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Going from the iPhone 4 to the Samsung Galaxy S Captivate?

GamecockMac said:
I'm saying that no cellphone screen is decent for viewing movies. For watching a 1-5 minute YouTube video, absolutely. For watching a 10-30 minute podcast, sure. For watching the occasional 30-60 minute TV show, now we're pushing the limit. But for sitting down and viewing 1.5-3 hours of video that was expressly made to be viewed on a huge screen with surround sound? Don't tell me that you're going to get much satisfaction out of that, and don't try to make me believe that a half-inch is going to make a world of difference if and when you decide to do it. Not to mention the battery issues.

Those T-Mobile commercials that boast of bundling Avatar with the Vibrant (Galaxy)? Absolutely hilarious. :D
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It won't make a world of difference, but it helps for watching. I do agree though that there is no comparison of watching Avatar on a 50 inch tv with surround sound vs a 3.5 inch screen with headphones.
 
Tarzanman said:
If you live in a big city, you might want to consider the T-Mobile Vibrant instead. It has the radios for AT&T 3G (if you live in an area with a good signal), it comes with more memory than the Captivate, and it doesn't block non-market apps from being installed on the phone.

To answer your other question, synchronizing contacts will be a breeze. You don't need itunes at all. Just log into your gmail account from any computer anywhere and you will be able to edit your contacts in gmail. They will sync to the phone automatically.
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Also the Vibrant and Captivate are EXTREMELY easy to carrier unlock
 
I have been living with, and using both an iPhone 4, and Captivate for over a month now. They are both excellent!

One thing never changes. The best phone is the phone _you_ prefer. Period.

Obviously we are discussing smartphones. Phones that are capable of doing so many different things that it's up to the user to decide. For a single individual (including reviewers, bloggers, et al) to declare one as the "Best" is just stupid.

It's what you want it for and what you will actually use it for. That's the primary reason I enjoy both phones.

I like how my iPhone 4 integrates with my MacBook Pro and all I use it for.

I like my Captivate for it's large display, light thin profile and customization options. I like it's stellar phone performance and other features.

So for my use, they are both important.
 
GamecockMac said:
I'm saying that no cellphone screen is decent for viewing movies. For watching a 1-5 minute YouTube video, absolutely. For watching a 10-30 minute podcast, sure. For watching the occasional 30-60 minute TV show, now we're pushing the limit. But for sitting down and viewing 1.5-3 hours of video that was expressly made to be viewed on a huge screen with surround sound? Don't tell me that you're going to get much satisfaction out of that, and don't try to make me believe that a half-inch is going to make a world of difference if and when you decide to do it.
Click to expand...
LOL! You're a funny guy. You should go tell Apple that watching movies on the iPhone is ridiculous and how they should stop selling movies to iPhones and iPods.

BTW, you need a refresher course on screen aspect ratio. Viewing 16:9 media on a Captivate will utilize almost the entire screen whereas on an iPhone it will only utilize maybe a little more than half the screen due to letterboxing. That's a lot more than 1/2" difference.
 
GamecockMac said:
Thanks for the informative material. For those who just want a summary of the article lilo provided, here it is:

RESOLUTION: APPLE WINS
CONTRAST: SAMSUNG WINS
COLOUR TEMPERATURE AND GAMMA: APPLE WINS
COLOUR ACCURACY: APPLE WINS
RESPONSIVENESS: APPLE WINS
VERDICT: iPhone 4 WINS

That should put the issue of which display is superior to rest. Thanks again for all your help, lilo! :D
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This might be correct but not very nuanced summary of the article. One has to keep in mind that whilst all iPhone wins here are marginal, the contrast ratio difference (the quality of blacks) between the two phones (and a win for Samsung) is huge. So it's not a clear cut case. It depends on what one values higher.
 
itsmemuffins said:
This is pretty much how it will go:

Damn you iP4 and your crappy antenna and cruddy proximity sensor, I have had enough!!

To the captivate!!

A look at you you silly, silly iPhone 3G/3Gs clone. Still you have a 4 inch super AMOLED screen all is forgiven.

