Samsung Captivate or the iPhone 3GS?

I came from the 3G and the 4. I've had the Captivate now for about 2 weeks. I absolutely love it. I've been able to replace all of my core apps (VNC, XBMC, Tivo Remote, Air Video) with functional Android eqivalents.

In most cases the Android experience is much better. For example, I still use iTunes (yeah I know) but now I can sync over WiFi with TuneSync. Plus, I now have a phone that looks and acts the way I want it to look and act.

Right now the GPS leaves much to be desired in the way of accuracy but Samsung has acknowledged the issue and will be releasing an update. Other than that, the unit is solid. Touch Whiz is undesirable to me but Android lets you change that.

The SGS is miles ahead of the 3GS in terms of hardware, because it's a comparison of a current vs. a 2+ year old design. The SGS has a much faster CPU, GPU, higher resolution display, bigger display, higher res camera, etc., etc.

While there may not be as many apps, there are still 10s of *thousands* for Android, with every category well represented, plenty of freebies, all the major apps available (like Amazon, Pandora, Shazam, Ebay, Maps, Nav, etc.), plus a whole range of apps for things like widgets which don't even have an iPhone counterpart.

Android has much more of a "desktop" type OS feel, so just like there are UI differences in how MS implemented Word vs. how Adobe designed Photoshop, you get some developer variation of UIs on apps (within the sandbox of the SDK). This doesn't bother me an in fact, you sometimes get a better more interesting design with devs thinking out of the box (and not being so controlled like the apple universe).

The SGS should wind up being a very good gaming device, especially with its super fast GPU (for graphic intensive games).

Between those two, hands down the Captivate...

I posted on here a few weeks ago about how I'm sticking with the 3GS until the Samsung comes out with a fix for the Captivate. Honestly, the 3GS works fine under 4.0.1 OS (jailbroken), its fast enough and no reason to go to 4. I did not update to 4.0.2 OS because there is no jailbreak for that yet - or an "easy" jailbreak yet. My wife has a 3G, which is SUPER slow and I'm trying to convince her to jump to Captivate, but she says its too big (really not much bigger than the 3G). She got the iphone 4 and returned it within a week. Now she is back to the 3G and can't decide. She's considering the Torch, but I'm telling her that there is no way she can go back to a blackberry.

So my answer? I'm waiting for the fix before I make the jump as GPS is VERY important to me.

I had the iPhone 3gs for about a year and have had the Captivate for over a month now. The bottom line is I'm very happy with the Captivate and am glad I chose it over the iP 4 or 3GS. there are somethings I really miss though

1. I used iCab as my browser on iP. IMO there's nothing even close to it Android, and I' ve tried them all. Firefox is coming out on Android and it may provide a more desktop like experience. That said, I prefer the stock Android browser to iP Safari.
2. The user interface on iOS is better than Android. For example, it's much easier to select text edit points on iOS than on Android. Even more important to me, copy and paste is much much better on iOS.
3. Though there are quite a few apps for Android, I find it harder to find niche apps on Android. For example, the selection of good RPG and adventure games is much better on iOS. A lot of the best Android apps are tools to customize the phone and small utilities produced by ' one-man shops'. iOS has more long-development-time kinds of apps.

Location-based and voice-based services are MUCH better on Android than on iOS. Flexibility to play a variety of media file types is much better on Android. And swype is a wonderful text input method.

DW

I've had a 2G, 3G and 3GS. Now I have a Captivate. I love the Captivate's screen size and speed. It took me a couple days to get used to android, but now it seems second nature.

The thing is, for what you are looking for, I would probably keep the 3GS. I am not much of a gamer (with the exception of angry birds), but Android seems to be lacking when it comes to games. Also, the gps problem with the Captivate is apparently very real (although my gps has worked out of the box). I know the specs on the Captivate are stronger than the 3GS, but in real world conditions, the 3GS never felt slow to me.

Another issue with the Captivate seems to be build quality. I've had to return my phone twice just to get a phone that works the way it should. I've read others on here who have had to go through the same process. I think the build quality on the 3GS is better just from my personal observations.

