Move over, iPhone 4, the Samsung Captivate is coming

[Sworrub]

The Galaxy S for AT&T

http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/17/s...y-s-launching/

So much for the "AT&T refuses to release high-end Android devices" conspiracy theory, eh? T-Mobile had been widely pegged as Samsung's launch partner for the Galaxy S in the States, but AT&T stole its thunder this morning by announcing the Captivate featuring a 4-inch Super AMOLED display, Android 2.1, 7.2Mbps HSPA, and a 1GHz Hummingbird processor. If it sounds more or less like the European Galaxy S, well, your intuitions are spot-on -- AT&T actually describes the Captivate as "a Galaxy S smartphone." As for media, you can expect a 5 megapixel camera with 720p recording, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and 16GB of onboard storage combined with support for external storage for a total of up to 32GB; you also have 802.11n WiFi and a variety of built-in apps (some of which you'll want, others you won't) like Swype and AT&T Navigator. Unfortunately, this is a little while out yet -- AT&T is only saying that it'll launch "in the coming months" for an undisclosed price -- but we're at least stoked that AT&T's finally fully entrenched in the Android superphone game. Follow the break for the full press release.

AT&T AND SAMSUNG MOBILE ANNOUNCE UPCOMING AVAILABILITY OF THE SAMSUNG CAPTIVATE™, A GALAXY S™ SMARTPHONE

New breed of smartphone powered by the Android™ 2.1 platform features 4-inch Super AMOLED touch screen, 1GHz application processor and innovative entertainment and social networking features

DALLAS, June 17, 2010 - AT&T* and Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile), the No. 1 mobile phone provider in the U.S.**, today announced the upcoming availability of the Samsung Captivate™, a Galaxy S™ smartphone. The Android™ 2.1-powered Samsung Captivate will bring users a fully integrated entertainment, messaging and social networking experience packaged in an alluring, streamlined design surrounding a stunning 4-inch display.

The Captivate's powerful set of Web-based features is maximized with the addition of AT&T's High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) 7.2 Mbps technology, which provides a considerable speed boost to the nation's fastest 3G network when paired with expanded backhaul. Speed plus AT&T's dedicated focus to mobilize everything – including video content, social networking, music and messaging – is reflected in Captivate's strong feature set.

The Captivate represents a new breed of smartphones powered by the open and innovative Android platform, with full support of Google Mobile Services including Android MarketÔ, Google SearchÔ, Google MapsÔ, GmailÔ, YouTubeÔ, Google TalkÔ and more. Users can also access the Android Market™ and customize their experience with more than 60,000 exciting and useful applications. The Captivate also features Samsung's Super AMOLED display screen technology, a 1 GHz Samsung Hummingbird Application Processor and Samsung Social Hub, a feature that integrates the user's social networking services, messages, personal and business email, calendars and contacts.

"Add up Captivate's amazing screen, huge amounts of onboard storage, a super-fast processor, all fueled by the nation's fastest 3G network and a nationwide Wi-Fi network and you get a smartphone we know our customers will crave," said Jeff Bradley, senior vice president, Devices, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets.

"With the launch of the Captivate, AT&T customers will experience a groundbreaking handset with world class features that are unique to Samsung's Galaxy S class of devices, including Samsung's Super AMOLED screen technology and 1GHz Hummingbird Application Processor," said Omar Khan, chief strategy officer for Samsung Mobile. "The Captivate represents a new breed of smartphone that will truly change and enrich the way consumers interact with their device on an everyday basis."

Leading Hardware Features
The Captivate provides a premium viewing experience on its large, brilliant 4-inch display powered by Samsung's Super AMOLED touch screen technology. Super AMOLED technology yields thinner displays, delivering one of the thinnest, most responsive full-featured smartphones in the industry. Samsung's innovative display technology makes watching movies, viewing videos and playing games come to life like never before, even in bright light and outdoor environments.

