Customer reviews from Samsung US
Samsung - Captivate Mobile Phone - Black (AT&T)
Average customer rating
4.2
(1,846 Reviews)
Rating breakdown 1,846 reviews
5 Stars
949
4 Stars
544
3 Stars
150
2 Stars
109
1 Star
94
82%of customers recommend this product.
(
1,418 out of
1,721)
Customer Reviews for Samsung - Captivate Mobile Phone - Black (AT&T)
Customer Rating
4
Good out of the box, needs fixes
on August 30, 2010
Posted by: doowk
from Seattle, WA
Expertise:Expert
Overall, this is a good device. I love the screen for the true blacks and vibrant (captivating?) colors, but is difficult to see in bright sunlight. For this reason, taking photos in bright sun is extremely difficult, which is sad because the camera takes excellent photos. Two other cons with camera: no dedicated camera button so self-portraits are virtually impossible, and no flash. And why did AT&T disable the front camera, other than giving the iPhone 4.0 the only front-facing camera in their lineup? Such a waste of a built-in function on a supposed super-phone. Couple of other camera things: it's slow to start from the homescreen, so spontaneous photos are difficult; secondly, getting an accurate geotag is virtually impossible due to problems with the GPS (more on that later).
Lag: I notice significant lag in some circumstances. This is well documented in social media, and can be resolved by rooting, but I'm hesitant to do that at this time. I'm not sure if the slow camera launch behavior is related to this lag. I am hopeful that the promised 2.2 Froyo update will address these lag issues.
GPS: this is worse than bad. The GPS in this device is completely non-functional for navigation. Period. I've tried this in default GPS settings, and many of the suggested fixes on the blogs, to no effect. You simply cannot navigate with this device. My last device was a Blackberry 9000 Bold which got GPS lock in usually 5 - 10 seconds, AND kept the lock. The Captivate I have with the most widely accepted GPS fix applied will sometimes acquire GPS lock in as few as 20 seconds, or sometimes I give up after 10 minutes (!!) without a lock. Once locked, it loses sync often. I never maintain a lock for long. Samsung USA promises a 'optimization' (read: fix) in September. With 1 million devices now shipped in America, this fix had better be good or this device will become a major fail, and major loss of face for Samsung. I remain hopeful that Samsung will not allow this to happen.
Despite the camera and GPS issues, I like this device, and recommend it to others - if they can just wait for Froyo and the GPS fix.
Lag: I notice significant lag in some circumstances. This is well documented in social media, and can be resolved by rooting, but I'm hesitant to do that at this time. I'm not sure if the slow camera launch behavior is related to this lag. I am hopeful that the promised 2.2 Froyo update will address these lag issues.
GPS: this is worse than bad. The GPS in this device is completely non-functional for navigation. Period. I've tried this in default GPS settings, and many of the suggested fixes on the blogs, to no effect. You simply cannot navigate with this device. My last device was a Blackberry 9000 Bold which got GPS lock in usually 5 - 10 seconds, AND kept the lock. The Captivate I have with the most widely accepted GPS fix applied will sometimes acquire GPS lock in as few as 20 seconds, or sometimes I give up after 10 minutes (!!) without a lock. Once locked, it loses sync often. I never maintain a lock for long. Samsung USA promises a 'optimization' (read: fix) in September. With 1 million devices now shipped in America, this fix had better be good or this device will become a major fail, and major loss of face for Samsung. I remain hopeful that Samsung will not allow this to happen.
Despite the camera and GPS issues, I like this device, and recommend it to others - if they can just wait for Froyo and the GPS fix.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Features
4
Performance
3
Design
3
Value
4
Written by a customer while visiting Samsung US
Customer Rating
3
Not updated to 2.2 yet
on January 15, 2011
Posted by: ulfSjoblom
from washington DC
Expertise:Expert
Everything is great except that there is a delay of updating firmware to 2.2 or even 2.3.
The mail setting does not allow you to have portnumbers larger than 2 digits. ( should be three)
Pros: Bright display, Realistic color, Lightweight
Cons: Did not meet expectations
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Features
4
Performance
3
Design
5
Value
4
Written by a customer while visiting Samsung US
Customer Rating
5
Wow! Amazing!
on July 30, 2010
Posted by: tenafhum
from Missouri
Expertise:Intermediate
The Captivate is by far the nicest phone I have ever owned. 1. Reading nook. One reason for the purchase is that I was considering buying a nook. I love to read on my phone but with recent changes you canno longer buy books for most of the writers that I enjoy to read on windows mobile. For about the same money that I would have spent on the nook I purchased this amazing phone and put the nook software on it. For reading it is ideal with the large screen. Now I can read on my phone again only it is so much easier.
2. Apps. Getting apps for the Captivate is so easy through the Andriod Market and so much is free. With the large screen, playing games is enjoyable as well.
3. Phone. Hey, it even works as a phone.
4. Calendar, journaling, SWYPE. With this purchase I am finally putting away my old paper and pencil type organizer and trusting the Captivate to take care of it. The calendar is easy to use and I am loving the SWYPE method of writing.
