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Aria or Captivate dilemma...Aria ?'s

xraychick01

Member
Nov 8, 2010
87
1
I am due for an upgrade and I'm stuck between the HTC Aria and the Samsung Captivate. I've heard lots of good about both phones but have also heard of lots of issues with the Captivate. The only thing that concerns me with the Aria is the smaller screen. If it was the same size as the Captivate I would definitely get it. Is it difficult to view the internet on the Aria? I mainly want the phone for texting, email, and browsing the internet (facebook too). Do you think this phone would be good for those things? What do you like/dislike about your Aria?
 
I am due for an upgrade and I'm stuck between the HTC Aria and the Samsung Captivate. I've heard lots of good about both phones but have also heard of lots of issues with the Captivate. The only thing that concerns me with the Aria is the smaller screen. If it was the same size as the Captivate I would definitely get it. Is it difficult to view the internet on the Aria? I mainly want the phone for texting, email, and browsing the internet (facebook too). Do you think this phone would be good for those things? What do you like/dislike about your Aria?
I've had my Aria for a week and a half now and I like it. I narrowed it down between the Iphone 4 and the Aria and opted for the Aria because of its pocketability. About a half an hour ago I tested my phone side by side with my co-worker's Iphone 4. The Iphone 4 loaded web pages about six seconds faster and the screen is larger but not to the extent where it makes a huge difference. Also, the Iphone's screen is a bit clearer as it has better resolution.

I am a web junkie and not a text messager. So far I am very pleased with the phone's ability to surf the net. My biggest worry is dropping it and breaking the screen, so I've ordered a case/screen protector.

I say get the phone and use it for a couple weeks and if you don't like it, return it within the allowed 30 days and try something else; that's what I'm doing but I'm leaning towards keeping it. There are lots of great free apps too!!!
 
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Good choice I have had my aria for 2 days now and it is amazing, I was going to get the Iphone 4. I am soooooo glad I chose the aria it is so amazing it does everything I want it to do, it is pretty damn fast and very responsive. I love the size too.
I have had a iphone since the very first one and I am glad I didn't get the new one.
I hope you like your aria as much as I do.
 
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lacoste_rocker,

I'm glad to see you're happy with your Aria. Did you have any trouble getting your pictures and music on to the Aria? As I recall, you were wondering if there was a way to sync to a Mac, did you find a way to do that?

Now if we could just get 2.2, all would be well. Maybe AT&T is saving that for a x-mas present to all of their Aria owners. Even without it, like you, I'm very happy with my phone. It's all a country boy needs!

rustic52
 
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yeah I figured out how to put my pics and music on it. it was surprisingly easy. when I plugged my phone into my macbook pro my aria had a notification and let me choose whether to sync, charge or use as a storage device. I chose storage device and just dragged and dropped what I wanted onto it. and I was good to go.
this phone is so amazing. I will be a Droid user for life now.
 
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I had the Aria first and my experience with the Captivate has been horrible, but it still does amazing things that the Aria cant. I dropped my Captivate and destroyed the screen and am getting it back to me tomorrow after $162 worth of repair cost.

I miss the Aria a lot. My only complaints about it was how hard it was to see outside and it's camera. But the Captivate has an amazing camera, is more than viewable outside, plus it does things the Aria simply can't dream of.

As much as I miss the Aria, and plan to still pick one up as soon as I can get one for around a hundred bucks, I won't sell my Captivate and get an Aria.

But it is a damn sexy awesome underrated phone =)
 
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So I'll lay my full opinion on the table, as its a pretty recent experience for me. It's a long story, so if you're patient enough to read it, here it goes:


I pre-ordered an iPhone 4, and when I got it, it was defective. Not one of the reception issues or other things people were complaining about at the time... it was just defective. Being that stores hadn't even filled all of their pre-orders, there wasn't a chance in hell I was getting a replacement any time soon. I decided, since that had been my 3rd iPhone (had an original 2g, and a 3G-S before it) that I'd head to the Android side and try it out.

I don't remember how I found out about the Captivate, but I think a friend mentioned it and we started looking into it. It seemed like a great phone, but it wasn't being released until about 2 weeks down the line at this point in time. I spoke to some folks at Best Buy where I had bought the iPhone 4 and expressed my interest in the Captivate. I was able to get the Aria for the time being, and return it with no return fee and exchange it for the Captivate when it was released.

