iPhone 4 or Samsung Captivate (ATT)

[kaerflog]

Well there's more flaws than just the 3.5" screen on the 4.

OK, thats my opinion.
You can have your own opinion.
No need to quote me and say theres more flaws.
TO ME, the 3.5" is the only flaw.

 

[zerocool84]

OK, thats my opinion.
You can have your own opinion.
No need to quote me and say theres more flaws.
TO ME, the 3.5" is the only flaw.

Sensitive are we?

 

[kaerflog]

But its how flame wars start.
When you start quoting people's opinion and try to correct it.

 

[Rottie]

It's time I finally get a phone with a Data plan and these are the two I'm considering although I can't decide on which.

Sure, the iPhone is an iPhone... We all know what it is and what it can do. I will JB it once I get it. The Captivate on the other hand... while the Android market seems less mature at the moment, I am thinking it won't be for long.

Customization is a big thing for me and that is one of the major detractors of the iPhone for me. I do not like using W7 without Rocketdock, Rainmeter and so on. And I probably will not like looking at the same iPhone layout without being able to customize it.

Has anyone tried both and can comment on them - I mean, how are the apps on Androids compared to iPhone apps (for instance, I can't find a Facebook chat app for the Android which is something that I will want to get - but I am sure one will come out soon). I am worried about past complaints with regard to Samsung though and their response or lack-thereof. But the phone is very nice, yet feels a bit big. The phone was very snappy when I used it - mostly web browsing and Google Nav. But since it's ATT, looks like I would have to get around their 'restricted' apps settings. Although I'm not really sure if it's by Rooting or just installing the Sideloader.

for love of God, get Samsung Captivate and get AIM app that will work with Facebook chat....then you will say "hey baby I finally got a Captivate phone at last"

 

[s44]

Depends if you're lefty?

 

[ponyo]

My brother-in-law went through the same dilemma. His wife is on AT&T and has been iphone user since day 1. She's receiving her iphone4 next week. He has being using the original G1 android since day 1 on T-mobile. He switched to AT&T to combine plans with his wife and debated between the iphone 4 and the Captivate. I tried to push him to the iphone as I believe that's the best phone currently out with the double the battery life of current smartphones. But he chose to go with Captivate because he likes Android and the customization and control it gives you. He also loves the integration of Google services like Gmail and Google Maps. What sealed the deal was the price. $49 at Sam's Club with no activation charges. He picked it last night so I'm curious to see it and compare it to my Vibrant.

 

[Phokus]

Don't forget the dedicated google voice app (vs. the shitty iphone 4 google voice webapp) for the captivate/any android phone.

It's ridiculously powerful and makes phone calls amazing.

Basically the android O/S is better and the core functions of the phone is going to be better than the iphone 4. That's something to consider.

 

[qwertyaas]

Edit: seems like the captivate isn't as locked down? That's good news though.

you know, everyone tlaks about customization for Android phones, and I come from Symbian. There's tons of customization, but honestly after you dive into it for a bit, you get bored. You either gotta keep up with it, or you end up doing it once and forgetting about it. I did some Dalvik-cache hacks and some stuff on my Milestone and even though we don't have custom ROMs, there's still plenty of root hacks here and there. I did it once and I really don't wanna jump through all those weird hoops again.

I know if I had custom ROMs, I'd be doing it left and right all day, you gotta use nandroid backups and titanium backups to keep apps and widgets and hacks in place and stuff. You will end up reapplying a lot of stuff and once you take a break and get a decently good setting, you're not really going to want to dive into it all again 6 months later. Customization is nice, but honestly I have a setup for my Windows desktop with the right themes, custom icon sets, etc. I don't really feel like revamping that every week or month. It's just too much work.

Good point. But then again, how would you feel if Windows didn't let you customize anything for the most part? But still, you do make a point. As what you said is probably what will happen to me - I will customize it to what I like then leave it.

As for the Roms I heard they are working on it and it is looking good.

