AT&T's Galaxy S star has risen -- Check out the full Samsung Captivate review here.
Samsung Captivate Overview
The Samsung Galaxy S universe of smartphones had its Big Bang at CTIA earlier this year. Eventually, four planets, or phones, formed out of the Galaxy S universe, governed by four different carriers. The Samsung Captivate is AT&T's slice of the Galaxy pie, and it shares many of the same core elements with its siblings, the Epic 4G for Sprint, Fascinate for Verizon Wireless, and Vibrant for T-Mobile. What makes Samsung's Galaxy S smartphones so enticing? First off, these are Samsung's current top-of-the roster phones sporting 1GHz Hummingbird processors and beautiful high-contrast AMOLED screens. The Captivate also has Android 2.1, a 5-megapixel camera with 720p video, and a gamut of other goodies, so sit back and enjoy the ride through Samsung's Galaxy S universe.
Samsung Captivate Design
There's no beating around the bush when we say that the Samsung Captivate is one sexy smartphone. Regarding the external aesthetics, we really like Samsung's carbon fiber-like back panel, gunmetal trim, and dominating four-inch AMOLED screen, which we'll get to in a bit. The Samsung Captivate is a surprisingly light phone, though its sharp edges are not as comfortable in the pocket as an iPhone 3GS and its ergonomically-sound corners.
The Captivate is thin and conceals its ports well, utilizing a sliding USB hatch that looks as though it was borrowed straight from the high-end camcorder world. We also have a microSD card slot, SIM card slot, and removable battery located in back under the swanky panel. On top, the Samsung Captivate offers a 3.5mm Audio jack and actual buttons are limited to Volume control and Power/Lock.
Now it's AMOLED time. The Samsung Captivate's four-inch Super AMOLED capacitive touch screen has a WVGA resolution (800 x 480), but it's the high contrast that really sets the Captivate apart from its peers. The Captivate's screen has a 50,000:1 contrast ratio, which optimizes the dynamic range and proves ideal for watching movies and playing games. And that's just what we experienced. In fact, we stacked the Captivate's AMOLED against the iPhone 4's Retina display and here's what we found.
The iPhone 4 is better for reading and browsing while the Captivate is better for multimedia like movies and games. Keep in mind that the iPhone 4's screen offers 326 pixels per inch (3.5-inch screen with 960 x 460-pixel resolution) while the Captivate's screen checks in at 260 pixels per inch (4-inch screen with 800 x 480-pixel resolution). As a result, we could see individual pixels and stepping lines if we looked very closely on the Captivate's screen, but we struggled to see any pixels on the iPhone 4's screen. The Samsung Captivate's Super AMOLED is still one of the best in the industry, but the iPhone 4 still wins overall in the display arena.
AT&T structured the Captivate around a raging pipeline of content and social-friendly navigation. While our Samsung Captivate came equipped with TouchWIZ 3.0 on top of Android 2.1, an Android 2.2 upgrade will be available soon. That said, with the current configuration our browsing experience was quick, but slightly lagged at times. We could tell the 1GHz Hummingbird processor wanted to fly at warp speed, and hopefully the Android 2.2 upgrade will make the Samsung Captivate a bit snappier. We had full access to the Android Market, which offers over 65,000 different applications and 2.2 will let users save those apps to a microSD card.
The Samsung Captivate features Social Hub, which is basically an acquaintance monitor that allows you to filter how much of your contacts you really want to be exposed to on a daily basis. We could combine our Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and Google contacts into one monster list displaying profile pictures and names. To call that particular contact, all we had to do was swipe their name to the right, and swipe it left to text message them. In order to avoid the inevitable cavalcade of useless information being spouted by thousands of Facebook friends, Samsung offered Buddies Now, which allowed us to throw our favorite contacts into a separate Rolodex.
TouchWIZ 3.0 is a fairly straightforward interface. We get 7 home screens with the ability to add widgets, folders, shortcuts, and bars by simply pressing and holding a screen. We could also shuffle icons around easily and the Google search bar offered Voice Search. We could set up a POP3, IMAP, or Exchange account for email and the setup process was easy. One thing we found particularly helpful was the fact that we could create an icon for our Gmail Inbox, which was a direct ride right to our mailbox. Unfortunately, we didn't get pinch to zoom outside of Internet browsing.
Samsung Captivate Multimedia and Voice Quality
Media Hub will be available soon, which will combine all of the biggest names in entertainment providers like Blockbuster for content that can be purchased and downloaded to the Captivate. We got MobiTV, AT&T Music, AT&T Navigator, AT&T Radio, and AllShare preloaded on the phone. The Samsung Captivate also supports AT&T Hotspots and can connect to Wi-Fi (including Wireless-N) networks with ease. Our YouTube experience was top notch, thanks to the ability to view videos in High Quality, and watching movies on the Captivate's Super AMOLED screen was the cat's meow.
Voice quality was excellent, and we tested the Samsung Captivate by calling an iPhone 4 from the side of a busy street. Low and behold, there was no background noise, as the Samsung Captivate successfully fended off any intruding tones.
Samsung Captivate Still Image Quality
First off, we loved the Samsung Captivate's Camera interface. We got a handful of Scene modes and Effects to play with, the ability to adjust the Exposure, White Balance, ISO, and Auto Focus (Macro), and the Samsung Captivate even offered Image Stabilization. Unfortunately, the Samsung Captivate could not match the iPhone 4's camera, and we tested them side-by-side. This first batch of images represents the best the Samsung Captivate can offer, and in bright light Macro mode, the Samsung Captivate produces captivating images. Anything outside of ideal shooting conditions was rendered mediocre. Low light was out of the question, especially without a flash.
We experienced the same phenomenon in 720p video mode with the Samsung Captivate and the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4 produced better color tones, a sharper image, and superior motion rendering while the Samsung Captivate provided a nice image in ideal lighting with minimal motion.
Captivate vs. iPhone 4 Video Showdown
Samsung Captivate: The Final Answer
The Samsung Captivate is no iPhone killer, but it's one of the best smartphones on the market today. The Super AMOLED screen is awesome, the phone is pistol fast (even faster when Android 2.2 gets here), there is a plethora of social tools for staying up to date with friends, and the 5-megapixel camera and 720p video is a nice addition. We did prefer the Apple iPhone 4's iOS4 browsing experience, Retina display, and camera over the Samsung Captivate's, but if you're not into the Apple lifestyle, then the Samsung Captivate is definitely worth checking out.
The Samsung Captivate will be available from AT&T Wireless on July 18. It'll cost $300 with a new two-year contract, and a $100 mail-in rebate will be given when signing up for a qualifying plan.
_pt00.jpg)
_pt00.jpg)
_pt00.jpg)
_pt00.jpg)
|
Archive