5. Fast. You can find what you need and be where you need to be very quickly.
6. Browsing, wifi. It's a breeze and with wifi I don't eat up my data minutes.
I couldn't be happier with my new Captivate.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Features
5
Performance
5
Design
5
Value
5
Written by a customer while visiting Samsung US
Customer Rating
5
Good Choice. WTG ME!
on August 25, 2010
Posted by: PortScanner
from Texas
Expertise:Intermediate
This is my first Samsung mobile product. After becoming frustrated with the iPhone roller coaster I decided to find a new phone and had been looking into buying an Android OS phone. After reading reviews online and watching videos of the products in action I decide to make my way to my local mobile wireless provider to get my hands on a few of these phones. The Samsung Captivate automatically caught my eye. The large brilliant screen is seducing (in a techie kinda way!). Its light and the design is gorgeous looking, Not to mention that its fast as sin. The video and music players produce good sound without distorting any audio. I could go on and on about the specs of this phone. To sum up my review for this product...YUMMY TECH GOODNESS WITH A CREAMY DELICIOUSLY ANDROID CENTER!
I would recommend this to a friend!
Features
5
Performance
4
Design
4
Value
4
Written by a customer while visiting Samsung US
Customer Rating
2
Great idea, poor execution
on October 3, 2010
Posted by: eggzilla
from Manhattan, KS
Expertise:Expert
At first this phone is quite impressive with its Super AMOLED screen, fast 1GHz processor, and ample 16GB internal storage with an expandable Micro SD card option. Unfortunately, I quickly realized that Samsung had forgotten to implement its GPS at all (mine still doesn't work after over a month of ownership), the bright screen drains the battery and I have to turn the brightness all the way down to conserve battery life (the screen will account for 75-95% of battery drain if you keep it bright), the music/speakerphone speaker sounds decent but is located on the back of the phone facing away from the user, the camera is great quality but is not equipped with a flash (this means no flashlight apps), the phone is difficult to put on many airport and hotel networks that require web page login, it does not sync well with my PC and Samsung has all but hidden the software for this, the Android home keys often stick (rendering the phone temporarily useless), still no Android 2.2 OS released for this phone yet, and no hands free voice activation for bluetooth yet.
Pros: Bright display, Inexpensive, Realistic color, Lightweight, fast processor, plenty of storage
Cons: Too big, Did not meet expectations, gps does not work, home keys stick, speaker is on back, no camera flash, poor battery life, poor home network connectivity, hard to sync with pc, no android 2.2, no hands free voice activation
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Features
3
Performance
2
Design
3
Value
2
Written by a customer while visiting Samsung US
Customer Rating
5
Samsung Captivate, Captivates
on November 3, 2010
Posted by: Cjb9ball
from Jamestown, Ny
Expertise:Intermediate
Samsung has done it again with the Captivate. Its 4 inch touch screen displays millions of colors. Best display ever viewed on a phone boasting lush vibrant colors with the clarity of a cloudless summer days blue sky. Simply amazing. The phone runs android 2.1 OS & is upgradeable to 2.2(froyo) upon its release. Lightning fast browsing, downloads, and superb streaming of video. Everything about this phone is astonishing. All android run phones will be compared to this phone. Its a revolution in cell phone technology for all manufacturers to use as a standard for comparison.
Pros: Built-in speakers, Bright display, Inexpensive, Durable, Realistic color, Lightweight, it does it all. there is an app. for that.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Features
5
Performance
5
Design
5
Value
4
Written by a customer while visiting Samsung US
Customer Rating
4
Don't buy if you live in Non-3G Areas
on August 28, 2010
Posted by: Anonymous
from Greenville, NC
Expertise:Expert
I got this phone and LOVED the set up with Android. However, I had several issues when I was in Edge service areas. The phone does GREAT in 3G. When in a non-3G area I could not send pictures (regardless of the size, small or big), half my texts would fail if I had 2 or less bars of service. Also, if I tried to call someone, sometimes it would take 20 seconds before I could hear their phone ringing and same thing when people tried calling me. I could not upload photos to facebook or even an attachment in emails. What I gathered from reading forums online and personal experience, there are some internal settings on the phone that causes the phone to time-out when doing things in Edge service areas.
With that being said, the next city over from where I live has 3G. The phone works excellent on 3G. So if you live or travel to places often that is not 3G, don't waste time getting this phone. I went thru 4 of these phones in a week and ended up getting a BlackBerry Torch. There may be a software update coming out to fix this issue but Samsung should have tested the phone out in all areas, not just 3G.
For those who live in 3G, you have an awesome phone!
I would recommend this to a friend!
Features
5
Performance
2
Design
5
Value
3
Written by a customer while visiting Samsung US
Customer Rating
4
This product is very good
on November 23, 2010
Posted by: Bigticket
from Philly, PA
Expertise:Expert
This product is good but the software should be adaptable to do things that some of the older phones used to do. It is a good phone for a smart phone, one of the better phones I have had a chance to review. I recommend this product to all people who would like to have a smart phone.
Pros: Bright display, Inexpensive, Durable, Realistic color, Lightweight
Cons: Not high def
I would recommend this to a friend!
Features
5
Performance
4
Design
5
Value
3
Written by a customer while visiting Samsung US