Samsung Captivate Review
Samsung Captivate Release Date – July 18, 2010
Introduction:
Up until recently, AT&T customers had some limited Android offerings to choose from as a good chunk of them swayed slightly from providing the true limitless possibilities that other carriers have experienced with the platform. Littered by mostly mid-range Android sets, the only one to test the high-end waters was the long awaited version of the Nexus One especially compatible with AT&T's 3G bands. Still, customers couldn't simply purchase it by walking into a retail store. Тhankfully, they're soon going to scoop up a premier offering from Samsung. Being one of the many Samsung Galaxy S smartphones being launched simultaneously in the US market, the Samsung Captivate I897 will definitely bring Android's full glory into gear for AT&T's customers who have longed for a full figured device that kicks things up a notch. What's most interesting about the Captivate's launch is if it'll be successful in mustering up a decent following to attract customers who want to experience something refreshing.
- Samsung Captivate
- Stereo Headset
- Quickstart Guide
- Wall Charger
- microUSB Cable
Design:
The most satisfying part about this version of the Samsung Galaxy S over its other contemporary brothers and sisters is the fact it's one of the more aesthetically pleasing devices. Rather than following closely to the original GSM version, this one actually has more in common with Samsung's first bada handset – the Samsung Wave. While it's constructed mostly out of durable feeling plastic, the metallic back cover with a carbon fiber pattern adds an element of pristine workmanship that naturally make it feel well constructed. At the same time, it's one slim (0.41”) handset that will slip inconspicuously into a pocket – plus you don't even notice the weight (4.41 oz) when holding in the hand. As a whole, it may not be something strikingly innovative in terms of design, but we're still content with it nonetheless.
Super AMOLED displays are abundant in Samsung's arsenal (tell it to those with Droid Incredible orders) and the Captivate retains the same exact one found with the original. Sizing up with a healthy 4” Super AMOLED display at WVGA resolution and support for 16.7 million colors, we found it to be truly awe-inspiring as everything just pops with the utmost best contrast ratios that create pure black level. Every color under the rainbow is saturated and full-bodied as the display is quite manageable in displaying various gradients and tones to make them distinctive. In the Captivate's case though, the utilized 480x800 pixels resolution seems to be not high enough in order to provide great screen clarity, thus smaller text looks somewhat jagged at times. Luminance remains to be consistent at every viewing angle as it does not falter one bit, however, using it outdoors in direct sunlight still exposes its Achilles Heel – although it's an improvement over AMOLED screens, we still needed to shade it.
In order to make the front surface of the Samsung Captivate uniformly flush, Samsung opted to include the usual set of four touch sensitive buttons – menu, home, back, and search. Luckily, there's enough spacing between the buttons and the bottom most portion of the touchscreen to minimize any accidental presses. There aren't that many physical buttons clinging onto the phone, but you'll naturally find the volume rocker and power button to offer a slight response when pressed. On the top edge of the phone, the 3.5mm headset jack is located where it's normally found while the microUSB port is hidden behind the plastic sliding latch which will keep out unwanted debris from messing with its internals. Flipping over to its rear, the 5-megapixel auto-focus camera is found on the upper left corner while the speaker phone is placed in close proximity. You'll need to pull down the bottom frame in order to unhinge the metallic back cover which houses the battery, SIM card slot, and microSD slot.
Samsung Captivate 360 Degrees View
Interface:
Not everyone might be a fan of the Captivate's customized Android experience, but one thing is certain, its 1GHz Cortex A8 Hummingbird processor makes things fly with very few instances of choppiness. Even though navigating and opening applications poses no problem with its peppy processor, we did encounter some jerkiness when moving about the home screens while using an animated wallpaper. Nevertheless, we were satisfied by the overall performance of the Samsung Captivate.
In its current state, you're treated to the TouchWiz 3.0 overlay of Android 2.1 as it boasts up to seven home screens to fill up with either some stock Android widgets or the ones specifically crafted by Samsung. Throughout the process of moving in between home screens, there are four icons docked on the lower portion as they are labeled phone, email, browser, and applications. Pressing the latter will get you into the main menu where it's laid out in traditional TouchWiz fashion as the icons are square shaped and equally distant from one another. Overall, there is nothing really much to say about the custom interface as it's the same exact one in use on the Samsung Galaxy S I9000.
