Wow, pleasantly surprised with this phone.

[Ferris23]

I own an iPhone 4 and love it. I also wanted an Android device to play around with, so initially I purchased a Droid X on my girlfriends line. After debating the extra expense of a second data line I decided to return the X and buy a Captivate along with a SIM card adapter.

After reading these forums I was expecting some major problems. Lag, GPS issues, shutdowns, poor battery etc etc.

Well, the only issue I have is the broken GPS, which I knew about and am confident a fix will address the problems. Other than that though this phone is awesome.

The first one I recieved had a smudge under the screen and a dead pixel. I brought it into AT&T and they let me examine another phone that had a dead pixel as well. Third time was the charm, the screen is perfect.

I scored the phone from AT&T for 230.00 no commitment because of some problems I was having. I took a lot of convincing but I am thrilled with both AT&T and this phone.

I only wish I could duplicate my SIM card so I could use either phone without even having to swap.

Just wanted to share my story about buying the Captivate. Excellent design, the screen is beautiful (still prefer the clarity of the retina display but they both have + and -), feels fast (installed Launcher Pro) So far I love it. Just not sure if I want to root now or wait until the official update.



Cool story me.

 

[MassacrMan]

I'm glad you're happy with this phone!

Now you oughta sell that iPhone 4 on ebay, you'd be suprised for how much those things run on ebay even when they're used.

 

[harryzwd]

welcome aboard Ferris - glad to hear you like the Captivate! For the most part i've been trouble free except for the GPS issue, which i too believe will be fixed with an update. hit the app market and enjoy.

 

[wjkrysak]

Welcome to the android. I've had my captivate for 3 weeks and love performance, screen, etc. Eagerly anticipating Froyo upgrade and GPS fix. cheaha bill

 

[t-readyroc]

Cool story me.

Cool starry bra

 

[ranova]

if you want to make your Captivate even more awesome and badass, do this:
SRE 1.0 | (Root + OC 1.2GHz + LagFix + MobileAP + USB Tether + MORE EXTREME) - xda-developers

 

[sremick]

if you want to make your Captivate even more awesome and badass, do this:

And I would not advise rooting/overclocking and problematic "lag fix" hacks to every newcomer to Android or the Captivate. Especially not without being forthcoming and honest about the implications, risks and side-effects. Any more than every grandma coming off the new car lot needs a 3" exhaust upgrade, an oversized turbo to push compression beyond stock, and NOS.

Which makes me start to realize the true parallels of some people with rooting and "lag fixing", and ricers...

 

[thindery]

these phones are really hard to brick. the OP definitely needs to do some research over at xda before he does anything, but once you start these mods and flashing other roms you can't stop.

I was hesitant for about 2 weeks until I heard about the jh2 rom that came out and I was desperate to find something to see if it helped my gps. I educated myself over the course of a few days, probably spending about 6-8 hours total of looking up terms, reading every post to anticpate problems, and getting the android sdk installed and working on my computer.

I think ranova was simply pointing out that if the OP thinks the stock captivate is good, just wait until a few mods are thrown in and see what happens. Besides, if you aren't optimizing your android device then what's the point of having such an open phone? I see that as one of the biggest reasons anyone would swtich to android.

 

[Ferris23]

Thanks all. I work in IT and am very good with tinkering, just wasn't sure if it's worth doing until I get the 2.2 update next month. Correct me if I'm wrong but if I root this phone, remove software and change the kernel, I will not get the OTA 2.2 update right?

And once I do update I have to wipe the phone anyway?

I'm asking questions before I've really looked into it, but I just haven't considered rooting and tweaking yet only because ideally I'd like to get the official OTA update.

Thanks

 

[t-readyroc]

Thanks all. I work in IT and am very good with tinkering, just wasn't sure if it's worth doing until I get the 2.2 update next month.

FWIW, I also work in IT & ran tons of custom ROMs on my previous phone & I'm planning to wait for the official Froyo update to start tinkering (whether or not Froyo will hit for us next month is a subject of some debate @ this point).

 

[Ferris23]

FWIW, I also work in IT & ran tons of custom ROMs on my previous phone & I'm planning to wait for the official Froyo update to start tinkering (whether or not Froyo will hit for us next month is a subject of some debate @ this point).

That's my thinking. Basically tear into the phone as is and then once Froyo hits really start delving in to rooting, overclocking etc.

