Samsung Captivate Review and Problems: Consumer
The Samsung Captivate for AT&T will be ready and available from July 18 for $199 on contract with no rebate required, you could read more and watch a video here.
The Captivate has some cool features such as a 4-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen, 1GHz Hummingbird processor, 5-megapixel camera with 720p video recording and playback, plus 16GB of internal storage and multi-touch support.
Laptop Magazine has already done their review and came back with some pros and cons, on the pro side they say that the Samsung Captivate offers Sharp and vibrant Super AMOLED screen, Good audio player and sound quality, Helpful Daily Briefing feature, Excellent HD camcorder and Strong call quality.
On the con side they go on to say that the handset’s camera lacks flash, no mobile hotspot app and that it cannot side-load apps.
So please once you have the Samsung Captivate smartphone in your hands please do send in your personal reviews and opinions, if you come across any problems what so ever please let us and other readers know as well.
Comments
125 thoughts on “Samsung Captivate Review and Problems: Consumer”
Phone is fantastic. Using it right now to type this. Only complaint thus far (minor one) is the lack of flash. Other than that absolutely no complaints. Phone is gorgeous and definitely one of the best out for at&t.
Hey Im currently using the Samsung Captivate as well. but the battery only lasts for about a day for me. To be honest, a little less than a day.
I've had my phone charged at 100% this morning and it's about 2pm now and battery life is down to 64% and i've only browsed the web for about an hour with this phone.
Do you have any problems with short battery life?
I am reading reports of 300hrs stand-by time – that is crazy. Just got mine last week…need to charge again mid day just to get thru the day. Moderate phone calls and email…not even surfing the web….. too bad… I just traded my HTC Aria (only reason, screen too small)… wish I would have looked more into battery life….very disappointed
d00d tel me the pros and cons iphone 4 and captivateeeee idk wich 2 gett
Try to connect to WIFI. That will save your battery… However, you will have to charge it every night. Battery life is very short.
This phone is horrible… there is a known problem with at&t they will replace the phone if it is still under warranty. It will be replaced with another captivate though. But they say that the new one should not have the same problem. We will see.
Very nice phone! This is my first phone outside of the apple world since the launch of the first iphone! It will take a little while to get accustomed to the dufferences in the OS but i love it! Beautuful screen, camera, and music player! I never had a flash ir frint facing camera on any other iphone and dont think i will miss it. While maybe not an "iphone killer", it will open the door to at&t customers for quality smartphones outside the Apple regime. Great work samsung! Apple beware!
using captivate now, came from htc aria, for the phone is very fast but must say I do wish I could change some things
pros very fast and responsive the phone doesn't Max out the clock speed which in return allows all apps. To be very smooth
Great choice of battery. Lfe is clvery great and I'm running many Apps in background
Cons
no flash indeed. A real waste for such a nice camera that does so well with still and vids.
No setting to change the way the app page can scroll left or right up and down. Only left and right like iPhone. Very annoying
keyboard default can only be adjusted from settings rather then when the keyboard pops up. Very annoying because sometimes I like to use swype and sometimes I like to speech to text.
No "android scenes" options. So whatever 8home screens I choose they can't be used as a profile like other android phones
Widgets are very limited. I really. Miss my time and weather widget. And Widgets are very large. Too large to the point I can only have one for each screen. Very bad. Can't think of much else if I do ill repost
My captivate came with weather widget on it.. its the first page on left.. You can add widgets by pushing on the screen you want to add them to.
you can change the keyboard when it pops up by holding down on the "Type to Compose" area and choosing input method
I have had mime for 2 days now and it locks up and the battery has drained much faster than my old iPhone 3G. Samsung is working on my problems and is going to call me back. Disappointed thus far.
Hey Matt I bought my phone about a month ago and it is shutting off by itself and it is locking up quit a bit.I use my phone for an alarm and I almost didnt make it to work on time one morning because apparently if the phone is shut off the alarm doesnt work.that sucks.all my other phones would do that.I have called at@t and they act like they have never heard of these problems but I am reading so many problems from other people I am starting to believe they are lying to me.My last samsung starting messing up so I upgraded and I am getting tired of all the crap.I was wondering how things turned out for you now.Please let me know if you dont mind.Wondering if I should take this back and get something else.Thanks again for any help.
I've had mine for 48 hours, and there are definitely problems. Adobe Flash is not supported AT ALL. This phone has Android OS 2.1, and no idea if AT&T will permit 2.2 or not. The "unknown sources" app loading is disabled by AT&T, so you cannot load ANY apps apart from Android market apps.
The email client is hideous. There is no support for moving messages between folders. That means that if you toss a message into the Trash, you cannot get it back out again. The lack of folder support exists for POP and IMAP: you can SEE your IMAP folders, but you cannot move messages between them.
