In the interest of being objective, I will list both pros and cons. However, make no mistake that the pros far outweigh the cons, and I forsee most of the cons to disappear with time.
THE CONS:
Accessories:
My first complaint is a petty one. There are very few accessories available. This phone is so new that trying to find protective cases and covers yield long waits. I'm not sure if the failure is with Samsung or with manufacturers, but if I spend this much money on a device, I want to be able to protect it!
GPS:
My next complaint is the singularly largest complaint on this phone for us, as well as tons of folks I have seen online in various forums. There is a definite problem with the GPS which is one of the coolest things for me to play with on a smart phone. It takes longer than it should to get a lock, and once locked is not as accurate as it should be. Samsung has said that it is not a hardware issue, and that the issues will go away once the Android 2.2 update happens in September. Naturally, the online community is skeptical, but I hold hope that Samsung will fix this. In the meantime, users have found a tweak that speeds up the lock a little and is 50% more accurate. I did the tweak to my phone and managed to make it tolerable.
Bloatware:
Another complaint among many users has more to do with the carrier. (For the record, I do not buy into the massive "AT&T sucks" campaign that consists primarily of iPhone users in large metropolitan areas.) It seems that AT&T is very proud of their version of navigation, media, and location finders. So much so, that they cement many apps into the phone that the common user cannot remove. Some of them are even set to load up and update every time you turn the phone on. Workarounds are out there, like the app I downloaded that automatically kills those apps when they try to start on power up. The other way is to root your phone which allows you to use third party apps and delete the bloatware. That method is only recommended for advanced users, however, as it can void your warranty. Even worse, you could screw it up and "brick" your phone. For the non-geeks that may read this, the term "brick" refers to breaking the software or firmware causing your phone to be a useless weight....like a brick...LOL.
THE PROS:
Construction:
I mentioned this from our excursion to the AT&T store, but this device is built solid. However, it still manages to be nearly half the weight of the iPhone. That's a win-win in my book.
4 inch AMOLED touchscreen:
Wow... just freaking wow! Anyone that I come across that has an iPhone looks at my phone and says, "What is THAT?!?!?" Their eyes bug out of their head as I turn up my brightness and dazzle them with the live wallpapers and 720p video quality on a responsive touch screen that is bigger than theirs.
Android OS:
Even though this device is still on Android 2.1, I am extremely happy. I am cautiously optimistic that when the 2.2 upgrade comes out that it will be even better. That said, doing a side-by-side comparison with an iPhone showed that my Captivate responded to menus and commands faster.
The iPhone groupies will always bring up the number of apps available, but thus far I have found everything I could ever want and I have 100,000 less crap-apps to sort through to find the one I want. Since it will be easier to develop for Android than for iOS, it is feasible that the gap in available apps will shrink over time anyway.
Then there is the integration. Integration isn't always a good thing, but in this case is a godsend. When I began to set my Captivate up to my preferences, it synced up to my Google contacts, maps, email, and calendars. I can now turn off my SMS text alerts for my calendar, because I can set the phone to post my events right to my home screen.
Bias alert! I absolutely despise iTunes. I hate it with a passion. While I realize that not everyone shares my disdain, this is something that really drove me away from iPhone. I love that I don't have to use it with Android! However, if you like iTunes like my wife, there is an app that allows you to sync your Captivate with your iTunes library.
Customization:
One of the things iPhone users covet about my Captivate is the sheer number of home screens. I was able to customize multiple home screens (I'm up to 6 now with 8 available) and the dock. Since I'm not willing to pay AT&T for what would be a 6th email account, I moved my messaging icon to where the email button was on the dock. I also wanted faster access to my camera, so I put my camera icon where the browser icon was. Putting widgets and apps onto the various home screens is very intuitive.
Camera:
I love the camera. It takes great photos and video. Photos are crisp and vibrant and videos are 720p quality (unless you deliberately limit the size for MMS messaging.) There are lots of cool camera functions like vintage mode, panorama, action, cartoon mode, exposure adjustments and light adjustments. (See a few samples at the end of this posting.)
In the box:
While I was waiting for the phone to come in the mail, I put a headset on my Amazon wishlist. I have since removed that item, because not only did the phone come with a set, but they sound better than the ones I bought for my mp3 player.
Summary:
I may think of more to add to this later, but you get the idea. I resisted getting into the smartphone arena for so long because I didn't feel that I really needed that much device. Now that I have the Captivate I realize that they are very convenient. I wanted bleeding edge technology if I was going to do it, and I firmly believe that I have achieved that goal.
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