Wait! Why is the text so fuzzy? I thought the resolution was 480X800?

To the internets!!

Samsung uses pentile matrix technology for their screen!!!!??

OK not to worry.

Why is my reception going down when I grip it?

Why doesn't the GPS work?!

To the internets!! Again!

Oh, it suffers from reduced signal when gripped as well? I thought only the iP4 did this?

Hmm GPS fix in the works? Hmm, didn't they test this phone before they released it??

Oh well not to worry.

Lets go and install my favourite games.

Searches for angry birds, nothing?

Only crapware and ringtones in the Android market? I can't actually buy any apps in some countries?(read most)?!

Oh iP4 how I miss thee!!:(

Goes back to iP4 and all is well.
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WTF? :confused:

Uninformed post. You and Apple.... are funny. Im sure if the guy said his screen never turns on , Apple....would still tell him that his opinion would be to wait for an update. Its the fanboy way :D
 
lilo777 said:
To summarize:

* no Angry Birds

Angry Birds IS coming and should be very soon. Though i dont play it.

* text is not as crisp as on IP4 but the quality of still pictures and video is higher on Captivate

I dont know what text looks like on the iP4 but to say it dont look good when talking about the Captivate or any Galaxy S phone, i just dont get. Theres n othign wrong with the text.
* GPS works but has some issues. Captivate uses the latest GPS chip from Broadcom (one generation newer than the one in IP4) and apparently Broadcom's driver has some problems. The fix is coming in September.

True. TMo and AT&T alledgly rushed Samsung to get the phone out so the GPS has issues and indeed a fix is coming soon.


I can add the following:
* Android has fewer games than iPhone. Situation is improving because Androids SDK is improving fast.

Agree

* Android has some excellent apps not available on IP4: Google Maps (better version), Google Navigation, Goggles, Google Voice, Google voice commands, pervasive voice-to-text, Swype keyboard.

Apples app has a lot, but Android is catching up to the game. They have other apps Apple dont have too but Aple has more. I do like the way the Market works though.

* Captivate has some hardware advantages: faster CPU and GPU, more flash memory (up to 48GB), bigger screen, better overall design (metal back instead of glass for IP4)


2.2 will have flash as well. Coming REAL soon. Days away for those that have 2.2 already.


iP4 is a pretty phone but they need to worry more about durability and performance than looks. Its a china doll. Id rather have a 2G look with the durability and performance.
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Wow seems pretty tense in this thread. I owned a Captivate for about one weekend. I know this isn't long enough to give it a fair "review" if you will but here were my thoughts.

I have been an iPhone user since the 3G. The Captivate does have a steep learning curve in my opinion but this could be because I had grown so accustomed iPhone OS. Google integration was seamless to me. Watching Youtube videos was a pleasure on this screen. I thought the Youtube app for this phone was more intuitive, more like the full Youtube on a home computer. GPS did not work very well but there are several tweaks you can find in forums. I did not find a huge amount of apps that I found all that useful to me in the Android market but then again I'm not any sort of power user. As a whole I thought that Android can be pretty powerful but needs to be polished more.

Here is the part that broke the deal for me. The music player I felt was not as organized and the syncing was just not as seamless as it is through iTunes. I know there are programs that you can download in the Android market to make it sync through iTunes or similar to it (iSyncr, doubleTwist) but for some reason I could not get artwork to sync right. I know it's not a big deal to most people but I'm kind of ocd about that lol.

In the end, you should choose a phone that meets your needs. Nobody elses opinion matters but your own. By the way I have the iPhone 4 right now. My decision to return the Captivate and get the iPhone was purely a money issue. At the time I was scrapped for money and I needed a phone that would just work for my new job. Now that I'm settled into the job I am considering rebuying the Captivate because I have the time to explore Android more. I don't take sides I just appreciate the technology in both phones (expensive habit :p).
 
hendog323 said:
Wow seems pretty tense in this thread. I owned a Captivate for about one weekend. I know this isn't long enough to give it a fair "review" if you will but here were my thoughts.

