yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Captivate General] accinfo:
What's great?

-Notification bar on the top let you quickly toggle the wifi, bluetooth, silent, annddd vibration.

-there are million useful widgets that you can use in your homescreen, even though i don't use any of them xD

-games (oh my goodness, i haven't gotten the time [or the persistence against laziness] to download the emulators, once you download the emulators, you'll be able to play nearly ANY GAMES (PSX, gameboi, etc)

-i cannot comment on the calling / messaging quality since i have tmobile, i'm waitin for the unlock code (i've been using airplane mode with wifi on)
[Captivate General] emuneee:
I am extremely happy with my captivate. I think its the perfect mixture of hardware and software...though there are a few sour spots that need fixing. Throw in the versatility of android and the unlocked nature if the captivate and this phone will be very popular.

This phone basically is four devices in one for me....phone...mp3 player...camera/camcorder...and internet device.
[Captivate General] systoxity:
good choice picking up the captivate instead. I checked out the vibrant b4 i got this, and its felt/looked more like the ugly stepchild of the galaxy s series.
[Captivate General] accinfo:
oh two more things.

usb sliding door is cool.

battery cover is metal which is cooler than other galaxy s.

battery opening is cool.

that's three but whatever.
[Captivate General] li1on:
That's literally the first thing I noticed when I got the device. I was like HOLY SH!T it's GENIUS!
[Captivate General] MSigler:
Not really, but I will be soon.

I'm really disappointed with the stock ROM, but 2.2 will fix most of the issues, and a custom 2.2 rom will fix all of them.

I really wish manufacturers and carriers would leave the rom alone. Fine, load your bloatware, I get it, you're trying to generate revenue, and it's simple enough to remove those things, but my captivate, while having significantly faster hardware, is much, much slower than my Nexus One on 2.1, even after doing everything I can.

From a hardware standpoint, I'm very happy with it. The rom is seriously lacking though.

Again, I'm coming from a vanilla android phone, so the difference might not be as big if you're coming from something sense or motoblur or any of the other skins manufacturers seem to love putting on android phones for no good reason.
[Captivate General] derek4484:
To answer your question simply, so far yes I am happy with the Captivate. Would I be happier with an iphone4... probably so.

The iphone4 is a better phone hardware-wise. Better screen. Better camera. Better battery life. Equal CPU/GPU. Slimmer design (not by much though). GPS that actually works.

I knew this going in (well except about how pitiful the GPS is), and still bought the Captivate. Will I keep it beyond the 30 days? I dont know. The GPS is absolutely crap. It will not track you at all, even at jogging speed. If you are standing still it locks you pretty quick and accurate. But as soon as you start to move, its over. I have tried it on my bike and it wont even track me through my neighborhood, much less at 30 mph in your car. Highway speed, forget it. Its totally unusable for anything. There's others in here that try to use it for jogging and it says they went further than they really did because when you zoom in on the path it zig zags all over the place. Just know ahead of time, if you use gps on your phone often, do not buy this phone. And dont expect samsung to put out an update anytime soon. They are notoriously bad about updating software. Just ask any samsung smartphone owner.

I was coming from an iphone 2G and wanted something a little different. I guess I had gotten bored or complacent using iOS for 3 years. Now I am missing it. Android has gotten better, but its still not as rock solid and easy to use as iOS. I get several "Force Closes" a day, and I only had apps crash a couple times in 3 years with iOS. Though, if you like to constantly tinker with stuff, Android is for you. With all the variables there are lots of things you can play with, like widgets, different keyboards, etc. Also, cut and paste with android is not as good as it is on the iphone. Hopefully soon we will start to get custom ROMs, although so far not much has been accomplished yet as the source code for the Captivate still hasnt been released.

All in all, Captivate is a good phone, iphone4 is a great phone. Thats my honest un-biased opinion and I own the Captivate and I was a long time iOS user.
[Captivate General] MSigler:
I can see your point of view, but if you have any interest in modding your phone, I would wait until a good aftermarket rom is out.

