ATT Samsung Captivate...

[bigkahuna04]

My wife wants to stay on ATT... our contract is up and she likes those 'rollover minutes' in the bank.

I may get iPhone....but everyone seems to have it. I've read mostly good reviews for the Samsung Captivate/Android OS phone. Anyone out there with any good insight / real world experience...or picked one up (they went on sale yesterday). I'm planning to head to the local ATT company store later this week/weekend.

thanks...

[Tacom]

Isn't the Captivate AT&T's version of the Galaxy S? It should be pretty good if it is. The original Galaxy S has been out for sometime and all 4 major carriers are getting some form of it so after market products should be abundant.

The screen is Super AMOLED which is the same as the Droid Incredible iirc. All in all a good phone though you lose different things depending on which carrier's version of Galaxy S you are getting.

Either engadget or gizmodo ran a graphics test against the Droid X and pre-froyo the Galaxy S beat it. Just look up Galaxy S reviews if you want a general idea of the performance of the phone. I don't know what AT&T added/took away in their specific version.

[bigkahuna04]

this is causing some stress....just found out that t-mobile also brought out their version of the Samsung Galaxy phone....need to compare plan costs.

those who are on t-mobile....how do you like the service?

[JDay]

T-Mobile is pretty good if you stay in their coverage areas.

[spectr17]

Got my hands on a Samsung Galaxy S yesterday to test out. The display is the cat's pajamas. I aimed the display at the front of the store to test it out in bright azz sunlight and you can read the display just fine. Not much bigger than an iPhone even though the display is bigger and nice and slim. The camera took some nice snaps, the closeups were crystal clear. They had them in stock too, wait time for a rep was about 15 mins.

Also don't get the $40 tether package that AT&T wants to sell you. If you root your phone, almost all custom roms have USB tethering built in, and all roms can run Wifi tether, which is a free piece of software that basically mimics the mobile hotspot capability. It can support a number of devices (8 on this phone) on a small limited range wireless network that you can also choose to encrypt.

[Richie Caketown]

T-Mobile is pretty good if you stay in their coverage areas.

isnt that typical of all carriers

Tmobiles reception isnt the best but you get what you pay for. Samsung phones havent been up to par in the smart phone category at all aside from the Vibrant that just came out . Has your wife considered the HTC Aria yet? its like a pocket version of the HTC EVO

[erblo]

I'm in Riverside/IE area with T-Mobile and I have never had a problem with service, it always seems to be better than my wife's AT&T.

Depends on where you live though I'm sure.

[jmlivingston]

I'm in OC and have been really happy with T-Mobile's coverage and service plans. Good coverage up US395 to Bishop, with only a few dead spots. Last year I was up north of Flagstaff in the middle of nowhere when we had a blow-out, T-Mobile had better coverage than either AT&T or Verizon so used that to call AAA.

[bigkahuna04]

Also don't get the $40 tether package that AT&T wants to sell you. If you root your phone, almost all custom roms have USB tethering built in, and all roms can run Wifi tether, which is a free piece of software that basically mimics the mobile hotspot capability. It can support a number of devices (8 on this phone) on a small limited range wireless network that you can also choose to encrypt.

Tethering a laptop to the phone was a point that the T-Mobile brought up, and there is no additional charge for this feature with T-Mobile.

ATT charges for tethering the laptop to the phone.... but if you root the phone and use the Android software/apps for it...would ATT know if you are hooking up a laptop, or would it appear to them that you are using the phone to access the internet?

[Loner]

Here's a review by Engadget:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/22/samsung-galaxy-s-review-shootout-captivate-for-atandt-and-vibrant/

[spectr17]

Tethering a laptop to the phone was a point that the T-Mobile brought up, and there is no additional charge for this feature with T-Mobile.

ATT charges for tethering the laptop to the phone.... but if you root the phone and use the Android software/apps for it...would ATT know if you are hooking up a laptop, or would it appear to them that you are using the phone to access the internet?

From another forum discussion about tethering from member local.

I just wanted to break down a few things here because there seem to be a few misconceptions.

Carriers have started charging extra for the "wifi Hotspot capability" in most cases its 39.99 a month extra ontop of your data plan.

Lets break some things down here:

The basic cellphone plan includes voice service. Most people when they buy a smart phone also buy the data plan. This allows you to use your 3G/EVDO Rev A/4G network to browse the internet and basically do everything besides talking over voice and texting. I wouldn't buy a smart phone without a data plan, whats the point?