The selection of widgets that can be added to the home screens is similar to the one in the Samsung Wave. Samsung's widgets are for the most part helpful, though repetitive. The company decided to show us there are many ways to skin a cat - if you want to be always in touch with the weather (AccuWeather clock), the stock market (Y! Finance clock), another timezone (Dual clock), or your busy schedule (the Calendar clock). There's absolutely nothing wrong with them as they provide for additional enhancements to make the look and feel of the phone somewhat more varying between handset owners – which is of course the beauty of Android as a whole.
Those can actually be combined into one widget called the Daily Briefing, which populates the current weather, stock quotes, AP breaking news, and your calendar events, on one home screen. Another fairly useful widget is Feeds and Updates - it satiates your thirst for social interaction on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace right from a home screen.
Organizer & Messaging:
Of the other customizations Samsung has made to the default Android interface, the most notable are in the Phonebook and Calendar. Entering the Phone screen defaults to your call log tab. There are also keypad, favorites, and contacts tabs to choose from at the top. Tap Contacts, and you are taken to the respective screen, where the history of your communication activities can be accessed with tabs at the top as well - including all calls and messages exchange, as well as social network updates.
The phonebook groups your phone, SIM and Google contacts in one searchable list. Samsung's own Social Hub idea adds the contacts from your social networks, and the corporate buddies to the mix for one very long phonebook. A variety of contacts' details is visible and editable on the huge screen at once.
To tell you the truth, other aspects on the Captivate also come directly from the Samsung Galaxy S I9000. Social Hub, for example, aggregates SNS (Social Network Services), email, and IM accounts. Additionally, the Calendar and Clock applications let you sync various events from things like Facebook and Exchange Server all into your Calendar while the various clock functions (alarm, world, stopwatch, and timer) are intact as well.
Proving itself to be well endowed with a large real estate, sending messaging via the Captivate's various on-screen keyboards and handwriting recognition options won't be any letdown for most people. By default, you'll be presented with the Samsung keyboard, but you can change it at any time and revert to using the stock Android keyboard if you're more comfortable with it. Thanks to the peppy performance of the platform, we found typing on both the portrait and landscape options quite manageable – the latter of which provided the best results though. In addition, the Swype keyboard is also available for those who've been able to master the swiping movements. Although there are some handwriting recognition selections, we still relied heavily on the on-screen keyboards.
Not everyone might be a fan of the Captivate's customized Android experience, but one thing is certain, its 1GHz Cortex A8 Hummingbird processor makes things fly with very few instances of choppiness. Even though navigating and opening applications poses no problem with its peppy processor, we did encounter some jerkiness when moving about the home screens while using an animated wallpaper. Nevertheless, we were satisfied by the overall performance of the Samsung Captivate.
In its current state, you're treated to the TouchWiz 3.0 overlay of Android 2.1 as it boasts up to seven home screens to fill up with either some stock Android widgets or the ones specifically crafted by Samsung. Throughout the process of moving in between home screens, there are four icons docked on the lower portion as they are labeled phone, email, browser, and applications. Pressing the latter will get you into the main menu where it's laid out in traditional TouchWiz fashion as the icons are square shaped and equally distant from one another. Overall, there is nothing really much to say about the custom interface as it's the same exact one in use on the Samsung Galaxy S I9000.
The selection of widgets that can be added to the home screens is similar to the one in the Samsung Wave. Samsung's widgets are for the most part helpful, though repetitive. The company decided to show us there are many ways to skin a cat - if you want to be always in touch with the weather (AccuWeather clock), the stock market (Y! Finance clock), another timezone (Dual clock), or your busy schedule (the Calendar clock). There's absolutely nothing wrong with them as they provide for additional enhancements to make the look and feel of the phone somewhat more varying between handset owners – which is of course the beauty of Android as a whole.
Those can actually be combined into one widget called the Daily Briefing, which populates the current weather, stock quotes, AP breaking news, and your calendar events, on one home screen. Another fairly useful widget is Feeds and Updates - it satiates your thirst for social interaction on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace right from a home screen.
