Samsung Captivate (Galaxy S)
Phone Scoop Review
Jul 18, 2010 by Eric M. Zeman
Phone Scoop takes the AT&T version of the Samsung Galaxy S -- the Captivate -- for a spin to see how well it performs. The display and battery life are amazing. How do the rest of the features hold up? read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
WONDERFUL PHONE
This phone is amazing!!
I have never had a "smartphone" or data plan and it usually takes me several days to learn all there is to know about a new phone. This phone is wonderfully user friendly!!
or in my case idiot proof.
I was also able to download a FREE app that allows me to view and edit Word,& excel documents.
The only CON i have is that the battery needs
to last longer if you're going to surf the internet/play games/etc.
Other than that I would recommend this phone to EVERYONE
Awesome Phone
I believe this phone to be one of the best I have used. I have the Iphone 3gs and this phone is way superior to it. More apps, more features, better battery and way more customizable without being rooted or unlocked. I love this phone and would recommend it to anyone.
SWYPE is totally awesome, so is the rest of it.
If it had a flash I'd give this phone a 5. Otherwise, this thing is awesome. My teenagers think SWYPE is only sorta cool, but my 40 something thumbs think SWYPE is to texting like wheels are to a car. I can now almost keep up with them and no longer feel like texting is a chore. With a 32gb memory card I have more capacity than the biggest iPhone (48gb vs. 32gb) and I have a 40gb plus music library so this is real important to me. The music player is excellent. The GPS is great. The screen is awesome, at 4 inches it is bigger than the iPhone which is both good and bad, but it looks every bit as good as the new iPhone. Ringer is loud enough and call clarity/quality seem above reproach. Apps seem to load real fast and at no point does the phone seem to bog, nor has it frozen on me (yet). No side loading apps is theorectically bad but that has not proven to be a hinderance since the Android market seems to have plenty to choose from. So far I'm getting about 2 days out of the battery but I suspect this will improve as the newness and my playing with the thing taper off. I read somewhere that another reviewer wasn't happy with not being able to modify the 4 standard icons at the bottom of the screen, but since I read the manual, yes you can, and I have.
VERY Disappointed
My wife is w/ AT&T and I convinced her to give this phone a try over her Aria. We both are hug fans of HTC phones and have always been pleased with the quality of the phones and software that HTC provides. Anyways, she turns in her Aria for this phone, gets it home and the first problem we encountered was with the contacts...yes we were able to sync our contacts fine but when we were ready to assign ringtones, we couldnt...wasnt even an option, we had to create new contacts for the same person, which allowed you to assign a ringtone then link it to the existing one...that's just too much trouble! Next may be something small for some users but was a problem none the less...What if there is someone that you have to keep in touch with but you dont wanna deal with the phone call? It would be nice to go into their contact and send them directly to voicemail. Not available on this phone. No flash on a high end phone like this is just ridiculous. Touchwiz just isnt as polished of an UI opposed to Sense. It froze constantly and we couldn't even access Facebook properly. Live wallpaper is GREAT, but absolutely kills the battery! We charged it all night and my wife said it was going dead by lunch! I'm w/ tmoblie and am considering the Vibrant, I'm hoping its a little better. Overall, it just isnt as user friendly as the Aria. PROS-Live wallpaper is cool, swype is amazing, and processing power is impressive. CONS-no flash for camera, battery life sucks if you use live wallpaper, UI isnt as good as Sense. If you can get over the little things, its an okay phone, wouldnt really recommend to others.
Very Disapointing
I bought this phone...I now have an HTC Inspire. Here are the few things that I was disappointed in. The Captivate is a GOOGLE phone. Yet if you add a contact directly into the phone it saves it as a phone contact and there is no way, to my knowledge, to save it as a GOOGLE contact...So the result is that the contact will not sync to your GOOGLE account. If you add the contact via Google (gmail) then it will sync to the phone as it should. I am just surprised that Samsung did not think that this would be an important feature. The weight of the phone is nice. It is light and the screen is a nice size and decent resolution. I have found that the HTC Inspire offers a better "Android" experience as the Samsung version of the Android OS is definitely a "different" experience. The Captivate lacks some cool features that can be found on other Android devices, including the "social media" features. I just did not think that it was as easy to customize as other phones have been. All in all I think that Samsung could of done a better job to match the experience to the cool look and size of the phone.
