I've been working with Froyo on this phone for a few weeks now, so it's time to update again.

This review is for the Samsung Captivate, AT&T's version of the Galaxy S, also marketed by the other three major U.S. carriers: T-mobile (Vibrant) Sprint (Epic 4G) and Verizon (Fascinate). It is substantially revised from my previous review, and I've taken away another star for Samsung's failure to follow through on promises to give us an operating system that will let us take full advantage of this phone

The hardware is pretty impressive: It has a beautiful, bright, relatively huge (4-inch) screen (sAMOLED), with vibrant color, crisp responsiveness and decent battery life. Side-by-side with the vaunted iPhone 4 "retina" display, the Captivate looks better (subjective opinion) and is bigger (can't argue with that :-))

It doesn't have a front-facing camera or flash, but the pictures the 5mp camera takes are rather awesome. I used this phone to take "the" picture of my newborn nephew that went out to all the relatives to introduce him to the world :)

Connections are standard - a microUSB for charging and data transfer, a standard audio jack for connecting the device to car stereos and other systems. Well done there. It's a quad-band phone (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) capable of global roaming, though it better not go anywhere without me. In addition to 3G, it A can use EDGE and wi-fi to connect; you get free access to AT&T hotspots.
Voice and call quality is decent. The handset is slim, beautiful and comfortable to hold.

Now for the big changes. In my original review in July, I praised how zippy the phone was. Unfortunately, as I've added applications (and I have been careful about what I added) I've watched that performance degrade. There are times when the phone has a definite hesitation factor. The free Advanced Task Killer application has become a lifesaver for me; I can use it to rapidly kill any apps that I'm not currently using. The Hummingbird processor is still one of the faster ones available in phones at this level, however.

The phone shipped with a slightly complex but feature-rich UI. I can sort app shortcuts and widgets into seven "home screens," which you can futz around with to your heart's content. The native Android interface is overlaid with Samsung's proprietary TouchWiz system, andI like the Samsung better (though you can revert to classic Android features in many areas.) I particularly love the Swype system of keyboard entry, which lets you "type" by dragging your finger around the keyboard, using predictive text to speed the process. Now that I'm more used to it, I'm surprised at how accurate it is. The phone also has four hardware keys - Menu, Home, Back and Search (Why not a hardware key for phone? This is a little mystery, but not a big problem) The haptic feedback there is nice since they can be hard to see.

It took way too long to get Froyo/Android 2.2 out for this phone - the operating system that replaces the laggy, low-featured Android 2.1.

But if you buy this phone, you should upgrade the OS immediately. That will give you access to the following features: Upgraded Flash 10.1, giving us the ability to watch movies through Hulu and Netflix, eventually. Better speech-to-text functionality including real voice dialing via Bluetooth. (The fact that a touchscreen phone shipped without voice dialling is baffling to me; this would seem to be a key safety feature.) Enhanced Google Maps navigation. More options for organizing home screens, viewing widgets and picture galleries.

I'm happy again with my Captivate, but I am still a little peeved at how long it took Samsung to release Froyo.

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Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant GSM Phone - Unlocked

Samsung's Vibrant is aptly named. The unlocked Samsung Vibrant is a sleek Android-powered smartphone with a stunning 4 super AMOLED screen bringing the highest resolution possible to your smartphone experience while cutting down on glare and using significantly less power than a traditional display, expanding your battery life, delivering up to 6.5 hours talk per charge. This phone features more features to make your life and lifestyle more vibrant. The Vibrant's 4-inch Super AMOLED touch screen display gives you a vivid, sharp color HD-like viewing experience, whether choosing to play a game, watch a movie or read an e-book while on the go. The speedy Samsung 1GHz Cortex A8 Hummingbird Application Processor and six-axis motion sensing which uses an accelerometer and geo-magnetic sensors are optimized for media and gaming, which delivers a seamless, immersive experience while reading, watching and playing. Through pre-installed applications and pre-loaded content, the Samsung Vibrant's comprehensive multimedia capabilities combine all your entertainment and communication needs into one device. Running Android 2.1, the Samsung Vibrant offers a seven-paned home screen and access to Android Market to personalize the device with 65,000 applications, including applications for social networking, gaming, travel and more. Samsung's Social Hub service helps consumers to easily keep in touch with family and friends through integrated contacts, calendars, social networking sites and group messaging, including the ability to reply all for up to 10 contacts. The Vibrant also supports six languages: English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Italian and Korean. The Vibrant delivers advanced phone features such as GPS functionality with access to turn-by-turn navigation and Swype text input for fast, accurate communication. It also features a 5-megapixel camera with digital zoom and autofocus, and a video came

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T-Mobile Samsung Vibrant Galaxy S No Contract WiFi 1GHz Android Smartphone

Galaxy S with Android 2.2 OS Android 2.1 Platform Do you want the whole world in your hands? How about the whole universe? Tens of thousands of apps populate Google PlayTM -- everything from popular games to productivity tools to constellation maps. Powered by the latest Android platform, this phone fully integrates with Google Mobile Services. You're now at one with your Gmail account, Google Maps, YouTube videos and more. Instant social networking capabilities Social Networking Integration This phone integrates your email, social networking and phone contacts into one address book -- and combines your Google Calendar and social networking calendars. Also, you can instantly post your status and upload pics to Facebook, MySpace and Twitter with the Feeds & Updates app, as well as instantly see recent posts from friends and family on your home screen thanks to Buddies Now. The Amazon Kindle for AndroidTM app lets you choose from over 600,000 books and the MobiTV app gives you live 35 channels such as ESPN, NBC and Bravo. Create your own content with the 5.0MP camera/camcorder with autofocus, 3D sound, LED flash, 720p HD video recording and expandable memory up to 32GB. Sync and Share Digital Content with AllShareTM Transform the way you enjoy the HD video and pictures taken with your mobile device. You can wirelessly stream your movies, music and photos to your DLNA Certified® TV, PC or home theater. With AllShareTM it's easy to enjoy all of your content across DLNA Certified® devices.