Organizer & Messaging:
Of the other customizations Samsung has made to the default Android interface, the most notable are in the Phonebook and Calendar. Entering the Phone screen defaults to your call log tab. There are also keypad, favorites, and contacts tabs to choose from at the top. Tap Contacts, and you are taken to the respective screen, where the history of your communication activities can be accessed with tabs at the top as well - including all calls and messages exchange, as well as social network updates.
The phonebook groups your phone, SIM and Google contacts in one searchable list. Samsung's own Social Hub idea adds the contacts from your social networks, and the corporate buddies to the mix for one very long phonebook. A variety of contacts' details is visible and editable on the huge screen at once.
To tell you the truth, other aspects on the Captivate also come directly from the Samsung Galaxy S I9000. Social Hub, for example, aggregates SNS (Social Network Services), email, and IM accounts. Additionally, the Calendar and Clock applications let you sync various events from things like Facebook and Exchange Server all into your Calendar while the various clock functions (alarm, world, stopwatch, and timer) are intact as well.
Proving itself to be well endowed with a large real estate, sending messaging via the Captivate's various on-screen keyboards and handwriting recognition options won't be any letdown for most people. By default, you'll be presented with the Samsung keyboard, but you can change it at any time and revert to using the stock Android keyboard if you're more comfortable with it. Thanks to the peppy performance of the platform, we found typing on both the portrait and landscape options quite manageable – the latter of which provided the best results though. In addition, the Swype keyboard is also available for those who've been able to master the swiping movements. Although there are some handwriting recognition selections, we still relied heavily on the on-screen keyboards.
Camera:
Just like how we were somewhat baffled by the lack of an LED flash on the Samsung Galaxy S I9000, our rapport is unchanged as the Captivate also sorely lacks one. Despite this shortcoming on a flagship Android smartphone, the camera interface is basically unchanged as you'll be presented to a decent amount of selections to optimize your shots. Thankfully this time around there's an option for macro mode to get you up-close and personal with the things you're shooting. Sizing up at a respectable 5-megapixels, the camera's production quality indoors is average at best as shots tend to have a fuzzy haze to them while colors are softer and lighter in tone. However, taking shots outdoors in good lighting is a bit more respectable as detail and colors improve. By no means are they stunning, but the Captivate's performance should be more than enough to swallow for most people.
When it comes down to shooting videos with the Samsung Captivate, it's ability to capture them in 720p was surprisingly good thanks to its smooth capture rate of 29fps. Videos taken in both indoor and outdoor locales are detailed and for the most part consistent with an occasional jerkiness to them, but we'd imagine that the quality should be more than pleasing to the eye during playback. It would probably be less noticeable if you have a steady hand, but hopefully manufacturers can somehow implement anti-shake in video recording down the road. However, we did notice that there was this constant wind sounding noise that can be heard in the background even though we were indoors and away from any wind.
Samsung Captivate sample video 1 at 1280x720 pixels
Samsung Captivate sample video 2 at 1280x720 pixels
Multimedia:
When it comes down to music playback, the Captivate is one of the few handsets that excel in both presentation and performance – catapulting it into the upper echelon of the pack. The tabs on the top of the music player allow sifting through your collection by artist, album and playlists, or display all at once. Landscape mode brings along some eye candy like CD cover flow-esque interface or an alphabetical wheel, to pick your music poison. Sharing the song via email or Bluetooth is done from the context menu while playing. The current song keeps going in the background when the screen is locked, and you can pull down the notification area then to display the controls. Aside from showing the album cover while playing a selection, we like how there's an option to enable a visualization to run. Tunes emitted from the phone's speaker were more than powerful, while still retaining a level of clarity when placed on the loudest setting. However, we adore the notion of 5.1 channel sound effect in place when throwing on a pair of headphones – without it enabled, audio sounded more muted and softer.
What's more fun to do than anything else when you pack on an above average sized display? Naturally watching videos easily comes to mind and there's no arguing that the Captivate is one compelling handset in this category to provide the best level of performance. The high-flying handset didn't even stutter at all when playing a video encoded in H.264 720x306 resolution – at the same time, colors were vibrant and easily showcased Super AMOLED's superior performance in this sector. If there's a handset you want to draw attention with, then the the Captivate will undoubtedly be able to accomplish just that.
