Samsung Captivate now shipping from AT&T, right on cue
By Sean Hollister 
posted July 18th 2010 3:22AM
posted July 18th 2010 3:22AM
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
posted July 18th 2010 3:22AM
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captivating
@WillSmith Captivating phone on a sh*TTY network! All I can say is AT&T SUCKS
@statickeith AT&T is better than Sprint and T-Mo in my opinion. I don't like a lot of their actions. And, I'm not an Apple fan. But AT&T's coverage here in Nor-Cal is wayy better than anyone else.
@WillSmith
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej1BmPhWi_4
@WillSmith Identity fraud! I
@DrScope
Liar; no one wants to be Will Smith.
@WillSmith look like X10
@WillSmith A captivating bait-and-switch from AT&T in terms of their off-contract pricing? Yes.
AT&T falsely advertised a $349 off contract price and then changed it on launch day. http://briefmobile.com/samsung-captivate-499-off-contract
@WillSmith I just realized this doesn't have HDMI out :(. It supports SO many Media codecs & containers but no HDMI out??
@Teslanaut DLNA ftw!
@WillSmith
This phone marks the turn of the tide.
Android is in the process of taking a leadership position.
@kpenning Definitely! And if someone out there needs wires, video out is through the headphone jack. Not HD, I realize, but I'm looking forward to playing games on my TV while using the phone as my controller, and the games won't have been written for HD either.
Crippled
At&t
Phone
T
I
Video calls
A
T
Eradicated
@kpenning
Same here with AT&T in the S.F. East Bay. AT&T Wireless works better for me then Verizon ever did. More consistent signal, and having all those brick and mortar stores with consistently helpful staff is a real plus.
I tried the Sprint network when I picked up a cheap Virgin Mobile prepaid account, and I'd say the Sprint network is about equal to AT&T as far as coverage in the S.F. East Bay (680/24 corridor); both still better than Verizon.
@WillSmith Hmm .. not a breaking news huh?
Why o why Engadget!
Anyway, this will be my next phone. On to the AT&T store!!
Wow! It's free with contract/upgrade at Letstalk.com. Even the no contract price on the phone is just $229. How can that be? I only bought iPhone4 like a month back and it let me get Captivate for $229 :-).
@WillSmith
"Captivating"
I'd rather it be Fascinating.
@WillSmith
Oh yes, it's going to be very captivating when you see that it has the same issue as iPhone 4, but on the right-hand side of the phone. Leftys rejoice! Everyone else? Sorry.
I wonder if this phone will receive any media coverage or public scrutiny... Somehow I doubt it.
@Teslanaut Why is HDMI out important? Do you not have other devices that connect to your TV to play back video?
As for the Captivate, I think it's a great looking phone. I'm going to have a look at that screen in person methinks. Not that I would ever cheat on my iPhone, but window shopping never hurt anyone. ;)
@Teslanaut ...but it has 3.5mm headphone to TV out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epytWcOFpYo&feature=player_embedded
@MagnetMan
Turn of the tide? With this, at least every US network will have a Tier 1 Android phone. Android is already a leader given that it is available on all networks.
In the US the iPhone is a niche product reserved for AT&T users only.
I doubt Apple for that matter cares too much about being the volume leader since they are already selling every single phone they can produce. They need to increase capacity first.
I spoke to an AT&T rep recently (by rep I mean someone in management) and his view was that they could sell at least 2x as many phones if they ever did a promo like Verizons buy one get one free Droid. Problem is that there are just not enough phones to go around!
On another note, most switchers to iPhone tend to be ex blackberry users. The network they acquire mist customers from is T Mobile. Final nugget....Verizon switchers are most likely to be women. There you have some Business Intelligence now :)
Captivate may be an attempt to attract more male customers away from Verizon. But AT&T also needs a hard core blue collar campaign like verizon's 'Droid' campaign to get the lower income smartphone users. Apparently, lower/mid income men tend to splurge on phones as a luxury item and Droid has really succeeded with them. Apparently the Droid Does campaign is based on the truck ads like GMC is professional grade, Ford Tough etc....and beer ads! Amazing stuff :)
@WillSmith
wow thanks at&t for promoting and marketing this awesome android phone...
@kitsVA
You weren't kidding lol! How do they make money on that? For just over $200 bucks, no contract I may pick one up just because I have yet to really try an android phone out yet. I could dump my iPhone 3G and still get a windows 7 phone on contract later this year (god, if they do actually release the damn things....). I'm kinda sick of waiting around for a Dell steak release date too. If you have to announce your phone release a week before it does, your marketing team failz (cough, Dell, cough).
