Samsung Fascinate Pre-Order Starts at Best Buy; Verizon to Launch it on September 9

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Verizon is the last carrier from the Big Four to get the Samsung Galaxy S, but it looks like the Fascinate is coming a lot sooner than expected. The phone is scheduled for September, but recent leaks say that Verizon might launch it as soon as September 9 with pre-orders already starting.

Naturally Best Buy is the first retailer ready to offer Fascinate pre-orders. In fact, starting August 29, so just in a couple of days from now, you will be able pre-order this Samsung Galaxy S model. In case you happen to be a Best Buy Reward Zone member then you’ll be able to reserve your Fascinate today, so make sure you check with your local Best Buy shops for more info.

The Fascinate will sell for $199 with a brand new 2-year contract from Verzion, but Best Buy will probably wave off that mandatory mail-in rebate. The price is not official yet but since the Vibrant and Captivate sell for $199 from T-Mobile and AT&T, we imagine Verizon will offer a very similar price.

The Fascinate comes after the Motorola Droid X and the Motorola Droid 2 so it will be interesting to see if Verizon will be able to successfully sell it to its subscribers. Let’s not forget that by the time the Fascinate becomes available, a new CDMA Galaxy S will be available from Sprint, the Epic 4G, which is certainly a better choice if you’re looking to spend an extra $50 for features like video calls, 4G connectivity or a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard.

Also the Fascinate is likely to come with Android 2.1 out of the box and a Froyo update will follow only at some point later down the road. Samsung is expected to release the Android 2.2 update at some point in September, but until the Fascinate gets it we expect the HTC Droid Incredible and the Motorola Droid X to be updated to Froyo.

So, are you going to pre-order the Fascinate from Best Buy?