In addition, the system seems to ignore the sync settings on the phone completely. I've asked it to check my email accounts every five minutes, and that does not happen at all. It's not even attempting to log in to either of my accounts to check email – even if I try to do a REFRESH NOW. Facebook/Twitter widgets also don't update automatically when set to – they only update when you switch to them (and then, of course, you have to wait for the update.)
Two hours on the phone with Samsung Level 3 tech support, and an hour with AT&T tech support led only to promises that these things "will be fixed in an upcoming software release." That is, of course, IF AT&T "allows" the software release to go to its customers.
Overall a very disappointing phone. It has promise – beautiful camera, display, etc… – but no joy on the key communications apps that come with the phone and that I would, otherwise, rely on.
Guess I'll have to return mine and go back to the iPhone…
Wow, I have had absolutely none of the problems you are having. I have 3 different emails on my phone and they all update remarkably. not sure what kind of apps you want, but there are a rediculous amount of apps on the Android market. Sorry you got such a dud of a phone, because I absolutely love mine. not missing my Iphone 3G S at all.
I WENT THROUGH 3 CAPTIVATES ALL WITH DIFFERENT ISSUES, I WAS ALSO A IPHONE USER REALLY MADE ME HATE APPLE PRODUCTS, NOW IM GOING TO TRY THE HTC INSPIRE I WILL SEE HOW THAT GOES!
This is my first smart phone and I'm loving it, beautiful display, fast etc. Did a lot of research and seemed like a better choice for the future than an I-phone. Still learning all that it can do and I'm already addicted.
Cons: AT&T has loaded the phone with a tone of apps that I'll never use and there's no way to delete, an even bigger annoyance is the inability to customize some of the pages for my own use, AT&T seems to have locked down apps on several of these pages, may be a settings issue but so far I haven't found a way to change it. I'm finding it nearly impossible to use the phone with the usb cable connected, it pops right out, have to keep the phone almost stationary. Could be a big problem since the battery drains quickly when using video, internet etc. Pages jump around when browsing web with no input, reading news etc., has happened quite a few times. Read on another site that this is a known problem, was hoping it was just my learning curve with an android phone, will see.
You can uninstall apps. Go to Settings > Applications > Manage Applications
You can't uninstall any default AT&T apps. I've tried.
Does anyone else's Captivate just randomly turn off by itself? I was dumb enough to rely on mine as my alarm clock this morning so I charged it last night and then set the alarm. I woke up two hours late to see that my phone had turned off on it's own. Fml…. anyone else experiencing this???
Same problem with the alarm clock .. was wondering if I slept through it. Twice. Didn't think so ….
is this available in india
if u know that then send me mail on friendsofmanish@gmail.com
pls pls
I have the same problem. Its turning itself off constantly and seems to be increasing. I'm missing calls and alarms. Any fixes?
i use my alarm every morning with no problem. apps on the other pages. just go to the page that has the apps on it you want to get rid of or the page you want to delete and then hit the menu button, edit and it will display a minus sign (-) in the top right corner of the page. hit the minus and it will as if you want to delete. hit delete. I have my phone down to just the one page. don't have a need for all seven pages or the apps they had on some of the other pages.
i just got my phone yesterday and alreay having issues with apps exiting out on their own. for example, i'm in a middle of composing an email and boom!…gone, back to the home screen. Same with everything else…games, calendar, contacts, notes…you name it. anyone else having similar issues? could it be just my phone?
I am seeing the same thing…including something where the home button keeps firing even though it is not being pressed…crazy!
I really like my Captivate too, but yes even in some of the basic applications like phone, I feel the phone vibrate as if I pressed the back button and I am back a screen or back on the home page. I hope they address this with a software update and it is not a hardware issue. Sometimes I'll do something and the phone will go a little nuts and vibrate a bit and show me some icons and they'll disappear and reappear for about 20 seconds. It is just a theory right now, but I wonder if having live wallpaper on now affects this.
Glad to know Im not the only one! Love the phone otherwise. Hope it gets resolved. Anyone have any answers, post them here please.
I got mine on Thursday and starting putting it thru the ringers over the weekend – downloaded several apps, all from android market. I woke up this morning, removed the charger cable from the phone – the phone had a strange "usb connected" in the top notifications line – kept switching that between that and a craigslist notification I had on! i powered the phone off – then something else happened – the phone cannot be powered on after power off WITHOUT CONNECTING THE USB CHARGER CABLE!! it is almost like the battery is not supplying sufficient current or appropriate voltage. Of course, when I connect the charger cable, battery symbol comes up all green. I will take it to the AT&T store tomorrow, but appreciate any input from anyone. By the way, now, the "usb connected" text is replaced with the usb symbol!! great phone, and I was waiting for months for a decent android phone on AT&T, but so far the experience has been disappointing.
i just got my samsung captivate and when i plug the phone into my computer and the device driver software isn't installing and i can't find out a way to sync my iTunes music onto my captivate phone….does anyone know how to do this??? please & thank you.
