surprised theres actually educated discussion going on in this thread. personally, i would wait for the holiday season when ARM Cortex-A9 phones debut. They are just another class in terms of performance. All these other phones out there, including the ip4 are cortex-a8 phones. bring on dual core processors with tegra integrated!
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[Merged] Samsung Galaxy S / Captivate Android Phone
- Thread starter MattG
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People crack me up about the screen. I don't recall anyone complaining about the iPhone 3G and 3GS having only 165 PPI screen. When I got my work phone a Droid, I was wow this screen is so nice, it has 265 PPI and that was a year ago. I kept asking myself why my 3G then 3GS had such a crappy screen.
Now the iPhone4 has 326 PPI and everything is crap?? Makes no sense.
I like my iPhone 4, but there is so many things that Android has that I really like. I'm messing around with my brother's Captivate, and I really like it. He was one of the lucky ones that was able to get it for 349 off contract through ATT screw up.
The screen isn't as good as the iPhone 4, but it's not terrible and blows away the 3GS. I love the fact you can watch divx videos right from the set. Wathing videos and movies is really nice. I also love the shortcuts in the notification bar for wifi etc. Wish my Droid and iPhone4 had that.
Anyways, if I can get the same deal as my brother I will have a Captivate to compliment my iPhone4.
I just wish they could have sex produce a baby so I could have one crazy hybrid phone that does everything.
Now the iPhone4 has 326 PPI and everything is crap?? Makes no sense.
I like my iPhone 4, but there is so many things that Android has that I really like. I'm messing around with my brother's Captivate, and I really like it. He was one of the lucky ones that was able to get it for 349 off contract through ATT screw up.
The screen isn't as good as the iPhone 4, but it's not terrible and blows away the 3GS. I love the fact you can watch divx videos right from the set. Wathing videos and movies is really nice. I also love the shortcuts in the notification bar for wifi etc. Wish my Droid and iPhone4 had that.
Anyways, if I can get the same deal as my brother I will have a Captivate to compliment my iPhone4.
I just wish they could have sex produce a baby so I could have one crazy hybrid phone that does everything.
I've been using Samsung Galaxy S for more than half a month now.
Pluses:
1. Bigger screen and good resolution. Although not as as sharp as iPhone4, it's still extremely extremely good.
2. Under bright light, the camera and video camera are fantastic. Love the pictures taken with it. Don't know how that compares to iPhone 4's but it is way way above my expectation already.
3. Form factor is very nice. Light and slim. No excessive bezel.
4. Web browsing is faster and more pleasant. I'm comparing with my iPhone 3GS when making this statement, not to iPhone 4.
5. One thing nice about Android as compared to iOS is that for music lovers who don't think it's wrong to steal music, there are heaps of music download applications in the market place. Music downloaded appear in the native music player. Unlike in iPhone, where although you can download music, the music must be played with a third party player and not iPod (of course, unless you copy the music to the PC, load into iTune on the PC, and sync back to iPhone again).
6. The Swype keyboard is the best keyboard I've used. I thought that it's difficult to beat the one from iPhone, but I'm wrong. Swype is fantastic.
7. I like the notification bar in Android.
Negatives:
1. Not running Froyo 2.2 yet.
2. GPS is non-functional. Unable to hold on to locked position. Jumps all over, causing constant and erroneous route recalculation if you use it for travelling
3. Very very limited choice in application. Only Copilot is available for Australia. No TomTom, Navigon, Sygic, iGO, Ndrive. The free navigation software from Google does not support Australia at all.
4. Very very slow mail, both stock and every mail I tried in the market place crawls. Stock mail is extremely limited in functions and features. Mail does not suppot HTML.
5. Applications by the same developer seems to be inferior on Android as compared to on iPhone. GolfCard Pro from Senygma is an example. The Android version is slower, more buggy, and with less functions and features.
6. For non-programmer, and non-hacker at least, a jailbroken iphone is far far more customizable and has more functionality than a rooted Android phone. Example, it's not possible to have the VolumeButtonExtender or Activator type of customization on Android.
