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Captivate shortcomings you can and can't fix

My battery life has gotten better too, I credit Juice Defender (actually Ultimate Juice, I paid for it), but maybe the battery does improve with a bit of use, mine is only three weeks old or so too. I also have no problem with the power cord staying in securely, and too use the phone with it plugged in - both in the car and in the house - if necessary. It helped that I read here about the little door needing to be fully opened!

ETA it's 24 hours later, and my battery level is at 55%. Definitely better using Ultimate Juice.
 
I've had my captivate for about a week and my battery has been lackluster to say the least, by i guess its nice knowing that you guys are saying that after a couple weeks its gets a lot better. I also am using Ultimate Juice, do you guys have any good settings i should know about?
 
i have none of the problems listed. i think physical keyboards are useless and bulky but some people do like them, not me. led doesnt really bother me, i always check my phone anyways. battery life is better than any other smart phone i have seen, including iphone. my charger works fine, ive never had it accidentally come unplugged or anything. and i dont care for a trackpad either, i love the clean look, a trackpad for me would go unused and just be an eyesore
 
I get more than a day on a charge and I use the phone all day for everything.

You're right about the little slide hatch. My charger kept falling out until I realized the hatch wasn't open all the way. No problem now.

:)

MarcMaiden said:
Nice post, the but problems you cant fix (aside from the track pad) I have different results from.

I get at least a day and a half of charge with normal use (includes internet, games, 5 widgets, feeds)

and the USB charger fits extremely snug into the port,you just have to make sure the hatch is push all the way back. for some reason it kinda locks into a position a click away from being pushed all the way back, which caused the USB to not stay in the phone as well as it should
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tasmanian said:
The home buttons and gps are only the real short come of the phone.

I dont know if its the case or what, but the bottom buttons are a pain in the ass to use.

Gps isnt really an issue with the fix. It takes 30-90 seconds to get a lock, and when it does its very accurate.
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I agree..but change the supl server to google & port to 7276 & watch the lock time go to a consistent 15 secs or less
 
Captain19 said:
You're right about the little slide hatch. My charger kept falling out until I realized the hatch wasn't open all the way. No problem now.
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Mentioned in the Captivate FAQ:
USB cable won't stay securely in the Captivate - CapFAQ

fldude99 said:
I agree..but change the supl server to google & port to 7276 & watch the lock time go to a consistent 15 secs or less
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... or not, since GPS has nothing to do with "servers" or "ports" so the GPS problem isn't solved by fiddling with these settings. If you have good cell and wifi reception for augmented positioning data, great. Such settings may show improvement in your specific environment. But it doesn't improve or "fix" GPS, which should be able to function perfectly without any such settings (or a data connection) existing at all.
 
sremick said:
... or not, since GPS has nothing to do with "servers" or "ports" so the GPS problem isn't solved by fiddling with these settings. If you have good cell and wifi reception for augmented positioning data, great. Such settings may show improvement in your specific environment. But it doesn't improve or "fix" GPS, which should be able to function perfectly without any such settings (or a data connection) existing at all.
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I disagree. The supl server is for agps, which helps with the initial lock. I agree that it doesn't do anything at all once its locked, but the google.com supl server will definitely assist in getting the initial lock. The stock spirent server is non existent and dead..kaput
 
fldude99 said:
I disagree. The supl server is for agps, which helps with the initial lock.
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Well you can certainly reject my reality and substitute your own if you wish, but that doesn't change the fact that "GPS" doesn't involve "servers" or data connections, and any device that depends on a "server" on the internet and even then cannot lock faster or track better than my 15 year-old Garmin or any of the countless other cheap phones on the market with GPS is "broken".
 
i noticed that too, after the first plugin to the charger it seemed loose, but after taking a closer look it definately connects quite well into the part
 
sremick said:
Well you can certainly reject my reality and substitute your own if you wish, but that doesn't change the fact that "GPS" doesn't involve "servers" or data connections, and any device that depends on a "server" on the internet and even then cannot lock faster or track better than my 15 year-old Garmin or any of the countless other cheap phones on the market with GPS is "broken".
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I'm just saying that agps simply assists in getting the initial lock..after that, it's up to the gps chip, which in my experience is very accurate..does everything I need it to. Keeps a route..tracks my jogs and bike rides, geotags photos..not much more I could ask of a mobile device that includes gps
 
two weeks in and the biggest shortcoming for me is the back light timeout for the four soft buttons...home, back, etc. It is way too short and doesn't seem to follow the setting for screen timeout. :confused:
 
I agree, dyonchik. I wish they followed the screen timeout, it would be just fine then ... but they time out far too quickly.

I am especially hoping that an official update might change this down the road - I am not wanting to root my phone, and it seems most fixes seem to be only for those willing to do so.
 
