My brother is in the market for a new smartphone, so QUICK, tell me your opinions/experiences with this "Fascinating phone"
Overall it's a good phone however Samsung has not been updating the phone and as a result you will be dependent on community for upgrades...
The stock filesystem and gps drivers were ****ty and Samsung did not really deal with the issue as fast as they should have.
The effects were bad gps lock meaning you could not get an accurate read if at all for location based apps and performance below what the hardware should be capable of.
As of late the gps has been solved and if your willing to root your phone you can update your filesystem to remove additional lag and upgrade to a newer version of Android OS.
Considering the phone price has dropped in price its good but if you can hold out do so as the phone is roughly 6 months old meaning something better dual core or 4g, lte, is coming out very soon and you will be locked in for another 2 years
I would wait for the HTC Thunderbolt. It's suppose to come out in the next couple of weeks. It'll be a better option than the Fascinate.
If you need a phone today, then I would recommend the Fascinate but only if you are planning on rooting it and using custom ROMs. The stock fascinate doesn't even come with Google search. It comes with the MS Bing and you can't change that unless you root and install some Mods.
If you're not planning on rooting and Modding the phone, then I would recommend the Droid X.
i agree with modus, it's a great phone if you plan on rooting and modding it. even the droidx can be rooted and modded though, i was debating between the fascinate and the droidx when i needed a new phone a few months ago. the fascinate's screen is much better, in my opinion, at handling color saturation and sharpness when i compared it to my friend's droidx. i feel like the camera is better too, even though the mp count is lower. i think we have a better image sensor
modus81 said:
It comes with the MS Bing and you can't change that unless you root and install some Mods.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't need to root to get google and the google search widget back on the phone, you just need to use Launcher Pro instead of Touch Wiz.
Hi guys, I am Syed Ahsan Ali Gardazi from Pakistan. Heard of this site from a friend of mine he said you guys could help.
I am really new to this Android business, so I have a Galaxy s II, with Android 2.3.5 and its model is GT-I9100T. I wanted to know that should I upgrade my android software to 4.0 or ICS? Will the apps of later versions work on the current version. Is there any difference in power or RAM consumption? What is the most optimum Android software for GS II?? And it would really help to know some good apps for the device, useful apps not games and stuff (God knows I have enough of those ). In general I want to stay up with the world and I also want the optimum for my mobile but I don't wanna slow it down.
Please I am in dire need of help!!!!!!!!!!!:crying::crying::crying::crying:
Stop *****ing and try reading...
Goku: How can androids have babies?
Dude search first before posting a thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1046748
Also note that u have a i9100T...so read before flashing I9100 stuff
Goku: How can androids have babies?
Gardazi said:
Hi guys, I am Syed Ahsan Ali Gardazi from Pakistan. Heard of this site from a friend of mine he said you guys could help.
I am really new to this Android business, so I have a Galaxy s II, with Android 2.3.5 and its model is GT-I9100T. I wanted to know that should I upgrade my android software to 4.0 or ICS? Will the apps of later versions work on the current version. Is there any difference in power or RAM consumption? What is the most optimum Android software for GS II?? And it would really help to know some good apps for the device, useful apps not games and stuff (God knows I have enough of those ). In general I want to stay up with the world and I also want the optimum for my mobile but I don't wanna slow it down.
Please I am in dire need of help!!!!!!!!!!!:crying::crying::crying::crying:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should see this post before updating:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/archive/index.php/t-1511578.html
I updated my GT-i9100 to ICS (ice cream sandwitch) a.k.a android 4.0.x a few days ago and all my apps remained intact. Still some of them did not work anymore. Like "loops". I tried to reinstall it and it said cannot install on usb drive or sd card. I found a simple solution googleing it. Just unmount the sd card and install the app, it will work, then you can mount the sd card back. It must be a 4.0.3 issue.
You could try flashing 4.0.4 or even jellybean 4.1. If you find it works for your model.