7. Other than web brower, I find everything to be slower on SGS than even iPhone 3GS. In some places, slower than 3G.
8. Another high usage area in my case is RSS feed. I use RSS g Flash on iPhone, but simply can't find anything remotely close on Android. If you're a Google Reader account holder, you may find it a challenge to get a RSS reader that has even remotely acceptable speed. However, if your interest is just to read news by newsfeed source (e.g., CNN, BBC) instead of google folder, then there are very excellent and fast application available.
9.Privacy issue and no reliable and workable way to sync to outlook. The Kies software provided by Samsung is crap. It's unable to properly and accurately sync contact on 32 bit PC. Calendar syncing is completely not working on any platform. On Mac and 64 bit PC, even half bake solution is not available. You're FORCED to surrender your contact and calendar details to the cloud, something I'm extremely uncomfortable with. When I used a product called MyBackup to back up the application and data on the SD card just before I flashed the firmware, I chosed to back up to the phone and not to the cloud. However, when I restored, it simply restored everything from the SD card to the cloud and not to the phone!!!! I was absolutely pissed off by that.
10. The whole syncing logic is strange and flawed even if one has no privacy concern. When you sync to the cloud, calendar as well as contact info appear many times. It's mysterious and hard to remove.
11. Boot up is a pain if you have lots of music. There is a long process of scanning for media each time I do a soft reset.
12. Samsung's somehow has designed the phone placing components of the system which should have been on NAND memory on the internal SD storage, which is very slow. This is why the device has very serious lag problem. There are people who perform very complicated fix to change this set up but the procedure is not for the faint hearted.
13. The stock mail does not take Yahoo mail account. I don't like using multiple applications for mails (I have about 6 mail accounts). Stock mail individual account can be refreshed only after you get into the account. So, if you have 6 accounts, you can't press one button to refresh all. To do that you have to use third party mail, such as the K-9 mail.
14. Copy and paste is still missing in many part of the system.
15. Because SGS does not have a trackball, it is difficult to position the cursor when tryinng to select text.
16. Many things that we take for granted on iPhone simply can't be done on Android. I can't even set up on calendar events that happens on alternate week for example. The functions are features are too basic, contrary to the hypes which wants you to believe that Android has more power, flexibility and functionality.
17. One of the reasons I bought it was to play flash videos. Unfortunately it doesn't. On www.youku.com, for example, using skyfire beta, most videos don't play. However, the advertisements do play.
On the issue of reception. Yes, I can make it drop signal from -81dBm to -111dBm by merely resting the device on my hand without gripping it. Yes, I can make it completely drop a call in poor coverage area when griping it. Shown it to a few friends of mine already.
So, yes, I went for it, but now I'm back to iPhone 4.
Pluses:
1. Bigger screen and good resolution. Although not as as sharp as iPhone4, it's still extremely extremely good.
2. Under bright light, the camera and video camera are fantastic. Love the pictures taken with it. Don't know how that compares to iPhone 4's but it is way way above my expectation already.
3. Form factor is very nice. Light and slim. No excessive bezel.
4. Web browsing is faster and more pleasant. I'm comparing with my iPhone 3GS when making this statement, not to iPhone 4.
5. One thing nice about Android as compared to iOS is that for music lovers who don't think it's wrong to steal music, there are heaps of music download applications in the market place. Music downloaded appear in the native music player. Unlike in iPhone, where although you can download music, the music must be played with a third party player and not iPod (of course, unless you copy the music to the PC, load into iTune on the PC, and sync back to iPhone again).
6. The Swype keyboard is the best keyboard I've used. I thought that it's difficult to beat the one from iPhone, but I'm wrong. Swype is fantastic.
7. I like the notification bar in Android.
Negatives:
1. Not running Froyo 2.2 yet.
2. GPS is non-functional. Unable to hold on to locked position. Jumps all over, causing constant and erroneous route recalculation if you use it for travelling
3. Very very limited choice in application. Only Copilot is available for Australia. No TomTom, Navigon, Sygic, iGO, Ndrive. The free navigation software from Google does not support Australia at all.
