Fascinate for someone who is used to a physical keyboard

Question

I am looking to upgrade my wife's ENV2 to a droid.  She likes the Fascinate byt us concerned about her move from a physical keyboard to a touch screen keyboard.   The Fascinate seems to be a nice large screen (and therefore an easier touch entry), but I wanted to see how others felt with that kind of transition.
Also... general feelings (pro or con) on the phone (probably going CPO)?
Thanks!

Answer 1

I used to have a phone with a physical keyboard (and coincidentally, it was the EnV2) prior to the Fascinate and had some reservations myself prior to purchasing this phone.  The phone has a typing feature called Swype which is supposed to speed up typing on the virtual keyboard.  Of course, it may feel a bit odd at first not having something tangible to press on, but I got over that fairly quickly.  In case you haven't read about it, Swype allows you to type by sliding your finger across the virtual keyboard, as opposed to pressing on the virtual key.
Here is a YouTube link that shows you Swype in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuP6AQPRpUg
Of course, some people won't like this, so for those individuals who actually like pressing virtual buttons, this phone also has an android keyboard.  I still recommend playing with the Swype feature before deciding whether to use that or not.
As with any phone, there are pros and cons associated with the phone.  What the pros and cons are specifically depends on what phone you're comparing it to.  It's somewhat difficult to compare this phone to the EnV2 as they are different.  One thing she may notice is that the battery goes out fairly quickly on this phone if the phone is constantly being turned on and used.  I could go 2 days on my EnV2 before charging, but I have to recharge this phone once a day (sometimes twice based on how much I use it).  But that's an unfair comparison since this phone is like a mini-computer, and I use this phone for many more things than I did the EnV2 (e.g., surfing the web, emails, creating word processing documents, and some games).  btw, playing games is one thing that will drain your battery very quickly...although using the word processor for a while can drain it quickly, too.
If she texts a lot, she'll enjoy the difference in the texting feature.  On this phone, like many Android phones, she will be able to see the entire conversation, which means no more looking through sent texts when she can't quite remember what the person is responding to.  Here's a screen cap I found online that shows an example text.
And I do like the 4" screen.  Yes, it makes the phone a bit larger than most, but it's worth it, imo.
The phone does occasionally freeze up on me, but pulling out the battery usually fixes that.  Also, while the battery life isn't the greatest, one can control that a bit by downloading an application to "kill" (or force quit) applications.  Unlike the EnV2, you will have to turn this phone off and on every once in a while (again, it's like a mini-computer and computers start to lag if you leave them on for an extended period of time, too).
Hope this helps you, and if you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.