Samsung Captivate, Black 16GB (AT&T)

my first andriod phone was the HTC ARIA I got on amazon, it was good the first week then I started having issues, like locking up texting, had to push hard on the screen, swiping wasn't as smooth and senstive as new. Amazon let me send it back and exchanged for Capitvate. I really like this phone, why? compared to the Aria here are the pro's...call quailty is better, I can hear the callers better, speaker phone is louder, its still pocketable, screen size is perfect, tad faster (1000mhz verse 600mhz), texting is easier due to larger keyboard, so I make less mistakes, love the address book, can add alot of info on each contact, 16gb of space AND you can add a transflash card. Screen is clear and bright, record video at 720HD, does well taking photos even with out flash, but I didn't buy it for that as I have Canon EOS. I installed an app killer, so when I boot it, I kill back ground apps, then stop services I don't need and after 3 charges I'm easly getting 2 days of use, once 3, all depends on WIFI, internet use and bluetooth. Like everyone else you turn down the screen brightness which helps and its still bright at the lowest setting. Pairs up fast and easy to my moto bluetooths. I have had the phone since 9.22, still getting used to all the features but after 18 days I am really happy with this phone and doesn't look like I'm giving it up. I would say if your on the fence about getting a smartphone and have ATT, I would say check this one out, the IPhone4 or HTC Aria. Iceing on the cake was I paid $60 for this phone and although the HTC Aria was 1 cent, I am whey happier with this phone and was well worth the upgrade cost. For Neg's, I would say the speaker phone could be a tad louder, flash for night time shots would be great and wish I could get a solid 3 days of use, otherwise I keep a charger in the car just incase.

The goods: The processor, memory and storage capacity are more capable than my first three PCs put together !! The OS is snappy and quite polished, menu's are responsive and Android 2.1 is quite stable, haven't had too many applications crash (Browser and Jewels a couple of times, uptime of 250+hrs). Samsung's look&feel and customization are quite intuitive and functional. Not much bloatware from AT&T and more fundamentally all of Google's apps are still available (as opposed to Verizon), i.e. Maps, Location and Navigation are all functional and available. All of AT&T's items can be moved off the various desktops/panels and you are free to customize the content as you desire. Swype works well, has a bit of a learning curve and has some quirks so I won't put it in the greats category just yet, may change in a couple of weeks of usage though. The screen unlock is quite cool, and definitely a step up from earlier Palm and Sony-Ericsson phones which my <1yr old cracked in no time. The included video player and music player are decent, no hiccups or stutters on video or audio-sync to date. The browser is quite reasonable, menus and organization could be done a lot better but you can always get Opera Mobile from the Marketplace. Amazon's Kindle and shopping app are decent, would have very much preferred a better app integration for Kindle. It uses the native browser so everytime a purchase is completed, you are back to the home page to start off again.The greats: Integration with Gmail (Labels work !!), Gtalk and GCal is really good. Android Marketplace needed a separate account setup and didn't take the setting from the Gmail app for some reason, but that's a minor issue. Pandora works well, haven't had a crash. Multitasking is really functional and you can actually be on a call and browse the web as the AT&T commercial used to claim. Buttons are located reasonably and you can actually turn the phone off in addition to Flight mode. Call quality is quite decent in my calling area, no evidence of "grip of death" to date. Speakerphone is functional, I may have seen a drop off in volume with time but that's probably just from settings changes. The screen is quite awesome and the real-estate is used quite well. Google Listen app works really well with Podcasts unless you have to go through iTunes in which case you are on your own. One definite reason for not going iPhone was the whole iTunes/Quicktime bloatware and I would say I have had no reason to consider iPhone to date. Sync and Wifi (WPA2 and 802.11x) work well, I did have to purchase a 99c app for configuring Enterprise security (Wifi Config Pro), well worth it :-). Amazon's 1c price for the phone definitely was truly great!! Video capture quality and playback are getting rave reviews from everybody who's seen it to date. Google voice-search is really neat, hopefully it learns with time and can be integrated into the Swype keyboard before too long (It's there on a Droid X !!!)The bads: Battery life is marginal at best, and I've adjusted all brightness settings to minimum, disabled live wallpaper, keep the screen locked with a timeout of 30s, shutoff Wifi when screen times out, Bluetooth and GPS are off etc. so everything apart from figuring out how to get "Speedstep" running on this thing. I need Sync to be enabled, given the purpose of the phone. When browsing, battery really sucks, I've had full charge go to 10% in less than 2 hours everytime. I would doubt the claims on 7hour talk time, but I haven't tested that out just yet (limited minutes). Youtube app sucks, might be more to do with Youtube bandwidth though, but to date experience has been pathetic at best. Samsung's included charger is equally pathetic, comparing a similar capacity battery (~1500mAh) and charger from Palm, Sony-Ericsson, Motorala and RIM all of which charge much faster. I'm looking for a better battery and I've bought additional charger and USB cables. BTW the phone end is a Micro-B USB, not the typical Mini more commonly found on RIM/Palm etc.TBD: Haven't evaluated USB to PC connectivity, Bluetooth was slowwwww and you have to go in each folder and enable visibility for items you wish to transfer to a PC. Video (~13MB) transfer took 4+mins. Overall, BT doesn't appear to be a viable option for media transfer apart from pics every once in a while.Learnings: When in doubt, long press!! Apps shortcuts can be added to a panel by just long pressing on an empty location, and again long pressing the app of interest. Home key long press shows the equivalent of Alt-Tab. I haven't had a need for any Task Manager/Killer utility but then again I don't install too much crapware. gStrings and WifiAnalyzer are cool apps and RealCalc is the equivalent of XP Powertoy calculator. Definitely would suggest having the settings shortcut on the main 4 panel dock. If you use MAC based access control on your Wifi, the phone's MAC address can be found in the About Phone->Status section of Settings. One gripe, there's no Flash LED, surprising given brethren of GalaxyS appear to all have quite capable versions.Overall, a really strong mobile platform by itself and doesn't need to be compared or contrasted against an iPhone. If you are a Google Enterprise customer, then the choice is quite obvious. Hopefully Froyo improves the experience and if I can find a better battery then I would have no gripes for the remaining 2 years on my AT&T contract. Speaking of which, AT&T really needs to work on Customer service, Customer website and definitely 3G coverage. As an example, all of AT&T's music etc. apps won't work with Wifi, WT*. If I had the choice of price and phone from any other carrier (definitely Epic4G would be a great choice) I would have taken it. I still might do so given my AT&T experience. Also, one caveat, there was a mention quite a few places in the review/comments that the contract termination for this phone was $175, NOT TRUE, it's $325 with $10 off for every month on the contract. So, AT&T and battery are the reasons for not giving a five-star rating.