I have been an iPhone user since the 3G. The Captivate does have a steep learning curve in my opinion but this could be because I had grown so accustomed iPhone OS. Google integration was seamless to me. Watching Youtube videos was a pleasure on this screen. I thought the Youtube app for this phone was more intuitive, more like the full Youtube on a home computer. GPS did not work very well but there are several tweaks you can find in forums. I did not find a huge amount of apps that I found all that useful to me in the Android market but then again I'm not any sort of power user. As a whole I thought that Android can be pretty powerful but needs to be polished more.

Here is the part that broke the deal for me. The music player I felt was not as organized and the syncing was just not as seamless as it is through iTunes. I know there are programs that you can download in the Android market to make it sync through iTunes or similar to it (iSyncr, doubleTwist) but for some reason I could not get artwork to sync right. I know it's not a big deal to most people but I'm kind of ocd about that lol.

In the end, you should choose a phone that meets your needs. Nobody elses opinion matters but your own. By the way I have the iPhone 4 right now. My decision to return the Captivate and get the iPhone was purely a money issue. At the time I was scrapped for money and I needed a phone that would just work for my new job. Now that I'm settled into the job I am considering rebuying the Captivate because I have the time to explore Android more. I don't take sides I just appreciate the technology in both phones (expensive habit :p).
Click to expand...

If you do buy another Captivate, as you mentioned you can use Doubletwist and there is an App in the market called Easy Phone Tunes that also syncs with your iTunes. And there are album art apps that work well too. One costs a couple bucks. After your music is loaded, start it up and it will read your music and load up the art. The one that costs a couple bucks has the ability to change the album art to what you want.

There are a bunch of useful apps, just have to spend more time than two days looking for them or somebody mentioning them.
 
lilo777 said:
This might be correct but not very nuanced summary of the article. One has to keep in mind that whilst all iPhone wins here are marginal, the contrast ratio difference (the quality of blacks) between the two phones (and a win for Samsung) is huge. So it's not a clear cut case. It depends on what one values higher.
Click to expand...

The FUD never stops from this one. How's this for clear cut...

VERDICT: iPhone 4 WINS

I did that so it might finally sink in. You provided the link to the review, so don't try to throw out qualifiers when it demonstrates something you desperately wish wasn't true. And of course you are going to say that contrast is the most important criteria in phone displays, because that's the only area where the Galaxy came out ahead. This crusade of yours has really gotten beyond sad.
 
Vegastouch said:
WTF? :confused:

Uninformed post. You and Apple.... are funny. Im sure if the guy said his screen never turns on , Apple....would still tell him that his opinion would be to wait for an update. Its the fanboy way :D
Click to expand...

Sure it's uninformed.:rolleyes:

There isn't one thing I posted there that isn't fact.
 
GamecockMac said:
VERDICT: iPhone 4 WINS
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And the point is?

Reviewing the counterpoints reveals many valid points in Samsung's favor.

Yet so what? Specifications aside I don't see the need to get so involved in what is nothing more than a comparison of two dissimilar phones.

That's why we have choices. I celebrate the choices and differences.

At the end of the day... It's just a phone.
 
Someone get this man a link to the 4.1 beta 3. Proximity sensor fix is already taken care of.

wirelessmacuser said:
And the point is?

Reviewing the counterpoints reveals many valid points in Samsung's favor.

Yet so what? Specifications aside I don't see the need to get so involved in what is nothing more than a comparison of two dissimilar phones.

That's why we have choices. I celebrate the choices and differences.

At the end of the day... It's just a phone.
Click to expand...

A lot of users, unfortunately, feel the need to convince themselves they made the right purchase by insulting those of others. It's just something we have to live with in a society where there's a lot of choice.
 
Meyvn said:
Someone get this man a link to the 4.1 beta 3. Proximity sensor fix is already taken care of.
Click to expand...

So?

That's never been an issue of consequence in my opinion, since it was apparent in the beginning a software update would fix it. Those who made it a big deal where those less technically inclined.

The only issue of consequence is the poorly designed antenna. A mistake that will live on till they redesign (if they do) the phone.

