My Captivate Review

While reading up on Android forums, it seems the Captivate has quite a bit of issues that aren't resolved or will not be resolved. Things like GPS not locking on, random restarts and freezes, interface Lag, poor batter life, syncing issues...

As much as I want this phone as opposed to an iPhone, I'm not sure I want to deal with the headaches people are having with it just to have an Android... I might still pick it up and if it does have the issues stated, I will probably exchange it for an iPhone.

If just another High-end Andoid was available at ATT. It sucks because without these issues (that should probably have been caught prior to release), this phone seems amazing.

Ahhhh... Not sure what phone to get!
 
Only issue I have is GPS, other than that the phone is fucking stellar. You just have to replace touchwiz with launcher pro which takes about two seconds. If you're a man you shouldn't need a GPS anyway. Samsung needs to fix their shit though. You know you want it, the fucking thing gets 60fps in Quake 3 :D
 
qwertyaas said:
While reading up on Android forums, it seems the Captivate has quite a bit of issues that aren't resolved or will not be resolved. Things like GPS not locking on, random restarts and freezes, interface Lag, poor batter life, syncing issues...

As much as I want this phone as opposed to an iPhone, I'm not sure I want to deal with the headaches people are having with it just to have an Android... I might still pick it up and if it does have the issues stated, I will probably exchange it for an iPhone.

If just another High-end Andoid was available at ATT. It sucks because without these issues (that should probably have been caught prior to release), this phone seems amazing.

Ahhhh... Not sure what phone to get!
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Uhh....What issues? Lol, My captivate has none of these issues you mention...poor battery life? Reeealy? I can easily last 2 days with moderate usage, and my screens brightness is on max, i use a live wallpaper, Definitely not conservative usage haha, Havent had one random restart or usage since I got the phone, My gps locks on exactly where i am in less then 3 seconds, havent had any syncing issues...YMMV I guess?
 
Eragon Dragonslayer said:
Uhh....What issues? Lol, My captivate has none of these issues you mention...poor battery life? Reeealy? I can easily last 2 days with moderate usage, and my screens brightness is on max, i use a live wallpaper, Definitely not conservative usage haha, Havent had one random restart or usage since I got the phone, My gps locks on exactly where i am in less then 3 seconds, havent had any syncing issues...YMMV I guess?
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So I guess that are more individual problems although quite a few have been stating having those issues.

Guess I'll be picking it up regardless. If I do indeed have issues, I can always exchange it!
 
Yeah get the captivate, then return it for the iPhone 4. Then make your decision.
 
Had mine the last couple of days, replaced a POS non-smartphone. Being my first smartphone, I am still learning my way around the UI and all the yummy goodness that is Android LOL. Been loving it sofar. One of my customers who has an iPhone 3GS (?) was really impressed how sharp the display was, and he was just looking at the menus/icons.

The thing that has made me the happiest sofar is the fact that I am safe from contracting iPhonesmugitis. :cool:
 
anyone know how to copy/paste from the browser or is it not supported on the phone? I know on the incredible you can.
 
Just did the lag fix on my Captivate and holy shit I thought it was fast before, it's like a new fucking phone now. It's so fucking stupid fast now I can't believe it. Over 2100 quadrant score.
 
You need to lay down the method before we lay down the law buddy. I've been painfully waiting for this on Verizon for too long now.
 
i'm picking this up for my wife tonight. Sold her blackberry bold for $175 and will get this for $149.99 from best buy. I'm hoping to play around with it first before i hand it over to her lol. Gonna do the lag fix and I could careless for the GPS for now, but SAMSUNG need get their ass whoop for not on top of this issue.
 
So I bit after seeing how nice this phone was, used to have a iPhone 3G( blows me away) and the interesting thing that happened is that I saw it at Wal-mart for 1$49 and brought it up in the store about it and they charged only $149 instead $199:D
 
I really need to get to an ATT store and check this thing out.

For those of you that have one, how is the volume on the speaker? How bout the vibrate? Also, how warm does this get when doing various tasks? Comparisons to other phones would be great.
 
How is wave compared to this?
I am looking forward to Wave becouse its more the same as far as I know + it have better case and LED flash
 
3.3" screen? Yuck!! That's like reading on a Zune HD. Have you browsed on one of those? I assure you, it is no the good times.
 
HiCZoK said:
How is wave compared to this?
I am looking forward to Wave becouse its more the same as far as I know + it have better case and LED flash
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The Wave is a joke. In this day and age, no one should buy a proprietary "smartphone" OS.
 
Jodiuh said:
I really need to get to an ATT store and check this thing out.

