Thinking about this upgrade. How is your call quality, clearity on your Samsung Fascinate?

[Gunit]

Hi,

Upgrading to driod 2 or Facinate,how is the call quaulity and clearity in the Fascinate? Need some real input.

Thank you

[tamtam1996]

Just got the Samsung Fascinate a week ago.  I live in the mountains and in an area where I go from the Verizon network to an extended network on a daily basis.  The call quality and clarity seem to be great on this phone.  It doesn't seem to drop calls and the 3G & mobile hotspot work great as well.  

Cons: I don't like the power button being located on the side of the phone or the fact that they stuck so many extra apps. on the phone that I will never use and cannot be removed (unless you root the phone, I guess). 

Pros: The phone processes very quickly and it has not locked up on me yet.  Compared to the Droid  and Droid X, this phone is very light weight.  The battery seems to hold out pretty well.  The on screen keyboard is a decent size and it has swype, which I love.  Basically, this seems to be a well put together phone and I definitely have no regrets in my purchase.

Hope this helps you out a little.

[MiMeQu21]

Overall, I think it is a great phone.  As with any mobile phone, you are not going to get everything you want.  There are some things that I wish were available on this phone, but overall, I am satisfied.

As for call clarity, I have read on other websites that noise cancellation and call clarity is an issue.  I have not noticed any problem.  The calls sound fine to me. 

Pros: Great screen; fast; lots of nice features; small.

Cons: wish it had a front facing camera as well as a rear camera; wish it had better notifications for missed calls and voicemails instead of a little icon up top (though you can download any number of apps to take care of this issue).

Not an issue: Bing.  You will read a lot of people upset that Bing is the default search engine on this phone and that this caused a lot of people to not purchase this phone.  For me, it is a non-issue.  You can still use Google.  I put a Google shortcut on my home page and that solved that problem.  But some people are upset that Verizon did not give you a choice.

If you like the phone and the only reason you don't like it is because of Bing, then to me, that is not enough of a reason to not buy the phone.  I tested out the Fascinate with the Droid X and Droid Incredible.  I liked all the phones.  For me, the Droid X was too big.  The guy at Verizon told me the Incredible had the worst battery life.  I had told him that I wanted to be able to get through at least the whole day without having to charge the phone until over night.  He said that if you used the internet, texted, etc. on a regular basis, then not to get the Incredible because of the battery life.  That, coupled with the features with the Fascinate, caused me to get that phone.

Overall, you will find things you like about each phone and things you dislike.  Go to the store, try them all out, watch some videos online that compare the phones (there are a ton of videos on line that compare the Fascinate, X, and Incredible phones to each other), and that should help you. 

[MiMeQu21]

Sorry, I forgot two "cons"

First, while not a big deal, I wish you could re-awaken the phone from its sleep without always having to press the on/off button.  It is on the side, and it does not protrude much, so I often don't hit it hard enough to turn it on.  I would have liked to see that you could turn the phone back on by hitting one of the buttons on the front of the phone, kind of like you can do with the iphone.

Second, while this has nothing to do with the phone, I wish Verizon had tiered data plans.  I don't need an unlimited data plan and I would rather pay less than $30 a month for a data plan. 

Not big issues, but I thought I would post them anyway.

[Chris3D3]

Call quality, I'd say was overall low due to an excessively loud sidetone (when the ear piece "plays back" what the mic picks up).  I find hearing yourself talk, breath, etc. to be very distracting.

Call clarity wasn't bad even though the signal strength was really low -106dBm and I'm in a fairly populated area with supposedly solid coverage, so it could be a weak antennae design.  A weak signal reportedly causes the radio to run at a higher power and subsequently deplete the battery quicker.  Even with very minimal use (meaning almost no e-mail/web and only a few short calls), the battery barely made a day.  I called Verizon and was told to stand near a window or outside to improve signal strength

As for the phone overall?  Hardware is great, software has a lot of bugs.  GPS issues are widely reported - won't get a position fix for 10+ minutes, and sometimes refuses to get a fix at all. 

