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Bye bye Captivate

I learned quite a bit here as well. I came from a RAZR2 V9X, and loved it for what it was... a stylish phone.

My GPS worked flawless for the first 1.5 weeks, but after that it was a crapshoot. Took forever to lock, etc. It felt huge in my pocket.

9/19 my 30 days were up- and back it went- because I did not want to be stuck with it under contract YET. I am back on my RAZR2 for now, but given this last weeks issues- I am glad I returned it.

I come back here daily and read up on progress, as I want to get another one if issues get sorted out.

Thanks All-
Chris
 
You do realize its not and Iphone 4G....maybe if you mean Iphone "4th Generation"

I have actually been test driving the Captivate for a few weeks now, I came over from a Iphone 3G and I believe I am converted. My old Iphone dropped almost 50% of my calls, the interface is pretty boring, and if Steve Jobs didn't want me to do something with the phone then that was that. I did Jailbreak it toward the end but it seemed as though that caused some speed issues as well. With the Captivate I haven't once dropped a call and I will admit it was a little slow on me for a bit but it was all due to me being an idiot and DLing everything I could just trying out apps. Once I read a little and learned about the phone and how I had everything that could sync syncing in the background I don't think I really could ever go back to the closed up Iphone. That is just my opinion though cause all the, "I have an Iphone and that makes me cool" people around my office would totally disagree. :D
 
I have had my Captivate for about 2 months. I love the "device". It's a small PC as far as I'm concerned. I have no problems following 4 email accounts! The app store is awesome. Now, my only problem, and that's why I call it a "device" in lieu of a phone. As a phone it is sub-par! It drops almost every call that goes over 90 seconds. I will be in a 5 bar location, the call ends, and I get the circle with diagonal line through it, no service, then boom! Service is back to 5 bars. My daughter had the same problem. Anyone else have or had this issue? Otherwise this is a great "device".
 
jpovis said:
I have had my Captivate for about 2 months. I love the "device". It's a small PC as far as I'm concerned. I have no problems following 4 email accounts! The app store is awesome. Now, my only problem, and that's why I call it a "device" in lieu of a phone. As a phone it is sub-par! It drops almost every call that goes over 90 seconds. I will be in a 5 bar location, the call ends, and I get the circle with diagonal line through it, no service, then boom! Service is back to 5 bars. My daughter had the same problem. Anyone else have or had this issue? Otherwise this is a great "device".
Click to expand...

To say no one has not have the issue you posted would be untrue [I have experienced this myself and not with just the captivate] but I can go over an hour without it dropping out.Specific location is the key with the AT&T network these days it seems.
 
jpovis said:
I have had my Captivate for about 2 months. I love the "device". It's a small PC as far as I'm concerned. I have no problems following 4 email accounts! The app store is awesome. Now, my only problem, and that's why I call it a "device" in lieu of a phone. As a phone it is sub-par! It drops almost every call that goes over 90 seconds. I will be in a 5 bar location, the call ends, and I get the circle with diagonal line through it, no service, then boom! Service is back to 5 bars. My daughter had the same problem. Anyone else have or had this issue? Otherwise this is a great "device".
Click to expand...

Download Mobile Signal Widget and check out what your signal actually is. It shows a more granular view of your signal and even provides a numerical (decibel) readout of your signal.

It's possible that you are on the edge of Edge/3G signal and your phone isn't handling the handoffs well on phone calls.

My previous WinMo phone had a weak 3G radio, and in my house, calls wouldn't even ring to my phone when my phone was on 3G. So, I forced my phone to Edge and kept it there. Never missed or dropped a call again.

If you find (by using the Mobile Signal Widget), that you have a weak 3G signal in your house, post back or PM me and I will post the info to help you force your phone to Edge. If you have a stong 3G signal, then there may be a defect in the phone for which you have to try a few things first, and if those options don't solve your prob, you may need to go the exchange route. Let's hope it's just a signal issue!
 
I've had the Craptivate for two weeks now and I've decided to return it. I really wanted to like this phone, it has great hardware specs, but you wouldn't know it the way it performs. The GPS never worked for me and the phone is laggy even though it has the best components. I shouldn't have to install custom roms to bring performance up to the level of phones with inferior hardware. The captivate isn't worth blowing my upgrade on. The only thing I'll miss is the display which is the best in the business. I'll wait until AT&T gets a good HTC android phone then I'll upgrade.
 
