This week, we received a brand new Samsung Fascinate at Droid Bros. HQ. As you may know, the Samsung Fascinate is Verizon Wireless’ entry in the Galaxy S series of Android handsets. We’ve spent the last few days exploring the device and using it during our daily routines. It’s been a while since we’ve seen an Android handset on Verizon that is not marketed under the DROID brand. In fact, the Samsung Fascinate appears to be being marketed toward the high-end featurephone customer. What makes the Fascinate unique among Big Red’s considerable Android lineup? Read on after the break and find out the answer to this and more.

First Impressions

Similarly to the Droid X, we were both immediately struck by how little the phone weighs. Clocking in at 118 grams (4.2 oz), Fascinate weighs even less than the slightly smaller Nexus One. The device feels neither too big nor too small for the hand, but feels as though it may slip at any time; this is due to the lack of the soft-touch, rubberized coating on most Android phones. Rather, the bulk of the Fascinate is plastic, with an all-glass façade and a thin metallic rim around the edge of the phone. The plastic casing leaves the phone more prone to slipping than, for example, the HTC Droid Incredible. Looking at the device, we feel we cannot avoid drawing the inevitable comparison between the Fascinate’s design and that of the older iPhones. It is clear the inspiration for this phone’s lines and looks originated in Cupertino.

Hardware

One of the major distinguishing features of the Fascinate (and the other Galaxy S models), and a major selling point, is the 4.0” Super AMOLED display. The Galaxy S series, in general, is being targeted toward HD media consumers and it’s easy to see why. Capable of displaying 720p HD video, the phone’s display is bursting with vibrant colors and rich, deep blacks. A common complaint regarding AMOLED displays is difficulty viewing them in daylight. Samsung’s Super AMOLED technology rectifies by reducing the number of layers in the screen; this also results in a lower overall weight.

The Fascinate is powered by a 1 GHz Samsung Hummingbird processor, and includes 512 MB of RAM in addition to 2 GB onboard storage. The PowerVR SGX 540 graphics processor is currently one of the fastest available, and handles 3D applications and games with ease. This combination of hardware results in speedy performance, although we did notice some stuttering, particularly in places it wouldn’t be expected — for example, when turning the phone’s display on and off, swiping through menus, and launching applications.

Surrounding the screen is a body that, unfortunately, does not quite meet the build quality of similarly-priced Android devices. In contrast to the mature, industrial designs we have grown accustomed to, the Samsung Fascinate feels cheap. The entire back cover is a single piece of thin plastic, which feels as if it could be snapped in half easily while being removed. This is in contrast even to other Galaxy S models, such as AT&T’s Captivate, which has a metal battery cover. The included 16 GB MicroSD card rests beneath the battery cover, but can be removed without pulling the battery.

The SD card can be removed without pulling the battery

Around the edges of the phone are the various controls you would expect to find, albeit perhaps not where you’d expect. The power button, for instance, has been relocated from its usual place atop the phone to the right side of the screen, opposite the volume rocker on the left. There is no dedicated camera button. Along the top of the phone is a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a Micro-USB port protected by a small sliding door. We like this door — we were pleased to find it was not a simple rubber swivel tab as on the original G1, but a sturdy little door that slides horizontally into the phone to reveal the port. However, we’re not too thrilled with its placement along the top edge of the device, as we feel it makes the device awkward to handle while plugged in. The device lacks a notification LED, which we found irritating, as it has been a standard feature of Android handsets from the very beginning. Seeing at a glance what sort of notification is waiting has always been one of the most convenient aspects of Android, and we did not appreciate this lack of basic functionality.

This phone suffers from shyness. It does not know how to speak up. The external speaker on this device is surprisingly quiet. Watching YouTube videos had us leaning our heads in, trying to listen. The earpiece itself, however, is not an issue. Audio came through crisply and clearly, with minimal buzz.

The Fascinate, like all Galaxy S phones, features a 5-megapixel autofocus camera, although it lacks the front-facing camera featured on international Galaxy S handsets, and Sprint’s Epic 4G. Like the Epic 4G, the Fascinate includes an LED flash. We found the camera, which features a custom UI, to be responsive and snappy. The shutter time is about one second, and lag time between shots is non-existent. Samsung’s reworked UI makes it easy to switch between various focus, lighting, and flash settings. An on-screen display indicates the remaining capacity for photos, and the remaining time for video.

The photos themselves are clear, although there are some compression artifacts. Essentially, this phone has a great camera, but it’s still a phone camera, and you can tell.

The Fascinate's camera takes very good photos

Aaron: I am not a fan of the Fascinate’s plastic body. I would much prefer a more robust, metallic build. That being said, the phone feels decent in my hand and were I to drop it, I don’t think it would shatter into a billion pieces.

Brandon:The Fascinate’s internals make it a worthy competitor to other high-end Android devices. The flimsy body and lack of a notification light aren’t show stoppers, but are worth mentioning. Also, as a left-handed person, I found myself inadvertently pressing the volume rocker when using the power switch on the opposite side of the handset.

GPS

The Galaxy S series is notorious for inaccurate GPS, often unable to create a satellite lock in situations where other devices suffer no issues. We found this to be the case with the Samsung Fascinate. Indoors the handset appeared incapable of locking on at all — at one point, it went just over two minutes without finding a lock before we continued on with other tests. Outdoors, the GPS was finally able to find a satellite and link up with it, if inconsistently, and it took anywhere from 15 to 45 seconds to do so, if it did at all. Once a lock was established, however, it seemed to remain stable.