My first reactions with the Aria were mixed. I was blown away by Android from the start, but knowing (spec's wise) that the Captivate was a better phone I never took the time to fully appreciate it. I was also naive to many things about it since I was new to Android and hadn't fully wrapped my head around it yet. So, then I got my Captivate and dove head first into Android. At first I loved it. It's a powerful phone and does a lot of things real well. It has its downsides, though. My biggest gripe at first was the GPS. I use a GPS pretty frequently for various things, and I hadn't bought a new standalone GPS unit because I had this phone. So it not working mattered to me. It rarely connected at all until the over the air update. Then I randomly had problems with it turning itself off. My first one was fine for months, then one day I pulled it out of my pocket to check the time and it was off. Then it happened again the next day... and then twice the next. I got a warranty replacement. That one did the same thing after a month. Got that one replaced... lasted about 2 weeks, same problem. I charge the phone once a night when I get home from work until it's full, and unplug it afterwards. The battery usually lasts me to at least 40% even with heavy use on the average day... so can't see it being that I messed up all 3 batteries some how. Also, when I'd turn it back on the battery was never dead. I've never had a similar problem with any of the smartphones I've had in the past.

So, I went back to AT&T and told them I want an Aria instead. I had done some research on the Andriod phones available on AT&T currently and I thought it would be my next best option. I went on different forums, read reviews, went into stores and played with the different options, etc. I knew I would be making some concessions and giving up some things, but at this point I just wanted a reliable smartphone.

So I've had the Aria for a few days now (less than a week), but I already realize so many things that I hadn't noticed in comparison to the Captivate at first because I was new to Android and didn't know better. Here's my list:

1. I love Sense. I was ready to load up ADW right away because I was use to using it, because TouchWiz sucked. I can't see myself replacing Sense anytime soon.
2. The GPS works perfectly. Connects just about instantly, and is way more accurate than any of my Captivate's were.
3. I actually appreciate the small size more now after having a big 4" screen for a while. While it was weird to type on the smaller screen at first, SwiftKey made that all better. Now I don't want a big screen phone anymore.
4. Based off of the dBm and asu numbers, I actually get a little better reception on my Aria at the places I frequent most.
5. A lot of my favorite apps run generally less buggy on the Aria then on any of my Captivates. Handcent is one of them, for example.
6. Now, I don't know or care why, but stock vs. stock my Aria seems smoother, snappier, and faster navigating around general apps and such. No, games don't play better on it for obvious reasons. Everything else that I use, though... not laggy at all.

The bad:
1. Storage... not a lot of room for apps (though, I haven't run out yet). I stuck my 16gig stick in it for pictures and such, but without Froyo on it yet, the low internal storage thing kinda sucks. Yes I know I can put a froyo rom on it and store apps to SD. I may, but right now I don't have any need to.
2. The camera doesn't compare. The only thing it matches up to is megapixels, which mean nothing really. The Captivate camera, even without a flash, is amazing. The Aria camera still does the trick for simple stuff, though.
3. The optical wheel can be finicky, but maybe I'm just not use to it yet.
4. I wish the screen was a little bigger for certain websites and things... but its really not as bad as I'd thought it would be.

In all honestly... those 4 things are the worst I can say about it so far. It's a great phone, and its changed what I thought I "needed" in a smartphone.
 
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2. The camera doesn't compare. The only thing it matches up to is megapixels, which mean nothing really. The Captivate camera, even without a flash, is amazing. The Aria camera still does the trick for simple stuff, though.

If you do care about the camera you might want to give Camera 360 a try. The first image is the stock camera, and the second is with the 360 program:

4758020009_6b1dd65aa8.jpg


4758658404_9d1637a3f8.jpg
 
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I think I was on the free version at that point. I did buy it, but have not used it beyond experimentation on the Captivate, as the stock does so well. As you can see, it makes for a much more natural picture.

That's not to say the stock camera can't do that. I don't know. But the stock settings of both camera programs vs each other, there's no argument that the 360 makes a much better picture.

The Aria camera actually isn't all that bad. The video capture completely sucks though. But I wouldn't trade the Captivate camera for the Aria for anything. Here's an example from the Captivate:

4824986110_0824806a21.jpg
 
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edit: that isn't really a fair comparison so I checked my computer and found some garden pics I took with the Aria. Most of my macro shots were blurry as hell (wasn't really "macro" just "too close") so here's my best macro-ish pic with the Aria (note: this is with the 360 program):

5177459080_07e3c64b25.jpg


As you can see, it doesn't pop, but it is very realistic and clean. Not a bad picture as far as the capture goes.

If you're interested in a video comparison, here's my parent's parrot in their dark den vs their chickens in their garage with some mid-day light

aria: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8qW_iGBqQo
captivate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm4KY4D3pKg
 
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