Jreee said:
I've had the Craptivate for two weeks now and I've decided to return it. I really wanted to like this phone, it has great hardware specs, but you wouldn't know it the way it performs. The GPS never worked for me and the phone is laggy even though it has the best components. I shouldn't have to install custom roms to bring performance up to the level of phones with inferior hardware. The captivate isn't worth blowing my upgrade on. The only thing I'll miss is the display which is the best in the business. I'll wait until AT&T gets a good HTC android phone then I'll upgrade.
Click to expand...

My Captivate is as fast as my Droid X, and my EVO.

I'd check out the phone before you quit.

Something is wrong with this picture...
 
You don't have to install a custom rom to get better performance. My Captivate outperforms the iPhone 4 I had for a while and really outperforms the iPhone 3GS that I had for over a year. I bought my phone with the upgrade already on it and never had a problem. The iPhone is a polished solid device but very restricted. I would have to jailbreak the iPhone just to get close to what my stock Captivate does. I didn't like the email app that came with the Captivate so I downloaded one from the Android store and it works great. As far as I'm concerned, there is no comparison between the Captivate and the iPhone. I can do so much more now. I almost feel like I wasted the last couple of years. And yes, I can even sync my Captivate with iTunes. I have a Macbook laptop and the Captivate plays very nicely with it. Where I live we have a very weak cell phone signal. I can now use the Captivate where I couldn't use the iPhone. I couldn't be happier. I'm giving the iPhone away to my niece and never looking back.
 
Where do I start?

The biggest thing is my Captivate shows up on my Mac when I plug it in allowing me to drag and drop just about anything. The iPhone never did that unless I wanted to jailbreak it.

I can customize the screens to whatever look I want.

Works with google voice nicely.

Calendar and notifications much nicer than iPhone.

With "My Files" I can view all folders on my phone.

Widgets are great.

Android market not as restricted as Apple app store

Anyway, I'm not going to get into a long discussion about iPhone vs Captivate. I've had an iPhone for 3 years starting with the 3G then 3GS and 4. The 3G and 3GS were great smartphones especially if you have a Mac computer. The iPhone 4 was a downgrade as far as I was concerned so I returned it and bought the Captivate. Everything with the Captivate just seems to work better including the touch screen. Now I see what I was missing The iPhone was very frustrating if when moving an icon you put it on another icon by mistake and it creates a folder. Then you have to undo the mistake. The Captivate just works better. Not to mention the phone call quality is superior to the iPhone and signal strength is better. I know for a fact because I can us the Captivate on our property and I couldn't use the iPhone. This is important because after all it is a phone. From reading some of the posts here I guess I'm lucky my phone does everything right. Even the GPS works like it should. The camera is nice but there are two things I really don't care about on my phone. The camera and GPS. It seems silly to me to use my cell phone to navigate in the car when much better dedicated GPS units are available which I have in my car. The camera is handy in a pinch I guess on the cell phone so talking about picture quality seems odd. If you want quality pics, use a real camera. Anyway, that's my two cents.



jas2k9 said:
I am curious.

Exactly what does your Captivate do that a non-jailbroken Iphone can't do?
Click to expand...
 
Sounds like you just wanted a different experience and not really that an iPhone is a lesser phone. I went from a Captivate and to an iPhone4, there's no comparison. The icon issue you are mentioning is the functionality used to create groups, if you drop it on either side, it rearranges the icons instead. The iPhone4 display is sharper and yes, has a higher resolution. There's no lag on an iPhone4 when swipping between pages, pictures, etc. Couldn't say the same for the Captivate when I owned it.

The iPhone shows up on my computer when I plug it in, can copy pictures to it. Don't really care about seeing system files, what I care for instead, is a phone that works when I needed. IOS 4.2 just came out, I can stream to other Apple devices and print from it as well. The AppStore is put together much better, from how apps are categorized to recommended ones to the quality of the Apps themselves.

Bottom line is, if you want a working phone that's polished, iPhone4 is the way to go. If you want a phone to experiment and hack then the Captivate is one of the many Android options out there that allow you to do this. The biggest thing going against this phone is the fact that it's a Samsung. December is a week away, no official announcement from Samsung about Froyo other than, you'll soon be getting it.

