Samsung and Verizon Wireless on Tuesday announced that the Fascinate, a Galaxy S smartphone, is now available for $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with two-year contract.
The Fascinate, which runs on version 2.1 of Google’s Android operating system, bolsters the leading wireless carrier’s Android offerings alongside the Droid-branded Motorola DroidX and HTC Droid Incredible.
While this handset doesn’t offer that designation, it still comes with a 4-in. Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display, a 1 GHz Cortex A8 Hummingbird processor, and the Swype virtual QWERTY keyboard.
More specs:
- Display: 800 by 480 pixels
- Dimensions: 4.80 in. tall, 2.52 in. wide, 0.35 in. thick
- Weight: 4.16 oz.
- Connectivity: 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, CDMA 800/1900
- 5.0 megapixel camera plus “secondary” camera
- FM tuner
- Memory: 512MB
- Storage: 2GB plus microSD expandable
- MicroUSB port
- 1500 mAH Li-ion battery
- Tethering: Yes
- 3.5mm headphone jack
- Sensors: accelerometer, ambient light, proximity
It also comes pre-loaded with Amazon’s Kindle for Android app, and supports a car dock and charging cradle.
Which Android handset is best for you? At this point, most of the top-tier smartphones are about on par with each other internally, so it’s simply a matter of hardware preference. (Prefer big screens? Go DroidX. Don’t like Motorola? Go Incredible. And so on.)
However, when the non-Droid phones start to become as powerful as their Droid counterparts, that means an update for the premium models isn’t far away. Stay tuned.
