As a phone - this phone sucks (sometimes)

[mesasone]

I kind of have to agree with the OP. I don't think the captivate sucks as a phone, but it's definitely not it's strong suit. My Blackberry Bold 9000 was awesome as a phone, and with out a doubt in a whole other league in terms of voice quality. I don't think the Captivate is horrible, it just could be better.

In addition to the signal strength, I also have issues with the hardware/software while making a call - in particular, it's very annoying that the shuts off and won't respond to touch while you're in a call. The shutting off part is fine, but on the rare occasions that I do use it as a phone, I like to use the speaker phone and in order to end a call I have to pick the phone up off my desk, fumble around and find the power button, press it, and then press the end call key (assuming the other party hasn't already hung up). I really feel I should be able to tap the screen to have it turn on and press the end key. Little things like that are really irritating. Fortunately, I'm not much of a talker and have probably made an hour of calls since getting the phone on July 18th.

 

[carmendiva]

Why do you people insist on making a long ass quote of the original post when you have the first reply?!?!?!

I guess because we feel like it

 

[carmendiva]

Again the master/Slave metaphor again is lost on me.

The hatred for apple and Steve is a mystery to me


by no means am i a beginner smartphone user nor is my knowledge as extensive about the phones as others but Im curious to see exactly how an iphone would work for me.

However i am used to android so idk how will adjust.

I would love to know is there a forum similar to the precentral and androidfoum for iphone

 

[Oridus]

I agree with your post(and eww to one above mine lol)

Except when i hold it...it loses signal but generally gets signal when i leave it laying down

I think I am going to take it back

I liked the xperia i had before this but hell no to 1.6
and the low call volume(The xperia has the best camera on a phone in the US...i think anyway)

and I am going to go to At & t and look at the Aria but doubt i will get it

The torch seems nice but i dont like the OS of blackberry

I love webos but the hardware is god awful on the pre and definitely the pixi

So i am considering a strong jump over to the iphone 4 and just try a brand new experience and device

Ive been with Android for almost a year...went to 2.0 to 2.1 to down to 1.5 to 2.1 and then 1.6 and now 2.1

I love my captivate(Signal issues aside) but i do use my phone to text and talk and when i am holding it, it loses signal and a good camera and beautiful screen/UI aside...i need something a little more reliable for me

Im glad to know i am not the only one who is having signal issues

Carmen, good to see you with AT&T

 

[CaCHooKa Man]

i was trying to make a call last night and it wouldnt work until i restarted the phone. i had full bars and everything. it would show that the call was being made but wouldnt ring or anything. i couldnt send texts either.

 

[Jofaba]

Again the master/Slave metaphor again is lost on me.

The hatred for apple and Steve is a mystery to me

One of the things that really aggravates me about SOME OF the Android community is how similar they are the Apple community: A rose by any other name...

Most here, though, seem to be pretty open and accepting of Apple users which is nice. I don't get this "us vs them" mentality. I mean, it's just a device. I appreciate the community aspect, but I don't get the animosity at all.

 

[carmendiva]

One of the things that really aggravates me about SOME OF the Android community is how similar they are the Apple community: A rose by any other name...

Most here, though, seem to be pretty open and accepting of Apple users which is nice. I don't get this "us vs them" mentality. I mean, it's just a device. I appreciate the community aspect, but I don't get the animosity at all.

I dont understand it either.

It's not some civil war we are fighting.
It's two different platforms and phones

U like one somebody else likes the other

Like i always said, those evo vs iphone commercials all are funny
but at the same time SOME android users are basically the same.

Fanboyism is in both "Camps" and yes i know that this is a captivate/android forum

but it be nice to here an argument about the iphone that isn't
1)it's locked down...you only get what Jobs wants you to get...it still has what 200k apps and on my ipod touch i noticed they were plenty of fart apps and a lot more apps that i need and couldnt find on android

meanwhile our 60,000k are still maturing

2)Your not holding it the wrong way

3)Its at & t

I hear the same arguments yet nothing worthwhile that stands as an actual realistic comparison

But i would love to find a community that is along the same lines as androidforums that is dedicated to iphones as i said earlier

 

[vapor311]

dont forget now 80% of your apps on android market are free!

