By If you didn’t already catch AT&T in the act of selling this device ahead of street date, then you can now walk into any of their retail locations to grab up the newly released Samsung Captivate – a Galaxy S smartphone. The device is available for $499.99 without a two-year contract and $199.99 if you want to commit (there’s no rebate when purchasing online).
Users are just teeming with excitement over in the Captivate section at AndroidForums.com, so be hasty in signing up (if you haven’t already) and jumping in on the fun.
for would be buyers, samsung forums are abuzz right now about severe gps issues this phone seems to be having. no one seems to be sure whether its a software or hardware problem. i was annoyed it hasnt been released on verizon yet but judging from the issues, it may be a blessing in disguise. hopefully they fix the terrible gps performance before its released on the big V
I agree with the gps problem, I have the Captivate since thuersday (just walked in a ATT store) and notice the GPS was not working inside and had trouble outside.
I hope it will be fixed by a software upgrade
I hope that the Epic 4G on Sprint doesn’t have these issues, as I’m torn between getting the EVO or the Epic. Both are 4G capable, but the EVO has a bigger screen, but the Epic has a slide-out QWERTY, which I’m more used to. Either way, both are great phones.
I have had some bad experiences with samsung. The epic 4g might make me a believer again but really I want a EVO but they are on backorder
Well I was told this phone was going for $349.00 by an at&t rep and a Manager and got there today to find out it was $499.00 without contract… I’ll wait a day to see the DELl.
Oh ya, bad experiences pete…?
Wah, I want to re-consider it again :)
It’s only a software problem with the GPS. Not hardware. Currently there is a simple fix for the Vibrant up at XDA. I have not tried it yet since mine works fine outside. Buy it and see if the fix works or you can just wait for an update. Remember, you can still return the phone.
Big News!!!!!!!!! Grab this for for free through Walmart.com as long as your eligible for upgrade on a primary line it’s free. Plus shipping and a car charger is thrown in. Cant wait to get this phone…………
Free Captivate through Letstalk.com Of course there are restrictions. Must be eligible for an upgrade or new account also must be your primary number. Still a great deal………plus free overnight shipping and a car charger. Seems like every phone when its first released has some type of problems but I’m sure they will work out the kinks.
I ordered it through Wal-mart this afternoon for free. Looking forward to seeing it Tuesday.
Got my Captivate this morning. it’s awesome. I did notice that GPS is flaky inside.
My wife has had iPhones for several years. She currently has a 3G, and she is very jealous. :-)
I went and checked it out today. It is very snappy but I cant stand the UI. Way too much like iOS.
This hardware with Vanilla Android or Sense would be perfect.
And good work AT&T way to strip the flash off the camera. FAIL!!!
You can change the UI so that apps scroll vertically. The default UI is good for the iphone 4 switchers. :)
I am so excited!!!! I have to wait until Tuesday too. For everyone who is complaining………don’t get the phone than. Remember you have a choice……..also dont forget we have a great community of followers who will root this phone and just think what how fast it will be with Froyo.
after two hours of trying to order it i was finally able to for $99.99 through the att web site… family plan plus switching from an iphone just made it a big mess with the data plans and shipping it to the non primary address…
But i’m happy to finally get away from apple and my iphone…
I think I’m going to flash it with a vanilla FroYo when a good ROM is available for it. But for the meantime, I’ll but up with this UI.
what is the problem with the GPS..does everything else work great?
also…htc aria or this captivate? Im not eligable for upgrade so i would like to save some money but i really like the captivate
No flash + No (or Poor) Samsung update support = No purchase from me.
I had to take a picture with my HTC Hero inside the building parking garage and couldn’t get a visible picture (car dent). Turns out I had to use my wife’s ancient Nokia E75 to get a picture. How embarassing. From now on, no flash, phone gets no cash.
Samsung is perfectly capable of making a phone with a
-nice metal back
-FFC
-camera flash
-16GB NAND Flash memory
-5 row keyboard
but not all in one model. Come on guys.
Can anyone explain why AT&T removed the flash from this phone?
I understand why they took off the front facing camera, but why the flash?
ordered it and got it, phone is rather plasticky and thin and of course very very nice
See what happened when you buy crappy ANDROID device like this. Just glad I didn’t get the CAPTIVATE. Always wait till I hear something bad bout this phone. I’m still waiting for my DESIRE AT&T HURRY THE F UP!.
