Samsung Fascinate launching on Verizon September 9

By on Sep 7, 2010 at 7:01 AM
General September 7, 2010

Well, it isn’t like we didn’t know this was coming. Putting the cart before the horse, Verizon Wireless has begun running Samsung Fascinate commercials with the tagline, “available Sept. 9 at Verizon.” The advert-delivered news comes before an official press release. The device will retail for $199 and will be available in two short days. We should see an official note from Verizon Wireless later today; we’ll update this article once it becomes available.

UPDATE: Official press release is after the break. The device will be available in stores on the 9th and online on the 8th.

Samsung Fascinate™, a Galaxy S™ Smartphone, Available Tomorrow on the Verizon Wireless Network

IRVINE, Calif., Sept. 7 /PRNewswire/ — Verizon Wireless and Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile) today announced that the Samsung Fascinate™, a Galaxy S™ smartphone exclusively from Verizon, will be available online on Sept. 8 and in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores on Sept. 9 for $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement.
Powered by Android 2.1™, the Fascinate refines customers’ social networking experiences with its Super AMOLED™ Screen Technology, advanced touch screen capabilities, Samsung 1 GHz Cortex A8 Hummingbird Application Processor, and virtual QWERTY keyboard featuring SWYPE technology. Additionally, the Fascinate comes pre-loaded with Amazon’s Kindle for Android app, and it boasts an array of accessories, including:

  • Charging Cradle – Doubles as a phone charger and includes a micro USB wall adapter so customers can view movies, display digital photos, and listen to music. It can also be used as a desktop speakerphone to make hands-free calls, and it comes preloaded with the Samsung “Desk Home” application, which allows customers to switch brightness levels from day to night and provides one-touch access to Samsung Widgets and Bing Voice Search. The charging cradle is available for $29.99.
  • Car Dock – Attachable to the windshield or dashboard, the car dock displays turn-by-turn GPS navigation instructions, rotates freely between landscape and portrait modes, and features a preloaded Samsung “Car Home” application, giving customers access to everything the “Desk Home” app can do while on the go. The car dock is available for $39.99.
  • Backup Battery Charging System – Includes a 1500 mAH battery, battery charger and Y-cable for charging a phone and spare battery simultaneously. It is available for $39.99.

Pricing and Plan Information

Verizon Wireless customers who purchase the Samsung Fascinate will receive the mail-in rebate in the form of a debit card; upon receipt, customers may use the card as cash anywhere debit cards are accepted. Samsung Fascinate customers will need to subscribe to a Verizon Wireless Nationwide Talk plan (beginning at $39.99 monthly access) and an Email and Web for Smartphone plan (beginning at $29.99 for unlimited monthly access).

For additional information on Verizon Wireless products and services, visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or go to http://www.verizonwireless.com.

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37 Comments

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  • Bryan

    Passed up the Moto Droid phones and Incredible for this baby.

    • JJL

      Same here… had to live day to day without a smartphone and after using the LG Ally for one day, before returning it, life just wasn’t complete anymore.

    • George Curious

      Same here. Passing up the Incredible was a tough decision though.

  • BoyRetard

    I’ve had my chance to play with this bad boy and let me say….what a great screen. I’m passing up my first choice of the X to snag this baby. It comes pre loaded with Bing everything which I’m not a fan of but that’s nothing that a little rooting can’t take care of. :-)

    • JJL

      I seem to remember reading that you didn’t have to root to get rid of Bing… am I wrong? And yeah, I originally wanted the D2 but when I finally played around with the DX and found out it wasn’t “gargantuan” or a “behemoth” then I freaking had to have that. Kept researching and came across the Vibrant at a T-Mobile shop…
      4″ SAMOLED display smartphone that only weighs a half ounce more than my RAZR? Strongest GPU on an Android? On Verizon? Done. Search over. 2nd behind an employee in the “pre-order folder” at BestBuy.

      • George Curious

        From what I have read may times over, you can easily load Google Maps and Nav but Bing is there to stay unless you root.

  • Norm

    Wow another great deal from the greatest carrier, Verizon Wireless. Try getting this DROID or any other DROID on another network. Not happening. With DROID now having the highest market share on the net and in overall sales all other companies need to give up. Verizon FTW!!!!! OH, and Apple sucks.

    • Brad

      Um, just a couple small problems with your rant there. First of all, this phone does not carry the Droid badge. It’s just the Fascinate, not a Droid Fascinate. Secondly, there is a version of this phone already available on every other major US carrier. ;)

      Still, I can’t wait to get my paws on one of these. I played with an Epic in my local Samsung store the other day, and it practically makes my Droid Eris look like an old hand-crank phone. The Droid 2 and Droid X are an easy pass (no slider for me, and the X is too big, and its function keys are too small; how’s that for irony?). I’m eligible for upgrade on 9/9 from my 1-year Eris contract (Verizon allows upgrade 2 months early), so I’ll probably be ordering this online at midnight tomorrow night. I will NOT be buying this in the store, because I prefer instant discounts, not those lousy mail-in rebates (you pay less sales tax that way too, btw), and I don’t trust the Verizon sales people to not screw up my account somehow.

      • Mr. Incredible

        wow, douche anyone????

      • George Curious

        Sorry I don’t have on for you. Why? Do you have that “unclean” feeling?

