Caved and purchased the Captivate

[NorCal Einstein]

After reading through this forum for a few weeks, getting heartburn each day and with every new thread read...I decided to throw sensibility and caution to the wind, and pick up the Captivate through my No-Commitment pricing with Premier.

I can now say I'm fully aware of the possible issues I may have with the phone, but me knowing about it ahead of time if things do go wrong, is much better than if I had no idea at all.

I've been reading on XDA quite a bit trying to figure out what I want to install, but always end up leaving XDA more indecisive than before! I have no clue if I should up the firmware or not, but I do know I'd like to install ClockworkMod Recovery for backups so that I have something to fall back on, Root...of course, and I'd like to do a LagFix that makes use of an external micro SD, but the topic of LagFix has been one with the least clear information so far.

If any of you have some recommendations on a good LagFix, I'd appreciate it! I also picked up 2 SKINOMI screen-only protectors from Amazon. I might pick up the Droid X belt holster from Verizon since it's the closest thing I've found that mimics the carrying solution I have for my Blackberry Bold right now.

Anyway, thank you guys for providing a wealth of information here...even though it isn't necessarily the most positive of information!

 

[Intervenient]

I always left XDA more confused than before I went there as well. It's still a mess over there from what I see, hopefully they work things out.

As for me, when I first got my phone, I immediately rooted it and got rid of all the AT&T bloatware. It'll save your battery, and it gets rid of clutter. As for non-root processes, I installed ADW launcher and it made the phone very snappy.


Enjoy

 

[CrimsonPride]

I used this Lag fix located in the root section, the first one listed as it seems to be the most stable and complete. others may do more but that was what i wanted

http://androidforums.com/all-things-root-captivate/146007-1-click-lag-fix-xda.html

 

[sremick]

I'm going to offer an alternative perspective.

While I am not one of the knee-jerk "just root it, n00b!" crowd suggesting that everyone and their grandma should just root their phone because it's possible and the "cool" thing to do, I will concede that if you want to do a full backup, it's necessary. Just be aware that there are side-effects of rooting and how it will affect the first OTA update remains to be seen. You may have to take an alternate route to get the update applied.

As far as the snake-oil "lag fixes", however... I'd avoid them. They come with even more gotchas and side-effects, limiting your app space, having a much-higher brick-rate than even rooting, and the benchmark scores people plaster to justify it are misleading and inaccurate (a phone that scores 2000 is not 2+ times faster than one that scores 900). Meanwhile, in only a month you're going to see an official update from Samsung that will address GPS, battery life, and lag issues... without those risks.

I'd suggest resisting temptation and being patient instead. It'll pay off in the end.

 

[Chew]

Personally, I'm avoiding rooting until after both the September fix and 2.2 have been out a while.

 

[NorCal Einstein]

I'm going to offer an alternative perspective.

While I am not one of the knee-jerk "just root it, n00b!" crowd suggesting that everyone and their grandma should just root their phone because it's possible and the "cool" thing to do, I will concede that if you want to do a full backup, it's necessary. Just be aware that there are side-effects of rooting and how it will affect the first OTA update remains to be seen. You may have to take an alternate route to get the update applied.

As far as the snake-oil "lag fixes", however... I'd avoid them. They come with even more gotchas and side-effects, limiting your app space, having a much-higher brick-rate than even rooting, and the benchmark scores people plaster to justify it are misleading and inaccurate (a phone that scores 2000 is not 2+ times faster than one that scores 900). Meanwhile, in only a month you're going to see an official update from Samsung that will address GPS, battery life, and lag issues... without those risks.

I'd suggest resisting temptation and being patient instead. It'll pay off in the end.

Thanks a lot for the sound post. If I were to do a full backup with ClockworkMod Recovery and then play around with the phone, theoretically I could restore the backup and have the phone restored to it's true original state to grab the OTA updates right?

 

[Regalicious]

Rooting can be done and undone in one click and has no real risks or side effects per se. Most things that you can then do after rooting, though, do carry risks and side effects.

There's no real reason to root unless you want to:

• Take screenshots on your phone
• Back up your phone
• Apply one of the lagfixes
• Sideload without using Sideload Wonder Machine (not sure why you'd want to do this since SWM is probably the easiest thing ever)
• Remove AT&T apps

 

[NorCal Einstein]

Backing up the phone is pretty important to me I believe. I've had tons of phones on Palm OS, WiMo, and BB OS and none have been as customizable as this so I've never really thought to do a rom backup vs. data only backup. I saw the one click root, and think I might go that way, hoping that unroot really does leave no traces behind.

Thanks!