Again, when I mentioned Facebook - it was just an example. I wanted to get an overall opinion of the iPhone apps vs Android apps.

As for the Samsung support issue, that is something I am worried about. I heard they aren't to great with supporting their phone. But as the Galaxy line is their flagship phone over all carriers, if they don't support it they are definately shooting themselves in the foot for the mobile market.

Depends if you're lefty?

I'm a righty that hold a phone with my left hand

 

[tatteredpotato]

can you install custom ROMs on the Captivate?

I know a lot of the whole custom ROM phenomenon came from HTC phones like the N1, G1, as well as the Moto Droid, but I thought Samsung bootloaders are locked, much like the Moto Milestone and Droid X. If so then your chances of custom ROMs are shot. I know everyone holds hope for breaking it, but the Milestone has been out for 8 months and all attempts have been meh so far.

While true, the Milestone wasn't a very popular phone, so not many in the community were devoting a lot of time to cracking the bootloader. With more and more popular phone being released with encrypted bootloaders, you're going to see a much greater community effort to crack them.

 

[Pliablemoose]

So... what's keeping you from trying both of them?

Honestly, the platforms are pretty similar when you get right down to it, just depends on your preference.

 

[qwertyaas]

I tried both of them. That's the problem. I think both phones are amazing!

 

[gorcorps]

I tried both of them. That's the problem. I think both phones are amazing!

Another thing to consider is proper integration of Google Voice into Android. I would love to be able to drop my text plan and have all my texts routed through GV, and appear on my phone as if it was a real text. With the iphone you have an unofficial app which works decently, and you can set up email alerts... but then you're still juggling a couple apps and none of them are as slick as the stock messaging.

I believe (somebody correct me if I'm wrong) that Android treats google voice texts like any other text, and you receive and make them the same way as any other text. That's cool :thumbsup:

I still prefer my jailbroken iphone, but I do struggle with not being able to use google voice to the extent I want.

 

[tatteredpotato]

Another thing to consider is proper integration of Google Voice into Android. I would love to be able to drop my text plan and have all my texts routed through GV, and appear on my phone as if it was a real text. With the iphone you have an unofficial app which works decently, and you can set up email alerts... but then you're still juggling a couple apps and none of them are as slick as the stock messaging.

I believe (somebody correct me if I'm wrong) that Android treats google voice texts like any other text, and you receive and make them the same way as any other text. That's cool :thumbsup:

I still prefer my jailbroken iphone, but I do struggle with not being able to use google voice to the extent I want.

I don't use GV much right now, but the appealing thing to me is having my texts in the cloud. Porting my SMS archive around (which I feel very compelled to do) when I swap roms is annoying, and AFAIK there's no way to store texts to the SD card (without doing a backup).

 

[qwertyaas]

Another thing to consider is proper integration of Google Voice into Android. I would love to be able to drop my text plan and have all my texts routed through GV, and appear on my phone as if it was a real text. With the iphone you have an unofficial app which works decently, and you can set up email alerts... but then you're still juggling a couple apps and none of them are as slick as the stock messaging.

I believe (somebody correct me if I'm wrong) that Android treats google voice texts like any other text, and you receive and make them the same way as any other text. That's cool :thumbsup:

I still prefer my jailbroken iphone, but I do struggle with not being able to use google voice to the extent I want.

Not sure if I understood you correctly. I can route all SMS texts to GV in which it doesn't actually count as SMS but data - while still being able to SMS like normal (just though GV)?

That actually sounds amazing.

 

[gorcorps]

Not sure if I understood you correctly. I can route all SMS texts to GV in which it doesn't actually count as SMS but data - while still being able to SMS like normal (just though GV)?

That actually sounds amazing.

Yes. Now keep in mind GV doesn't do MMS messaging, so you couldn't send or receive pics or vids, but you can send texts through just your data.

 

[qwertyaas]

Yes. Now keep in mind GV doesn't do MMS messaging, so you couldn't send or receive pics or vids, but you can send texts through just your data.

