Captivate - List of issues

[qwertyaas]

As of now, I do not yet own a Captivate and am still on the fence between getting one as opposed to an iPhone (I much prefer the Captivate but not at the expense of a phone with broken features)... But i am still holding out for this phone and hopefully picking it up within a couple weeks (and if it is indeed not working well for me, I will probably exchange for an iPhone... but luckily the resale value is high so I will probably sell it and opt for the next High-end Android! )

But it seems that many are in a similar position to me or already have the phone but are deciding what to do with it. In order to make it easier for everyone interested in this phone to see the issues with it - can everyone who has one just state the issues they have with it.

And it would actually be great if once the list is made, we can all email Samsung support the issues so hopefully they will get on them quicker.

Issues so far:

Common Issues

GPS not locking on - [acknowledged by Samsung]

'Random' user to user issues

Poor battery life
Random shut offs
Contact syncing issues
Poor mail funtionality
Interface lag

Now, if these are software issues with Anroid itself or issues from Samsung... it's probably a mix of both. But hopefully these issues get resolved as the phone seems like a great Android phone if these issues are resolved.

Please don't turn this into a 'bash' type thread. This is meant for information purposes for those still interested in the Captivate.

 

[mongstradamus]

As of now, I do not yet own a Captivate and am still on the fence between getting one as opposed to an iPhone (I much prefer the Captivate but not at the expense of a phone with broken features)... But i am still holding out for this phone and hopefully picking it up within a couple weeks (and if it is indeed not working well for me, I will probably exchange for an iPhone... but luckily the resale value is high so I will probably sell it and opt for the next High-end Android! )

But it seems that many are in a similar position to me or already have the phone but are deciding what to do with it. In order to make it easier for everyone interested in this phone to see the issues with it - can everyone who has one just state the issues they have with it.

And it would actually be great if once the list is made, we can all email Samsung support the issues so hopefully they will get on them quicker.

Issues so far:

GPS not locking on
Poor battery life
Random shut offs
Contact syncing issues
Poor mail funtionality
Interface lag

Now, if these are software issues with Anroid itself or issues from Samsung... it's probably a mix of both. But hopefully these issues get resolved as the phone seems like a great Android phone if these issues are resolved.

The GPS lock in seems to be only real issue of those ones you listed that i had an problem with on my captivate. I think people were reporting bad batt life when they condition battery properly when they first got the phone. The battery life was better then my old 3g iphone so take that for what its worth.

I never had any issues with random shut offs, and app/interface lag there are ways to get around that i suppose.

 

[BigCiX]

Same here. GPS is my only issue. Battery life can be controlled by the user.

 

[chicknlil]

The poor battery life, by and large, appears to be more of a user-issue than a phone flaw. Letting the battery completely discharge and recharging it back to full a few times seems to extend the battery life greatly - and of course applications like Juice Defender and Task Killer don't hurt either. With moderate usage (web surfing, some GPS, app downloading, game usage, texting, etc) ... I've been getting about 36 hours. That's better than my old Samsung Eternity got - I had to recharge that nightly, without fail.

Interface lag seems to be more an OS version issue than a Captivate-specific issue. Eclair isn't using the full memory of our phones and if memory serves, people who have installed Froyo ROMs noticed a big increase in speeds. Presumably, Froyo will fix lag issues. Developers also seem to be working hard on work-arounds in the meanwhile. Several people on here have had success utilizing those "fixes".

I've never had any random shut offs, contact syncing issues or had any troubles with the mail functionality. That doesn't mean they're not issues - but that seems far more of a crapshot than the other issues you mentioned.

Yes, the elephant in the room is the GPS. Samsung has issued a statement (here) ... and the more pessimistic lot here will be quick to point out that it's a lot of PR spin. Be that as it may, at the very least the implication is there that there will be a fix.

 

[bbtheory]

OK, I'll play along...

