Samsung Captivate: To Purchase Or Not (Please Help!)

[TLD1]

I've just become a member here because I need some advice as to whether or not to go with the Samsung Captivate. I've been back and forth between the iPhone and BlackBerry so many times I can't keep track...and have recently gone back to the BlackBerry 9700 Bold. It's a great device...but I'm bored, plain and simple...and I have until 12/4/10 to exchange my BlackBerry.

I am curous about the Android system...and the Samsung Captivate seems to be AT&T's flagship Android phone at this time. But, all I hear on other forums is people complaining about the GPS not working, the phone shutting itself off randomly, the lagginess of the UI and other things that scare me off. I don't want a buggy, troublesome phone...

And, I'd rather not go back to the iPhone again!

Can some here, that have owned a Captivate a while bring some light into the subject, and try to convince me to buy the Captivate...or run away quickly?

Thanks in advance!

 

[anneoneamouse]

There are plenty of similar threads in the forum, please use the search function, read them, and post specific questions if you have any.

I am not trying to be rude- it's just a duplication of (our) effort otherwise,

AoN

 

[TLD1]

There are plenty of similar threads in the forum, please use the search function, read them, and post specific questions if you have any.

I am not trying to be rude- it's just a duplication of (our) effort otherwise,

AoN

Great...thanks. I know how to use the search function...just hoping someone could be subjective enough to help me wade through all this...

http://forum.androidcentral.com/search.php?searchid=945308

Because based on what I see here...I'd be better off with what I have.

 

[TripperGetem]

It's 50/50 with the GPS... Mine didn't work and froze when I first got my phone but since 2.1 update 1, my GPS works great. My phone did turn off by itself when I first got it about 2 or 3 times and hasn't did it since. I can't lie, I thought about bringing the phone back after about a week. It was laggy and slow. But after that first week, it started working great, I guess you have to break it in or something, cause now it's really fast and I'm so glad I didn't return it.

 

[anneoneamouse]

Check this thread- the author was an ex-BB user, so their perspective should be similar to yours.

http://forum.androidcentral.com/t-c...ptivate-owner-hello-my-first-impressions.html

If you're comfortable rooting the phone, and applying a new ROM (check XDA, for Cognition), performance and general user-experience is much improved. Be aware that this will void your warranty though.

If you are going to get a Captivate, make sure that you get one with a good GPS (and definitely check it in the store before you leave- I've seen posts here of people opening 10 boxes before they were happy).

Hope this helps,

AoN

 

[fldude99]

I was deciding and deciding also..but with the 30 day return its like a no brainer. Just get it and see how you like it. Worst that happens is 1) You return it, 2) Keep it and flip it on Craigslist for a nice profit, or 3) Keep it and enjoy. The gps issues, lag and all that are few and far between IMO. Mine works like a charm on stock OS

 

[Nophix]

I've used BB in a corporate environment, and was an iPhone fanatic. That being said, I'm very happy with my Captivate. Now, I did return my first one, and went back to my iPhone for a short time. Howevr, the Captivate drew me in again, and I gave it another shot.

I'm very glad I did!

I got it before the update, and GPS was glitchy. Everything else was fine, though. Update 1 brought no real results, and I was out of my 30 days. So, I tried the leaked Froyo. I liked the interface better, but still no GPS love.

So, I got the idea to flash Cognitino 2.4.1 one night. AMAZING! This is how the phone should have come factory! I never thought it was laggy before, but what a difference! Also, it unlocks the phone's full potential.

However, still no GPS love.... I did manage to make it a lot better through some tweaks.

 

[Thanontos]

Hello guys, I too have just purchased a Captivate off of eBay and it is only 1 month old. I will receive the phone tomorrow, but now I'm worried about the random restarts/shutdows I've been reading about. How common are they? I am aware of GPS issues, but I don't care if it works or not, but the random reboots could be killer. I wish I could give you the model number as I think someone said the 10 was better than the 09 as far as reboots go. Any help or advice is appreciated. I plan of rooting and putting on cognition once I get it, steps seem easy enough as long as I follow them in order.

 

[know1]

I like the phone, but hate the fact that the OS updates come so slowly. I bought this phone thinking that Froyo would be available for it in a couple of months. It's now been almost 5 months and the update is nowhere in sight.

This will be my last phone by Samsung. I'll stick with Android, but just a different manufacturer.

 

[loraque]

The Captivate has been great for me, barring the GPS. I was not addicted to GPS yet, so I don't really miss it much. It is fast and has the best looking screen out there.

If you are on ATT, there is no phone to compare barring the iPhone 4, and that is a discussion for another area.