Has anybody found a fix...when you dial a call, you have keys with letters on them...when the call connects and you open the keyboard to dial names, etc, thru an auto attend system, you just see keys with numbers, no letters ???
 
I'm a little surprised that this is a sticky and it hasn't been updated in over a year. But I'm game, so here's my two cents:

1) No LED flash for camera - I know there are other Samsung and Android phones that have this, and so does the iPhone 4. Although it's a shortcoming, it's not a deal-breaker for me, as I also have a point-and-shoot digital camera that I carry around as a just-in-case camera (ever been in a car wreck and wished you could take pictures?).

2) Battery life - I have read some of the other posts on this subject, and I'm aware that the stock Samsung battery contains built-in electronics that regulate battery charging and drain, but I don't think the electronics work properly, because every so often my phone will spontaneously reboot. My daughter's iPhone had this problem as well, so it may be something endemic to certain types of "intelligent" batteries. May switch to a generic brand to see if that improves. As far as battery life, it's pretty much average for me, but I also charge my phone every night. Might try the trick of fully charging/discharging for three cycles to see if it improves anything, but as much as I use my phone I don't know if that's practical. We'll see.

3) E-mail clients - This is where the Captivate (and IMO Android in general) really suffers. I've used the built-in email client, K-9, Gmail and others, and none of them bring the unified, clean experience that the iOS mail client brings. I believe this is where Android could shine, but there are so many different apps out there (K-9, Maildroid, Touchdown, etc.), and some do some things well and others not so well. There's got to be some bright person out there who can code an email client that will allow a Captivate user to see getting email as routine (a la iPhone) as opposed to a pain in the neck.

4) Case - I like the sleek look and feel of the Captivate, but maybe it's a little too sleek. The outside case is so slick that I tend to find myself holding on for dear life. I know this could be solved with a gel case or an Otter box, but would it be too hard for Samsung to simply texture the outer edges of the case a bit, just for a better grip? (And this is a gripe I have with all smartphone manufacturers out there - why is it necessary to purchase an extra $50 case to protect against shocks and slipping when it could simply be designed into the phone itself? But I digress......)

Those are my four biggest gripes, but there are other minor ones too numerous to mention. However, none of those are dealbreakers for me, and if it helps me get out from under Apple's "one size fits all" mentality, so much the better.
 
After a full year I learned to live with all the problems stated above. I now remember to carry a charger with me everywhere, I have one in my purse, one in each vehicle, one in the kitchen and one beside my bed.

I am also in the habit of regularly checking for missed emails, texts and phone calls (if I have noLed turned off which I almost always do because it interrupts constantly when texting).

I love everything else about the phone, how sleek it is, how light and sexy it feels in my hand and I even removed the rubber bumper months ago because it made my phone look like everyone else's. It has now been floating around in my purse, pocket and dashboard/console and looks almost as good as the day I first opened it. It has even been dropped. I laugh silently to myself when I see people with their iPhones and buky cases and screen protectors.

But one thing that I lose sleep over and makes me furious is the fact that I cannot upgrade the software. I am still running stock eclair and I cannot for the life of me get it to connect to kies. This burns me more than anything else and might be a deal breaker for another samsung phone now that my contract is up and I am due for a new phone.
 
Dieselbud said:
But one thing that I lose sleep over and makes me furious is the fact that I cannot upgrade the software. I am still running stock eclair and I cannot for the life of me get it to connect to kies. This burns me more than anything else and might be a deal breaker for another samsung phone now that my contract is up and I am due for a new phone.
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I agree with you about Kies--it is much too picky. I myself am stuck on Froyo because Kies chooses never to recognize my phone. Some people found ways around it (changing computers, changing chords, factory resetting, or some combination of these) but it should not be that hard to begin with, you're right.

I can't break away from Samsung just over upgrade difficulty, but I understand your post.
 
Android26 said:
I agree with you about Kies--it is much too picky. I myself am stuck on Froyo because Kies chooses never to recognize my phone. Some people found ways around it (changing computers, changing chords, factory resetting, or some combination of these) but it should not be that hard to begin with, you're right.

I can't break away from Samsung just over upgrade difficulty, but I understand your post.
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After a year I finally did it. It lost 2 days over it, but once it connected I upgraded to froyo and then then next day, gingerbread. I have been running gingerbread for a few weeks now and have fallen in love with the phone all over again.

So now my shortcomings are limited to no flash, no front facing camera and that is about it.

What did I do? Uninstalled my launcher pro and reverted to the stock launcher (duh) and used a program I found online to search for and remove files with long names (there were 2 they were both thumbnails). I also removed the SD card and SIM. Which one worked? I have no idea if it was one or the other or a combination but I am ever so glad and will be happy with this phone for awhile now. even though I am due for an upgrade!
 
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