Is the cappy crappy?

[Jack45]

We're humans. Our tendency is to nitpick and complain. You're naturally going to see more complaining on these forums than anything... few people bother to sign up and post that everything's just grand. Praise doesn't accomplish much here... we find the issues and post about them, because we're looking for something: solutions. What's already good needs no attention/solution.

Not to belittle the gripes: most are valid. GPS, battery, lag... all these I've experienced myself. But the truth is, I don't see myself returning this phone. Why? Because no matter what device I got, there would be issues... gripes, things that don't work like they should, bugs, annoyances... The question becomes:

1) What device has the fewest things that will bother me?
2) What device gets me (at the moment) closest to where I want to be?
3) What device shows the most promise in improving in the direction I want to go?

For all of these, the Captivate is the answer, not the iPhone or anything else. Sure, I can imagine a device where everything worked perfectly... but that device doesn't exist at the moment (whether it should is a different debate), and I don't make devices so I have to choose from what's available. Sure, I could get an iPhone and have perfect GPS and amazing battery... but eventually the honeymoon of having those two specific issues being solved would be over and the weight of everything else I traded/sacrificed to get them would grow on me. Having to deal with iTunes for everything would get old real quick and be like a hornet in my shoe. Not to mention being so restricted about what I can and can't do on it. The grass is always greener on the other user's cell phone it seems, but luckily I can look beyond that and beyond the moment.

I'm no fan of Samsung or AT&T. I only go with AT&T because they're GSM, they have the best coverage around here, and I get a discount. My past experience with Samsung has been poor.... except in the area of LCD displays. Considering the display is much of what makes a phone these days, that allowed me to give them a chance. But honestly, I would've paid more if it had been HTC hardware instead. That aside... consider #3 above. We know we're getting Android 2.2 "Froyo" within a few months, which will come with so many improvements it will shame the trivial update Apple dubbed "iOS 4". In fact, we are pretty confident we'll be getting a patch/fix for the GPS issue prior to that. Many other gripes have workarounds/solutions now via free (or cheap) add-ons. Is it ideal? No. Would it be nice just to have the experience be better out-of-the-box? Sure. But at the end of the day, it's easier to get where I want to be with Android and the Captivate than any other phone, and I'll be even closer come January 2011 with the Captivate than any other phone I can buy now.

Will there be something even better offered by AT&T in the next 6 months? Maybe. But that goes without saying, for any point in time. 6 months from now, one could wait 6 more months and get something even better. The technology train rolls on... at some point you just need to suck it up and hop on-board. 5 years on my old Motorola V635, it was time for me. Now I'm on for the ride, bumps and all, and am making the best of it.

Very good stuff. +1

 

[teeth]

Dude!

So I am glad not everyone is having a terrible experience with their Captivates--I need to know, because I liked the phone for the first three days I had it and I am still on the fence on whether I exchange it for another one, or different phone entirely (and it looks like there are a few others in the same boat).

Unfortunately after a week of use now it consistently locks up permanently less than four taps from the home screen and is utterly useless. I am staggered that I have read posts from people who have literally returned their phones 5 freaking times and now they think they got a "good" one. I hate Itunes too, and it was the main reason for going with Android, but the initial bad taste from the way this phone rapidly lagged and crashed its way into uselessness is seriously bothering me. I will try a factory reset this evening and see if it helps--but how often will this be necessary? Also, I tune my PC and can handle the issues that come with cutting-edge hardware in that world. In the smartphone world I feel like I am more on the bleeding edge here, as in bleeding profusely.

Whatever one may think of Apple I don't think they would sell a product that has this many issues--I am seriously considering switching to an Iphone4. It's a tough call, but I am not a developer or smartphone geek--I am drawn to Android for it's openness, but there really are more and better apps for iOS, at least at the moment and the product seems to work great out of the box--if you hold it just right.

Full disclosure--I have owned Windows mobile devices (ugh) but never a smartphone, so that may color my perspective.

 

[Taero]

Did AT&T give you issues about a restocking fee?

Technically can they even charge you a restocking fee for returning a captivate due to faulty hardware? I come from the UK and moved to the US about a week ago but there we have a saving grace period for electronic devices that fail due to non user input (i.e. shit breaks).

Surely the US has the same/similar or else stores could just shrug and go "tough you're stuck with it for 2 years"

At least I hope there is as I'm planning on returning mine tomorrow as the earpiece gets as hot as the sun when making calls.