So i havent found any app that does not work on this new version. Except for iHelicopter which has a 1 second delay on sending the control commands to the helicopter, so i cant really use it anymore, but i guess its the developers fault.
About the performance... i would say that its a lot better. A game called crime city runs a lot smoother now for example.
You should try the go launcher ex, which i use, or maybe other launchers instead of the tw launcher.
Root your phone and install super manager and os monitor or some other app of this sort to see what really goes on in the backround like running services. That way you can uninstall apps or disable services that you dont need and uselessly consume power, then you will have a fair battery life. I only have ics for a few days now and i cant really compare the battery life yet, but i dont see any drastic change.
And about the ram: unused ram is wasted ram. If you exit apps they remain in ram in sleep mode they dont consume power, but on reopening they save some startup energy needed.
Other cool apps:
Hackers keyboard
Pudding camera
Android sensor box
Sensor music player
Flashlight
Google sky
Nasa
==================================
Sent from GT-i9100 running ICS 4.0.3 using xda-developers app
Thanks guys
Thanks alot guys you were great help specially you Frank, you sorted out all my problems so this morning I rooted my phone and installed android 4.0.3 on it and I love it. Its awesome. There was no differemce in the apps just the whole outlook changed. Loved almost all the apps you posted but i have a wee problem with the sensor music player: I type horizontaly and so all of a sudden music turns on. I saw that my RAM went from 250 mb to 330 when i am not using any stuff. Also I felt that the battery consumption only rose a bit. Thankn you guys you were real help. Cheers.
P.s I am a star gazer too : ): ): )
First Questions belong in Q&A not General. Second Search & Read before making a thread or posting in general. Locked and moved
Never had a sony phone before and was able to get a z ultra new unlocked for 150(great deal) love the phone but noticed when i play certain games they always crash. Mainly Family Guy quest for Stuff. I know this game is buggy but have no problems playing it on a cheap zte zinger phone but when i play on z ultra it always force closes after about a minute. Moved it to SD card and that doesnt help, could it be that i need to free up some of the ram? if so How do i disable apps from constantly running even if they arent open or any other suggestions you guys have. Great phone love it and really love playing Family Guy for the screen size but dont know what I have to do to my phone to make it work.
Is it force closing with a "Unfortunately, x app was closed" or just returning to launcher?
Regards
Keeps returning to launcher. Don't know why especially since it runs fine on my 30 dollar zte zinger phone
xxfirerican said:
Keeps returning to launcher. Don't know why especially since it runs fine on my 30 dollar zte zinger phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would think its a memory issue, the only game that crashes for me is mc5
Yup, low memory, are you using stock ROM? Customs have better RAM management, especially AOSP ones, like Scrubber's port of GP edition ROM.
Regards
Yea stock rom. Have no idea how to flash a rom or root phone. Any guides for newbies? I hary have any apps on this phone so disappointed that it has memory issues already
xxfirerican said:
Yea stock rom. Have no idea how to flash a rom or root phone. Any guides for newbies? I hary have any apps on this phone so disappointed that it has memory issues already
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What version of Android are you on
RealityFails said:
What version of Android are you on
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
android 5.0
5.0.2 to be exact are there really memory issues with this version that would cause this?
Sony has fixed the memory leak that appears to be in LP, Sony apps and services are very resource hungry, some Google services as well. You can try to disable some of them but do it with caution as it can end in a bootloop, there is a topic in Themes and apps section with which apps can be disabled.
Regards
I have a Galaxy S2 phone (running Ice-Cream-Sandwich), but i flashed a larger 'System partition' and 'Data partition' ( 1GB & 6GB respectively ), which is much larger than the Stock version.
Ok, imagine this comparison:
THREE identical GalaxyS2 phones:
* 1st phone: Adroid 4.0.3 (Ice-Cream-Sandwich), running Nova Launcher.
* 2nd phone: Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean), running Nova Launcher.
* 3rd phone: Android 5 (Lollipop), running Nova Launcher.
in ALL 3 cases, i will be using Nova Launcher. So my Visual experience will be identical.
so, what is the point of bothering to upgrade the Phone OS ?