30% or maybe less now on apple market are free. You can get a demo for free but 70% plus you must pay for.

another reason to stay with the android market. Within 6 months your going to see so many of the apps that the apple store has that we dont currently its not funny.

I dont hate steve, he signs my checks. I hate his control issues.

Do you guys know how REAL stance on why the iphone wont ever have flash? Do you really believe its because html 5 is the future? or that he thinks his own coding is the future?

Do you know how much money apple has of its own money invested in adobe? the company that develops flash?

Its a personal stance! He thought by not having flash he would lower the use of the iphone for PORN! yes porn. He didnt want his equipment around the world being used for smut, because one he is a prude and 2 he is a family man and wouldnt want his kids having access to this on thier phone.

well one he failed miserably you can still do it. two its not his job to control what we do on our phones as adults. not is it his job to control what our kids do on thier phones thats the parents job.

This is actually one of my biggest reasons I very much dislike him. Its a giant control issue with him and if he cant have his way you wont have it your way period.

 

[carmendiva]

You dislike him greatly for the reason he makes porn harder to watch on
a phone? They have computer for that

30% of the apps are free with iphone which is equivalent
to the TOTAL number of android apps period.

I don't mind paying for an app because free often means buggy or beta or lack of support.

 

[vapor311]

You dislike him greatly for the reason he makes porn harder to watch on
a phone? They have computer for that

30% of the apps are free with iphone which is equivalent
to the TOTAL number of android apps period.

I don't mind paying for an app because free often means buggy or beta or lack of support.

no silly I dont hate him for that lol.....Im saying I dislike him for his control issues. I respect his family values. However they shouldnt be forced onto the consumer. In all actuality he didnt make it very difficult at all he just thought he did lol. Him trying to do so is just an example of his control issues and his own issues being forced upon the consumer which isnt right. Its your phone you should be able to do with is as you please. Wether it be porn or pbskids.com it doesnt matter to me what you do on your phone.

The 30% app comment isnt truly fair more are being added daily, the apple app market had a 4 year head start. Dont count out the android market its coming and coming fast.

There is no lack of support, the community here is WAY superior to the support you will get for the iphone period much less and apple product of any sort. If you arent a member of apple care (which cost additional money) they are not going to speak to you. If they do, you are going to be put in the very back of the line behind all of the premium customers, vips, and apple care clients. Turn around on a repair for apple care 3 days, turn around for everyone else 7-10days.

I still own an iphone for work purposes I dont hate it, I just hate the restrictions placed on ME on a phone I paid for but will never fully be mine. Thats a sad state of affairs. There should be a recycle box inside of every att store to toss your old iphone in each time you come into upgrade.

 

[carmendiva]

hmm i see i see

Well I just wish the Xperia was 2.1 or even 2.0, i'd get it again

i did find this forum for iphones called tipdb or something

i might check it out...lol i want to see their fanboyism with my own eyes
and see the pros and cons of an iphone from their perspective

i love my captivate...when i am not in my dorm or home...or college in general...which is only about 5% of the time

 

[vapor311]

hmm i see i see

Well I just wish the Xperia was 2.1 or even 2.0, i'd get it again

i did find this forum for iphones called tipdb or something

i might check it out...lol i want to see their fanboyism with my own eyes
and see the pros and cons of an iphone from their perspective

i love my captivate...when i am not in my dorm or home...or college in general...which is only about 5% of the time

TBH completely honest, I would pick up a 3gs off craigslist or something and give it a whirl before you go iphone 4 shopping. The os is the same right now as long as u update, major difference no front cam, no flash slight camera change. Other than that not a TON of differences.

From there if your in love with it, resell it and go get your I4

 

[carmendiva]

TBH completely honest, I would pick up a 3gs off craigslist or something and give it a whirl before you go iphone 4 shopping. The os is the same right now as long as u update, major difference no front cam, no flash slight camera change. Other than that not a TON of differences.

From there if your in love with it, resell it and go get your I4

Idk i was thinking that...

I may just go get another captivate and maybe that will help with my signal issues

I already swapped sims cards and they tried to get me to buy a microcell box for signal...

Sorry i dropped 300 for one on verizon and another 100 for one on sprint...that's not happening again with at & t

As far as iphone 3gs & iphone 4 go...