The multimedia files get organized in the Gallery, which offers some 3D effects, batch view by date/time, and grid view. It automatically indexes the pictures and video on the card and in the phone. The gallery syncs with Picasa upon launch, assigning different icons to the pics depending on their source. The Picasa images are just thumbs and you have to download them for a full view. Images can be rotated and cropped right in the gallery, uploaded on Google's Picasa, or sent via email, MMS or Bluetooth. The Samsung AllShare function is also here, if you happen to have a DLNA capable TV to watch the pics or videos from the phone on the big screen. Videos can also be uploaded straight from the gallery, to Google's YouTube.
Connectivity:
The Samsung Captivate is a quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) and tri-band UMTS (850/1900/2100 MHz) handset which makes the perfect solution for the global trotter. In addition, it packs 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi for an alternative internet connection and Bluetooth 3.0 to pair up with various devices for wireless transfers.
The default browser worked wonders on the huge capacitive screen. Multitouch feels well for precision zooming, but you can also double-tap for crude enlargement. The WebKit based browser is minimalistic, which we always like – just a thin green line at the top notifies of page loading status, and it loads, scrolls, and reflows text quickly. Hit the context menu, though, and a plethora of options for window management, bookmarking and downloads show up. Great experience, which will probably get even better when Froyo comes up for the Samsung GALAXY S series, and brings along an even faster and Flash 10.1-enabled experience. Until then we have to rely on the default YouTube client, which carries its duties with pride.
As it stands now, most high-end smartphones find 16GB to be the size of choice in order to satisfy the growing demand of media centric features – such as 720p video recording. Thankfully the Samsung Captivate does come in at that size, however, we found that there was approximately 13GB of free storage out of the box – which still is a decent amount, of course. Moreover, you can always supplement it with a microSD card if you find yourself eating away quickly on the phone's internal storage.
Just like how we were somewhat baffled by the lack of an LED flash on the Samsung Galaxy S I9000, our rapport is unchanged as the Captivate also sorely lacks one. Despite this shortcoming on a flagship Android smartphone, the camera interface is basically unchanged as you'll be presented to a decent amount of selections to optimize your shots. Thankfully this time around there's an option for macro mode to get you up-close and personal with the things you're shooting. Sizing up at a respectable 5-megapixels, the camera's production quality indoors is average at best as shots tend to have a fuzzy haze to them while colors are softer and lighter in tone. However, taking shots outdoors in good lighting is a bit more respectable as detail and colors improve. By no means are they stunning, but the Captivate's performance should be more than enough to swallow for most people.
When it comes down to shooting videos with the Samsung Captivate, it's ability to capture them in 720p was surprisingly good thanks to its smooth capture rate of 29fps. Videos taken in both indoor and outdoor locales are detailed and for the most part consistent with an occasional jerkiness to them, but we'd imagine that the quality should be more than pleasing to the eye during playback. It would probably be less noticeable if you have a steady hand, but hopefully manufacturers can somehow implement anti-shake in video recording down the road. However, we did notice that there was this constant wind sounding noise that can be heard in the background even though we were indoors and away from any wind.
Samsung Captivate sample video 1 at 1280x720 pixels
Samsung Captivate sample video 2 at 1280x720 pixels
Multimedia:
When it comes down to music playback, the Captivate is one of the few handsets that excel in both presentation and performance – catapulting it into the upper echelon of the pack. The tabs on the top of the music player allow sifting through your collection by artist, album and playlists, or display all at once. Landscape mode brings along some eye candy like CD cover flow-esque interface or an alphabetical wheel, to pick your music poison. Sharing the song via email or Bluetooth is done from the context menu while playing. The current song keeps going in the background when the screen is locked, and you can pull down the notification area then to display the controls. Aside from showing the album cover while playing a selection, we like how there's an option to enable a visualization to run. Tunes emitted from the phone's speaker were more than powerful, while still retaining a level of clarity when placed on the loudest setting. However, we adore the notion of 5.1 channel sound effect in place when throwing on a pair of headphones – without it enabled, audio sounded more muted and softer.
