Droid X or Samsung Fascinate?

[Aohus]

i would stay away from the fascinate only because its using AMOLED, and amoled KILLS battery life.

but the DX is heavily controlled by Motorola, and I have issues with that. HTC and Samsung has come to terms with the root community, I wish Motorola did too.

 

[bobthebob]

we'll really just have to wait and see about the Fascinate - I like the size of the tmobile Galaxy phone (forgot the name) - one of the things about the DX is that it's VERY hard if not impossible for me to do much with it one-handed. even unlocking requires some dexterity.

PLUSES:
-Battery Life!!
-Screen!
-HDMI
-Solid build quality (altho time will tell with the buttons)
-Battery Life!
-Battery Life! (oh, did I say that already?)

CONS:
-MotoBlur **sucks**
-Lacks some basic HTC Sense-like UI functionality
-Big - one handed operation is difficult
-Buttons are hard to press when trying to work quickly.
-No (safe) Custom ROMs (yet!)

the DX is growing on me now - although I've had to accommodate the way I interact with the device rather than change the device to accommodate me... which is annoying.

to clarify my point earlier about the contacts etc.
in the Sense UI if you open up the dialer and start hitting keys it starts prompting you based on those keys - both as numbers (for phone numbers that start with them) AND as letters (from your contacts names).

the DX (stock Android) keyboard does NEITHER of these.
what's more opening the dialer and then hitting the Contact tab takes you to a list of your contacts - but there is NO search box at the top. you have to then hit the search key and THEN start typing.

the difference?
Sense UI - find contact and call: 1 Step
DX/Android - find contact and call: 4 Steps

yes - I can (and have) set up Favorites and shortcuts etc but in truth I shouldn't have to - I mean this kind of functionality is built into my 4 year old $20 Nokia 6010!!

also missing: a quick 'Save to Contacts' key on the dialpad - you have to hit the menu key to find the button - a small thing, but again it's been built into cell phones forever.

generally I like to make my technology adapt to ME not make me adapt to IT. I'm just a curmudgeon that way /=7

but maybe I can just BUILD myself some of this functionality - this has been motivating me to learn how to build Droid apps!

cheers,
b

PS - open to any suggestions re: the functionality issues I raised.

 

[Googleaddict]

Lol? Since when do SAMOLED screens kill battery life?I thought they made it better..?? My friend has a captivate and he gets a day with heavy use. Also, if you put a SAMOLED screen next to a LCD, the LCD will look like complete garbage. Anyways, who acually uses the Hdmi port?...I think people just like to have it, but never use it. Go play with both phones and see which one you like better. It's personal preference.

 

[idiotekniQues]

samsung seems to be making a bold push into the android world now however their track record with supporting phones sucks.

i am too tentative to rely on samsung's notorious super-slow updating. i don't want to wait forever for gingerbread for example. motorola is much more reliable for updating. and they are known for far better build quality. perhaps samsung will prove their worth with the galaxy line but until then, i'd vote for motorola.

 

[Gee223]

Lol? Since when do SAMOLED screens kill battery life?I thought they made it better..?? My friend has a captivate and he gets a day with heavy use. Also, if you put a SAMOLED screen next to a LCD, the LCD will look like complete garbage. Anyways, who acually uses the Hdmi port?...I think people just like to have it, but never use it. Go play with both phones and see which one you like better. It's personal preference.

Samoled does not make the LCD look like garbage, especially the X with its higher resolution and slightly better visibility in direct sunlight. The samoled has an extremely amazing contrast ratio though. Colors are notably more brilliant. Side by side it is a toss up to me.


With a Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Sega, and PS1 emulator paired with a wiimote not to mention Netflix, ornpay, and youtube hd, I'll use my HDMI out!

 

[jroc]

The TV Out on the Samsung phones is way better than the X HDMI out. With the Samsung phones, its a mirror of the phone on the TV. With the X, there is an app thats in beta that's close to it but not the same thing. The dev is working hard tho. Props to him.

And I agree. I dont think SAmoled makes the X LCD look like garbage. They both have pros n cons. In the end its what con can u live with the most.

And I still prefer LCD...

The Amoled killing battery life is probably in reference to that web browsing battery test. All the Amoleds did bad. The testers explained it was due to web pages having white backgrounds. Some folks made comments about there being a brightness setting in the browser for the Samsung phones....

Android Battery Test Reveals Droid X Lasts Longest, AMOLED Handsets Trail

But....the standby time for these Samsung phones is amazing. Just like with every product, each has its pros n cons. Its which cons can u live with the most.

 

[Tanknspank]

The stand by time might have to do with the .l100 mhz minimum clock speed.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

 

[Gee223]

If the Samsung did HD out, it would be a harder choice for me. Both are fully certified badass phones though. Pick one and enjoy killing iphones with it. They will not disappoint!

 

[Alex.DF]

the difference?
Sense UI - find contact and call: 1 Step
DX/Android - find contact and call: 4 Steps

Press the Search button, begin typing in contact's name. Try it.