As to the complaints about <insert complaint here>-

This is the internet and it is full of whiners.
All phones have something that someone does not like, and all technology suffers from lemons. I have seen nothing on the Captivate (barring GPS) that indicates the odd shutdown issues are anything other than lemons.

And that is me bring extremely generous, as most of those that read this forum are probably flashing something custom or otherwise doing things they should not, and then blaming it on the phone.

This is the internet, 95% of what you read is a lie... just like 75% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

 

[Thanontos]

I was worried for a bit, but after receiving the phone I have been problem free for the last 48 hours. My GPS is sensitive, but I never use it anyway. I was more worried about these random shut down and restarts, but have not seen them (and hoping not to). The phone works and looks beautiful!

There is no better screen out there and it really makes my BlackBerry Torch screen look like a Gameboy Color.... I installed Cognition 2.3b6 on it only an hour after getting the phone. I do not know how well the stock OS ran on it, but this one is great IMO. Only time I ever see a bit of lag is if I add an application shortcut to one of the home screens. It beats the speed of my previous phone by a lot. Another worry was not having the 3-button recovery option, but it is there!

Only complaint with my particular device is the battery life, which I am sure you've all heard before. Maybe it is the infatuation effect and I cant put my phone down, but it drops pretty quick. A few steps I have taken are: Lower brightness all the way, no GPS, lowered the frequency of apps updating, and turning off data when not in use. I wish I had the option to turn from 3G down to 2G, but I do not, so I downloaded a widget to shut of data when Im not using it or on wifi.

This phone really is a spectacular and have to admit pretty sexy phone! I agree, people who have problems will come to the forums to try to resolve them, so looking for reviews here you're probably going to see the majority of people with problems. I know it got excellent reviews and I think it is rated like 4.5 stars or something. I have seen people OCD about phones too, returning a BlackBerry because one letter is printed slightly higher on the keyboard....

 

[loraque]

if you determine that the battery is running low too quickly, there are some steps to ' reset' it. But your first impression that it is heavy usage is likely. Common problem when new

 

[Thanontos]

I did a calibration last night and deleted the battery info file. I was sceptical, but it is workinfg quite well. I have 40% battey left which is an increase by about 25% over yeaterday. I believe i used my phone the same if not more today too.

 

[dparrothead1]

Hi, I'm a new member and have had my phone for a week now and I love it. Don't really know about any of the other phones because I just came out of the dark ages.

I did research this phone very carefully before making the leap, and I have not had any issues with the GPS or the phone cutting off.....keeping my fingers crossed.

If you haven't purchased one yet; you owe it to yourself to check out Amazon Wireless. They have incredible deals. I got my Captivate for .01 and free shipping. I was even able to upgrade my phone with AT&T on the Amazon Wireless site when I made my purchase.

 

[hellosailor]

Davis, whether it is any good depends on what your comparison is to, or what your standards are.

It's a great little phone and the PHONE aspects of it work great.

The GPS can be objectively compared to dedicated GPSes, if you understand what "AGPS" is and why that is not pure GPS function, and if you understand what signal-to-noise (s/n) means. By objective standards--it isn't up to par for many users, and since most feedback is not objective, there's no way to tell if there really is a GPS problem or if there are just a lot of defective phones. Since Samsung & AT&T have both declared that patches fix the issue, and the patches don't affect function for many phones, you can't believe them.

There are a couple of real niggles, like the battery charger ringing and lighting up the phone to announce it is fully charged, so you can either 1) Be awakened every night, or 2) Shut the phone every night or 3) learn to charge it some other time, not before you go to sleep. That's "unique" to this phone and the next software updates might fix it, or not.

And then there's the volume control. Apparently these phones use a 16-bit hardware function to control volume, you only get 16 steps (0-15) for volume control over everything, including your tunes. If you like to listen to music on the phone, you may also need to buy a 3rd-party music app, because the native ones crash if there are too many (65?) artists in the database when it indexes your albums.

A couple of rough edges. A killer for some, no problem for others. If you don't mind burnt coffee or stale donuts, you'll love this phone. It IS FAST, the screen IS BRIGHTEST, the phone quality is great. And the battery life is perfectly adequate, despite many complaints from users who just just don't realize that running WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, and cellular all the time means there are FOUR RADIOS sucking power. Play music at the same time...and no phone has enough battery for all that. At least you CAN easily carry and swap a spare battery for this phone, unlike the iPhone.

Disappointing that Samsung would be so sloppy and unresponsive when they really could have shipped a killer product though. Maybe in six more months, they'll polish it up.