I have had my Captivate for a little over two weeks now. Overall I have been enjoying the experience. Doing a little bit of research online prepared me for what to expect with regard to the phones drawbacks. In case anyone cares I switched to the Captivate from an iphone 3GS. So here is my list of problems with the Captivate:

1. Phone randomly shuts off.

Yes, that's correct, I ony have one issue with the Captivate. It has shut off randomly about 10 times since I got it.

I will address what the OP says are issues with a few comments:

GPS: If you didn't know the phone was having GPS issues before you bought it you didn't do much research, this information was in most popular reviews for the product. Getting it fixed would be nice and I am optimistic it will happen.

Battery Life: Been having zero problems here with battery life. It runs down quicker than iphone but I use the Captivate heavily with 3G, wifi, and bluetooth always on and have had no problems making it through a business day.

Random shut offs: They are an issue!

Contacts syncing issues: The OP needs to elaborate on this one. It took me about 5 minutes to get mine synced up, and I was not a gmail user prior to owning the Captivate.

Poor mail functionality: The default mail application has its drawbacks, but it is just an app. I wouldn't call this a phone issue or an android issue. I have been using the app for my mobileme email address (iphone switcher) and it works. If I needed more functionality, I would simply look elsewhere.

Interface lag: This issue is in the eye of the beholder. People have their own ideas about what the phone's performance should be, based upon specs, experiences with other android phones, etc. Coming from the iphone I find the Captivate's home screen navigation and app loading times to be more than acceptable.

 

[peterpp]

So far, mine is working perfectly.

 

[qwertyaas]

I will update the original post stating that the GPS is the common problem while the others being less common.

Thanks!

 

[ayz]

I think it's amusing that people are distinguishing between a hardware vs OS problem.

If you absolutely have to have an android phone on at&t, then yes the captivate is your best option.

However, otherwise the OS and phone need to be taken into consideration as one, since even if the hardware is superb and it's all OS-based issues, it's not like you can run off and get your own custom OS for the phone.

 

[qwertyaas]

I think it's amusing that people are distinguishing between a hardware vs OS problem.

If you absolutely have to have an android phone on at&t, then yes the captivate is your best option.

However, otherwise the OS and phone need to be taken into consideration as one, since even if the hardware is superb and it's all OS-based issues, it's not like you can run off and get your own custom OS for the phone.

But if it truely were software based, wouldn't custom ROMS that aim at fixing these resolve the issues? Or better yet, all it would take is a firmware fix? It's not like the camera missing an LED flash but just an update that could fix the issues if they are SW based.

 

[A.VOID]

to the user with the phone shutoffs issues. exchange yours. i did it and i haven't seen the issue. xda has a thread about it, and it's suggested that bad ram is the issue with the shutoffs.

 

[mttfrog13]

Interface lag is also a common problem. Something is wrong with the I/O write speed. It should be fixed in froyo but its definitely a common problem although some people may not notice it because they simply aren't used to a phone that should perform at this speed. The hummingbird is much stronger than the snapdragon processor, but my old droid inc would never hic up or skip at all when backing out of a program to the home screen or loading up a program at all. 2 seconds to get back to the home screen when exiting a program isn't much but it shouldn't be there. Programs should all be instant load, and instant close. This isn't the case. Also, when the phone comes on, it is practically unusable for 30 seconds or so after the splash screens. This is the most obvious case of the lag issue.

 

[bbtheory]

to the user with the phone shutoffs issues. exchange yours. i did it and i haven't seen the issue. xda has a thread about it, and it's suggested that bad ram is the issue with the shutoffs.

You mean this thread?

Captivate random shuts down - xda-developers

On page six a couple people speculate that its bad RAM but the whole thread seems to be people guessing about what causes the problem, everything from live wallpaper to wifi settings and more are mentioned as potential causes.

Until I see a concrete answer I will be more likely to keep my current phone and just deal with this relatively minor (for me) problem. If a new phone will fix the problem I'd much rather wait a bit anyway and increase my chances of getting one that was manufactured after any RAM problems were discovered.

 

[symp el]

I count myself lucky that I have had not one problem with the phone. Battery and GPS are fine and work great. Never had issues with your other concerns. Take it back if you aren't happy with it.