In addition, the Samsung Captivate is designed with a six-axis sensor that combines the smartphone's accelerometer and gyroscope to provide a smooth, fluid gaming experience when the user is tilting the device up or down or panning the phone to the left or right. The Captivate's user interface also supports a series of advanced touch screen gestures capabilities including multi-touch pinch, long tap and zoom and vertical and horizontal swiping. This series of versatile gestures provide easier and quicker access to many applications including location-based services, Web browsing and digital photos.

Powering the Captivate is a 1 GHz Samsung Hummingbird Application Processor, which produces amazing 3-D graphics, faster upload and download times and full richness of HD-like multimedia content. The Captivate is also outfitted with 3D sound capabilities, giving the user surround-sound stereo quality, when listening on hard-wired headphones.

Features for All Users
The Captivate keeps users connected with Samsung's Social Hub, which is built around Messaging and Contacts, both of which initiate the sending and receiving of information, whether it is e-mail, instant messaging, social network updates or SMS messages. Additionally, calendar information from portal calendars, such as Google Calendar™, and social networking services are displayed together in one calendar with two-way synchronization. The familiar text messaging experience is enhanced with group messaging and "reply all" functionality for up to 10 contacts, a threaded conversations format, a consolidated inbox, and enhanced multi-media display.

In addition, AT&T customers who choose Captivate can take advantage of AT&T Address Book. A Web-based service, AT&T Address Book syncs contacts to an online address book so customers can access and manage their mobile contacts from their handset – or their PC. Also available to users at no additional charge is access to AT&T's entire national Wi-Fi network -- any Captivate with the Wi-Fi turned on will automatically connect when in range.

Not just for social networking and messaging, the Captivate truly brings your home and office computer to the palm of your hand with support for push email and integrated calendar services, including Google™ and Yahoo for consumers and small businesses and ActiveSync for enterprise users. Messaging is simple and easy with the Captivate's virtual QWERTY keyboard with Swype technology, which allows users to input text faster and in a more intuitive way with one continuous finger motion across the screen keyboard.

True Mobile Entertainment
In addition, the Captivate features best-in-class entertainment features, including future access to Samsung Media Hub, a full library of video and literary content powered by some of the biggest names in entertainment. Samsung Mobile looks forward to sharing additional information about Media Hub in the near future and the Captivate will feature a pre-loaded app that can take users to download Media Hub in the future. The Captivate features Samsung's All Share application, which enables inter-device connectivity through DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) technology, allowing users to send user-generated video content wirelessly to other DLNA-enabled devices, such as TV's, monitors and laptops, allowing for a rich, interactive entertainment experience.

The Captivate is packed full of features that enhance users' daily life, including a 5.0-megapixel camera/ camcorder with auto-focus and HD video recording (720p)***, MP3 player, 3.5-millimeter headphone jack and expandable memory for photos, videos and music, up to 16 GB. This combined with an on-board 16 GB of storage allows for up to 32 GB of capacity for music and video.

The Captivate also includes AT&T Navigator, which offers voice-guided and visual turn-by-turn GPS driving directions with automatic reroute, full-color maps, and real-time traffic alerts and AT&T Family Map, which gives families the ability to track a child's location from a PC or cell phone and request location updates at any time.

Additional key specifications of the Captivate include Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n), full HTML browser with tap & hold zoom), Bluetooth® 3.0 technology. The Captivate also includes tri-band 3G connectivity and quad-band GSM technology, which allows AT&T customers to make calls in more than 220 countries and download data in more than 195.

The Samsung Captivate is scheduled for release in the coming months at AT&T retail locations nationwide or at http://www.att.com/wireless. For more information or to register for notification when available visit www.att.com/captivate . For the complete array of AT&T offerings, visit www.att.com.

[Jonny]

wtf why at&t, i hope to giant spaghetti monster they also release on Verizon

[Blabj]

I'd never touch another Samsung mobile phone again in my life, I've had 3 of their touch screens in the last 2 years. All of them have broken, all had shit touch recognition, all of them promised apps (and like the article says - some of them you wont want. Try most of them.)