For those of you that have one, how is the volume on the speaker? How bout the vibrate? Also, how warm does this get when doing various tasks? Comparisons to other phones would be great.
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The volume is a bit lacking. When in speakerphone mode the speaker on the back of the phone is used and not the one on the front. When playing MP3's and movies it also uses the speaker on the back and not the one on the front. So far those are my biggest pet peeves about this phone.
 
BoogerBomb said:
The volume is a bit lacking. When in speakerphone mode the speaker on the back of the phone is used and not the one on the front. When playing MP3's and movies it also uses the speaker on the back and not the one on the front. So far those are my biggest pet peeves about this phone.
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What? Why would you want the earpiece on the front used? I dont think any phone uses the earpiece on the front, it isnt loud enough, and when you go to speaker, its gonna use the back speaker, its the loudest one, and i doubt youll be putting the phone to your ear when your trying to listen to mp3's or watch a video.

Jodiuh: I the speaker is more then adequate for music, but videos its way too low, definitely need headphones. The vibrate is powerful, can definitely feel it, and it doesnt seem to get too hot, it gets a little bit warm, but not uncomfortably warm.
 
Eragon Dragonslayer said:
What? Why would you want the earpiece on the front used? I dont think any phone uses the earpiece on the front, it isnt loud enough, and when you go to speaker, its gonna use the back speaker, its the loudest one, and i doubt youll be putting the phone to your ear when your trying to listen to mp3's or watch a video.

Jodiuh: I the speaker is more then adequate for music, but videos its way too low, definitely need headphones. The vibrate is powerful, can definitely feel it, and it doesnt seem to get too hot, it gets a little bit warm, but not uncomfortably warm.
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The volume is pitifully low even maxed out when watching a movie or listening to music. I could place it face down but who wants their touchscreen scraping against onother surface? The phone blocks a lot of the sound thats coming out. I don't think it would be that hard to incorporate a speaker on the front that can be controlled to use two different volume levels. After all I am watching the flick from the front of the phone, is it really that stupid of me to want the speaker on the front or even the side/bottom like the iPhone?
 
applebook said:
The Wave is a joke. In this day and age, no one should buy a proprietary "smartphone" OS.
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But Bada can do most of things Android does i think...
Anyway. Wave seems to have better case, battery life and led flash + its cheaper.

But 4" on Galaxy S seems great. I am going to buy one of those. I am still not decided
 
BoogerBomb said:
The volume is pitifully low even maxed out when watching a movie or listening to music. I could place it face down but who wants their touchscreen scraping against onother surface? The phone blocks a lot of the sound thats coming out. I don't think it would be that hard to incorporate a speaker on the front that can be controlled to use two different volume levels. After all I am watching the flick from the front of the phone, is it really that stupid of me to want the speaker on the front or even the side/bottom like the iPhone?
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I don't own a Captivate so I'm not going to comment on the speaker but I am going to say that I've been wanting a front facing speaker on a cell phone for years. The bottom speaker of the iphone drove me nuts because I had to cup my hand around the edge to redirect sound to my ears. What is the problem with pointing speakers toward the user?
 
It's been a month since the release of the Captivate.

How do you guys feel about it now? What have you done with yours? Have there been any major growing pains? Has Samsung been responsive on getting those resolved?

I've read about some of the issues and potential tweaks or workarounds. How are those working out for you?

I've read the reviews, I've read a lot of the forums, I'm looking for an [H] perspective after a couple of weeks of use.

I was in an AT&T store yesterday playing with the Captivate and the X10. There were no iPhone 4s to be had. Just in the few minutes I was there several people came in looking for the iPhone, but no one else the Captivate. *sigh*

"I want the one with the bigger Gee Bees..."

Edit: One more question: Anyone find a good silicone case? I have an Incipio case on my iPod touch I really like the design of, silicone backed with hard plastic and a screen protector...
 
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Decibel said:
It's been a month since the release of the Captivate.

How do you guys feel about it now?
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Still a great phone, but still with flaws.
What have you done with yours?
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Rooted, Launcher Pro, ext2 lagfix, removed AT&T bloatware, tweaked GPS settings, removed market restrictions, enabled sideloading (true sideloading, not just installing via droid explorer or SDK; you can edit the .db file and make the hidden "install software from unknown sources" be checkmarked)... I haven't overclocked it yet but SetCPU is all set up to do so if I had the desire. Otherwise normal phone stuff like e-mail, social apps, text, calls. About a gazillion apps. Still no games on my phone surprisingly.
Have there been any major growing pains?
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Considering my previous phone was terribly outdated, no. The phone was perfectly usable out of the box (and had GREAT battery life). Just not... perfect perfect.
Has Samsung been responsive on getting those resolved?
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HAHAHAHAHAHA no. Samsung hasn't responded to a single thing yet. The only thing we know is that supposedly Froyo is coming in Sept, at least for the original Galaxy S. No word yet on GPS or camera compression issues, let alone a release date for a fix. They haven't even announced Froyo for everyone else officially. We're all just under the huge assumption that since the hardware is very similar across the board that we'll all get the update at the same time.
I've read about some of the issues and potential tweaks or workarounds. How are those working out for you?
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The GPS tweaks have worked for me to varying degrees. Lock on is not a problem, especially if I'm stationary, but actually driving can still be problematic. There are more drastic tweaks but I'm holding off on doing those until the good folks at XDA have done a little more development in that department. However, at least it's usable (for me) now. When I first got the phone it was completely unfunctional. For many it's still unusable.
I've read the reviews, I've read a lot of the forums, I'm looking for an [H] perspective after a couple of weeks of use.