4. Very very slow mail, both stock and every mail I tried in the market place crawls. Stock mail is extremely limited in functions and features. Mail does not suppot HTML.
5. Applications by the same developer seems to be inferior on Android as compared to on iPhone. GolfCard Pro from Senygma is an example. The Android version is slower, more buggy, and with less functions and features.
6. For non-programmer, and non-hacker at least, a jailbroken iphone is far far more customizable and has more functionality than a rooted Android phone. Example, it's not possible to have the VolumeButtonExtender or Activator type of customization on Android.
7. Other than web brower, I find everything to be slower on SGS than even iPhone 3GS. In some places, slower than 3G.
8. Another high usage area in my case is RSS feed. I use RSS g Flash on iPhone, but simply can't find anything remotely close on Android. If you're a Google Reader account holder, you may find it a challenge to get a RSS reader that has even remotely acceptable speed. However, if your interest is just to read news by newsfeed source (e.g., CNN, BBC) instead of google folder, then there are very excellent and fast application available.
9.Privacy issue and no reliable and workable way to sync to outlook. The Kies software provided by Samsung is crap. It's unable to properly and accurately sync contact on 32 bit PC. Calendar syncing is completely not working on any platform. On Mac and 64 bit PC, even half bake solution is not available. You're FORCED to surrender your contact and calendar details to the cloud, something I'm extremely uncomfortable with. When I used a product called MyBackup to back up the application and data on the SD card just before I flashed the firmware, I chosed to back up to the phone and not to the cloud. However, when I restored, it simply restored everything from the SD card to the cloud and not to the phone!!!! I was absolutely pissed off by that.
10. The whole syncing logic is strange and flawed even if one has no privacy concern. When you sync to the cloud, calendar as well as contact info appear many times. It's mysterious and hard to remove.
11. Boot up is a pain if you have lots of music. There is a long process of scanning for media each time I do a soft reset.
12. Samsung's somehow has designed the phone placing components of the system which should have been on NAND memory on the internal SD storage, which is very slow. This is why the device has very serious lag problem. There are people who perform very complicated fix to change this set up but the procedure is not for the faint hearted.
13. The stock mail does not take Yahoo mail account. I don't like using multiple applications for mails (I have about 6 mail accounts). Stock mail individual account can be refreshed only after you get into the account. So, if you have 6 accounts, you can't press one button to refresh all. To do that you have to use third party mail, such as the K-9 mail.
14. Copy and paste is still missing in many part of the system.
15. Because SGS does not have a trackball, it is difficult to position the cursor when tryinng to select text.
16. Many things that we take for granted on iPhone simply can't be done on Android. I can't even set up on calendar events that happens on alternate week for example. The functions are features are too basic, contrary to the hypes which wants you to believe that Android has more power, flexibility and functionality.
17. One of the reasons I bought it was to play flash videos. Unfortunately it doesn't. On www.youku.com, for example, using skyfire beta, most videos don't play. However, the advertisements do play.
On the issue of reception. Yes, I can make it drop signal from -81dBm to -111dBm by merely resting the device on my hand without gripping it. Yes, I can make it completely drop a call in poor coverage area when griping it. Shown it to a few friends of mine already.
So, yes, I went for it, but now I'm back to iPhone 4.
I hear lots of complaints about yahoo mail. I'll take a look at my brothers Captivate.
But on my Droid I thought it wasn't working either. But when I'm not on wifi the stock mail gets my yahoo mail just fine. Just had a problem when using wifi.
Also forgot to mention the flash. At first I was like why not.? But after using the night mode, I can say that it takes better night shots then my iPhone 4 with flash.
But on my Droid I thought it wasn't working either. But when I'm not on wifi the stock mail gets my yahoo mail just fine. Just had a problem when using wifi.