Software

The Samsung Fascinate is currently running Android 2.1 (Eclair), buried somewhere beneath the TouchWiz 3.0 UI. Some of you may remember one of Samsung’s earlier forays into Android: the Behold II on T-Mobile. This phone ran an earlier iteration of TouchWiz, largely considered the single worst OEM Android modification due to its sloppy design choices, and buggy implementation. Samsung has clearly taken the criticism of their earlier attempts to heart; the new TouchWiz is far less intrusive and drastically better looking.

While TouchWiz may seem like a purely cosmetic modification, briefly using the device will show any familiar Android user that this is not the case. TouchWiz replaces or modifies several of the core applications in the operating system, like Messaging, Contacts, Calendar, etc. For example, Samsung’s Clock app functions not only as an alarm, but also provides a stopwatch, world clock, and a timer. Some of the changes to stock apps are not as welcome. We spent several hours under the impression that the advanced functions were removed from Fascinate’s Calculator, until we discovered that they are only visible when in landscape mode. In addition, Verizon has made VZ Navigator the default GPS navigator on the phone, although the user can still download Google Maps from the Market, which includes Google Navigation.

Let it be said that TouchWiz is very blue. While HTC’s SenseUI has a healthy yet tasteful green motif throughout, and MOTOBLUR makes good use of red in place of Android’s stock orange, Samsung seems to have tried to cram as much blue as possible into their UI. Highlights are blue, icons are blue, popups are blue, menu subtitles are shockingly teal — but progress bars, those are green.

Samsung has replaced the default Voice Search app with Nuance voice commands, which provides the Fascinate with the same set of voice commands found on many Verizon featurephones. Interestingly, our review unit also included the stock Voice Search app, but we believe this may be in error — we could not look up Voice Search in the Market, and even following a QR code to the application turned up nothing. We are not thrilled with this decision.

TouchWiz features a more robust -- and more blue -- Clock app

Samsung has purged Android of many widgets. The only stock widgets that were included with the Fascinate were Search (Bing, not Google), Data Usage, Picture Frame, Power Control, and YouTube. The News & Weather, Music, Calendar, and the original Analog Clock are all absent. Samsung has added several of their own widgets, comprised largely of various styles of clocks — no less than ten different clock widgets, in fact. In addition to the extensive clock collection, there is also a Task Manager widget, as well as a Buddies, Daily Briefing (includes weather, stocks, news), and Feeds & Updates. In addition, several of the settings found on the Power Control widget are no present in the notification shade. This is a nice addition, however we would prefer the option to disable this.

Featurephone?
Verizon has taken an odd approach with the Fascinate: rather than market it as a high-end “DROID” smartphone, we think the Fascinate is being marketed toward the featurephone consumer. Despite the presence of the Android OS and Market, Verizon has loaded the phone with several VCAST apps, selling such wares as music, ringtones, and video clips. This appears to be little more than a bid to remain relevant as a media marketplace in a time when the smartphone carrier is becoming little more than a data pipe.

We can’t say we’re thrilled with the presence of these apps, especially considering they cannot be easily removed without root access. In fact, several of the included apps aren’t actually installed, but show up in the app drawer anyway. When they are first opened, you are prompted to install them. Funnily enough, when we first opened VZ Navigator, a notice appeared indicating that an upgrade was available. In order to install the upgrade, the user is instructed to enable software installation from “Unknown sources” in the phone’s settings, demonstrating Verizon’s desire to sidestep the Android Market and remain the user’s primary source for phone-based media.

Samsung appears to have taken some steps to take the Android out of Android. While HTC and Motorola have modified the UI while remaining true to the core Android user experience, TouchWiz abandons several standard Android UI expectations. For example, the standard app drawer has been replaced with a horizontally-scrolling menu that closely resembles the iPhone’s. In fact, TouchWiz superficially resembles iOS in many ways, all the way down to the rounded square corners surrounding app icons. We can’t help but feel that this is done in an effort to try and draw iPhone users over to the TouchWiz platform, and to facilitate the leap from featurephones to smartphones.

TouchWiz borrows many visual elements from iOS

A Note on Bing
Most of you have probably heard of the Bing situation regarding the Fascinate: Verizon has replaced Google with Bing as the device’s default search engine, and there is no way to change this. The Search widget has been replaced with a Bing search widget, and the Search voice command utilizes Bing rather than Google. In fact, we could not even find the Google Search app on the Market.
Addendum: Verizon has made it clear that Google Search will be restored as an option with the Fascinate’s 2.2 update.

Aaron: As an Android purist, I much prefer the stock Android experience to the multitude of manufacturer UIs now available. I don’t have a problem with cosmetic theming, or alterations that add functionality, but Samsung has made changes seemingly for the sake of making changes. I do not find TouchWiz 3.0 to be tasteful; however, it is far more visually consistent than, say, Blur on the Droid X.

Brandon: I’m not thrilled with the presence of VCAST apps on this phone. Yes, they’ve been available on all previous VZW Android devices, but always as optional downloads from the Verizon section of the Android Market. Preinstalling VCAST apps with no easy method of removal feels like simply using up part of the advertised storage space in order to increase media sales. At least the Android Market remains available for the user, especially considering this is not a “DROID” handset.

Final Thoughts

While the Samsung Fascinate is in no way a game-changer, it is a welcome addition to Verizon’s Android lineup. TouchWiz notwithstanding, the phone runs Android 2.1 (with 2.2 coming) and provides a solid user experience. The internals are impressive and the phone runs snappily despite some minor hiccups. Would we recommend the Samsung Fascinate to you? If a hardware keyboard is not important to you, and if you don’t necessarily prefer a stock Android experience, the Galaxy S series of smartphones is definitely worth your consideration and is a valuable addition to Verizon’s Android lineup.