- as far as I have heard, upgrading OS on the Galaxy S2 will slow down my phone anyway.
is there something I have missed ?
easybullet3 said:
I have a Galaxy S2 phone (running Ice-Cream-Sandwich), but i flashed a larger 'System partition' and 'Data partition' ( 1GB & 6GB respectively ), which is much larger than the Stock version.
Ok, imagine this comparison:
THREE identical GalaxyS2 phones:
* 1st phone: Adroid 4.0.3 (Ice-Cream-Sandwich), running Nova Launcher.
* 2nd phone: Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean), running Nova Launcher.
* 3rd phone: Android 5 (Lollipop), running Nova Launcher.
in ALL 3 cases, i will be using Nova Launcher. So my Visual experience will be identical.
so, what is the point of bothering to upgrade the Phone OS ?
- as far as I have heard, upgrading OS on the Galaxy S2 will slow down my phone anyway.
is there something I have missed ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'll be less vulnerable to security hole that has been patch up in latest OS. There have been numerous report about hacker able to steal your phone data back on 4.0-4.2.
Also new features and possible bug fixes. Your question is like why to buy a new car when your 20 years old is the same color, it has 4 doors as well, etc.
By the way, pretty bad approach judging an os by just the visual appearance. Furthermore i don't believe samsung did not change the UI at least slightly between those versions. Not to mention the UI is not just your launcher.
Just one big change between 4.x and 5.x - in the latter, the apps run in ART, before they ran in dalvik. Art supposed to be faster as - and i don't remember exactly the technical details - but the code is pre-translated when they are installed and not upon run-time.
There can be no comparison of what launcher you have on what phone compared to what OS version it has.
I've used several phones over the last 18 months, the one I bought off eBay running android 4.0.4 ice cream sandwich was c***.
I then had several phones running 4.1 or 4.2 jelly bean, these where better, much more "stable"
I have a galaxy s1 running 5.1.1 lollipop, and a brand new moto e purchased with 4.4.4 kitkat but now upgraded to 5.1.1 lollipop and by co insistence I run nova too, and as far as I'm concerned, lollipop is streets ahead of anything else, with kit kat a close second, but my opinion is not based on what launcher each phone has, its based on a range of variables, calling, texting, ease of use, bugs, music, and internet browsing.
Running the latest software means a device is less vulnerable to security issues, will be running at peak performance and small bugs will be fixed.
For anyone to say I have three phones running nova so I don't need to update to a newer software is quite frankly naive, stupid and irresponsible, but that's your choice and just my opinion, its a bit silly to judge latest OS but how it looks, remember how it looks is just one small thing, Samsung haven't changed touchwiz much since the year dot have they?
I prefer a stock look on any phone I use that's why I went for a moto e, flashed omni ROM on my s1 and run nova to get rid of the awful touchwiz and run the latest OS on my phones.
Sent from my Moto E using XDA Free mobile app
Reidwan said:
You'll be less vulnerable to security hole that has been patch up in latest OS. There have been numerous report about hacker able to steal your phone data back on 4.0-4.2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ivan39 said:
There can be no comparison of what launcher you have on what phone compared to what OS version it has.
.... the one I bought off eBay running android 4.0.4 ice cream sandwich was c***.
I then had several phones running 4.1 or 4.2 jelly bean, these where better, much more "stable"
I have a galaxy s1 running 5.1.1 lollipop,
.... and as far as I'm concerned, lollipop is streets ahead of anything else, with kit kat a close second,
its based on a range of variables, calling, texting, ease of use, bugs, music, and internet browsing.
Running the latest software means a device is less vulnerable to security issues, will be running at peak performance and small bugs will be fixed.