Also forgot to mention the flash. At first I was like why not.? But after using the night mode, I can say that it takes better night shots then my iPhone 4 with flash.
If I'm reading it correctly and you are talking about the radio toggle switches, I believe that can be had on the Droid with the LauncherPro app (free). But that app's main function,while I would highly recommend it, is not just for the toggle icons.
If you can spend a $1, then there is SwitchPro.
Thanks, just what I was looking for. I have launcher pro but I didn't know it did that. I'm running froyo on my droid, and still messing around with it. Actually I'm typing this on my iPad on Bart tethered to my Droid while my iPhone 4 sits in my pocket.
We need a jailbreak for iPhone 4 NOW!!!
My two favorite stores are Apple and AT&T. I love most everything Apple, and all the Smartphone choices at AT &T. My fourth iphone is great, and so is my new Android powered Captivate. I'm hoping that Apple will adopt SWYPE. It's on my Captivate and it's really fast fun and easy.
Yes and I find it refreshing. Instead of fending off fanboys spewing venom, we have a great discussion. I find both my iphone and Captivate great phones.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2oWELcd-lI
Official test build of Froyo on the international version of Galaxy S.
Official test build of Froyo on the international version of Galaxy S.
I've had my Captivate for a week and a half, but it's probably going back. Not enough responsiveness from Samsung, and AT&T having to meddle with the software updates. No thanks.
sciwizam said:Hence the "test"
I know.
However, it also highlights one of the major problems of the Android platform. Although Google has released the final version of Froyo, in order to make it work on each OEM phone, a lot more development and testing is needed. This makes it impractical for OEM to provide log term OS upgrades. It's too easy to sell a device then abandon the customers. Never happen on iOS platform unless the hardware can't meet the minimum requirements.
I sense lots of ANDROID induced fear. I also ask myself this question, do some detractors even own this device? I doubt it.
My iPhone 4 and Samsung Captivate are _both_ excellent. That said it's important to understand Android is not iOS. These two are vastly different. Each with it's pros & con's. I've had both of these phones since they were launched. I could not be happier.
My iPhone 4 and Samsung Captivate are _both_ excellent. That said it's important to understand Android is not iOS. These two are vastly different. Each with it's pros & con's. I've had both of these phones since they were launched. I could not be happier.
I bet some Iphone 3G users beg to differ.
Once they see iOS 4.1 I think they will not differ. Apple is looking into the lag problem, and is likely to release a version specific to 3G. Apple cares about old customers. Can't say the same for non iPhone.
Well, this does it. I've been waffling over this decision (Captivate or iPhone 4) but now my mind is made up -- it'll be an iPhone 4 for me. Not only based on the above post, but it helped.
I finally had a chance to see and play with the Captivate yesterday. Very nice looking phone (frankly I wish the iPhone had a 4" screen) but I don't need the potential problems or hassles. Some customization would be nice, but I don't expect to be tinkering with my phone on a regular basis.
I will say that eagle steves post has alot of false statements. I mean come on, iphone is way more customizable than android? That is just a crock of crap. And yahoo mail works just fine on my phone. Slower than his 3gs? I guess the youtube video of the ip4 coming in last between the captivate and nexus one in every test performed was just a trick
Probably true (lots of false statements out there on both sides
). But for me it was just a "last straw", if you will. These items below were my overall decision-making considerations:* Battery life. iPhone 4 has more.
* Better camera pics from iPhone 4.
* Camera flash on iPhone 4.
* Crisper text on iPhone 4 (I'm more concerned with text than pics or videos).
* Captivate might need more expensive data plan due to more updates from widgets, etc.
* MS Outlook contacts are apparently easier to sync on iPhone 4.
* Might not be any copy and paste in email on Captivate (if true, I can't do my job).
* I don't really WANT to tinker with my phone, but I might need to if I want the absolute best Captivate experience.
* Reported lag on Captivate unless phone is rooted (which I'd rather not do).
* Captivate was not as intuitive for me when I played with it. Iphone 4 was easier for me to figure out how to do what I wanted/needed to do.