I can tell you now, people will still be using iphone 4s in 3-4 years.

[Kerberoz]

Still waiting for the Nexus 6.

[Zeh]

Plastic is gonna be shit quality, AT&T won't let you get apps from anywhere but on the phone, and it's fugly. Release an incredible on AT&T, please.

[Krandor]

Plastic is gonna be shit quality, AT&T won't let you get apps from anywhere but on the phone, and it's fugly. Release an incredible on AT&T, please.

That's a killer, because you know AT&T will do this since they apparently think Android phones should carry the same restriction as the iPhone.

And whoever gets this, yeah, expect shitty build quality. I've owned 2 Samsung phones over the year and they were both pieces of crap. Cute hardware/features be damned, Samsung always manages to fuck it up by wrapping it in a shitty case.

[Sworrub]

I've had a Samsung Blackjack II for almost three years. Excellent phone... this one will be excellent since it's essentially a Galaxy S.

The best phone of the year, just watch.

[Korietsu]

The only problem with this is that they skinned android to look like iOS. Shit is never going to get updated.

[Rhinox]

Yeah they not even subtle about the UI design

Its like they don't give a fuck which I can respect.

[jmc]

At&t should just not carry android phones............ just look what the did to the backflip......

*sigh*

[Amastacia]

I've had a Samsung Blackjack II for almost three years. Excellent phone... this one will be excellent since it's essentially a Galaxy S.

The best phone of the year, just watch.

I've had a Samsung Blackjack II for about 2 years, and I couldn't disagree more.

Good Mobile Messenger (corp. Exchange email app) doesn't help anything by being atrocious, but the Blackjack is slow, kludgy, poorly built, with mediocre battery life if you go anywhere near the 3G radio, and an overall crappy UI compared to any Blackberry (much less any touchscreen phone).

[Krandor]

If you're on AT&T, get an iPhone (really does anyone actually like being on AT&T? Everyone I know just deals with it to own an iPhone). If you want an Android phone, go with any of the other major carriers. Even if the Captivate ends up not feeling like it was assembled by a drunk 5 year old, AT&T will still find ways to ruin it like they have every other android phone.

[Korietsu]

^ Cant agree with this more.

Either get a nexus one, or go get an android phone from verizon. The costs of owning an evo don't stack up to the network reliability.

[jmc]

^ Cant agree with this more.

Either get a nexus one, or go get an android phone from verizon. The costs of owning an evo don't stack up to the network reliability.

all depends on area for a statement like that.

I haven't read of any complaints pertaining to 4g in my area (Boston, MA)...... the extra $10/month for the Evo was well cheaper than verizons plans I thought?

*edit*

Anyways, i'd even avoid a nexus one at this point. T-mobile is probably just as bad as at&t on service and such.

Only 2 companies I would stick with, would be Sprint and Verizon. If you live in a major US town, you can just pick either one of those services and would be fine on coverage. If your looking for a 4g phone down the line..... I would personally wait a little before signing a 2 year agreement with either company. Verizon has talked awhile now about getting rid of unlimited data for buckets of data, while sprint actually has "unlimited" data. However with sprint, there's no stopping them from going the "bucket of data" way... and they might only be pushing unlimited 4g data just to get customers in the door.

[Korietsu]

all depends on area for a statement like that.

I haven't read of any complaints pertaining to 4g in my area (Boston, MA)...... the extra $10/month for the Evo was well cheaper than verizons plans I thought?

*edit*

Anyways, i'd even avoid a nexus one at this point. T-mobile is probably just as bad as at&t on service and such.