 

[ayz]

But if it truely were software based, wouldn't custom ROMS that aim at fixing these resolve the issues? Or better yet, all it would take is a firmware fix? It's not like the camera missing an LED flash but just an update that could fix the issues if they are SW based.

if

i wish they would fix the gmail issue where it syncs all contacts instead of my contacts

if

 

[symp el]

if

i wish they would fix the gmail issue where it syncs all contacts instead of my contacts

if

I guess that could be one complaint that I have. Not really a big deal for me though.

 

[thejtl]

Any music player experiences stutter in play back.

Stock email program doesn't update as instructed in settings. Also doesn't always load gmail messages when they're selected for viewing.

random wifi issues.

Occasional lag (made better by using Launcher Pro, but still there from time to time).

 

[mttfrog13]

Any music player experiences stutter in play back.

This is directly related to the entire ui's lag issue. The lag fixes out there resolve this.

 

[thejtl]

This is directly related to the entire ui's lag issue. The lag fixes out there resolve this.

I'm a little nervous about those. I'm a casual user and don't wanna kill my phone. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the level of detail and skill needed to apply those fixes.

 

[chicknlil]

You actually can get several 'custom' ROMs if you look around a bit.

And why shouldn't we distinguish between 'phone' problems and 'os' problems? The phone problems are certainly a Samsung issue (I'm looking at you, GPS), but you can't blame Eclair's "shortcomings" on them. The OS is not capable of utilizing our full memory - that's been stated over and over again on these forums. Froyo will be able to - and that will make a noticeable difference in lag.

I guess what it comes down to - how patient is the perspective buyer (or current owner) willing to be? Are they willing to accept a phone that does have some faults, that will probably get fixed one way or another, but not necessarily right.this.second? If they're looking for immediate, complete satisfaction...then this probably isn't the phone for them. That said, with GPS tweaks, for me, the good outweighs the 'bad' by a large margin. To each their own.

 

[jking2z]

My problems
1) The GPS issue
2) Music Player skips/stutters when playing music
3) Bluetooth won't auto-connect ....sometimes... quite flaky

I am not having an issues with the battery life and I don't use email & contact to fullest functionality, so I don't notice any problems.

 

[omgitsoop]

My main issues are:
1. Gps can't find me
2. Difficulty syncing with pc, I have kies, double twist and wmp that I've tried with every usb setting possible and syncing is still hit or miss
3. Plays flac files but does not recognize flac tags

 

[sansart]

There's definitely driver issues. I think Windows 7 x64 is having the worst issues with this. I've installed and uninstalled drivers so many times for this phone and the best I can get is that it works about 1/5 times of me plugging in the phone.

 

[ayz]

You actually can get several 'custom' ROMs if you look around a bit.

And why shouldn't we distinguish between 'phone' problems and 'os' problems? The phone problems are certainly a Samsung issue (I'm looking at you, GPS), but you can't blame Eclair's "shortcomings" on them. The OS is not capable of utilizing our full memory - that's been stated over and over again on these forums. Froyo will be able to - and that will make a noticeable difference in lag.

I guess what it comes down to - how patient is the perspective buyer (or current owner) willing to be? Are they willing to accept a phone that does have some faults, that will probably get fixed one way or another, but not necessarily right.this.second? If they're looking for immediate, complete satisfaction...then this probably isn't the phone for them. That said, with GPS tweaks, for me, the good outweighs the 'bad' by a large margin. To each their own.

Rigjt, buy electronics based on what you hope the manufacturer will do instead of what it does now

I got this totally sweet tv, but the hdmi ports don't work. But that's ok, I hope the manufacturer will fix it someday. Those of you returning it are impatient suckers too obsessed with instant gratification.

I also got a new car where the ac cuts out all the time, but no worries, I don't need instant gratification. I'm sure they'll issue a recall someday.

 

[ayz]

Also, I started dating this really fat chick. I'm sure one day she'll lose weight and get hot

 

[Tinyboss]

Don't forget the compass is busted, too. Try Google Skymap, Layar, or just Snaptic's Compass app, and watch the ensuing trainwreck.