Rogers has now confirmed that the Samsung Galaxy S Captivate is “coming soon”.
On the company blog they state that “We’re excited to announce that we will be adding the highly-anticipated Galaxy S Captivate to our Android and Social View lineup in the coming weeks.”
A slimming black slab superphone, Samsung’s Captivate contains nearly all the modern cell Android 2.1 amenities: 7.2 Mbps 3G connectivity, WiFi, a speedy 1GHz Hummingbird processor, 5-megapuxel camera and HD (720p resolution, 30 fps) video recorder, Bluetooth 3.0, six-axis sensor for enhanced gaming, 16GB internal memory, and SWYPE text input. Captivate also includes something Samsung calls “Social Hub,” which aggregate updates from your Facebook, Twitter and MySpace accounts.
The Captivate’s main physical advantage over the iPhone is its screen. It’s a 4-inch super AMOLED display, compared to the iPhone’s 3.5-inch LCD display. The Captivate displays brighter, more accurate colors than the iPhone; For instance, the red band on ESPN’s home page is actually red, as opposed to the nearly maroon rendering on the iPhone. However, the Captivate’s whites tend toward the blue, and the iPhone’s screen is generally brighter, especially out in the sun. With its 960 x 640 pixel Retina resolution, reading text on the iPhone 4 is also easier on the eyes. But you’d only notice the brightness and readability differences in a side-by-side comparison, and neither is a deal breaker.
The curvier Captivate is around a quarter-inch taller and wider than the iPhone, and barely perceptively thicker. None of this makes much real-world difference, especially considering the extra half-inch of screen real estate. Its rear resembles the old Sidekick. Even though it’s slightly bigger, the Captivate’s all-plastic housing makes it a surprisingly noticeable 0.3 ounces lighter than the iPhone 4.
To the left of the earpiece are two small windows: These are light sensors, not a front-facing camera array, which the Captivate surprisingly lacks.
One other annoying drawback is the backlighting on the front touch control, such as menu, home, back, and search. The touch control backlighting goes off while the display is still on, rendering them nearly invisible in artificial light. We often had to touch the area twice, once just to activate the backlight so we could see where the controls were. This became increasingly frustrating the longer we played with the Captivate, and almost became a deal breaker.
There are only two physical controls: the volume rocker on the left side, and the power switch on the right, which doubles as a lock and hold key in certain apps.
The microUSB jack is at the top, next to the headphone jack, which makes it less awkward to use the phone when it’s plugged into a PC for charging and syncing.
To celebrate the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S smartphone in Canada, Samsung Mobile and Metric, Canada’s hottest indie band, will rock the downtown core tonight at 7:00 pm with a free street-level concert at Toronto’s Union Station.
Thanks to mobilesyrup , redboard , digitaltrends