Only 2 companies I would stick with, would be Sprint and Verizon. If you live in a major US town, you can just pick either one of those services and would be fine on coverage. If your looking for a 4g phone down the line..... I would personally wait a little before signing a 2 year agreement with either company. Verizon has talked awhile now about getting rid of unlimited data for buckets of data, while sprint actually has "unlimited" data. However with sprint, there's no stopping them from going the "bucket of data" way... and they might only be pushing unlimited 4g data just to get customers in the door.

The biggest issue with the current 4g tech is that it's based on clear's technology, and is pretty damned prone to weather issues. The 4 g service plan is cheaper for individuals than verizon, however, if you're on a family plan, its cheaper on verizon, and if you're getting 4g, its still cheaper to go verizon because they charge you to use the features you'd want to have 4g for regardless.

At least with the nexus you can buy it unlocked, and go to whatever network you want. ATT in the texas area is more reliable than sprint, but still leagues behind verizon. There's one place I don't get service and that's because its an electromagnetic black hole in the engineering building on campus. Right next to all the microprocessor/wireless labs, and there's a plasma research lab on the other end of the building.

Even iPhones and the Evo have problems on campus in the apartments, verizon is full signal, and it's faster than the basic internet package because it doesn't drop packets like mad.

[jmc]

The biggest issue with the current 4g tech is that it's based on clear's technology, and is pretty damned prone to weather issues. The 4 g service plan is cheaper for individuals than verizon, however, if you're on a family plan, its cheaper on verizon, and if you're getting 4g, its still cheaper to go verizon because they charge you to use the features you'd want to have 4g for regardless.

At least with the nexus you can buy it unlocked, and go to whatever network you want. ATT in the texas area is more reliable than sprint, but still leagues behind verizon. There's one place I don't get service and that's because its an electromagnetic black hole in the engineering building on campus. Right next to all the microprocessor/wireless labs, and there's a plasma research lab on the other end of the building.

Even iPhones and the Evo have problems on campus in the apartments, verizon is full signal, and it's faster than the basic internet package because it doesn't drop packets like mad.

See, it does all depend on area when it comes to service. Like I said for my location, Verizon/Sprint are pretty much the same for coverage. I've owned Verizon for about 3 years, and sprint for little over a year now.

Theres is no way verizon family plan is cheaper than sprint....... family plan pricing was the only reason why I switched to sprint from verizon. Unless pricing on plans varies by location.

Verizon: 3 line family plan, 1400 minutes..... unlimited text.....unlimited data on all 3 phones = $220/month before taxes.

Sprint: 3 line family plan, 1500 minutes.... unlimited text.....unlimited data on all 3 phones = $150/month before taxes. If all 3 phones are 4g phones, add $30 to the total.

So.... if all 3 phones are 4g, someone would save $480 a year and even get more minutes. If none of the phones are 4g phones, or one of them are. Someone would save $720-$840/year.

To some people (like myself), saving $500-$1k/year is huge.


As for the nexus one...... isn't it due out on verizon soon? Would be alot better off, than dealing with t-mobile.

[Vandole]

so are we calling this a false alarm for it being an iphone killer?

[jmc]

so are we calling this a false alarm for it being an iphone killer?

Think it would be safe to say............. that should wait before calling it a iphone killer. Considering the iphone 4 is not out yet, and neither is this phone.

Not to mention, we have yet to hear anything on how at&t is going to make this phone "Unique"

[Sworrub]

Sounds like a lot of people hold a bias against AT&T, not its phones...

The Captivate is more powerful than the Evo in every way... and people are jerking off to the evo and downing the Captivate.. what the hell?

[jmc]

Sounds like a lot of people hold a bias against AT&T, not its phones...

The Captivate is more powerful than the Evo in every way... and people are jerking off to the evo and downing the Captivate.. what the hell?

Its because people believe that there will truely be no "iphone killer" on the network that is the only supplier of the iphone.

Look up what at&t did with their other android phone, the moto backflip......Its a joke to even call that phone a android phone because of the restrictions at&t put on the phone.

So while spec wise it is probably one of the best phones on the market, at&t has a track record of screwing that up somehow.