Now this "hotspot" capability.. its not adding anything to your plan, you are basically paying for the app that allows a carrier locked phone to become a "hotspot" meaning you can connect other devices (like your laptop) to your phone and use your phones data connection to let the other device browse the internet.

As others have pointed out, you don't need to pay for this. There are plenty of free software options that allow your other devices to use your phones data connection. Without rooting your phone, you are kind of limited to a few different packages like Easytether and PDAnet.

if you root your phone, almost all custom roms have USB tethering built in, and all roms can run Wifi tether, which is a free piece of software that basically mimics the mobile hotspot capability. It can support a number of devices on a small limited range wireless network that you can also choose to encrypt.

Now, using any app other than the carrier approved one, along with paying their price increase is kind of a gray area. Carriers would like to be able to charge you more money for the ability to use other devices to access the internet over your phones data connection, but really they can't tell the difference between your phone using its data connection and your laptop using your phones data connection.

Through the power of contracting, they can probably put in your contract that they can cancel your service if you tether (or hotspot) without paying their increased rates. Its not clear this would stand up in court. You are paying for your data connection, its not clear they can tell you what you can and can't do with it. Its not like you add any extra load to their network browsing the internet on your laptop instead of your phone.

its kind of like they are asking you to pay for the same thing twice.

So far I don't know of ANYONE who has had their service cancelled or gotten in any kind of trouble for tethering without paying the carriers increased prices. Personally i think the carriers are just trying to get extra money out of people that want to pay for the convenience of having a carrier branded app that does for them what would be a little harder to do through one of the free options. They know that lots of people will just pay the price, and the people that are smart enough to do it on their own are paying for that data connection already anyway and there isn't much they can do to stop you.

I hope that cleared things up a little bit.

[spectr17]

I just found out the AT&T Captivate and T-Mobile DO NOT have a camera flash, that's a deal killer for me. The only Samsung Galaxy S version that does have a flash is the Verizon version and I detest that company and swore never to use them again after a nightmare in getting my land line turned off here at the house.

[-hanko]

I just found out the AT&T Captivate and T-Mobile DO NOT have a camera flash, that's a deal killer for me. The only Samsung Galaxy S version that does have a flash is the Verizon version and I detest that company and swore never to use them again after a nightmare in getting my land line turned off here at the house.

Tmo's Sam Vibrant lacks the flash, but has something called 'night mode' that up's the effective iso rating, it does a good job based on web pics/reviews i've seen, plus redeye goes away.

I have an evaluation Sam Vibrant coming from tmob next week, swmbo will use it, I'll report back after a week or 3 what we think.

-hanko

[-hanko]

I'm in OC and have been really happy with T-Mobile's coverage and service plans. Good coverage up US395 to Bishop, with only a few dead spots. Last year I was up north of Flagstaff in the middle of nowhere when we had a blow-out, T-Mobile had better coverage than either AT&T or Verizon so used that to call AAA.

FIRST think in picking a carrier is coverage...are any of the big four inferior in your general neck-of-the-woods?

Second, what's it gonna' cost you, rate plan + equipment, at the end of your contract? Focusing on the 'free phone' is like focusing on monthly payments when you buy a car, instead of what it costs when you're done with the payments. tmob will give you the option of a no-contract plan where you buy the phone for full price...savings v. a contracted plan should more than cover the cost of the phone after 2 years.

I have zero coverage issues with tmo where i work and recreate...driving from Boise to the SF bay area, I loose tmo about 2 hours N of Winnemuca (sp?), so I keep an old Verizon phone in the cruiser for 911 only. Along I-80 and over Donner into the bay area, zero issues.

ATT data plans are goofy at this time, ATT is low on bandwidth--too many iphones surfing all over. They'll hit you with overage charges if you exceed your monthly data plan limit. Tmob has no overage charges, smart phone data is typically $30 a month, and when you hit the 5gB limit you're throttled...pita but better than a surprise bill.

-hanko

[jmlivingston]

Not only has coverage been good but T-Mobile had the best plan for the family when we signed up. Two places where they really scored with us: the Fave-5 plan let both of us have 5 numbers that didnt' count towards our minutes, plus it was only $10/mo per phone for email-only access on our Blackberry's versus $30 just about everywhere else for a full data plan. We've been very happy with TMobile, no regrets at all in regards to equipment, plan, or service.

Since our contracts are up I'm keeping a close watch on things but right now I can't find a compelling reason to make a change. My phone's on a near permanent forward to my work cell, and my wife's is working just fine for her. Would love to get an Android and root it for wi-fi hotspot access but that's a luxury and right now nobody has a plan that gives us what we currently have for a better price. Email and calendaring are really all that is important to us on our phones.