The stock Captivate rom is NOT a good indication of android. It's honestly horrid, in my opinion.
[Captivate General] Anthonok:
I returned my iphone 4 to get this phone. Don't regret it at all and I've been an iphone guy since the 3g and upgraded every year
[Captivate General] jakkzen:
very happy. all the at&t garbage is off. helix launcher is now on. have my bittorrent app and music junk 3.0.4.
[Captivate General] sammyg122:
I love the phone, but my main issue is battery life. It's ridiculous that I can only get about 14 hours of life with 11 hours of idle time.
[Captivate General] k2snowboards88:
I'm very happy with my captivate.

I am loving this phone. I came from an iphone 3g. I'm really enjoying the larger, more vibrant screen and already taking advantage of the freedoms I didn't have with the iphone. I looked at my friend's iphone 4 and it was a bit snappier, but the screen just looked dull to me after using my captivate. The gps has been fine for me (aside from one incident that was my fault). It is not as good as my old phone but it gets the job done. Navigation apps work perfectly without jittering. My battery life is also good , but probably not as good as the iphone 4. I get through an entire day if I turn the brightness down a bit in the browser and use the screen for 4 hours or less. (my girlfriend thinks that's too much already.)
[Captivate General] Battlehymn:
I upgraded from a Tilt2, and the Captivate has been an awesome experience so far.

My son has an iPhone4 and now wants to replace it with a Captivate so we are going to use my Wife's upgrade to get him one and she'll take the iPhone. As far as the display goes the only difference I can really see, from a reasonable viewing perspective, is that the Captivate is brighter. Sure if you put your cornea on the screen you can see that the iPhone has the better resolution, but I dont hold my phone like that.

GPS has not been an issue for me, I have noticed that the map also zooms in/out based on your speed which my in-dash nav system doesn't do. I have only used the NAV function while driving so far, so I can't speak to it's accuracy while navigating the isles at wal-mart.

One of the selling points for me was that I can pretty much just drag and drop DIVX, XVID, Matroska and mp4 files on the memory card, no file conversion needed, and they play...video out is a bonus also. (This is also one of the reasons my son wants to switch, along with the promise of Flash when we get a FroYo update).

The only issues I have had are with contact groups not syncing properly between the phone and google, and initially conecting the phone to my computer via USB.

The proliferation of the Galaxy S varients planet-wide is going to help rocket this thing in popularity with APP developers and ROM chefs too... a big selling point for me, and the boy.

I like it ... I like it alot.
[Captivate General] toawkanavngthded:
thank you all for your responses!! keep them coming! also is it possible to use my fiances upgrade (which is in august) to upgrade to the any phone? my upgrade isnt available till march. i heard that i cant use her upgrade.... and will this phone work fine to transfer music, vids, and movies and all that on mac? if not how bout running parallels and win 7? i had a tilt 2 and it was difficult for me to hardspl and flash roms on mac and win 7. if everything works fine on mac then im in!!
[Captivate General] torrin66:
Well, IMO there is no debate, that Captivate all the way. I had an iPhone 3GS and 4.

iPhone 4:

Pros:

Beautiful Camera

Awesome Screen

Clean and Polished UI

Easy Integration to iTunes (Could be a con)

Cons:

Drops calls without bump if you touch left corner of phone

Proximity Sensor does not work (hitting mute button while talking on the phone)

Limited Configuration Options

No Jailbreak Available atm

Apple Lies and they seem to be somewhat evil (Opinion of Course)

Terrible Battery Life (1/2 of what I had with my 3GS)

Captivate:

Pros:

Not an iPhone 4

BIG Screen

Android Based

Highest end Android AT&T offers

The phone works and does not drop calls

The proximity sensor works, no hitting button while on the phone

Highly Customizable

Cons:

Not running Froyo

A bit laggy in places

AT&T locked marketplace (easy to get around, just stupid)

Less refined UI

Frankly, I need a pone to make phone calls and text messages first and foremost. The iPhone 4 fails at those two basic function.
[Captivate General] torrin66:
I averaged something like 6-8 hours of battery life with my iPhone 4, I had one for 29 days.
[Captivate General] MSigler:
You can use her upgrade, just put your sim card in it.