Does anyone think this is silly?

In my mind it makes sense to wait until the latest and greatest software hits and will be the standard for a while, allow the devs time to customize their tweaks based on Froyo, and then start tweaking the shit out of this phone.

Also are there any non invasive GPS tweaks that are worth applying until an official fix is rolled out?

 

[sremick]

I'm an IT admin too and been in the field for like 20 years now. I'm quite comfortable around a hex editor and a soldering iron, and flashing firmware is as natural to me as riding a bike.

But over the years you also learn a certain objective and practical stance. Choose your battles, and patience is a virtue. If this was a dead-end device and these leaked internal development/alpha firmwares of unknown origin and questionable quality and status were the best it was going to get, I'd say go for it. But honestly.... September is just next month. The issues these firmwares and "lag fixes" aren't experienced by everyone and aren't given the same degree of annoyance by those who do experience them. Meanwhile, there are ramifications from installing them which are only mentioned 1/1000th of the time that people push others to apply them.

I don't think your stance is silly at all. Learn the phone as-is for now... there's plenty to keep you busy. Leave the questionable hacks to the phone-ricers and give Samsung a chance while you get yourself oriented with Android. I've had my Captivate a month and I'm still learning plenty of new stuff that distracts me from the occasional lag or the inaccurate GPS. Not to mention just using the other stuff that works totally fine. From browsing the web, to watching videos, to listening to music, to playing games, to managing my calendar and to-do list, to just exploring what cool apps are out there that'd interest me. You just got yours. Backburner caring about GPS and "lag" for a few weeks until we discover what Samsung has in-store for us for an official, public, final-release fix.

 

[thindery]

i don't see why you just go ahead flash a new firmware and apply a lag fix? I mean you get a better and faster phone for the next 2, 3, or 4 weeks. when froyo gets pushed out, you flash back to stock and you download the update. or you go over to xda and download the new super rooter extreme now with froyo support... that stuff will be up within days of a froyo release, if not HOURS.

yeah you can sit around and wait, but why when it is honestly a matter of minutes to flash back to a stock rom and download an ota?

my 2 cents..

 

[ranova]

Want to see an example of lag found on all captivates, vibrants and i9000s?

Install one of the following (and popular apps):
- Dolphin HD browser (the best browser in my opinion, nearly unusable without the fix)
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Exchange Touchdown
- Feedr
- Downloading and installing anything in the Android Market - as you may have noticed, it takes awhile to start the download and even longer to install it.

Most of these, if not all, are nearly unusable because of the lag with the i/o system. Samsung's RFS (robust file system) is not optimized the way it should be.

Once you apply a speed "hack" you will see the full potential of the galaxy S phones. The Epic does not appear to have the lag problems because Samsung supposedly knows of this and has fixed it on the Epic (among other problems (GPS)).

Please don't compare this to ricers because this is how the SGS phones are supposed to run. Without it, it feels like an hold 600mhz phone and not the 1ghz Hummingbird phone. I'd always advocated that Quadrant scores mean nothing, and they still don't. I am not basing the speed increases off of the posted quadrant scores, but from real world speed increases - and they are quite noticeable.

Sure, if you want to keep it stock, then so be it. Using Odin, you can always revert back to stock and receive the OTA update. But once the OTA comes out, it will be available as a manual download and update anyways. Samsung has stated that 2.2 will be out the end of September for the i9000, European Galaxy S, and has not confirmed when it will be out in the US. Not to mention AT&T will have to get involved - so who knows when we will actually get an official 2.2 release for the Captivate.

Android is great unrooted, but if you are a power user and techy, it is fun to root your phone and do other things not possible:
- Wifi Tethering, both natively through settings and apps (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=760193)
- Adding a battery percentage to the battery indicator (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=756627)
- Overclocking (which, in my opinion, is pointless especially 200mhz)
- Ad blocking
- Unlocking your phone to use with other GSM carriers
- Getting rid of all the ATT bloatware
- Theming elements of the phone
- Disabling the annoying startup/shutdown sounds

Among others

 

[Ferris23]

Well I had Dolphin and Facebook installed and still had no lag. However I did root and do the lag fix using the one click app and it worked great.

So much for waiting on tinkering.

But yeah, even prior to the lag fix with a ton of shit installed I had no noticeable lag.