SyncDash

Decent starter smartphone, but I'm ready to upgrade

Phone owned for more than a year

I got the Samsung Galaxy S Captivate a few months after it came out via a great upgrade deal on Wirefly.com. It came with Android 2.1 (Eclair), which was old even then, but it eventually got Android 2.2 (Froyo) and then, shortly thereafter, Android 2.3 (Gingerbread).

From a software standpoint, I've liked the Captivate quite a bit. TouchWiz is pretty well-implemented, especially in Gingerbread, and Swype is a great keyboard for texting or composing emails. Voice recognition works quite well, too. The Android updates each sped the phone up noticeably, though unfortunately the update to Gingerbread introduced some oddities. The phone tends to freeze/lock up fairly often, and I find myself having to hard-restart the phone (by pressing and holding the power button and the volume up/down buttons) at least once per day. I've been unable to identify any particular cause for these lockups. Also, whenever I plug the phone in to charge it, and also when I unplug it after charging, there's a series of two messages about a "Tethering Manager" app that stopped working and needs to force close, so I have to tap "Force close" twice. Annoying, but no big deal. The lockups are much worse, as they're unpredictable.

In terms of hardware, I've loved the phone. The display, while not high-res compared to current phones like the Galaxy S III, is beautiful: bright, great contrast, and vivid, saturated colors. The processor seems quick enough for Android 2.x, with the UI seeming quite fluid and largely lag-free, unless the phone is syncing in the background or downloading app updates. Call quality is good, and I can't remember experiencing any dropped calls that weren't attributable to environmental factors (going into a subway tunnel, being in a store with poor reception, etc.). The one major hardware issue is the phone's GPS, which takes forever to lock on and, even when it does finally lock on, is sometimes pretty inaccurate. I don't recommend using the Captivate as an in-car GPS device.

Build quality is among the best I've seen in a phone. As one other reviewer stated, it feels solid like a bar of steel, though not as heavy. I've never used a case or a screen protector in the entire time I've owned it, and aside from a scuff or two on the body and one small scratch on a corner of the screen (likely caused by coins in my pocket), it looks like new. I've dropped it on hard surfaces a few times, and it hasn't shown any signs of damage.

The headphones that come with the phone are of the in-ear type, and unlike the ones that come with the iPhone/iPod, these actually fit in my ears perfectly (the iPod ones are hard and constantly fall out; the Samsung 'phones have soft rubber earpieces and fit snugly and comfortably). They also sound very good, though heavy bass will cause them to distort a bit at very high volumes.

Overall, it's been a great introduction to Android. Hopefully my next phone won't have the lockups. :-)

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