Any dolt knows you don't mount an antenna on the outside perimeter of the phone. Apple's superiority and elitist mind set overwhelmed good engineering and common sense.
 
wirelessmacuser said:
The only issue of consequence is the poorly designed antenna. A mistake that will live on till they redesign (if they do) the phone.

Any dolt knows you don't mount an antenna on the outside perimeter of the phone. Apple's superiority and elitist mind set overwhelmed good engineering and common sense.
Click to expand...

A "mistake" that will live on for the 0.55% of customers who have been affected enough by "Apple's superiority and elitist mind set" to bother making a call to AppleCare to report their trouble.

Yep, quite an "issue of consequence". :rolleyes:
 
wirelessmacuser said:
So?

That's never been an issue of consequence in my opinion, since it was apparent in the beginning a software update would fix it. Those who made it a big deal where those less technically inclined.

The only issue of consequence is the poorly designed antenna. A mistake that will live on till they redesign (if they do) the phone.

Any dolt knows you don't mount an antenna on the outside perimeter of the phone. Apple's superiority and elitist mind set overwhelmed good engineering and common sense.
Click to expand...

God you would be in for such a shock if you ever bothered to look into Samsung's practices.
 
itsmemuffins said:
God you would be in for such a shock if you ever bothered to look into Samsung's practices.
Click to expand...

Actually I'm well aware of Samsung's business practices. While in no way am I advocating for them, it is what it is. A company located outside of the USA with typical business practices of their locale.

Apple on the other hand is an American company that I used to be proud of. My passion for their products and past (ethical & professional) performance has been dashed as I witness the "New Apple" sans any modicum of true concern for the retail customer. I am very pro consumer while fully understanding business and it's necessary policies & procedures.

At the end of the day, Apple could be every bit as profitable (and more) than it is today while still looking out for the customer.
 
To the OP...unless you're locked into ATT you might want to look towards Verizon. I have both carriers and I've always had better reception and 3G service on Verizon. I currently have a Droid X on Verizon that I've enjoyed quite a bit. There is a learning curve after spending several years on the iPhone platform.

Prior to activating my DX I used iTunes to sync all of my contacts and calendars to my gmail account. Once that was done everything went smoothly when I activated the DX. I use iSyncr (on a PC) to sync my playlists and music to the DX. I recently d/l'd a wireless version of iSyncr and it seems to be working very well. No more cables for me.

Give yourself at least two to three weeks to become familar with the new phone. There are going to be a lot of things that just seem odd or confusing. For all the flaws that people like to point out about the iPhone; Apple has done a very good job with the device. You don't really get a full appreciation for it until you try something else. With that said Apple could learn a few things from Android.
 
wirelessmacuser said:
Actually I'm well aware of Samsung's business practices. While in no way am I advocating for them, it is what it is. A company located outside of the USA with typical business practices of their locale.

Apple on the other hand is an American company that I used to be proud of. My passion for their products and past (ethical & professional) performance has been dashed as I witness the "New Apple" sans any modicum of true concern for the retail customer. I am very pro consumer while fully understanding business and it's necessary policies & procedures.

At the end of the day, Apple could be every bit as profitable (and more) than it is today while still looking out for the customer.
Click to expand...


Riiight...so that's why Apple is at the top of the consumer satisfaction rating. You may have pulled the wool over some, but I see you for what you are.
 
GamecockMac said:
I'm saying that no cellphone screen is decent for viewing movies. For watching a 1-5 minute YouTube video, absolutely. For watching a 10-30 minute podcast, sure. For watching the occasional 30-60 minute TV show, now we're pushing the limit. But for sitting down and viewing 1.5-3 hours of video that was expressly made to be viewed on a huge screen with surround sound? Don't tell me that you're going to get much satisfaction out of that, and don't try to make me believe that a half-inch is going to make a world of difference if and when you decide to do it. Not to mention the battery issues.

Those T-Mobile commercials that boast of bundling Avatar with the Vibrant (Galaxy)? Absolutely hilarious. :D
Click to expand...

Ironically, the Galaxy S family has virtual surround sound when listening to music or watching movies using Samsungs' application. ;)
 
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