What's more fun to do than anything else when you pack on an above average sized display? Naturally watching videos easily comes to mind and there's no arguing that the Captivate is one compelling handset in this category to provide the best level of performance. The high-flying handset didn't even stutter at all when playing a video encoded in H.264 720x306 resolution – at the same time, colors were vibrant and easily showcased Super AMOLED's superior performance in this sector. If there's a handset you want to draw attention with, then the the Captivate will undoubtedly be able to accomplish just that.
The multimedia files get organized in the Gallery, which offers some 3D effects, batch view by date/time, and grid view. It automatically indexes the pictures and video on the card and in the phone. The gallery syncs with Picasa upon launch, assigning different icons to the pics depending on their source. The Picasa images are just thumbs and you have to download them for a full view. Images can be rotated and cropped right in the gallery, uploaded on Google's Picasa, or sent via email, MMS or Bluetooth. The Samsung AllShare function is also here, if you happen to have a DLNA capable TV to watch the pics or videos from the phone on the big screen. Videos can also be uploaded straight from the gallery, to Google's YouTube.
Connectivity:
The Samsung Captivate is a quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) and tri-band UMTS (850/1900/2100 MHz) handset which makes the perfect solution for the global trotter. In addition, it packs 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi for an alternative internet connection and Bluetooth 3.0 to pair up with various devices for wireless transfers.
The default browser worked wonders on the huge capacitive screen. Multitouch feels well for precision zooming, but you can also double-tap for crude enlargement. The WebKit based browser is minimalistic, which we always like – just a thin green line at the top notifies of page loading status, and it loads, scrolls, and reflows text quickly. Hit the context menu, though, and a plethora of options for window management, bookmarking and downloads show up. Great experience, which will probably get even better when Froyo comes up for the Samsung GALAXY S series, and brings along an even faster and Flash 10.1-enabled experience. Until then we have to rely on the default YouTube client, which carries its duties with pride.
As it stands now, most high-end smartphones find 16GB to be the size of choice in order to satisfy the growing demand of media centric features – such as 720p video recording. Thankfully the Samsung Captivate does come in at that size, however, we found that there was approximately 13GB of free storage out of the box – which still is a decent amount, of course. Moreover, you can always supplement it with a microSD card if you find yourself eating away quickly on the phone's internal storage.
When it comes to the basic function of phone calling, the Samsung Captivate is average at best in this category as our callers stated that our voice sounded a bit hissy; although still audible with no background noise. Using the earpiece, there was a slight muffled sound to voices, but the volume was stronger than what we usually experience on other handsets. This time around the speaker phone volume was more than ample for our hearing, but unfortunately it sounded more screechy with some sharp tones. Overall, calling quality on the Captivate is tolerable enough for most people to get by without being too disheartening.
We didn't find any problems when it came down to dropped calls or losing connection to the network in the greater Philadelphia region.
In our short time with the phone, we feel battery life to be average so far when comparing it to other similar smartphones. However, we'll surely put it through its paces to find out exactly how it sizes up to the competition and will update you as soon as we gather more information.
Conclusion:
Honestly, this is the best Android smartphone available to AT&T customers to date – and that's a fact! Not only does it easily trump all of the mid-range offerings released thus far for the carrier, but it stands tall amongst the elites in the Android world. With its lightning quick reflexes, navigating on the platform is very assuring as everything just moves so smoothly – which goes to show the processing prowess of its Hummingbird processor. And to tell you the truth, its customized Android experience is a refreshing new look when you take into consideration what US consumers have been limited to for the past year. In the design department, the Captivate is a compelling offering with its streamlined looks that are accented with some quality materials to make it feel solid all around. Finally, the crowning jewel seen with its Super AMOLED display is unparalleled as nothing yet comes close when it comes to sheer luminance, lush colors, and contrast ratios – it will easily enthrall gazers from afar. In the end, AT&T might not host a healthy amount of Android handsets, but this one will easily captivate consumers with its uplifting looks and tantalizing performance.
Samsung Captivate Video Review:
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