I've had an android phone since March with a Mac, if anything it's easier than a PC.
[Captivate General] brandonb81:
I got it on Sunday and was rather disappointed with a number of things about the phone. I think it was possibly a lemon, but I'm not sure. I swapped it out and the interface is much faster and smoother, the screen seems brighter, the pictures are better, the GPS actually works (somewhat), and the battery seems better.

Now I am extremely happy with it. I just hope the battery life/reporting gets better, they fix the GPS issues and we get 2.2 soon. Definitely happy I got the Captivate and didn't get an IPhone 4.
[Captivate General] Battlehymn:
As far as AT&T and upgrading goes ... they let me do whatever I want. As long as there is an upgrade available on any of the lines on our family plan I can upgrade any line I want to. Last year I used my wife's upgrade to get my Tilt2 and they gave me a free Bold 9700 for my daughter using my sons upgrade.

This year my Son and I are the only one's who've has used an available upgrade. I'm not sure what the all the differences are but I have a Premier account and the rules may be different. I know the one year upgrade is different, but that's about all I know.

(EDIT) - This is important -

If your GF's line does not have a smartphone data plan they may require you add it in order to get the upgrade, AT&T's network can detect a smartphone and will add a data plan automatically ... If you have an unlimited plan make damn sure that they don't select a data limited plan!!

As far as Mac compatibility goes, I really don't know because I don't use one. The Samsung support website does have an faq for connecting it though.
[Captivate General] toawkanavngthded:
i read somewhere that u had to dl a third party app in order for you to sync itunes music to the captivate? hope its not true.... AND has anyone rooted the captivate on mac??? im gonna check out the phone today and see how it runs! also can someone please post of a pic of how the messaging is? is it threaded? is it not? is it completely different? im coming from an iphone 2g and tilt 2
[Captivate General] asrrin29:
I love my captivate. I had an AT&T Tilt (Not tilt 2!) before this, and the phone blows it out of the water in every conceivable way. I've had almost none of the issue some other people are experiencing here on the forums. Aside from having to wait for a wifi hotspot/tether solution to become available, it does everything I want it to and more.
[Captivate General] MSigler:
Android doesn't sync to a computer really. You can use doubletwist to sync media, or just mount it as a disk.

I rooted both my Nexus One and my Captivate on a Mac, though you don't really even need a computer to root the Captivate.

Messaging is threaded, just like the iPhone, it's essentially the same, I'll post a pic in just a second.
[Captivate General] nolanta:
The speed of the interface is killing me on this phone. I really want to like it, but I do a fresh reboot. Launch mail. Hit the menu button, then account.. each of these clicks takes 2-3 seconds to launch the next option. Some take as many as 10 seconds. Just to switch to a different email account, it's driving me crazy.

I like the interface, I like the options, I'm good with battery life. GPS needs work, phone responsiveness needs work.
[Captivate General] k2snowboards88:
only windows mobile doesn't do threaded messaging.
[Captivate General] MSigler:
Like I said, the stock rom is laughably bad. Wait until a decent rom comes out and it will be a different phone.
[Captivate General] MSigler:
Stock messaging app
[Captivate General] homegeek:
After having the Captivate for a week I would return to my iPhone 4 if I could get my hands on one.

The main reasons;

The battery sucks! You have to practically turn off everything such as live wallpapers and push sync to even get the battery to last 6 hours of little usage.

The OS is unstable on this phone. The phone reboots on it's own and it can get very laggy even with very little running. This might be fixed by rooting the phone but I should not need to risk my phone to do this.

Reception issues, I have not noticed them but there are a lot of people reporting them.

The USB connectivity is flaky as hell. It is a crap shoot on whether your computer will recognize it or not.

The search feature does not seem to be able to search the SD cards where most people keep their media.

People are saying the hardware is top notch on this phone and that maybe true. The screen is great. But everyone forgets the biggest advantage of IOS vs Android. IOS is written for very specific hardware so it does not need the hardware to be efficient. Because it is written for that specific hardware it will always be more stable.
[Captivate General] li1on:
teh comparison!1!!

I just switched from an iPhone 4, and I have mixed emotions. At this point, the Captivate is worse than the iPhone. It is indeed slower, and the Maps/GPS is balls. I also found the restricted market a bit lame (but I fixed that). The GPS thing and the speed is truly the issue. For example, in Facebook, if I click on my Profile, it takes a solid minute to load the layout, then I still have to press refresh to load wall posts and whatnot. If you're a heavy FB user, I'd stick with an iPhone, or keep an iPod touch as a backup. In addition, I miss my LED Flash, and the front camera. I don't know anyone with facetime...so I could care less.