Wow that is great. Question though - I just checked GV and it required me to pick a new number. So if someone were to text me, would they be texting my phone number or my GV number? Or when I setup GV, texts that are sent to my phone number are routed to the GV number/inbox?

 

[gorcorps]

Wow that is great. Question though - I just checked GV and it required me to pick a new number. So if someone were to text me, would they be texting my phone number or my GV number? Or when I setup GV, texts that are sent to my phone number are routed to the GV number/inbox?

You would have to give your GV number to people and they'd use that from now on. They would also call that number too, and your real phone would ring. You could also set it up to where you have multiple numbers connected to one GV number, so if people call your GV it'll ring your cell+home+work all at the same time if you want it to and you can answer whichever one you're at.

 

[Spicedaddy]

I would've liked an Android phone, but my cell company's best offering was a Sony X10, which I didn't like. So I got an iPhone 4 and I'm very happy with it. The screen alone is worth it, and iOS works well. Battery life is good, and it's reassuring to know I can drop by the Apple store if I have a problem, instead of dealing with Sony/Samsung/HTC/etc. support.

So OS-wise, Android would be my choice, but hardware-wise, the iPhone gets the nod.

 

[Pliablemoose]

PSA re: Google Voice, you can set it up on the web, and use it with any phone, any OS.

I have mine set up to forward my calls to whatever phone I'm using, as well as texts, when I get a call and don't pick it up, it transcribes the message & emails & texts me with the translation, once again to ANY phone.

I just changed my GV number to an LA number so I don't have to dump my family plan to get a local #.

 

[pm]

I did this too - told everyone I changed my cell phone number and to text and call my Google Voice number. It is amazing, but as gocorps said, it's not as slick on the iPhone as it is on an Android phone (I'm using Prowl to send SMS's as notifications).

 

[tatteredpotato]

Has the "voice lag" improved? When I trialed it several months ago there was some noticeable lag at times (1-2s).

 

[tatteredpotato]

One big thing the Android app store has that the Apple app store doesn't have is a "trial period" for all apps bought. There's a 24hr app return policy in the Android store for any app bought. Apple has nothing like that.

Just saw this on Giz today: Link

Apple has a new App Store category called Try Before You Buy, which features free lite versions of popular paid apps. Nice idea, but not good enough. Apple, we want a full 24-hour trial period on all apps.

Instead of having lite flavors of paid apps to try, Apple should implement an App Store-wide 24-hour trial mode. Right now, not all apps have free lite versions and, some of those lite versions, are feature limited. This is a problem, because it limits the user when they want to explore what's in the marketplace.

 

[RandomFool]

By the way, is it just me or does the Captivate just feel... huge.
D

That's actually what turned me off of the Captivate. I know it's hardly bigger than a 3GS, but it does feel massive. The iPhone is already bigger than I'd like for a phone. Something like the HTC Aria is the perfect size in my opinion, just need one with better specs.

 

[qwertyaas]

You would have to give your GV number to people and they'd use that from now on. They would also call that number too, and your real phone would ring. You could also set it up to where you have multiple numbers connected to one GV number, so if people call your GV it'll ring your cell+home+work all at the same time if you want it to and you can answer whichever one you're at.

Thanks for the information! I'll definitely be looking into that.

That's actually what turned me off of the Captivate. I know it's hardly bigger than a 3GS, but it does feel massive. The iPhone is already bigger than I'd like for a phone. Something like the HTC Aria is the perfect size in my opinion, just need one with better specs.

Yep. I preferred smaller phones. I used to use a Razr then went to a BB Pearl. So any phone I get now will be pretty big in comparison. If just ATT would take the phone off the massive security lock so I can see how it feels in my pocket. But then again, between the iPhone and Captivate, there isn't that much of a size difference.

 

[MrX8503]

If you need customizations go for Android.

As for apps, Android apps are not as good. The iPhone has better apps and more of them.