There was one thing that kept bringing me back to the Captivate: The 4" screen. Loved it. But other than that, the list above overruled.
Well then I hope you thought the iPhone 3G and 3GS screen sucked when the Droid came out over a year ago.
Probably true (lots of false statements out there on both sides
* Battery life. iPhone 4 has more.
* Better camera pics from iPhone 4.
* Camera flash on iPhone 4.
* Crisper text on iPhone 4 (I'm more concerned with text than pics or videos).
* Captivate might need more expensive data plan due to more updates from widgets, etc.
* MS Outlook contacts are apparently easier to sync on iPhone 4.
* Might not be any copy and paste in email on Captivate (if true, I can't do my job).
* I don't really WANT to tinker with my phone, but I might need to if I want the absolute best Captivate experience.
* Reported lag on Captivate unless phone is rooted (which I'd rather not do).
* Captivate was not as intuitive for me when I played with it. Iphone 4 was easier for me to figure out how to do what I wanted/needed to do.
There was one thing that kept bringing me back to the Captivate: The 4" screen. Loved it. But other than that, the list above overruled.
There is nothing wrong with sticking with the iPhone. It is a good device and i loved mine but half of these reasons you give are guesses on your part. You really dont know if you have to root it and i can tell you that you do not have to root the phone to fix a lag. Mine isnt rooted and i dont have a big lag problem. And when i do it isnt from the phone itself, it is my 3G that may be weak at that time. Even the iPhone has that problem.
I do not have AT&T and never will which is why i am not getting a iP4. Dont want to spend a bundle for a phone that will always be on EDGE , so i cant say that you will need a more expensive data plan from them but i doubt it. Why would you just to get updates? My Data plan is $20 for unlimited on T-Mobile. Most Apps gets updates and it is no different of Apps from Apple.
Crisper Text? I have no idea what your talking about here. My text is fine, looks good and i have no trouble reading it and in fact i have a ton more options that i can do with my texts than iPhone has.
Dont think flash is an issue either but some just think the word "flash" is a big deal. Night mode works good and there have been many examples in here but to each their own.
As for copy and paste....did you really think there might not be copy and paste with this phone? I believe Apple was the last to make that happen for their phone just as they were getting MMS.
I dont use Outlook so i cant say. Yahoo works just fine on it though while a couple say it wont work at all.
You say Captivate was not intuitive enough for you but seems to me you dont really know since you are guessing what it will or wont do. And thats fine. iPhone is a good phone and cant knock anyone at all for sticking with it but i just think giving reasons as to why you dont want the other with really not much of a clue about it is weak.
Well, I did a LOT of research and read a LOT of comments from a LOT of users. Most of what I "learned" was mentioned by multiple people, so I figured that as least some of it must be true. But I absolutely could be wrong.
Well, I did a LOT of research and read a LOT of comments from a LOT of users. Most of what I "learned" was mentioned by multiple people, so I figured that as least some of it must be true. But I absolutely could be wrong.
Its all good. As i said, iPhone is a good device. Why i switched is because Android is making some big strides and the phones a way better now and will continue to get better and that way i can keep spending less on T-Mobile as opposed to AT$T.
It is different. Android is a Linux based system and it will take a bit to get used to it. Took me a good week to decide ill keep it and to like it more everyday. They are getting more Apps all the time and some good ones just like Apple.
Cant wait to get 2.2 on it and then Gingerbread. By then it will be a great system and i do think Android will take a bite from Apples market but they will NEVER be a killer. The only iPhone killer will be when Steve Jobs dies and his transplant seems to be working fine for him...lol
Im thinking the iPhone next year will have a bigger screen since everybody else is doing it and seem to like it.
Just in case you want some input that arent iPhone bias there are forums to check out. www.Androidforums.com or http://forum.xda-developers.com. Will give you a better idea as to what is going on with them than the speculators in here with false info like you cant ever delete an App from your phone once you download it from the Android store....lol