I also read today that Samsung is going to focus on WP7 in 2011, not good news if you ask me. Hopefully they won't abandon ship and stop updating the Android products they currently have on the market.
 
I had the iPhone 2 days before I went with the Captivate. I'll never look back. It sounds more like someone isn't patient enough to try to resolve their own cell phone issues.
 
jas2k9 said:
I am curious.

Exactly what does your Captivate do that a non-jailbroken Iphone can't do?
Click to expand...

Seriously? Read the forums. If nothing else it's more customizable than anything the iPhone will ever have. I made my own profiles, my own menus, profiles that change depending on my GPS location or Wifi location, can program my Captivate to automate SMS text messages, etc. The list is almost endless.

It also has better reception than the iPhone 4. I had old Cricket phones that never lost reception where the iPhone did. I returned it after 2 days.
 
True. I wanted a difference experience. I was tired after almost three years of the boring iPhone experience.

I know how to drop icons to move them around. The iPhone interface wasn't as precise as the Captivate and thus allowed for easy mistakes.

Yes on paper the iPhone 4 has a higher resolution display but in real life holding both in my hands, the Captivate wins hands down.

True, there is no lag swiping from page to page on the iPhone. There is no lag on my Captivate either. It might have been all the programs you had running in the background causing the lag.

Maybe the iPhone shows up on your Windows PC but it doesn't on a Mac. Almost 3 years of trying got nothing unless I used some 3rd party software which I did try and was terribly unreliable.

The Samsung Captivate is not just a phone to experiment with. I don't do that. It's just a more superior user experience for me and a better phone.

I agree about Samsung. I've had a couple of Samsung products including a digital camera that were disappointing. Hopefully they have changed.

If my phone keeps operating like it is and we never get an Android update I probably won't care. By the time I get bored with what this phone does, it will be time to upgrade again. Maybe I'll go back to the iPhone when they have the iPhone 5. Hopefully they actually make it an upgrade and go back to the beautiful style of the 3G and 3GS instead of the unfinished look of the 4. It would also be nice if the iPhone could reliably make phone calls with the next generation like the Captivate does.

And, I almost forgot the far, far superior battery life of the Captivate. I could barely get through a day with the iPhone but I'm well into my second day with the Captivate and I'm still at 40% battery.


Cuerbo said:
Sounds like you just wanted a different experience and not really that an iPhone is a lesser phone. I went from a Captivate and to an iPhone4, there's no comparison. The icon issue you are mentioning is the functionality used to create groups, if you drop it on either side, it rearranges the icons instead. The iPhone4 display is sharper and yes, has a higher resolution. There's no lag on an iPhone4 when swipping between pages, pictures, etc. Couldn't say the same for the Captivate when I owned it.

The iPhone shows up on my computer when I plug it in, can copy pictures to it. Don't really care about seeing system files, what I care for instead, is a phone that works when I needed. IOS 4.2 just came out, I can stream to other Apple devices and print from it as well. The AppStore is put together much better, from how apps are categorized to recommended ones to the quality of the Apps themselves.

Bottom line is, if you want a working phone that's polished, iPhone4 is the way to go. If you want a phone to experiment and hack then the Captivate is one of the many Android options out there that allow you to do this. The biggest thing going against this phone is the fact that it's a Samsung. December is a week away, no official announcement from Samsung about Froyo other than, you'll soon be getting it.

I also read today that Samsung is going to focus on WP7 in 2011, not good news if you ask me. Hopefully they won't abandon ship and stop updating the Android products they currently have on the market.
Click to expand...
 
gcobb said:
Seriously? Read the forums. If nothing else it's more customizable than anything the iPhone will ever have. I made my own profiles, my own menus, profiles that change depending on my GPS location or Wifi location, can program my Captivate to automate SMS text messages, etc. The list is almost endless.

It also has better reception than the iPhone 4. I had old Cricket phones that never lost reception where the iPhone did. I returned it after 2 days.
Click to expand...

That's fine.

Customization does not make one phone better than another - I was asking if it did anything better - I am thinking it does not. It does do things differently and some may like some attributes of each style more than others. To me, that's different, not better.