For anyone to say I have three phones running nova so I don't need to update to a newer software is quite frankly naive, stupid and irresponsible, but that's your choice and just my opinion, its a bit silly to judge latest OS but how it looks, remember how it looks is just one small thing, Samsung haven't changed touchwiz much since the year dot have they?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your replies guys:
i want to share my personal reasons (based on what you said):
i have had ALL THREE of the above OS running on my GalaxyS2. (IceCream Sandwich, JellyBean and Lollipop).
its currently with Lollipop running Nova. (but its way too slow on my phone and killing my battery).
so, my thoughts were to Downgrade to Jellybean (which I know will be much faster) for my phone and use a Nova Launcher.
- (I have a feeling that KitKat will also be slow on my device).
As for the issues you both pointed out:
- Security issues that you both mention. Seriously, I am not concerned by any security vunerabilities or people stealing my data. I have nothing important worth stealing on my phone. i am 0% concerned by security.
- However, if some small Bugs have been fixed, then obviously that is a PLUS. (from my memory, I didnt have many issues with Jellybean, though ICS seemed to crash a lot).
- You mentioned: "Calling, Texting, Browsing" is improved with more recent versions. BUT, arent these just Apps ? Browsing is Chrome. Chrome on jellybean or Lollipo is the same Chrome app. FUnctioning exactly the same, no ?
and SMS and Phone and contacts again are Apps.. part of the Google Apps (Gapps). and i can also download any 3rd party phone or SMS. so I didnt really understand how a latter version of OS can be better browsing, phone and SMS. (again, i am not concerned with security if that was your point).
I am on a Galaxy S2 that has increased System and Data partitions. but its still limited by speed.
with every version of OS i go up, my phone slows down slightly.
is there something (apart from the above) that I am not aware of ?
IYes there is something else you are missing.
You have an s2, I have an s1, its not my daily phone, its my work phone.
I noticed like you that the higher version OS I used, the phone did indeed slow down.
It slowed down due to hardware limitations of the device, not the Newer OS slowing the phone, its was the phone slowing the OS down..........
In my personal experience, my s1 also drained the battery whilst on lollipop, kit kat didn't drain so much , but was very laggy, and jelly bean (4.3.1) was about the best choice between performance and stability, didn't lag but had much less in the way of tweaking options.
I also had a phone from a Korean manufacturer (huawei) that I hated the horrible ui, installing Nova over the usual ui, and after a few days the phone became laggy, froze and crashed a lot.
Now for the bad bit.
1. Are you mad?
You say you are 0% concerned about security?
HELLO!
Do you know what its like to be the victim of identity theft?
Dont you understand saying "I have nothing on my phone" is like saying there is no petrol in my car......
What about your contacts?
What about your own personal data like passwords and emails?
Your phone number?
Android constantly updates any security issues with things like this, it is very important and you should be concerned about it, not display such naivety in this nasty place of a world, someone will always try to take advantage of you or people that show no concern for their or their contacts security, believe me.
2. Again, you show no understanding and much naivety by suggesting browsing, calling and SMS are just the same app.
Let me correct you, its not.
The chrome I use on my moto e is not the same chrome that was on it before it upgraded from kit kat to lollipop, yes its a better, and improved version, but no, not the same, neither is the built in browser, the dialer or the messaging app.
You suggest you can use or replace the stock apps with 3rd party apps, yes you can, and no one or nothing can stop you doing that.......
But have you stopped for a second to consider the small fact that using Nova launcher and other 3rd party apps over the stock ones may been the cause of your problems?
Just because you have increased partition size does not mean throwing 100 apps on it will make it work faster or better than before, you are still limited by physical ram and processing speed, and I'm sure your s2 processor isn't anywhere near as fast as the processor on my moto e?
Yes you may have noticed a difference by increasing partition size but in my own experience, and reading lots other peoples experiences on here, lots of problems can be attributed to having too many apps bogging the system down, and nova is known to be a big ram hogger!
This is what crashed my Huawei
And I agree with the previous post that it may be a bad idea saying what your phone looks like is a reason or no reason to update the OS.
Its entirely up to you if you choose to update or not, no one can make that choice only you, but I fear by the nature of your post and what you have replied that you don't have that much experience and don't really know what you are talking about.