 

[bobthebob]

hey alex - thanks, but I did try it (of course).
problem is - when I do that it does some kind of wide ranging pseudo-google search and I get all kinds of ****ed up results and very few contacts.

example: just hit the search key typed in "Lisa" and got back one friend of mine called Lisa - then a random Internet link for "lisa ling" (no such person in my contacts) then another 2 Lisa's then some random garbage.
don't even get - ahem - my *girlfriend's* number (another Lisa) and she's in my favorites. they also aren't in any order that I can see and there's a few more missing Lisa's missing as well (lot of Lisa's in my life).

anyway - to do what I want the DX needs some help - so I went searching and I found 2 very good apps that do EXACTLY what I wanted:

SpellDial - a very simple no-frills app that does t9 style keypad filtering

and the powerhouse Dialer One.

Dialer One is really the answer since it will offer to substitute for your stock dialer and is extremely customizable (SpellDialer only dials, no one tap SMS/Email etc).

SpellDialer still retains a special place in my heart since I find it first but truthfully I am using Dialer One now and I'm finally happy with the DX *as a phone*!

(BTW Both Dialer One and SpellDialer are free)

re: the original topic, I'll say this: now that I've got the DX acting like *I* want it to I'm ALOT happier with this phone.

the only thing that really would lure me away is the size factor. I have big hands and even I find that I can't use the DX one handed - at least not easily.

I personally think the LCD looks *better* than the AMOLED (or whatever) screen I compared it with on the t-mobile Vibrant, also better in direct sunlight as far as I could tell.

and my friend's Vibrant doesn't hold it's charge nearly as long - under real world conditions (hardly a definitive or rigorous test, I know) my DX has been lasting me 14+ hours and still has juice when I plug it in at night. and that's with me geeking out on it every 5 minutes (new toy!)

but again Apples vs Oranges - I won't know for sure until the Fascinate comes out (hopefully Sept 9), by then I may be completely sold on my DX tho.

I've only had it for 3 days now!

cheers,
bennett

PS also I find it strange that the DX's battery - at only 1540mha - can power this 4.3" monster all day and then some, but that the Incredible's 1500mha batter can't power it's smaller screen for more than 6 hours (without a lot of help).

 

[Guyute]

Lol? Since when do SAMOLED screens kill battery life?I thought they made it better..?? My friend has a captivate and he gets a day with heavy use. Also, if you put a SAMOLED screen next to a LCD, the LCD will look like complete garbage. Anyways, who acually uses the Hdmi port?...I think people just like to have it, but never use it. Go play with both phones and see which one you like better. It's personal preference.

I use the HDMI out. In fact I have the dock set up at my media center in my living room and it comes in handy to show videos and pics of my 4 month old. Just look around the forum, plenty of people use it.

 

[Alex.DF]

Ah yes, sorry about that; I forgot to mention that you might want to go into Search settings and filter it however you want. Mine is currently only set to search through contacts and Google, so contacts usually get priority and appear first on the list. Sounds like you got around it already though, glad to hear that.

PS also I find it strange that the DX's battery - at only 1540mha - can power this 4.3" monster all day and then some, but that the Incredible's 1500mha batter can't power it's smaller screen for more than 6 hours (without a lot of help)

The battery life on this phone is amazing, I bought it thinking I would have to carry a charger with me all the time but it always makes it through the entire day, easily... good stuff.

 

[Johnly]

The x is hot...I am going Samsung though

 

[Gee223]

The Samsung is starting to look better to me after I heard a rumor about it being buy on get one free! I do need one for the wife too.

(I'm still getting the X though)

 

[Mule65]

Fascinate Bing Bash

Wow, Bing on Fascinate is a deal breaker at Engadget. What a shame!

Samsung Fascinate review

First -- we had a fairly extreme shock when we booted up this device for the first time. After some experiences with the "new" Android (that is, devices which have a much heavier carrier influence than Android's first wave), we've come to expect just about anything. However, what we found with the Fascinate still seems notable. The phone does not use Google as its default search. And it doesn't utilize Yahoo! either. No, the Fascinate search engine defaults to Bing. Bing is used for the homescreen widget. It is defaulted to in the browser. It is present across the device... and there's no way to choose a different search engine. Like, you know -- Google. When we pressed Verizon reps about this, they let us know in no uncertain terms that the stock engine is Bing without a second choice.

This was maddening to us. We don't have a personal issue with Bing, but it's not our engine of choice, and we'd be willing to bet that it's not yours either. Now, imagine buying an Android phone -- a Google phone -- only to discover that not only was Google not defaulted to as a search engine, it's not even an option! For us, this is actually a deal breaker. It's fine to throw a new choice a user's way, but to force them into using nothing but that choice seems pretty low. Even on the original iPhone you were given a choice between Google and Yahoo!. Here, you've got Bing unless you want to get hacking -- and most people actually don't want to get hacking. They just want to use their phones. Again, it's not that Bing is a bad search engine, but Google is the standard. If it's not even offered, what does that say?