You know…
I’ve been trying to get an Android phone since the original MOtorola Droid came out, and it is one of the best Android phones around, but…
There’s always going to be a “newer” model lurking around the corner, I was going to buy the Droid, but after reading on it’s SAR level I dropped it from the list. Then comes the Google Nexus ONE, too expensive, and people complained about the sensitivity of the touch screen. Then came the HTC Droid Incredible, and Verizon wouldn’t ship one until several weeks, then comes the Droid X, big as hell itself! And the Motorola Droid 2 is coming in like a month or so…
Don’t you guys get tired of waiting for a perfect Android device? This is something sort of personal, tecnology is as personal as a cellphone, you either love it or you don’t.
I picked the Samsung Captivate and there are a few things that I don’t like about it, like out the box syncing functionality with a PC (Outlook), but this is a fine device, the Hummingbird processor, the gorgeous screen, the nice sound, the UI is great, what more can you want? I think everybody is just looking for specs, and the Original Motorola Droid still kicks ass and it’s almost a uear long. Just pick a device and get it over with!
:)
@Jouten
Dude.. Your talking about a different phone, from a different manufacturer, and even a different carrier.. your experience in needing a phone that can take pictures in low level lighting is valid. but maybe it would be better to ask the million dollar question….
.
Ok, for those of you who actually have this phone.. It has been said that the camera is extremely good in low level lighting., making the absence of flash less of an issue.. If you have taken any pictures in low level lighting, how did they come out ?
i checked out an actual demo at an ATT store it looks great; however, it looked very similar to iphone is some ways. but the screen looks great. it was a bit slow compared to what i’m use to with froyo 2.2 on my nexus. it was surprisingly thinner than a nexus and sleek. haha, it took me a while to find the power button. i keep hitting what i thought was the power button onto, but it was the hdmi port or something (it was on the side). but i still wont give up my nexus for this baby.
i cant wait to upgrade to a 4.0” screen in the future. PS..i looked over the iphone 4g and it looked so small. nice and polish UI, but i just couldn’t fathom the one button UI after being with the android. and yes i was able to reproduce the Death Grip problem, lost 3 bars. Very sad if i could do it with the demo models in the ATT store.
I got the Captivate yesterday. Here some of my initial experiences:
Good:
Great screen
Thin
Responsive
3G & WiFi works well
Bad:
GPS does not work at all inside. It also took a while before it worked outside.
A lot of ATT Apps that cost additional fee to use. They’re junk in my opinion.
No FM radio or I can’t find it. It appears ATT disable this feature.
I still have much to explore on the phone.
Picked mine up Saturday. Nice phone. Coming from an LG 920Vu, this one is gonna have to train me to use it… The handset itself is huge compared to other sets and the buttons are a bit awkward to get to even tho I have large hands. They seem to be a bit too far toward the top of the set and kind of out of reach. Screens are a bit laggy(word?), but that might be my perception. Fantastic graphics, but I notice I seem to have dorked up the wallpaper sizing. Initially all my pics displayed full screen, now I have to resize them and save/discard!?! Don’t really care for the square corners, but that might be just me also. Still torqued at the carrier for the $75 additional charge for early upgrade, 4 months, when they gave away several thousand ( guess ) free upgrades for the Apple phone. Anyway, overall, very satisfied. Once again, Nice Phone!
I almost picked up the captivate but heard the rumor for the Dell streak so I waited. Well the 19th is here and no Dell streak. So now thinking of getting the captivate. I went to the AT&T store yesterday and messed with the demo version. The gps didn’t pick up at all. My G1 has better gps performance than the captivate. But I think I’ll wait till I see it get rooted with a good rom and go from there. All in all it’s very thin and light. No flash sucks and wish it had a front facing camera.
I’m seriously considering buying one of these right now, as my iPhone 3G just died and I’ve been wanting to switch to Android for a while. One thing I’ve yet to hear anyone talk about, does the Captivate let you install from “unknown sources” or are non-market installs blocked here just like all the other AT&T Androids?
Also, does this mean I can’t make my own apps?
