Review: Samsung Galaxy S Captivate vs. the iPhone 4

It’s no secret that I’m a bit of an Apple fan girl… and a Dell fan girl. A Canon chick, a Belkin babe, a Samsung sweetheart… sheet, I’m even digging Sunbeam pretty hard right now with their bomb electric blankets and space heaters.

What can I say? I love me some gadgets. All of them. ALL OF THE GADGETS.

image by hadley hooper, nytimes.com

As brand loyal as I am, I’ve never been a “brand exclusive” type of girl and never will be I reckon.

If there’s room enough in my heart for both a Mac and 4 PCs, Starbucks and Second Cup, Diet Coke and… (okay – only Diet Coke – I won’t budge on that one) there’s certainly enough room in my heart for an iPhone and an Android phone.

Thus, when I was asked to review the Samsung Galaxy S Captivate Smartphone I was sincerely stoked!

It’s been nothing but love between me and my Samsung televisions and I was curious to see what their mobile arm could boast. Plus, that Metric concert at Union Station they hosted this summer was pretty dang cool.

I’ve long been interested in Google’s smartphone OS for many reasons – the least of which is not their insanely adorable logo. With such strong visual branding, the product just PLEADS to be awesome, am I right?

I’ve been curious about the Galaxy S in particular since my birthday when I grilled John Paul Tremblay on what he was working with, technologically speaking. I thought he had an iPhone at first when he whipped it out but nah – it was a Samsung Galaxy S.

I told him it looked like an iPhone knockoff and he agreed – but also said that he loved it.

Hey, if it’s good enough for Julian, it’s got to be solid enough for me to give it a shot. As I discovered after a week of playing with it, it’s quite a solid little device indeed.

Yep, I keep pink play-doh on my desk. Don’t judge.

Behold, ze Specs:

camera comparison, pajama styles

Here are a few of the things I liked about the Samsung Galaxy S Captivate:

• The stunning display. Bright, glossy, colourful and big. The 4-inch WVGA Super AMOLED screen is one of this device’s strongest selling points.
• The little boot screen is quite sharp, on that note – I found myself coooing at the beautiful dynamic graphic every timeI turned it on. Beats the iPhone’s static apple image by a long shot.
• The Android OS was easy to love, with some features I could definitely get used to.
• The micro USB connector covered by a little sliding cover. Different. I like it.
• The subtle keyboard vibration was perfect. It  made me feel more confident in my typing. My biggest beef with the iPhone is the crappy touch keyboard, and Samsung appears to have the upper hand here (literally! ba doom doom ching!)
• Removable battery. Second biggest beef with the iPhone is that it doesn’t have this.
• Cute logo. Obvs.
• The Android app market is pretty sweet. Apple’s App store is also robust, but this was like cruising through a brand new mall. A girl can always use more malls… especially ones where most things cost less than $5
• Like the iPhone, Samsung’s Galaxy S Captivate has a light, sleek exterior. Good shape. Nice feel. Well done!

both phones work well for taking photos of yourself before bed.

Here are some things I didn’t like:

She’s not Rachel an iPhone.

Also…

• No front-facing camera. Total deal killer for a narcissist like me.
• No flash. Again… shutterbugs are better off with an iPhone.
• Not as quick when surfing the web as with an iPhone, but that may be a Rogers vs. Telus thing.
• Battery life was sub par in comparison with the iPhone, but not by much. This is to be expected though, with such a vibrant screen and a user who games constantly.

the iPhone image is more saturated, but the Samsung makes me look less ugly so I like it better.

I can’t tell you much about how these devices compare in terms of actual PHONE usage because, to be honest, I rarely use my smartphone as a telephone. Why talk when you can Skype? Or better yet, chill in person?

Conclusion: If you’re looking for an alternative to the iPhone, The Samsung Galaxy S Captivate is a great option.

It’s a high powered device that’s as useful for work as it is for play – much like an iPhone 4. Plus, having an Android smartphone will surely give you more nerd cred than an iPhone if that’s what you’re after, and who isn’t these days? Nerd cred. *sigh* As if that’s even a term…

As loyal as I am to my current device, I’m glad to see other fabulous smartphones like Samsung’s Galaxy S Captivate on the market.

Healthy competition drives innovation, and both phones could take a note out of the other phone’s book…

Like, if phones could autonomously take notes and stuff. Is there an App for that yet?