All in all, I am very happy with the Captivate. You just need to do your homework on what you are looking for in a phone. I don't think there is a one size fits all phone anymore. Especially now that apple seems to have crapped the bed with the Iphone 4.

I am also very happy with my captivate. I came from a from the original iphone to 3gs and I would not go back. iOS was very simple to use and just flat out worked, but for the most part, my captivate runs pretty smooth. GPS is my only issue I have, but was not a deal breaker for me. I do a lot of business on the phone and it is really nice to be able to download files and actually save them to my phone or sd card. I dont play many games, so dont have much to say about that.

If you are able to, I would play with both. The captivate seems to take a bit longer to get use to, but in my opinion, its well worth it.

I had the iPhone 4 for about 1.5months, and moved to the Captivate for the last week. This phone is sick! I will never go back to the iPhone, because Apple just limits you so much. The ability to customize anything that you want is awesome. The only thing that is better on the iPhone for me was battery life, but overall I would take the captivate anyway. Plus Google/Android/Samsung will keep updating to make it better.

Choosing between iOS and Android basically comes down do simplicity vs. flexibility. With Android, you lose simplicity but gain flexibility & customizability.

I switched from a 3GS and still miss certain aspects of the OS, because in some respects Android still has some major catching up to do. Things like text selection, copy and paste, and general smoothness when scrolling is better in iOS, no question. This is really something you have to live with. The positives outweigh those negatives, however. I can get more work done on Android, customize it more, and can leave my computer behind much more often when traveling.

I think Android has gotten to the point where it's definitely the better OS for smartphone power users. When it comes to apps, iOS still has the edge but the gap is closing really fast. Just about every popular app has an Android version now. I started using Android just five months ago, and in that short time the app selection has improved leaps and bounds. In fact, many Android apps have gotten to be better than their iOS companions, such as Dropbox, document viewers/editors, Media players, and messaging clients.

One final reason I picked up a Captivate: Android is growing & changing all the time, unlike iOS. Look at where iPhone was in summer 2009. Not much different than how it is now, right? Now look at Android at that time period -- it was barely a competitor. If Android has improved so much in the past year, imagine what this next year will be like.

If you get a 3Gs you need to take into account OS version. Many Cydia apps are not yet updated to 4.0 - also we have seen 4.01 and 4.02 with 4.1 coming soon. So if you want to jailbreak, unlock and have Cydia apps, you will be waiting for the eventual cycle of jailbreak followed by apps playing catchup.

As for missing apps - I have found nothing missing that i can't do without. There are definitely more games for iPhone then Adroid, but a lot of the free games have been ported to android and work just as well.

iPhone does some aspects of Exchange email better, some not so good. The screen size and color will blow the iPhone away. Media and Music players are just as good as iPhone, Video camera and stock camera are better. If you are a mobile me user, or have DRM itunes files you will lose that. If you have a lot of AAC files, be prepared to convert to MP3 if you want album art and title - more of a defect in AAC tagging then android thing. You will gain lovely status bar notifiers that are seen on the lock screen. Simple unlock, tethering, media sharing, file management and all kinds of things that Apple takes away.

I use my phone for work and pleasure and switching from iPhone was no big deal.

that is really great!

I have had both the IPhone and Captivate, overall I like the IPhone look, feel and experience better as I can find more of the niche apps and OS wise it is refined and supported with firmware updates.

That said I love the Captivate screen size, nothing beats real estate there.

Overall at the moment with two older phones, I would go Captivate, screen size wins out as I get almost everything I need on my cappy for now.

If i were deciding right now it would be iphone ..... mostly because i don't enjoy messing with my phone for hours to get it to connect ( i don't want to root it). Often it just reconnects later .... no idea why.

Kies is improved somewhat with the latest release, but connection is still intermittent .... i can't accept that USB protocols are apparently too complex for Samsung to grasp. I have managed to get frodo and gingerbread installed ... but its not a confidence inspiring process thru Kies (odd re-boots, little, to no, feedback during the process, etc).

Connecting a phone to a PC with USB should be automatic and trouble-free, period! Not so, with Samsung.

Since you are ok rooting then i suppose none of this matters.

KC