That being said, I love the hardware. Call me crazy, but the rounded edges are beautiful: they remind me a little of the BB Storm's hardware, and even more of the HTC Pure (Diamond2). I LOVE the metal back plate. Plus, If I drop it, I know it's just plastic: not glass which will shatter on first contact with the ground. The S. AMOLED display is gorgeous. It isn't the retina display where you cannot distinguish pixel from pixel, but it comes close. I can only see pixels if I squint and try my hardest. Android itself is so much better (in my book) than iOS, as well.

Basically, if you can mind the occasional lag until a new ROM comes out, then you'll be fine. If you have a backup iPod touch or older iPhone device (so you don't miss iOS too much), then I say you explore Android. Its simply a new experience for iPhone users.
[Captivate General] li1on:
my part is bolded
[Captivate General] d2010d:
Lag

Ditto... I'm about ready to return it. Coming from Nexus One w/2.1 & 2.2 with same mail setup the Captivate can't handle it. Driving me bonkers.. Dell Streak with 1.6 is looking pretty good about now.
[Captivate General] :
I will have a Dell Steak!!!! And the N1 with Froyo smokes pretty much everything out there so we just have to wait till Sammy gets around to a Touch Wiz release....then I think nothing will touch the Galaxy S phones. I've owned everything under the sun, 4 iphones, both the Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus (don't ask lol) the Sprint Hero, the Backflip (for a week) Touch Pro 2, Fuze, my sexy Nexy and a Blackberry Bold 9000. I can live with the Captivate for now, but Sammy only gets one chance to get this right or I'll track down the dude on Ebay that gets my Nexus and steal it back lol. Froyo and a few bug fixes and we'll have the best phone on earth for a month or 2 at least:)
[Captivate General] Sounds Good:
Same here... I need to replace my old lagging original iPhone 2G, and I'm torn between the new iPhone 4 and the Captivate.

I like my iPhone very much but it's the only Apple product I own, so there's not really that much loyalty there.

But... I gotta say that I'm not overly thrilled with some of the comments about the Captivate. :eek:
[Captivate General] Main Target:
Android blows the iOS out of the water. Bar none.

Apple just had a slight upper hand with its hardware, but no longer. Anything you could want, you can customize in android. And its freaking amazing.

Only frustration right now is the battery. Hopefully It will get much better after a few more cycles. I started using it this morning and it was dead and on the charger before noon. I have faith, based on things said on this forum, that it will get much better.
[Captivate General] homegeek:
After having the Captivate for a week I would return to my iPhone 4 if I could get my hands on one.

The main reasons;

The battery sucks! You have to practically turn off everything such as live wallpapers and push sync to even get the battery to last 6 hours of little usage.

let your battery drain twice (not to 10% or 5%, ALL THE WAY) and say that again.

The OS is unstable on this phone.

that's a lie

The phone reboots on it's own and it can get very laggy even with very little running.

I've never had this issue. has anyone else?

This might be fixed by rooting the phone but I should not need to risk my phone to do this.

Root takes 3 minutes and a brain.

Reception issues, I have not noticed them but there are a lot of people reporting them.

The death grip is indeed there, but it doesn't degrade signal or drop calls. It simply shows less bars, contrary to the iPhone's disability.

The USB connectivity is flaky as hell. It is a crap shoot on whether your computer will recognize it or not.

Turn on USB debugging and set your phone to Mass Storage mode. I've never had this issue.

The search feature does not seem to be able to search the SD cards where most people keep their media.

I think SD card read/write accessibility comes in Froyo? I could be wrong... But like, I'd save my stuff to the Phone itself. It has like 14 GB already!

People are saying the hardware is top notch on this phone and that maybe true. The screen is great. But everyone forgets the biggest advantage of IOS vs Android. IOS is written for very specific hardware so it does not need the hardware to be efficient. Because it is written for that specific hardware it will always be more stable.

I have let the battery drain, it still sucks.