I love my Captivate. I agree with the GPS issue though. Works OK outside…take about 60-90 seconds longer to acquire than I am accustomed to. Indoors it really doesn’t work at all. I have enabled the use Data Network to assist option and that at least gets me narrowed down to a couple hundred meters right away but the “within 3 meters” take a few mins even outside :-( Hope this is just a software fix. Otherwise it is an awesome phone, even with weak gps I won’t be returning it there are just too many other upsides on this phone. It is totally hackable and has the hottest Screen, CPU and GPU on the market.
I got the captivate and the gps is not good at all. Other than that it is a great phone. I REALLY HOPE this gets fixed. Does anyone know if samsung has official forums? I can’t seem to find any.
I have this phone, and I have no GPS problems at all…
The camera is NICER than my original iPhone camera. “Night” photos are dark, but I don’t want a phone to replace my camera. I (and this might just be me…) don’t expect my phone to replace my camera. I don’t expect any flash to work unless I am taking closeup pics of people/things at night. However, I’ll use a point-and-shoot that has a much better lens/chip.
Your goal may be different, but a mobile phone camera will never replace a camera because the lens is the issue…
Do an internet search… I have seen several sites that have pics taken at night.
Got this device yesterday figuring if I wasn’t happy I’d just go for the iPhone 4 within 30 days since I am a Mac dude in general. Have always been intrigued with Android however, and this looked to be the 1st good one on AT&T.
Despite a bit of a learning curve (at least for me) I am pleasantly impressed, and certainly no GPS issues so far. I did rip through the battery fairly quick goofing around, but that’s what we do with a new toy, and I’m sure I’ll figure out what applications/settings are the gobblers.
This much I know for sure; it’s extremely responsive and ridiculously fun.
I’ll chime back in a week or two after I get over the toy stage and see how it functions as a work tool, but I have nothing but “Wow, that’s so cool” and a mindless grin so far.
Eric Heymann
If what you said is true, then I guess Walmart just recently raise the price to $99. Walmart package included free battery car charges, overnight shipping, $99 for captivate, and free activation fees. Great Deal. Thanks Eric, you save me big money. It will be even nicer if I can get it for free. But I am satisifed, I will test out the GPS system and camera once I receive my phone.
Having trouble getting GPS to work indoors? Really? Most people know where they are when inside. Is that a significant problem? ;-)
I’ve had mine for 48 hours, and there are definitely problems. Adobe Flash is not supported AT ALL. This phone has Android OS 2.1, and no idea if AT&T will permit 2.2 or not. The “unknown sources” app loading is disabled by AT&T, so you cannot load ANY apps apart from Android market apps.
The email client is hideous. There is no support for moving messages between folders. That means that if you toss a message into the Trash, you cannot get it back out again. The lack of folder support exists for POP and IMAP: you can SEE your IMAP folders, but you cannot move messages between them.
In addition, the system seems to ignore the sync settings on the phone completely. I’ve asked it to check my email accounts every five minutes, and that does not happen at all. It’s not even attempting to log in to either of my accounts to check email – even if I try to do a REFRESH NOW. Facebook/Twitter widgets also don’t update automatically when set to – they only update when you switch to them (and then, of course, you have to wait for the update.)
Two hours on the phone with Samsung Level 3 tech support, and an hour with AT&T tech support led only to promises that these things “will be fixed in an upcoming software release.” That is, of course, IF AT&T “allows” the software release to go to its customers.
Overall a very disappointing phone. It has promise – beautiful camera, display, etc… – but no joy on the key communications apps that come with the phone and that I would, otherwise, rely on.
Guess I’ll have to return mine and go back to the iPhone…
Got mine on the 18th … no problems at all.
I’m not sure why people are concerned about the GPS not picking up inside, it’s for navigating roadways not the isles at walmart.
Addicuss. You are a very narrow mind type of person arn’t ya! Anyone who knows whats up…check the Captivate out. Much rather have a easy software issue that can be solved by a simple update rather then having to use a case on my phone in order for it to work. BTW. Using both hands, left and right, is very convenient. Lol.
ok iv had the phone since the day it came out i like the phone alot but liked my moto better just switched to att service sucks but besides that i cant recieve picture messages from verizon customers unless they forward them really wierd iv talked to every tech person out there and no one has an answer…?battery barely lasts a day..when im in a call and try to check a message or just get out of the call screen it goes crazy switching from black screen to call screen? and just today it droped a call then proceeded to not let me make a call until i rebooted?2 people tryed to call me and said the message said my number was changed really odd…i wish there was a fix i came from the iphone 4 and hated it i really like this phone but i has issues….what phone do i get the htc aria??? has to be android i love the os
Yea Im noticing my volume goes to a standard low ring volume by it self after 5 min
Can you upgrade from android 2.1 to 2.2 without having to buy a new version of the captivate?