  • Donkadooballs

    Samsung. Your stock just went up.

  • Cheap Tric

    Touch screen is not as responsive as it needs to be! Battery life needs some work! Looks exactly like a supersized iPhone with Android! I expected way more from the late to the game cell phone giant ! Come on Samsung step up yo game son!

    • Chut Pata

      Galaxy S is far superior to iPhone, unfortunately Verizon chose to scale it down before launching. It is now below iPhone.

      • Brad

        Verizon didn’t scale anything down, at least not in hardware specs. Contrary to popular belief, the Fascinate does NOT have any less memory than any of the other Galaxy S phones. This has been proven multiple times. The only downfall here is Bing apps replacing Google apps, which is easy enough to fix. You should be able to add the Google apps back without rooting, though you’ll need to root if you want to completely uninstall the Bing and VZW apps.

      • Brad

        Oh, I almost forgot about the lack of the front-facing camera, and 2GB of internal memory. Still, they give you a 16GB flash card out of the box, which should be plenty for most people (replace it with a 32GB if you’re hurting that badly), and AT&T and T-Mobile don’t have a FFC on their Galaxy S variants either. Plus, Verizon added a flash for the camera. It’s all about compromise, people

      • George Curious

        Screw FFC until there is LTE/4G widely available. Better luck next year.

  • ibegary

    360 degree rotate flash is already up on the website:

    https://scache.vzw.com/multimedia/360_demos/sam_fascinate/main.swf

  • PandaBarr

    Been messing with it for a week and it is probably the best phone VZW has to offer next to the incredible. Unfortunately, like all great Verizon Droid phones the fascinates life on top will be short lived when the HTC Lexicon/Merge drops. But it isn’t a bad thing, innovation is the result of competition which works even better when on the same carrier

    • George Curious

      Yeah, the Incredible is probably the best thought out phone on Verizon right now. It’s a great little device. I just wish it had a 4″ screen. Maybe drop the optical sensor too. 2.2 on my wife’s Inc is plenty fast. Hope the Fascinate gets 2.2 soon.

  • Goofan (aka Apple Hater)

    Is it true??? I was reading a review by a CNET user and he/she said that search defaults to BING and you can’t change that. Could that be true? If so, isn’t that totally stupid and surreal????

    • Chut Pata

      CNET would not lie. Unfortunately, Fascinate proved to be the disappointment of life, bigger than Storm disappointment. It have taken out the front camera from Galaxy S before making it Fascinate.

    • Fascinated

      I looked the google search widget app up in the market and sent the developer an email to see if they could update it so it can be moved to the SD card. That way if I get this phone I can install it on the Fascinate. I hope they respond back.

  • Chut Pata

    Confirmed no front camera, meaning no video conferencing. A scaled down version of Galaxy S like AT&T launched as Captivate. I did not buy incredible and waited for Fascinate only to discover that this too is no iPhone killer. I give up, I am switching to AT&T for iPhone.

    • J

      Your loss…

    • George Curious

      Sweet. I was the one who got to seriously dislike you.

      FFC is a toy until the network can support it with bandwidth. Over WiFi? Give me a break.

  • Dream

    Will be my first smartphone Oh Yeaaaa

  • webby

    Hope the GPS issues that surfaced on the other Galaxy S phones are fixed.

    Does it have an LED Notification light?

    • George Curious

      I have heard that the GPS is fixed and I have also heard that it is not. Seems unknown for the moment.

      No notification light. There are some apps that will do this with the screen but I have never used them.

  • patrick

    No option for google search, fail. No universal search like all other android phones, fail. Too bad Samsung. Your first Android phone on Verizon is a big let down. Yeah, its nice to have options, but only when they are at least as good as what they are trying to replace. Bing cannot replace the universal search that Android comes with via Google.

  • patrick

    OK. Bing does do universal search, just tried it again. But is very slow and choppy. Not as big a fail as I thought but not great either. Keeping my DroidX though.

  • CJ

    If this is the route Verizon is going with it’s future Android devices I can see myself parting ways with them come February when I plan to replace my Incredible. When they signed that search deal with Microsoft I knew they’d be pushing Bing, woke up to an install link forced onto my Storm last year, but to make it the default on an Android phone and not have a way to change it is no bueno!

  • Electrofreak

    I’m still shaking my head over this. I wrote about the Hummingbird CPU when the Galaxy S series was first announced, patiently waited until it appeared on my carrier, and learned that the front camera had been nixed and that Bing had been stuck as the only search engine on a Google OS.

    F*cking ridiculous. Fail VZW, Fail.

  • Dream

    All of you guys complaing about bing a u might want to prepare for it to every other smartphone from V, as stated in other comments V has prob signed a contract with Microsoft letting them install there software own phones so yea

  • scott

    What’s the retail price for the fascinate without contract?

  • Turbocooper

    Now if we can use something other than Bing and team it up with one of these —–> The Uber Dual-Core Smartphone Processer then we would have one HELL of an uberphone!!!!

  • http://375blog.wordpress.com Joseph375

    This phone looks nice; SuperAMOLED FTW. I’m going to wait for LTE though.

  • Holly

    Is there a notification light? I had a driod X for a month, two actually – loved it but they froze up constantly. I see a place for a notification light on front of Galaxy but have yet to see it go off in 4 days.

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