Its not my intention to offend or upset you, but you don't display the knowledge to press you argument, i suspect many here on xda will not even bother replying to you or may just laugh at you, I'm not going to lecture you, ive probably embarrassed you enough so I'll shut up.
Sent from my Moto E using XDA Free mobile app
---------- Post added at 03:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:37 PM ----------
I'm sorry if my reply was harsh, I was not meant to be harsh, but I want make you realise your phones performance is not dictated by the launcher, although the launcher you use can have a dramatic effect on your phones performance.
Have you tried other launchers?
Your post doesn't say if you have, so I suggest you try holo or L launcher, something lightweight, test and report how you get on, goto play store, have a good look around, mini launcher is another one to consider.
Forget nova, let's assume Nova is your problem.
Try other launchers.
Get rid of the 3rd party apps.
All of them.
Just keep essential apps, no bloat and nothing unnecessary.
Again, test for a few days, report back.
Downgrade your android version to 4.3, again, don't install anything unnecessary and test, see how you get on.
Report your findings after a few days.
Stop advertising the fact you have an increased partition, it won't have any effect on performance and just throwing lots of apps on your newly larger partitioned storage will still bog it down.
Forget it, but its still there, its not going to have any effect on your overall performance, so don't tell anyone about it, there's no point.
Please let us know his you get on, but promise to try my suggestions first, OK?
There is a reason I said things the way I did.........
That is when I started messing around last year with my S1 and had problems with lag, crashing and various other issues, I did not research what was causing my problems, it was only the fact I had a shed load of 3rd party apps slowing my S1 down and when I posted here on xda that fact, I was made fun of and people called me stupid, I'm not suggesting you are stupid, but take time to experiment and don't assume anything, this can be sorted but only with some time and effort from you.
Sent from my Moto E using XDA Free mobile app
ivan39 said:
It slowed down due to hardware limitations of the device, not the Newer OS slowing the phone, its was the phone slowing the OS down..........
In my personal experience, my s1 also drained the battery whilst on lollipop, kit kat didn't drain so much , but was very laggy, and jelly bean (4.3.1) was about the best choice between performance and stability, didn't lag but had much less in the way of tweaking options.
You say you are 0% concerned about security?
Do you know what its like to be the victim of identity theft?
What about your contacts?
What about your own personal data like passwords and emails?
Your phone number?
You suggest you can use or replace the stock apps with 3rd party apps, yes you can, and no one or nothing can stop you doing that.......
But have you stopped for a second to consider the small fact that using Nova launcher and other 3rd party apps over the stock ones may been the cause of your problems?
Have you tried other launchers?
I suggest you try holo or L launcher or mini launcher, something lightweight
Forget nova, let's assume Nova is your problem.
Get rid of the 3rd party apps.
All of them.
Just keep essential apps, no bloat and nothing unnecessary.
Downgrade your android version to 4.3, again, don't install anything unnecessary and test, see how you get on.
Please let us know his you get on, but promise to try my suggestions first, OK?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wow!! really, i wasnt expecting such a detailed reply.
honestly, thank you very much for the time and effort you put into your reply. (really, no offence taken at your harshness).
and hopefully others that stumble on this subject (in my position) will learn from the input on this thread.
OK.
the only thing that you wont like to hear, is about security, i'm still not worried about it as much as yourself...
(but everything else you said, I agree with)
[About the Security topic]
my reason:
i know tonnes of people who are on ICS or Jellybean still (because that is what came with their phone). they maybe upgraded once (from Gingerbread to ICS, or from ICS to Jellybean).
all these people i know are way less technical than I am !! and they wouldnt have a clue how to update their phones that they have been carrying around for 4+ years.
there must be litterally millions of people around each country (grandparents, non-tech people, kids of around 8 to 12 years old with a smart phone). and all on the same stock version of android that originally came with their phones.
(Android Version 'Market Share', currently shows 50% of the market using kit-kat and beyond... and the remaining 50% using jellybean and before).