I’ve had my captivate for less than a week and need to
return it. My email accounts keep getting deleted for no apparent
reason. I go to bed with all 4 of my accounts synced and
active and when I wake up…poof they are gone. I reinputed
these accounts five times. Also battery life is pathetic and I
am a light user. I love the UI, though.
Loved this phone at first, now I can’t get it to charge at all. Hoping it is just a battery issue or something wrong with the cord? Also having trouble with receiving emails. (email account set up…sometimes I get alerts, other times I do not)
Hope these will be easy fixes.
There are two problems with the agps affecting all the Galaxy S phones that was posted on Engadget. They said that first off it was wifi/cell tower approximation was turned off by default which helps the phone acquire a GPS position faster and secondly there is a problem with the software/hardware problem with determing your coordinates from the satellite signal.
How true that is I’m not sure but I’ve had the phone for a little over a week now and have played with it thoroughly. I noticed that if you bring up the GPS debug menu (*#*#1472376#*#* on the dial screen) and enter supl.google.com as the supl server with port 7276 it’ll. Work flawlessly for a couple of days before it goes haywire again. This leads me to think it is more a software bug than a hardware bug.
Samsung has also officially stated that they acknowledge the problem and are working on a software solution that will get released in Sept. Whether it will release with FROYO or not, I’m not sure.
The phone is fast and developers have already been able to get a stable overclock of 1.2GHz (1.6Ghz was achieved but battery life and stability was probably an issue). My graphics benchmarks have blew everything else out of the water stock for stock and FROYO should only help make it even faster.
Sure sometimes it seems to slow down and ‘lag’ a bit but overall it is a great phone. The development teams are working hard out there and I know there will be custom ROMs out for all the variants of the Galaxy S which will eliminate all of the bloatware the carriers are putting on the phones.
I also find the point of a front facing camera useless as current carriers are unable to support the bandwidth required for acceptable video conferencing (even my friends Evo on a 4G connection). And if I need a picture at low light, then I do it right and whip out a real camera. Picture quality is directly related to the lenses, image processing logic and the sensor. And all phones are lacking in the sensor and lenses department. Small sensors on phones lead to leakage on the sensor resulting in grain and color aberrations. And of course last time I checked, phones were still using small crappy plastic lenses. Cameras on phones are only good in a pinch but not for anything worth keeping. At least that’s how I feel. So wait for the updates in Sept. Hopefully Samsung is good for their word this time and the Galaxy phones get that last bit of polish to truly make it shine.
I am so disappointed… Camera keeps crashing, contacts list crashes, gps takes forever and keeps putting me miles away, no adobe flash (wtf?), no voice dial with my blueant, att bloatware, emails won’t sync when I tell them to, horrible editing of text, battery life is sad, blue tooth refuses to pair with my ipod or any other phone,cant transfer pictures via usb (again, wtf)… I had such high expectations. My first android phone just might be my last. The one thing I love is the swype keyboard.
I’ve had my Samsung Captivate for about 4 months now. I’ve had some glitches but nothing to really complain about til now. I wanted to transfer some pictures from the phone to my PC but was unable to get my PC to recognize my phone. Spent hours pouring over the online manual and even chatted with Samsung tech support with no solution in sight. I deleted all apps I thought might be interfering and finally performed a hard reset. Then it occurred to me I was using a replacement USB cable I had bought from At&t after I thought I had lost the original cable. Found the original cable and was able to transfer my files from phone to PC. What a nightmare! Additionally I’m perturbed about the this nonsense with mounting and unmounting the SD card, making sure USB storage is turned off… Everytime I followed the directions the phone gave then my PC would lose the phone. Argh! I finally said the heck with turning off USB storage (it says this in the manual too) and got things going. Hours upon hours wasted for a cable that only charges and directions and prompts that are circuitous. If my Palm Pre plus hadn’t a been such an operational mess (it would dial 911 instead unlocking the screen) I would have kept it because it was so easy to sync between phone and PC.