I was in an AT&T store yesterday playing with the Captivate and the X10. There were no iPhone 4s to be had. Just in the few minutes I was there several people came in looking for the iPhone, but no one else the Captivate. *sigh*

"I want the one with the bigger Gee Bees..."

Edit: One more question: Anyone find a good silicone case? I have an Incipio case on my iPod touch I really like the design of, silicone backed with hard plastic and a screen protector...
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Another big problem. No cases. The only case I've seen actually available is AT&T's really ugly case. There are some coming out soon but nothing else actually shipping yet.

I'm running around with just the full body scratch protector (which, by the way, was a GIANT PAIN IN THE ASS to install myself; all the odd curves the phone has makes it difficult to apply many of the pieces; there were EIGHT pieces).

It's a great phone if you like tweaking. There's just so much room to play around.
 
The Body Glove case isn't too bad. It's not exactly a silicone case, but it's a softish material that serves the same function.
 
Hmmmm...I'm not hearing what I want to be hearing. Quiet speaker, GPS broken when driving?! My DROID 2 has neither of those issues. Then again it can't hold a stable signal for shit. :)

What to do, what to do...
 
Oh, you may as well add Drops WiFi to the list. It doesn't happen to everyone, but it's an issue. My wife's suffers from the issue. Apparently they don't like some routers/access points, including those with dd-wrt which I use. It works well for what she needs, but if it was my phone it would've gone back pretty fast.
 
Thanks Nuero.

Thanks Ghost. That's another concern to add to my list...

What is it with Samsung releasing buggy, unsupported hardware? Guess I'll wait...
 
Just keep in mind that the people reporting problems are probably in the extreme minority as they are simply the most vocal since they are affected. Im betting there are 100's of satisfied owners for every complainer.

I have NONE of the issues everyone here says the phone has. All features function properly for me.
 
BoogerBomb said:
Just keep in mind that the people reporting problems are probably in the extreme minority as they are simply the most vocal since they are affected. Im betting there are 100's of satisfied owners for every complainer.

I have NONE of the issues everyone here says the phone has. All features function properly for me.
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+1 for this....a lot of people is ultra fine with this phone so dont just get scared that easily...this is by far the best phone out there in my opinion...Perfect? NO but what is?

Decibel said:
Thanks Nuero.

Thanks Ghost. That's another concern to add to my list...

What is it with Samsung releasing buggy, unsupported hardware? Guess I'll wait...
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Actually you can say this :
What is it with (insert ANY company you want here) releasing buggy, unsupported hardware? Guess I'll wait
This pretty much goes for every company and product so dont think it is just this one. Still the PLUSES far outweight the Cons...this is a monster phone for sure. ;)
 
Yes you can say that... and then you wait for the driver or firmware update, the patch, before buying. I try to avoid the "Ooooo! Shiny!" impulse buys.

It's my nature.

At this point this phone is on the right network and has most of the right hardware. I'd just like to see if Samsung drops an update that clears up the issues their users are having. Heck, maybe I'll wait till Froyo hits.

My concern is not that the phone has bugs, new hardware often does, it's the silence from the manufacturer.
 
Decibel said:
What is it with Samsung releasing buggy, unsupported hardware? Guess I'll wait...
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I read somewhere that the Epic(Sprint's Galaxy S) doesn't have the GPS issue and that Samsung has acknowledged the problem. Given that, I think that a fix shouldn't be too far off.

edit: I saw the tatement from Samsung here.
 
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One thing I really really want is a fucking edge/3g switch. I'm on wifi 99.9% of the time and I would rather save battery life than stay on 3G when I'm out and about. Want so bad.
 
GhostDog said:
I read somewhere that the Epic(Sprint's Galaxy S) doesn't have the GPS issue and that Samsung has acknowledged the problem. Given that, I think that a fix shouldn't be too far off.

edit: I saw the tatement from Samsung here.
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Ugh, add to that the camera problems. Notice how both the Epic and Vibrant's cameras supposedly are hardware identical to the Captivate yet both clearly have better picture quality?