They do have the same exact OS

I do prefer a phone with flash and better camera

but at the same time...i know 2 ppl with iphone 4's so facetime is going to be a waste especially since one of them only uses it because the other has no wifi

Then the signal thing makes me nervous, the screen turning yellow and the blue tint when taking pictures

I would just hate buying last years model...

 

[vapor311]

buy it and resell it for the same amount the resell value isnt changing much

 

[sremick]

A few of my thoughts:

- no iPhone, like no iPod, has a replaceable battery. This infuriating and anti-user move is done for no other reason than to make sure that a few years into the life of the device, Apple can get another big chunk of change from you. Either due to you paying $80+ for a "repair", or deciding to upgrade your phone/iPod. Every phone I've ever owned has had user-replaceable batteries and I'm not going to give up that feature now just so Apple can get richer.

- iTunes is a finicky and obstinate gatekeeper to the contents of your device. You can only put on those files and formats that iTunes feels like letting you, when it feels like letting you. With the Captivate, any file you want can be put on it, as simple as copying a file, without being at the mercy of special software.

- The Captivate can play far more media formats than the iPhone.

- When I run out of storage space on the Captivate, I can just go out and buy any number of memory cards from all sorts of companies competing with each other. With the iPhone, I need to buy a new iPhone.

- Tried to convert a DVD to play on the iPhone. 2 days of trying various tricks, and iTunes still refused to upload it (despite it being in the iTunes library and playing fine in iTunes). On the Captivate, transfer took just a few seconds and worked first try.

- On the Captivate, you can shop for and download music directly from the phone.

- Captivate can have more than 12 icons in a folder.

- Captivate has real multitasking.

- Captivate has widgets

- Captivate's master app list is separate from whatever apps you want on your home screens.

- Easier to jump around home screens on the Captivate, especially with LauncherPro

- K-9 is more-powerful than the iPhone's email app, and gets updates more frequently

- iPhone can't match Captivate's notification bar

 

[carmendiva]

sremick,
that was ALMOST a completely unbiased review and i appreciate that

I actually like itunes...

But that is another thing i hate about the iphone...non replaceable batteries

Is is true At & t gives u some lame loaner phone while you are out of a phone?

 

[vapor311]

if your on apple care...extra 100$
I shouldnt say that, my mother in law got one a couple years back when she didnt have apple care i think it was a firefly...had like 5 buttons on it.

 

[carmendiva]

if your on apple care...extra 100$
I shouldnt say that, my mother in law got one a couple years back when she didnt have apple care i think it was a firefly...had like 5 buttons on it.

Idk....if i can convince down the hall to let me borrow his iphone for like 2 hours
i really want to give a hands own experience

he likes my captivate it's just not "Apple...Android seems to always feel...behind"
so maybe i can convince him to trade with me for an hour or two

are you allowed to enroll in apple care at any time?
or do you have to do it at purchase?

 

[vapor311]

you have up to 30 days after purchase.

 

[Infinite-t]

Having come from the iPhone (after over 2 years) I may offer some input.

My wife is still an iPhone user (iPhone 4).

She is constantly fussing about dropped calls, calls that were hung up by her cheek, and sometimes a laggy UI. She does like the super simplicity of plugging in to her computer and things syncing automatically. (This is sometime I hope Android will work on)

Me: I have never had a problem with dropped calls on my captivate. When I hold it, some times a lose a bar or two, but it never drops to zero, and never had dropped a call. Some of the random quirks with the UI are frustrating at times. The phone "forgets" assigned ringtones from time to time and numbers that have been assigned different (stock) tones revert back to the standard tone... wierd, and kind of anying because I use ringtones to "screen" calls. I found an app that works great for syncing so that is no problem either.

Apps: There are a few apps that I am missing from iPhone that I wish I had. But there are several on android that I love that iPhone doesnt have. Yes there isnt as many Apps for Adroid as iOS, but. Apple boasts 250,000+ apps, but honestly, just look thru the app store. there are a zillion really stupid worthless apps, like ones that make your screen all white to use as a "flashlight" or ones that make it all black so you can look at your reflection like a mirror (how about turn your screen off) there is a bunch of apps that make your phone fart, there is ones that fake phonecalls, fake gps, etc, etc, weed out all the completely worthless crap, and how many apps are there really? That probably kills AT LEAST a third. But yes, developers seem to make more and support iOS more.