Too Many Flaws
If you are a blackberry user or iPhone user looking for something new...stay away from the captivate or android operating systems!
Let me start off by saying when I first got this phone it would not even turn on. After being on hold for hours with AT&T over it I googled it and found out it had been "bricked." I was able to get it in download mode and restore it to factory settings. Many people are having this problem.
Pros:
Swype texting is amazing
Amazing screen
Fast
Cool features
Camera
Widgets
Android Market
lightweight
Cons:
2.1 eclair android os
Random shutoffs
Will not update os without "bricking" itself
Ringtones and notification tones are horrible
No instant email with yahoo mail
No flash on camera
No keypad lock on top (on side)
I sent this phone back and got the Torch.
If you are thinking about upgrading go with the Blackberry Torch or iPhone 3gs or iPhone 4. Android has some major issues to work out first.
Amazing phone
I just got this phone yesterday and I have to say that it's simply amazing. The 4 inch super AMOLED screen is breathtaking and then 1 ghz hummingbird processor is very fast. Battery life does not seem to be an issue, even coming from a heavy smartphone user. I would definitely recommend this phone to any AT&T customer, it is one of their best phones yet!
great phone
Have you ever used an iphone with 4.0 LOL. They call that multitasking....try this phone. better screen faster easier to use more apps to download at once. download free music and movies. wow nice phone. and the hd video recorder is insane. i can have 48 gb on this thing. and choose a browser that fits my needs. imagine that. apple im sorry but ill never get a 4.
Good phone, however....
I have had a chance to play with this phone and my first impressions were very positive. The huge screen makes for a better experience on the eyes. The phone feels light yet it is very well built. I honestly thought about trading in my Iphone 4 for this android device but in the long run the Iphone won out and here is why...
Pros-
- Huge 4 Inch amoled screen, very easy on the eyes especially if you wear glasses.
- swype feature is great, samsung advertised this on a commercial where they won on the fastest text messaging challenge.
- The android layout on this device is head and shoulders over the backflip (which i owned) and the aria.
- The picture quality is probably one of the best that I have seen since the 8.0 megapixel sony ericcsson.
Cons-
- Even though the camera is great, the shutter time is terrible. If you take a pic you better make sure that no one moves at all and that you hold the camera extra steady.
- The layout on the home screen is not the greatest, I dont like native apps that are cemented on the homescreen.
- Swype, even though it can be fast for text messaging really takes some getting used to, practice practice.
-Does not work on Mac.
- I had the iphone 4 and the captivate side by side and went to several websites (on 3g network) and the iphone 4 always loaded faster.
I gave this phone a 3.5 because it is by far one of the better phones that I have seen come through since the Iphone, even with all the antenna issues that the Iphone 4 has had, i have yet to have a problem. The samsung captivate is definitely a great alternative to the iphone 4. Great phone minus a few little imperfections.
Great phone but...
The Pro's
This phone is great. I tried the Verizon Wireless Droid Incredible and the battery and keyboard were horrible. This phone is a huge step up and the only Android phone that I have seen that I like. It has a great interface, a great keyboard, good battery life (comparable to the iPhone 3GS), an amazing screen and it takes good pictures.
The Con's
1) It does not have a flash.
2) It's not Mac compatible (I found this out after calling Samsung and was transferred up to their level 3 support).
Overall, I highly recommend the phone if you have Windows XP or Vista. The only reason I give it 2 points is because it's not Mac compatible and nowhere on AT&T or Samsung's device description pages does it mention this. It also does not mention Windows 7 compatibility and I saw a report of someone having issues with Windows 64-bit.
