when there are always options to resolve your concerns.

Thank you,

GeorgeP_VZWSupport

Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport