Samsung Fascinate Review: Verizon's Galaxy S Smartphone
by Brian Klug on October 5, 2010 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Samsung
- Galaxy S
- Fascinate
- Mobile
Performance
Anand declared the Epic 4G the fastest Android phone. I think it's safe to say that right now the Galaxy S is the undisputed performance champ for 3D, at least until we start seeing SoCs built around A9 MPCore with even more powerful GPUs. CPU wise, Hummingbird is running the same architecture ARM Cortex A8 at 1 GHz that we've seen in other SoCs. For now, the Fascinate's Hummingbird SoC with the PowerVR SGX 540 GPU is really what sets it apart. It's a significant improvement over the SGX 530/535, and if you haven't already, I'd encourage you to read what Anand had to say about it in the Epic review.
That improvement is readily apparent in Quake III, where the Fascinate posts unsurprisingly similar numbers to the Epic.
Likewise, we get similarly impressive Neocore numbers out of the Fascinate, which is Qualcomm's benchmark for showing off Adreno.
Though most of Android still can't take advantage of the SGX 540, applications that are rendered using OpenGL do show a massive performance boost. The qualitative difference between the stock Android gallery application on the Nexus One compared to the Fascinate is huge. On the Nexus One, it feels occasionally slow and choppy, yet on the Fascinate it's beyond smooth.
When the Android UI finally gets GPU acceleration, that huge performance gain will be readily apparent in everyday use instead of locked away for 3D apps and games.
Of course, our CPU-bound tests show almost exactly what you'd expect from a 1 GHz Cortex-A8. Bear in mind the Fascinate is running Android 2.1 as of these tests, but you can see how much Android 2.2 changes things - in some places.
As an aside, I talked in the Droid 2 article about how I didn't quite understand why Linpack performance on Android 2.2 on the OMAP 3620 SoC wasn't what I expected it to be. The comparison I was using was to all the smartphones I had previously seen with Android 2.2 - all of which were Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC based with Scorpion CPUs at the core. The Droid 2 was my first encounter with a relatively standard Cortex-A8 running Android 2.2 with the JIT/NEON optimizations.
As some of our readers noted, the reason that Linpack performance on the Droid 2 isn't as high is simple - Scorpion has faster FPU performance due to a 128 bit SIMD FPU datapath compared to Cortex-A8's 64 bit implementation. Both FPUs process the same SIMD-style instructions, the Scorpion just happens to be able to do twice as much, or optionally turn off half the datapath to save power.
The reason I bring this up is that we won't see as dramatic a change in benchmarks that are FPU/NEON heavy moving from Android 2.1 to 2.2 on the Fascinate. Modest gains are in order all around, but not the dramatic floating point performance boost that really doesn't translate into huge performance gains elsewhere.
I've also been doing the regular suite of page loading tests. Though the Fascinate lacks Flash and the faster browser that 2.2 brings, it renders pretty quickly:
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R3MF - Tuesday, October 5, 2010 - link
when is android due to get a GPU accelerated UI?fixxxer0 - Tuesday, October 5, 2010 - link
maybe update the numbers?? i think its more or less similar to the droid 2 for the most part.(sorry if someone already posted this i only read the front page of posts)
jasperjones - Tuesday, October 5, 2010 - link
On page 1: "There's the standard 1.8mm audio jack for headphones." Err, the standard audio jack is 3.5mm. It's a typo, right?alaricljs - Tuesday, October 5, 2010 - link
Standard audio jack "ON A PHONE" which really shouldn't need to be stated since we know this is a phone happens to be 1.8mm.fabarati - Tuesday, October 5, 2010 - link
No phone uses 1.8 mm jacks. The old smaller standard was 2.5, but that's not used all that much anymore either. The confusion arises from the american usage of the imperial system. See, 1/8"=3.5mm.So yeah, typo.
Brian Klug - Tuesday, October 5, 2010 - link
Oops, I meant 1.8", fixed!-Brian
Vepsa - Tuesday, October 5, 2010 - link
What GPS test app are you using?Belard - Tuesday, October 5, 2010 - link
I picked up my Captivate a few days ago. For the most part, the hardware is exactly the same as the Fascinate... But it has a metal cover for the battery and a slick release system... very nice. The BAD thing about the Captivate is the lack of a FLASH for the camera! Really, no flash!?The UI for at&t Android is very much the same shown in this review... but the branding is no-where near as bad (I'm not a Verizon fan because of this) - the at&t apps are out of the way and I believe are removable. There are no at&t book-marks, and at&t listings in the phone-book are removable.
I had a choice between the Samsung Captivate and Sony X10 (Android) - with the Sony being $50 cheaper at $150. Comparing the screen type, the USB cover and easily half as thin body - I went with the Samsung.
After a few days of use and STILL Learning how to use Android - there are a few things I don't like about using these phone which can be "fixed" with software, if they exists.
1 - Lock the main buttons to remain LIT when the screen is... YES, it sucks and I heard there is an option for this, haven't found it yet. UGH!
2 - To use the phone, press the tiny power button - THEN swipe to unlock the phone. This is a pain. I would LOVE the option to INCLUDE the Vol/Rocker buttons to activate the screen, or even the 4 main menu buttons... it should be easy. The rocker button is much bigger and easier to feel. Is there a way to do this (yet)?
Other than that, I'm good with the phone... I know its screen isn't quite as nice as the iPhone4, but I don't want an iPhone... but I am betting that future phones in 2011 will catch up, its nice that you CAN'T see the pixels.
In general, the Captivate will have the exact same performance, higher quality body, less bloat and no flash.
PS: Packaging. at&t is a very small box... not as fancy, but it is better for the environment as well as shipping.
darwinosx - Tuesday, October 5, 2010 - link
Between the bloatware, the GPS, and the non-changeable Bing search this phone is a non-starter. No wonder Verizon is already practically giving them away. Google sure did get suckered by Verizon in a way Apple would never do. I don't care how good Verizons network is, if they keep doing this to phones they are going to lose a lot of customers.Belard - Tuesday, October 5, 2010 - link
Verizon does this to ALL their phones, for years.Oddly, at&t has sometimes copied the SONY UI style to other phones - in the past.