The OS is unstable on this phone and if you were not such a fanboy you would read the forums and see all the problems people are having. The Android OS will never be as good as Apple because it is generically written while Apple writes for specific hardware. I have never had such lag issues on a phone as I do with the captivate. Saying that is a lie just shows you really cant see the truth.

As for the phone rebooting, READ THE FORUM THREADS I HAVE SEEN SEVERAL COMPLAINTS ON ANDROIDFORUMS.COM

As for your comment about rooting, I have a brain, I cant say about you but I should not have to root the phone to get it to work right. And BTW you are just being ignorant and insulting and not actually rebutting my point. There is a risk at rooting unless you want to deny that as well.

Your comment about the reception issues, although you and I do not experience them there would be people that would disagree with you.

And as for your other comments, just because you don't experience something does not meant they don't exist!
[Captivate General] derek4484:
Yes, the messaging is almost just like the iphone. In my opinion you'll definitely need to get SMS Popup app. With that it even pops up incoming SMS txts when the phone is in standby mode. I love SMS Popup.
[Captivate General] derek4484:
I dont know if you've ever owned an iOS device or not, but saying Android blows it out of the water shows me your opinion is completely biased. It doesnt even barely squeak by it. iOS is much more refined. Android is like everything else google does, it seems like a permanent beta. 2.1 is pretty good, but it cant match the refinement or polish of the Apple UI. And really Android is no more open that Apple's is either. To really get into Android and modify it you need root access, this voids the warranty. You can modify the heck out of iOS if you jailbreak it, which voids its warranty as well. If you had an iOS device you need to check out Cydia, there's apps for any kind of modding you want to do, possibly more than even for android. There are 100 million iOS devices been sold, so theres easily more devs writing for it than android. And with iOS you only have to write for one hardware configuration, not the 50 different hardware types that android is on.

I had an iphone for 3 years and loved every minute of using the phone. I got a Captivate because its the best android phone out there. To be honest, hardware wise its not as good as the iphone4 and OS-wise its not as good as iOS either. Android is getting closer, though. I wanted something different so I went and got an Android phone; and I was a little tired of Steve Jobs' shtick.

But get real if you think Android blows iOS out of the water. Saying that makes you sound foolish.
[Captivate General] Main Target:
I guess I am biased if I like how easy it is to do certain things that should be easy in the first place... The only reason iOS seems refined is because apple makes all the decisions for you. Obviously with more options comes more issues, thats just how its going to be when you dont have massive strict restrictions on your OS.

FYI this is my first Android phone and had and iphone 2g and 3g before hand. Hardly biased on that front. I have had it jailbroken with all the bells and whistles. But lets get real. The iphone 3GS still does not have a reliable jailbreak and nor does the iphone 4. It took me all but 5 seconds to have quick reply on the Android. Do you see apple implementing swype? How about all the other options out there?

You have to be crazy if you think iOS is a more capable OS.
[Captivate General] Sounds Good:
Great post. As someone who is struggling with the "iPhone 4 or Captivate" decision, I appreciate your honesty.
[Captivate General] lilo777:
I have no experience with iPhone and only one week with Android so I might be mistaken but I believe that IOS and iPhone 4 have very few advantages over Captivate.

First let me say that although I rooted the phone (to remove some ATT apps) I use it mostly "as is", i.e. no task managers or "juice" savers. I find TOuchWiz to be just fine. I though it was a little laggy but after I switched from life wallpaper to a static one (almost black to preserve battery), I do not have any lag and better battery life. Admittedly I do not have facebook or twitter accounts but I do have Gmail and Hotmail (set to sync every 30 minutes). My battery easily lasts entire day (with rather moderate usage).

GPS works but there are issues which Samsung already acknowledged. Those will be fixed. When it comes to IOS refinement I noticed tat many people refer to better looking icons. Even if this is true, who cares?

The real trade-off between iPhone and Captivate is the screen. iPhone renders text better but Captivate's text is very readable and this is all that matters (that's why we use the text :)). Captivate is better for videos and pictures and it's bigger which makes the phone much easier to use.

I do not have any system reboots. WEB Browser did crash a few times but that's expected (I believe iPhone has this problem too).