The same can be said for gadgets, alarm clocks, docks, car adapters, and just about anything you can buy, you can hook your iPod.phone up too... But, with the Captivate I can take ANY 3.5mm A/V cable and plug it in to anything that has an RCA type input and it works. I dont have to spend 40$ for those goddamn Apple cables that are different for every new iDevice... So after a few years you have a ton of these cords, docks, clocks, etc, and they wont support your new iPhone.... WTF?

For me, coming from the iPhone, there are little annoyances on both sides, but the pros of the Captivate far outweigh the cons, and even more so the Pros of an iPhone.

On that note, if Samsung was making these to take some iPhone market share, they should have spent more time making sure their shit was together. They really kind of botched their chance to make a good impression and probably turned off a lot of people to their products... I do applaud Apple for staying on top of quick support updates and bug fixes, but they have the advantage of 1 OS (since every android phone has a slighly different version of the same OS, iphones are all the same) and currently only have 1 carrier to deal with.

I hope to Christ that Samsung doent drop the ball and supports these things. They really could be "iPhone killers" if they dont F it up, but they have gotten off to a bumpy start.

That being said, I do like my captivate, and will be keeping it. I am glad I picked it rather than the iPhone 4.

One last thing. I dont understand the animosity of people between the iPhone and android camps... human nature i guess, the whole, "we are better than you" attitude.. but whatever. Its a DAMN PHONE, people are fighting over it like it's oil, or some stone statue in a temple somewhere.

 

[TDQuiksilver]

Mr. Jobs sent a female distraction to brainwash you guys into dropping your Android devices for an Apple cash cow iDevice. Hence Carmen was delivered to our forums.


Run.

 

[GodFlow]

Skimming past all the nonsense, and going back to the op's statement, More than likely, it's one of the three. 1. You might just have a defective phone, 2. At&t coverage area sucks/isn't the best where you are, or 3. Whatever you're resting it on has some crazy magnetic shit going on. If this happens elsewhere, just go get a new one. If the new one still exhibits the same problem, then get a new phone.

 

[Jack45]

Again the master/Slave metaphor again is lost on me.

The hatred for apple and Steve is a mystery to me

First, I bear no "hatred" for Apple and Steve. Setting aside the well-documented iPhone 4 technical shortcomings, I have referred to Jobs as brilliant, but lacking wisdom. To borrow from my previous writings, I do lack respect for an individual who continually exhibits a condescending attitude and reverence for replying to real world problems with unbridled deflection. I, as a consumer, don't like to be treated as if I don't have any sense. If he were accountable during his most recent press conference and did a mea culpa about the antenna design being a victim of form over function I would have been impressed that he manned-up. But to point fingers elsewhere (the public and the press) was Deflection 101 and reeked of pomposity.

For those who have written "focus on the phone, not the CEO." Sorry - it's the principle. As for other CEOs and their various flavors of transgressions, they haven't been disrespectful to their customers and the working press.

I observe with wonderment how iPhone 4 customers can simply ignore Mr. Jobs' attitude. Would you shop at a store whose proprietor disrespected you? Whose owner reacted to legitimate complaints by saying that problems with his merchandise are no worse than his exaggerated view of other stores' merchandise? Who said that even though he didn't believe there was a cause for concern that he'd provide you with a Band-Aid of a fix to make you go away and stop bothering him with facts? I don't think so.

He said "We love our customers." Unfortunately, the sentiment was incomplete. What he really was trying to say was that he loves his customers to blindly purchase what he touts and not to question him when a product proves to be less than magical, for to question him challenges the distorted view of that which has become his reality.

 

[carmendiva]

Mr. Jobs sent a female distraction to brainwash you guys into dropping your Android devices for an Apple cash cow iDevice. Hence Carmen was delivered to our forums.


Run.

Wow

 

[BoulderGeek]

I think the captivate does suck as a phone. I had two dropped calls while stationary, outside and showing 4 bars, this weekend. My unlocked $20 LG prepay phone from Mexico does better.