Exclusive: Samsung Captivate for AT&T preview

AT&T may have been accused of crippling its Android phones, but the Samsung Captivate -- one of the US versions of the Galaxy S -- is about to change all of that. Oh sure, the company released the specs last week, but us resourceful folk got some hands-on time with the Super AMOLED-boasting, Android 2.1 phone prior to its unknown stateside launch. The model we got to play with was clearly an early build (it wasn't even branded Samsung or AT&T), but that didn't stop us from putting it through the paces at a local Starbucks. Hit the break for a bulleted breakdown of our impressions and a short hands-on video. Oh, and don't forget to make a pit stop at the gallery below before getting into the good stuff.

Samsung Captivate preview

• Hardware: The 4-inch Captivate isn't as large and in charge as the 4.3-inch Droid X or EVO, but in our opinion it's just the right size. While the design isn't all that unique, there's something about the all-screen phone that is pretty striking, and there's no denying that the hardware was very thin and light in hand. The curved bottom lip reminds us of the BlackBerry Storm for some reason, and it too has four touch sensitive buttons. Oh, and for those that were hoping the Captivate looked like the Galaxy S, we can confirm that the two look more like distant cousins than siblings.

• Screen: The Captivate has the same Super AMOLED display as the Galaxy S, and we'll have to agree with our English counterpart who said "it is one of the finest displays you can hope to lay eyes on." We didn't get to test the display in sunlight, but indoors and outdoors (around dusk) it was seriously bright and crisp. The photos and video below don't really do justice to the quality, but when we watched a video clip colors just popped and looking at the preloaded wallpapers was all sorts of glorious. We found the capacitive touchscreen itself to be mighty responsive.

• Software: The phone we saw was running Android 2.1 and some version of Samsung's TouchWiz -- we're assuming it's 3.0 like the Galaxy S we saw in London a few days ago. The skin isn't too distracting and actually polishes up Android a bit. There's the ability to decorate the panes with Samsung widgets, one of which includes a funky social networking feed. There's also a helpful settings bar that reveals itself when you slide down the Android window shade. Samsung's also preloaded Swype, which is always a welcome addition. All in all, we're just happy to see AT&T hasn't done much to the OS, or at least as far as we could tell. Sure, there are the usual carrier applications, like AT&T Navigation, Music and Tones, but that's really about it.

• Camera: For some reason the Captivate doesn't have a dedicated physical camera button or a flash, but its 5-megapixel camera took some decent quality shots from what we could tell in our short time with it. We didn't have any problem focusing and snapping some pics. When we went to shoot some 720p video, there wasn't any lag in capturing, and for whatever it's worth, playing the video on the screen looked crisp and clear.

• Performance: Here's the part where we hope to the powers that be that Samsung is hard at work or the Captivate we saw was an extremely early model. The phone we demoed was powered by an ARMv7 processor running at 800MHz -- though according to the official press release the phone is planned to have a 1GHz ARMv7 core (a Samsung Hummingbird, to be specific). Regardless, it was quite sluggish when maneuvering through menus, launching apps and trying to back track to the homescreen -- it was nowhere near as snappy as what we've seen in videos from the Galaxy S or as the Droid X we saw last week. The model we saw was confirmed to be a few months old, so our guess is that the final version will be a whole lot snappier than what we saw. Or at least that's what we're really hoping since the rest of the Captivate experience was pretty, well for lack of a better word... captivating.

Updated (6/29): We got to see a closer to final version of the Captivate at Samsung's US launch event. Everything about the phone was virtually the same, except for the performance. Things were definitely snappier and smoother on the newer model, though there was still some lag when opening applications and switching panes. There will be more impressions to come though in our upcoming review.

Editor's Note: Yes, we realize the video quality is less than stellar -- we blame our one handed video work and our broken Flip HD. We're working on both!

[Inspector Gadget80 Posted Jun 22nd 2010 4:39PM]

The software looks good. The only thing I dislike bout the Galaxy S is the hardware. 2nd this is not the Same Galaxy S I saw at CES. 3rd theirs no front camera->"thanks again AT&T". Only three more ANDROID phones for me not to leave you to go to Sprint for the EVO.

[skemme Posted Jun 22nd 2010 5:11PM]

@Inspector Gadget80

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[kidtwist147 Posted Jun 22nd 2010 6:00PM]

"some sort of overlay" ????
joshua topolsky would have never posted this crap video.

[Blaque14K Posted Jun 22nd 2010 6:36PM]

Seriously. Why do they review these phones if they know nothing about them. I mean this phone has been out in the news for months and this chick says "ummmm they've skinned it with....ummm some sort of ummmm overlay". She hasn't had any experience with Android at all. But I bet this will remain at the top of the page much longer than any review of the ready to go Galaxy S.

[Nausicaa647 Posted Jun 22nd 2010 6:57PM]

Honestly that was the best advertisement for the iPhone 4 yet. It was painful to watch even for a early release.

[isprobi Posted Jun 22nd 2010 8:58PM]

If it doesn't have at least an LED flash, physical camera button and front facing camera at launch I will seriously consider going to Sprint and getting an EVO. If AT&T wants to treat everyone who doesn't want an iPhone as second class customers then some of us will leave including me.

[The Missing Link Posted Jun 23rd 2010 1:09AM]

There's no excuse for this phone not to have LED flash. Other than that, it looks amazing!

[rubiconse Posted Jun 23rd 2010 9:29AM]

I really wish that all Android phones would come with the stock OS and then you could have the option to skin them in the marketplace. Even if they came with the companys skin, but have the ability to uninstall (without rooting) and install another skin would be great.

[HauteTechBlog Posted Jun 28th 2010 4:01PM]

bring this to rogers, please. we have probably the worst android handsets out there

[Ikonomi Posted Jun 29th 2010 11:12PM]

It's good to see you've updated this preview with news regarding the version you handled at the Samsung event. It would have been nice to see a new video preview, with any additional insights the newer revision might have given.

When you say there was a performance problem when opening applications, is that endemic to the Captivate, or shared with the other Galaxy S phones?

And do you have a projected date for your full review of the Captivate?

[ecobranon Posted Jul 7th 2010 12:05PM]

So does this have a flash or not? If not, i am sticking to my nexus one.

[vision33r Posted Jul 18th 2010 2:28PM]

Finally a phone with the Dreamcast's great grandson GPU. PowerVR lives on!

[bleep Posted Jul 22nd 2010 1:59PM]

Must see review...... guuurg.... or I will brains your eat you!

[sfellowes Posted Jul 27th 2010 6:31PM]

I found the Samsung Galaxy S a big disappointment. THere has been a lot of hype over the phone. As much as I want to see Android succeed, it's not there yet. I threw a few words together on my blog: http://sfellowes.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!66B895384B2CC7AF!816.entry