Bing issues are widely reported.  Despite what Verizon claims, the phone as been specifically programmed to BLOCK the use of the Google search widget.  You have to run a 3rd party launcher to regain that functionality. 

Bloatware abounds, some apps actively nag for the user to sign up for monthly services (CityID), none of which can be disabled or uninstalled.  

In the end, despite the great hardware, the experience was marred by buggy software, Verizon's panhandling and force-feeding of their pre-install deals with other companies.

I returned my phone pending the resolution of at least a majority of these issues.

[bugg1116]

I just got the Fascinate a week ago and so far I love it.

Call Quality - Where is am (Ohio) it's exceptionally more clear than my BB Curve

Hardware - Lightweight, some say the back panel feels cheep, I think it feels light and comfortable. Side buttons are a small annoyance that I'll get used to.

Software - Very fast and no freezes so far. I hate the calendar (but I am kinda anal about that). You can't view attachments directly from email and mms and sms come through on the same talk bubble thread (bb didn't do that). Also cannot switch apps easily like on the BB. However, you can set a lot of alarms

Bloatware - Annoys the heck out of me but i am sure you'll have that on any Verizon phone. Kindle, Blockbuster, NFS, Tetris, Skype. They could have at least put in a Feed Reader

Accessories - I thought I would love the bedside cradle, but getting some info about screen burns that i don't like and I don't like the fact that you can only have AP mobile or Yahoo Finance for the Daily Briefing so I may take it back and just charge as usual. Also you can't use the cradle while the phone is in the Belt Clip Case, or any case which sucks because the transparent cases are very difficult to get off and break, and the belt case feels like it might break each time you take it on and off.

Battery - seems awesome so far. played with phone for almost 10 hours straight before i had to change the battery. I really like the extra battery charger

Immediately - Get the Advanced Task Killer, cause some apps run constantly, and there is no easy way to close them. Get KeePass for password management.

[LandLockedPH]

Coming from T-mobile and Blackberry took some getting used to on Verizon.  Having experienced both GSM and CDMA, I am not a fan of CDMA due to the limitations on simultaneous voice and data.  That being said... I suffered for four months with the HTC Incredible which was a great device - just a lousy phone.  Call quality was always an issue.  The Fascinate on the other hand has excellent call quality - approaching that of the BB Curve I had for two years.

Two things - Advanced Task Killer is not necessary or recommended.  Samsung includes its own "program monitor".  Try that before installing any task killer apps that can cause all kinds of issues if not used correctly.

Second - if you don't like the Desk Cradle (and I agree with bugg1116 on that), try One NightStand from the Android Market.  Lots of great features and an excellent alternative.

Oh and another thing... Bing is a non-issue.  You can easily download Google Voice Search, Maps and Navigation from the Market.  Create a shortcut to Google Search in your browser, if you'd like.  This issue will be resolved when Froyo is released.  Verizon has stated that Google Search will be the default with 2.2.

Good luck

[MiMeQu21]

Just to add some more thoughts...

I agree with some of the posters.  I have not noticed any call/sound quality issues yet.  The voice quality is clear to me.

I too did not download Advanced Task Killer.  The Task Manager app that comes on the Fascinate works fine for me.  It is very easy to go in there and turn off any apps that are running in the background.

Again, as I stated above, Bing is a non-issue to me.  I made a shortcut on my front screen that takes me right to Google in my browser.  While I too prefer Google to Bing, I don't see the big deal with the phone having a Bing search bar instead of a Google search bar.  You can still use Google and you can still set up your phone to get you to Google fast.  Whether the 2.2 update will allow you to use Google or not (I have read varying reports), there is nothing to stop you from putting a shortcut on your phone to get to Google.  Plus, you can still download Google Maps.