Samsung Captivate Android Smartphone Review
Design
One of the first things you'll notice when you pick up the Samsung Captivate is how lightweight and thin it is. In fact, the Captivate weighs 4.5 ounces and measures just 0.39 inches thick. It is 4.78 inches tall and 2.5 inches wide. The majority of the front of the device is consumed by the 4-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen display that supports a WVGA resolution of 480x800. At 4.5 ounces, the Captivate is lighter than the HTC Droid Incredible (4.6 ounces), Apple iPhone 4 (4.8 ounces), and the Motorola Droid X (5.47 ounces).
The Captivate features a slate design with rounded edges. The sides of the device are angled as well. Despite its thin and lightweight body, the Captivate feels very solid. Even the back battery cover is quite rigid in comparison to some of the plastic battery covers we've seen on other phones. In order to access the battery, you'll need to pull down on the bottom rear plate of the phone's frame.
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As far as hardware features are concerned, the Captivate offers many of the must-have features of a smartphone including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, an accelerometer, and a 5 megapixel camera with HD (720p) video capabilities. The Captivate comes with 16GB of onboard storage. Should you find yourself needing additional storage space, you can always add capacity via the microSD expansion slot located under the battery cover. Since the card slot is located above the battery, you can swap microSD cards without removing the battery.
You'll find four touch-sensitive buttons located just below the Captivate's screen (Menu, Home, Back, and Search). When pressed, these backlit buttons provide haptic feedback.
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On the top edge of the Captivate, you'll find a micro USB port that can be hidden by a sliding cover. There's also a 3.5mm headset jack. The cover for the micro USB port is different—most phones don't have this. Please note that although this is unique to the phone, it's not a bad thing, just different. In fact, if you've ever had pocket lint or other debris collect near the USB port of your current phone, this may be a very handy feature.
The right edge of the Captivate contains the Power button while the left spine houses the phone's volume rocker. On the back of the Captivate, you'll find the phone's 5 megapixel camera but no flash. An HDMI port is notably missing from the Captivate.
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