I'm hoping this issue gets resolved in September as well. People have been forgetting about it since everyone is so worked up over the GPS problem instead.
 
SixtyWattMan said:
One thing I really really want is a fucking edge/3g switch. I'm on wifi 99.9% of the time and I would rather save battery life than stay on 3G when I'm out and about. Want so bad.
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Weather & Toggle has a widget that will do that. It's what, $2?
 
Neurofreeze said:
Ugh, add to that the camera problems. Notice how both the Epic and Vibrant's cameras supposedly are hardware identical to the Captivate yet both clearly have better picture quality?

I'm hoping this issue gets resolved in September as well. People have been forgetting about it since everyone is so worked up over the GPS problem instead.
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I have heard about the camera issue but I have only seen one review showing that. Do you have more information other than that one review?
I do not see how this could really be an issue if it is the hardware unless it was just a matter of flaws on that particular unit.
 
shaolin95 said:
I have heard about the camera issue but I have only seen one review showing that. Do you have more information other than that one review?
I do not see how this could really be an issue if it is the hardware unless it was just a matter of flaws on that particular unit.
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It's a software compression issue, and it's very easily replicated. The cameras on both Vibrant/Captivate are identical.

Ie. my friend and I take a picture of the same thing at the same time. His vibrant's picture is just that; vibrant. Mine has this weird kind of misty quality about it.

It's not even a nitpicking issue. Just take a picture or video with a Captivate and try to look at it objectively. It just looks foggy.

You don't have to look at Captivate vs. Vibrant reviews specifically. Just look at any review with Captivate sample pictures. They just look off.

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/07/23/att-samsung-captivate-review/
Just look at all those pictures. They all give that early morning hazy feel. Pretty much any review with pictures gives me the same impression. That review doesn't even mention it at all yet it's clearly visible on the pictures he took.

Now I could always give the, "Hey it's a cellphone camera, what do you expect?" argument but there's just so many other 5MP cameras out there that look better under the same exact circumstances, including the Vibrant. The Captivate doesn't take TERRIBLE pictures, but they clearly can be better. Samsung again dropped the ball.
 
If you want high quality digital pics, buy a high quality digital camera.
For a camera phone, the Galaxy S takes a great picture.
 
Lebowski said:
If you want high quality digital pics, buy a high quality digital camera.
For a camera phone, the Galaxy S takes a great picture.
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A lot of people use that argument, and they don't realize I've already countered it. IT DOES NOT TAKE HIGH QUALITY PICTURES FOR A PHONE. You may be okay with having the same exact hardware perform noticeably worse than it should be, but I am not.

It would be like having oh say... A-GPS like every other smartphone in the world but it being far worse than comparable phones.

Or like paying for five gallons of gas for a 30MPG (highway) car, and only getting 75 miles (highway) out of it.

Using the excuse that it's just a phone camera thus quality doesn't matter is ridiculous in another way: that's also like saying screen quality doesn't matter; it's just a phone, if you want a good screen, buy a MBP with a S-IPS screen.

If you don't like getting your money's worth and you don't like making the most of your hardware, that's your perogative, but it's also idiotic.

Again, I'm going to repeat myself because people use the same damn argument all the time:

THE VIBRANT HAS THE SAME EXACT CAMERA HARDWARE AND PRODUCES BETTER PICTURES. THE VIBRANT HAS THE SAME EXACT CAMERA HARDWARE AND PRODUCES BETTER PICTURES.

I don't know how I can state this any clearer.
 
Neurofreeze said:
A lot of people use that argument, and they don't realize I've already countered it. IT DOES NOT TAKE HIGH QUALITY PICTURES FOR A PHONE. You may be okay with having the same exact hardware perform noticeably worse than it should be, but I am not.

It would be like having oh say... A-GPS like every other smartphone in the world but it being far worse than comparable phones.

Or like paying for five gallons of gas for a 30MPG (highway) car, and only getting 75 miles (highway) out of it.

Using the excuse that it's just a phone camera thus quality doesn't matter is ridiculous in another way: that's also like saying screen quality doesn't matter; it's just a phone, if you want a good screen, buy a MBP with a S-IPS screen.

If you don't like getting your money's worth and you don't like making the most of your hardware, that's your perogative, but it's also idiotic.

Again, I'm going to repeat myself because people use the same damn argument all the time:

THE VIBRANT HAS THE SAME EXACT CAMERA HARDWARE AND PRODUCES BETTER PICTURES. THE VIBRANT HAS THE SAME EXACT CAMERA HARDWARE AND PRODUCES BETTER PICTURES.

I don't know how I can state this any clearer.
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The phones are made by the exact same company as well. How much of it has to do with people playing around with the settings and just not mentioning it?
 
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