Great phone! Fascinating!

Love this phone. Have used for about a month now. Crossing over from Blackberry to Android has taken a little time to get used to, but overall a great experience. The screen on this phone is outstanding, as well as the size of the phone and screen. Didn't think I could live without a physical qwerty keyboard, but no problems with the touch screen and swype is outstanding. Bing is not a deal breaker on this phone, although I would prefer to be able to remove verizon nav and other apps without rooting - hopefully 2.2 update or higher will come soon. Not having a led indicator was an issue at first, but using NoLed app has solved that. Batery life has been good, but I don't surf or stream a ton. I have watched .avi and listened to audio books without any problems, and haven't had to use the two spare batteries I bought. I also haven't evperienced any issues with the GPS - and have used with everytrail while hiking, and geocaching. I had a hard case on the phone, and friends told me that it was hard to hear me and I sounded funny, removed the case and the problem was solved - I had the same issue on my BB due to location of small mic. Overall I am thrilled with the phone.

Prons: super amoled screen, swype, size, speed. Cons: no led (minor with work around app), no front facing camera (again - minor), occassional issues mounting to my mac, but has only happened a couple of times, small mic on bottom of phone, slow to get Froyo update.

Overall Pros outweigh the cons in my experience. After seeing and experiencing this phone, there just wasn't another phone (droid x, incredible, evo) out there at the time that could match it and I had to have it.

Good phone but still a far cry from the iPhone

I got this phone because my company uses Verizon and until apple releases the iPhone Verizon, I found this to be the best choice. The phone is great. The slim design and AMOLED screen is awesome, very light weight and fun to use. This version of the droid software on the phone is a smooth operator. Far better than MotoBlur on the Droid X. The camera is OK, even though it has a high pixel count the quality is still pretty inferior to the iPhone. You can have all the pixels in the world, but with out a good lens... meh. Swype texting is great, but I think everyone should understand that this has come in place of autocorrect. It's either Swype or text by tap with no autocorrect.

Also, coming from a Droid prior to this phone, the lack of GoogleMaps is a big downfall. Now, there is Verizon Navigator, for which you have to pay a monthly fee. I found this out the hard way while lost in big city and trying to pull it up only to find that I was going to have to pay $10 a month if i wanted to use it. Boo.

Probably the biggest downfall for me is the lack of a good media application. VCAST, is beyond the shadow of a doubt a far inferior program compared to iTunes. Verizon seeks to have you download all of your music to your phone and have it stay there and this very counterintuitive. I have several devices and when I download a song I enjoy the ability to share it with my other devices. I have an iPhone as my personal phone and it is very convenient to be able to download a song on it, upload it to my computer then load it on my iPod classic. You really just can't do this easily on with Verizon's VCAST. First off, its slow. In a side by side comparison previewing the same song I had already heard iTunes' 30 second preview while VCAST was stil "connecting". Secondly, its ugly. Yeah, it looks cheap and like it was coded by a really drunk Lindsey Lohan. Third, the navigation is annoying at best. I had a razor a few years ago and honestly I still feel like I'm running on that when a search for AC/DC and it takes an hour to complete and that's before you find the search bar. And finally, its a bitch to get the music off the phone. I had to download a special program just to be able to get a song off of the memory card and in to my iTunes. It's just way too much trouble. When I buy a song I feel like I should be able to play that song on any device I also own with out having to buy it two or three times. Sometimes people complain about the 99 cent songs on iTunes, but at least this is a luxury you have when downloading songs from iTunes.

Still, the phone is not without its qualities. If you are in need of a phone and don't care for an iPhone then I would encourage you to look at this phone. It is a pretty good one in spite of OS and carrier flaws.

Great Smartphone!

Love this phone! Works great, all the features are easy to understand and use. The functionality is very intuitive. After about two weeks, I'm still very happy with my purchase. It usually only takes a couple of days for me to figure out how much I'm going to like a new gadget, so you'll understand how great this phone must be for me to still be happy with it after two weeks of ownership.

I upgraded from the Droid Eris, or what I like to call "the perfect starter smartphone." I enjoyed the Eris very much, but was ready to upgrade. I chose the Fascinate because it had a few new features and had a larger screen. I am very pleased with my selection.

However, there are two things I don't like about the phone. But they are both so minor, I hate to mention them. I just hope a developer will see this and my comments can help design a better phone.

Here are my issues:

One, that you have to push a button on the side of the phone to "wake" it is annoying. The button you have to push is on the opposite side of the phone as the volume buttons. I usually end up adjusting some sort of volume each time I "wake" up the phone.

Two, that there is no trackball of any sort for quick navigation is also annoying. If there were arrow options on the keyboards offered, this wouldn't be such a problem. So, you have to hope your finger hits the right place if you want to place the cursor in a new spot. I have chubby little fingers, so it's been a problem for me. I usually just let the typos go, and that makes my OCD very sad.

Pros:
large screen
weight (very light)
intuitive functionality
fast processor speed
expandable memory slot (micro SD)
comes with Swype installed
native apps for mail and messaging are easy to use (better than Eris)
speaker doesn't distort too badly when using speaker-phone

Cons:
"wake" up button on side opposite volume buttons
no trackball or arrows for fast navigation

Facinate, I love it!

I've had every kind of mobile phone since they came in a "bag". This phone is the first technology that delivers on it's promise. I was a long time Windows phone user and the Android system rocks. It was a stuggle at first to integrate the Android with my MS office, but now I am running smooth, using both. The Android is not quite there for business application compared to MS Office (Outlook), but it won't be long. I am a real estate agent, so data and communication is my business. I am amazed at the voice recognition technology and how accurate it is, even in a noisey environment. It is truely Star Trek. the one thing I am not pleased with is that Android phones are not supplied with "super user", so an owner can add and remove programs at root level. The phone I purchased was a "Verizon" phone in another life, I use Cricket. I cannot remove the "Verizon" mobile hot spot and add a third party hot spot App, without "hacking" or "rooting" the phone to add "super user". I think consumer pressure needs to be applied that when you buy a phone, you should have access to all the phones features.

Great touchscreen smartphone.

This product is great. Definitely better than having a blackberry. The lcd is very sharp and the phone is amazingly thin and light.
The only bad thing about the phone is that the only way to get the screen/unlock screen is by pressing the side power button. This feature has been changed on the "charge 4g LTE" as there is buttons.
But for the price of 200 dollars without a contract, this phone is exceptional.
Great wifi, fast internet browsing (almost as fast as my laptop when connected to same internet).

Cons:
1) side power button being only way to unlock phone
2) does not connect to a macbook, only a pc
3) Speaker is a little scratchy, but can get very loud

Pros:
1) Fast processor
2) No lagging when sliding through widgets
3) multi-tasking task manager to end programs
4) simple to root, just look online for info --> it took me three min.
5) phone takes 20 seconds to turn on.
6) now has froyo from verizon.
7) rich Amoled display
8) big keyboard, with very fast and sensitive response time, unlike some other android
devices.
9) Fast email.
10) fast browser
11) Huge screen, definitely makes a difference from the iphone