[source: wikipedia Android Version Page]
so, not wanting to have the latest android version (coz of improved security) means I am in the same boat as half of all the worlds android users.
anyway... no point wasting time about security. that is the only part I am of a different opinion with you. (and even if you feel I am being silly,,, I am not a worrier,,, even if they get my contacts and start annoying my friends or emailing whoever or deleting my facebook or reading my emails. or even pleasuring themselves to my family photos,, honestly i am not gonna lose any sleep over it).
i'm sure most people dont want that. and of course i dont either. but also i'm not sacrifice the speed of my phone (which I use so many times per day), just coz I feel safer about security with a more recent OS that my phone is trying to keep-up with (resulting in a slowly user experience).
Everything else that you said really ressonated with me.
i only know the TouchWiz and Nova. so Yes, I will try holo or L launcher or mini launcher.
Currently I have Lolipop and Nova and a basic Gapps package and about 50 apps downloaded.. (though many are not being used).
i have this hunch, that (for me) my best option will end up being a simple return to a Jelly Bean Custom (unbloated) Rom, with a launcher that doesnt hog the RAM too much.
My 50 Apps on the phone will probably end up being more like 30 in the end after I have weeded out the bad ones.
if I can find a good KitKat Rom that is stable, unbloated and highly recommended, then I might be happy with that too
PS: Ok, i wont bragg about my amazing supersonic 1GB system partition and 6GB of data.. Lol .. (ok,, sorry,, couldnt resist)..
PPS: seriously,, this lollipop is crazy battery drain on my phone! it ran out in under an hour!! just one photo was eating up 1% each time!
i had way more apps (with ICS and Jellybean last month) and never had this kind of battery drain !
sorry for the long winded reply.
(kind of a thanks for your original replies)
I will report my findings here.. but it may be slow,, coz I dont have much time for app data saving, and backups this next week.
Well at least we agree!
I can't really compare my S1 to your S2 (mine has a super extended 9gb partition that some people say having is total madness) since I updated it to lollipop the battery drain was mad, totally crazy.
But for a 5year old phone that was officially only supposed to run android 2.3 gingerbread, I had an amazing time boasting to my work colleges I had the latest version of android, but was humiliated and embarrassed by the 5hr battery time (on stand by with data and WiFi on)
I too used nova with a lollipop theme, uninstalling nova smoothed out general running, it was a tad more stable, but i like you assumed the launcher was the be all and end all, I had no idea that some launchers absolutely killed the battery or consumed so much ram.
I also wrongly assumed having such a large internal partition was fine to put loads of apps, themes, ringtones ect.
I had around 40 apps on my S1 when general stability was lost, it was laggy, crashed, rebooted and force closed all the time.
So after being made fun of in the omni ROM forum here on xda, I took the plunge and downgraded to kitkat, again, I lost general stability but going through my own investigations and testing and retesting, i found my gapps package was the culprit.
I flashed a smaller gapps package and general stability was restored, but I still had laggy start ups and force closes.
I downgraded again to cm10.2 (android 4.3.1) and that cured my problem once and for all.
I had similar issue a fortnight ago when I got my brand new moto e on contract, I got a bootloader unlock code from Motorola and didn't waste anytime rooting and flashing cm12.1 (android 5.1.1) but after a few days it became unstable, so I'm now testing other custom roms, the best for moto e I've found being paranoid android lp 5.1.1 and cr droid lollipop that I'm running now, but I'm not running nova on my moto e, as the trebuchet or launcher 3 whatever it is called is just as configurable as nova, I'm running a cm12.1 theme and I'm very happy with my set up, but I only have about a dozen apps like Facebook, YouTube and gmail installed, and it is the most stable configuration I've ever found in a custom ROM.
I do wish you well, im very glad you agreed with my reply, and I do wish you well, I just think its a shame I don't have an S2 to hand so I could help you out, there's nothing worse than having problems with our phones!
Good luck
Sent from my Moto E using XDA Free mobile app