@kitsVA and Its 150$ if you are an existing at&t customer :(
@WillSmith
You must be an iRobot
@kpenning It wasn't a bait-and-switch; AT&T's Facebook group (the ones who were responsible for leaking the $349 price) was just wrong. The phone has been listed at $499 on AT&T materials since a few days ago.
@kitsVA
Just checked it out, and it wasn't free although they say it is to start. They still wanted $150 from me after I went though everything. I think I will just wait for it to come to Newegg.
@kpenning
What kind of idiot would believe a high end smartphone would be 349$?
@statickeith Tmobile has the worst reception and 3G here in Miami FL. YOU GET WHAT U PAID FOR !!!
Yep. You definetly get what you pay for with tmobile, like data on my vibrant for $20 running 4g speeds. If tmobile has coverage where you live, it's by far the best value not to mention teir amazing customer service. Tmo version looks better than this one IMO. But if you are looking for a more business like look, i guess it's not that bad.
@kitsVA
Too bad that's an error, you'll be getting an email with the real price, $450, sometime today.
Engadget may i point you to this
http://pocketnow.com/hardware-1/samsung-captivate-review
Faster than an iphone 4 something you all will never admit for any phone
@ Sean Hollister
Is the HTC Aria really a high-end smartphone?
way to be late to the party engadet. got my captivate a few days ago when the stores were selling them early and already majorly cracked my screen. 125 dollar fee with insurance :(
@Teslanaut I believe that what Samsung have done may be better than the HDMI port. First of all, when you go to other people's houses, what are the chances that they will have a mini HDMI cable? Slim to none, and so you would have to carry your own cable and that person must be willing to let you monkey around with their TV. Second, so many people these days have DLNA devices, like an Xbox 360 or PS3, and just using those devices to browse and play content is easier. I know that there are severe format limitations that those devices have which the phone doesn't, but I believe that that is a better trade off especially when you look at the 30 fps problem that the Evo 4G is saddled with which HTC has confirmed is due to the implementation of the HDMI interface. Finally, as many have already noted, you can get SD video out through the 3.5 mm jack. One huge advantage of this is that, unlike with many HDMI implementations, all of the video on the screen will be output all the time. This means that all menus, web content, photos, games, etc. can be viewed through the TV. Many HDMI implementation only allow video and photos to be output and only through the special software that the phone has shipped with. Overall, I think that Samsung did a great job with the video out on this phone, but I will wait for time and the Internet to prove me right or wrong.
@statickeith Yeah a droid x would be awesome cause Verizon doesn't lock their android phones down.... But wait motorola used an eFuse to keep me from tampering with the bootloader?
@WillSmith check out this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dogM4Wu51tc about 4:45 mark :-)
@keplenk I just got back and my new Captivate and my not so new Nexus One are getting to know each other as they have a long life ahead of them. This is a great phone, but it feels really weird to be in the crowd that's biggest concern is "nice phone, but when does Froyo come out" lol
@kpenning
Seriously, Coverage here sucks, I'm in SoCal...but ugh I have AT&T and I can't stand the service I get. I switched from Verizon to Tmobile to AT&T and so far, I think TMo wins for me considering the price + package + coverage.
Hitler finds out about the Captivate's new pricing:
http://digg.com/gadgets/Hitler_finds_out_about_AT_T_s_latest_bait_and_switch
@WillSmith Looks great, I'd consider it over the iPhone 4 but i NEED to see Android 2.2 on it. It's pathetic Android devices don't (officially) have it yet other than the Nexus One.
@WillSmith - I showed one to my wife on Sunday. She's not a tech geek but we did not leave the store without one. I showed her the Aria too but she liked the larger screen. We did notice some pauses when going home or back but they are minor and very easy to handle. I have to say overall the phone is snappy and she loves the feature set.
She was permanently sold when our 4 year old started to move into his 5-hour energy stage and a little game of toss-it calmed him right down. If this had 2.2 on it, we'd already have two of them. Oh, at AT&T coverage is way better in this area as well. My colleagues on another carrier have to run over to the window so that the person they are taking to "can hear them now." ;^D
@WillSmith
Move over, iPhone.
There's a new Droid in town.
@kpenning As a SoCal resident, I concur...
Great phone, wrong carrier.
@Trickymaster
Fortunately for you, Samsung is sharing its "whore" with all the carriers...
Great phone, stay off AT&T and stop whining about a good carrier.
@Trickymaster it's the right carrier in some regions. If you mean the way they gimp the phone, well, xda developers for the revolution.
@Trickymaster
No revolution necessary. Apparently you can pretty easily sideload apps on here if you install the SDK.
@Trickymaster Ill be getting it on T-Mo and a sexier phone to boot. (yes, I said boot)