Reception is a regional thing. I have dropped exactly 2 calls in 4 months with my phone, and I had similar problems when I had my captivate.

I personally do not understand how one phone will work better than another in the same area, but I do know it happens.
 
I love the responses... Why can't people accept the flaws with this phone, what's the big deal... No phone is perfect, for example, Apple's notification system on iPhone sucks... Whenever you get a notification or text, everyone can read it or it interrupts your work... That's a flaw with the iPhone and I have no beef admitting it or confirming such... Captivate is not perfect and I was replying previously to the claims being made which were not 100% accurate... And no, won't be going away anytime soon... I have no regrets ditching my Captivate but monitor progress here to see if and when Samsung finally updates this phone...
 
Cuerbo said:
I love the responses... Why can't people accept the flaws with this phone, what's the big deal... No phone is perfect, for example, Apple's notification system on iPhone sucks... Whenever you get a notification or text, everyone can read it or it interrupts your work... That's a flaw with the iPhone and I have no beef admitting it or confirming such... Captivate is not perfect and I was replying previously to the claims being made which were not 100% accurate... And no, won't be going away anytime soon... I have no regrets ditching my Captivate but monitor progress here to see if and when Samsung finally updates this phone...
Click to expand...

yep, same here. I have no regrets getting rid of my captivate and replacing it with a nexus one. I will, however, continue to monitor the boards to see if Samsung finally fixes all the problems with it (mainly GPS)
 
Cuerbo said:
I love the responses... Why can't people accept the flaws with this phone, what's the big deal... No phone is perfect, for example, Apple's notification system on iPhone sucks... Whenever you get a notification or text, everyone can read it or it interrupts your work... That's a flaw with the iPhone and I have no beef admitting it or confirming such... Captivate is not perfect and I was replying previously to the claims being made which were not 100% accurate... And no, won't be going away anytime soon... I have no regrets ditching my Captivate but monitor progress here to see if and when Samsung finally updates this phone...
Click to expand...
Of course the phone has flaws but you are on, after all, an Android forum in the Captivate section. Would you bad mouth and call out all the flaws of your favorite football team on an opposing team forum? I donot use the GPS on the phone so I won't get into that. The camera is nice and flash would have been great. I do have sporadic issues with messaging and phone calls. Is it the network or the phone? Who knows? Could be both.
Nothing is wrong with you or anyone else enjoying a different phone, just remember where you are and it won't annoy you that much.
At the end of the day I do enjoy using this phone.
 
RavenFox said:
Of course the phone has flaws but you are on, after all, an Android forum in the Captivate section. Would you bad mouth your favorite football team on an opposing team forum? I donot use the GPS on the phone so I won't get into that. The camera is nice and flash would have been great. I do have sporadic issues with messaging and phone calls. Is it the network or the phone? Who knows? Could be both.
Nothing is wrong with you or anyone else enjoying a different phone, just remember where you are and it won't annoy you that much.
Click to expand...


That's the root issue - he (nor me for that matter) is not bad mouthing the phone, he (and me) wanted it to work as advertised, it doesn't.

I think he (and I) are simply looking to see the thing get corrected such we could one day return to either Android or Samsung (or both), at present that is not possible.

You call it bad mouthing, I try very hard to choose my words, I am not a fan boy, it's a phone, good bad or indifferent - in the end, it could a fancy one or a less than fancy one - as long as it works as intended and the buyer/end user gets what they paid for.

That's all - it has nothing to do with bad mouthing - in my case, never did either.
 
jas2k9 said:
That's the root issue - he (nor me for that matter) is not bad mouthing the phone, he (and me) wanted it to work as advertised, it doesn't.

I think he (and I) are simply looking to see the thing get corrected such we could one day return to either Android or Samsung (or both), at present that is not possible.

You call it bad mouthing, I try very hard to choose my words, I am not a fan boy, it's a phone, good bad or indifferent - in the end, it could a fancy one or a less than fancy one - as long as it works as intended and the buyer/end user gets what they paid for.

That's all - it has nothing to do with bad mouthing - in my case, never did either.
Click to expand...
Sorry if my post came off that way. Did not directly mean you were bad mouthing the phone just exposing the reality of location.
The Phone works for alot of people in here so 'work as advertised' is up for debate.
 
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