Like most people, I didn’t know I needed a smart phone until I got one. Within twenty minutes of owning one, I knew my life would never be the same.
“Oh? There’s an email on that? Let me see..” BAM! Read it on my Smart Phone
“You need that phone number? I’ll Google it for you…” ZOOM! Googled on my Smart Phone
“Did I see it on Facebook? Hang on….” POOF! Up-to-date on my Smart Phone.
My husband and I both got an iPhone 3G last fall, and unless the world actually stops rotating, we won’t be going back to “regular phones”. Ever.
Last week though, I did get the opportunity to broaden my Smart Phone horizon, and for the next month, I”ll be seeing what Verizon has to offer on the Smart Phone front. Through local blogging connections, I was able to get hooked up with a Samsung Fascinate to use through the holiday season. And the Fascinate did just that — within minutes I was navigating all around the Android Marketplace, and setting up my screens.
The set up of the Fascinate is very similar to my iPhone, and I’m sure even closer to an iPhone 4. It has video capabilities, and the camera has a flash. The entire face of the phone is a touch screen, even the home and return buttons (which are not on the display screen, but below it). It’s battery life is amazing, even when the screen brightness is on BRIGHT. So far, it’s been fairly intuitive, and when in doubt, hitting home button gets me back to a familiar place.
The Fascinate offers seven screens to scroll through, and then another four screens in the Applications folder. Most of the Applications are able to be put right on one of the seven main screens. One thing I really like about it is that for social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, there’s a box to update your status in the icon that is on the home screen. This saves time and can prevent getting sucked into the application when all you really wanted to do was update your friends on the status of your Christmas shopping or whatever. So far, I’ve only encountered one disappointing thing about the Fascinate– the inability to take an instant screen shot. In looking up what I would have to do, it seems a bit involved, and I’m not sure it would even work on my MacBook, since the directions are written for a PC.
If you are looking for a Smart Phone and want to stick with Verizon, spend some time getting to know the Fascinate.
Disclosure: Verizon Wireless is providing me with a one month trial of the Samsung Fascinate, complete with phone service and data plan. I won’t lie, it’s cool. But the opinions, and any tech snafus, that’s all me.