Mine took a really long time to install on the computer, but if you're patient it should work. I sync'd my itunes using the "isyncr" application. It's free and gives you simple steps to follow. I have all my itunes music on my Captivate now. My only issue with the phone is that it turns off by itself randomly. I can't have that……. and a lot of apps. seem to crash and lock up the phone.
You should get the proper device driver for the computer and then USB attach it and then mount the phone in phone settings. After that just make a folder called music and drag and drop them in that folder no itunes bs… and for the apps crashing the phone i have only noticed that shazam has frozen my phone.
i had to go onto the samsung korea website to get the correct driver & install Samsung KIES. Then it worked.
I had a connection problem also. Come to find out that I wasn’t opening the sliding door all the way on the phone to get a proper connection. I would suggest doing that first so that the usb would not fall out and you can get a proper charge.
My phone will shut down on its own with remaining battery power left. The only way to turn it back on is to remove and reinsert the battery. Bug?
I had a similar problem. I went to the ATT store and got them to give me a new battery. It is working fine after that.
Had the same problem, only had phone 4 days now & I have to take batterry out after every call as the home screen won't stay on long enough for me to give it my password. Nothing but dropped calls after that, once even while I was on phone with cust svc. Brought it back to store & got a new one. Lets try it again.
I'm having a similar problem where the phone shuts down on it's own. Haven't had to remove the battery to get it to turn back on… may have to return it if it keeps powering off.
my phone shuts off on its own as well, cant seem to figure out why. there has to be a power saver setting somewhere that is doing it.
Now a days I found my mobile getting powered off automatically by itself
But I can switch it on without removing the battery
I don't know why this is happening? So planning to take it to ATT store
I bought the Captivate last week and on the fourth day of use, my android email failed. the message line is shown but when you click on it, you get a message
Sorry!, The application Email (process com. android.email) has stopped unexectedly. Please try again. dumpstate app…email log has been saved. use #9900# to copy out log." What does that mean? I googled and see that this has happened on other android phones. should I just return the phone.?
I keep having same problems with my text messaging keeps saying foreclose, have you found out anything?
Opening the slider all the way definitely fixes the problem.
I'll be SOB! I didn't know about the door until about an hour ago! lmao! I had the phone for like 5 months now too! I was wondering why suddenly I wasn't getting a connection unless I push the cable around etc. and I was googling it and I kept seeing something about sliding door and I was like "what are they talking about?" and I was wondering if maybe it had a latch at one time (I traded my iPhone with someone for the Captivate-both phones were only like a month or so old), and the guy pulled it off..well, I looked and I'll be, there it was! Now I feel like duh! It solved my problem! Thank GOD! And thank all that mentioned about this slider thing!
To the ppl with the usb charge port problem i too was experiencing this and was actually quite annoyed so one day while looking at the sliding door for the port i thaught hmmm the usb has a fat end and the charging port os kinda narrow now im thinking wait a sec a multi million/billion dollar company is way smarter then me they couldnt of gotten the basic shape wrong……so wat i did was slide open the charging port door till it stop then at the gamble of breaking the door i put pressure on the slider and whala it clicks again and opens up fully now i need to get a gym membership to pry the charger off the fone(just kidding) its stays in and locked in. …Other thrn that the phone is a great phone my iphone brother is a little jelaous but thts his fault altho i agree the battery life does need to be amped up a bit….well hope i could help
Thanks, Dave! I just got mine and was upset about the USB connection problem. After reading your posting, I solved the problem.
On my second captivate. Both phones do not always capture an incall or outcall number. Both phones go in and out of 3G and drop calls like mad. Hard to hold a conversation when you have to recall 3 or 4 times a call. FIRST, THIS SHOULD BE A GOOD PHONE. IT IS NOT.
This message and question has to deal with the captivate’s battery. Does anyone else notice that the phone gets super hot when its being charged? To the point u can’t even touch it cause its so hot. I’m not sure if its cause I’m not letting enough air to the phone or any air at all. I used to place it under my pillow next to me in bed and I’m wondering if cause its under the pillow that that’s the reason why it gets so hot. If anyone else has experienced this please post a comment. Other than that and the google maps taking a real long time to locate your position on the map the phone is super great.
I'm having the same problem. Mine won't hold a charge long at all and it gets hot.
You have to go into settings… My phone was getting hot because the screen was staying lit while charging.. I forget exactly how to do it but I think it may be under display settings.. If that doesnt work then go into att.. I was afraid the battery was going to catch fire.
I am having usb syncing issues with my captivate and laptop, any solutions or sw i need to download? Thanks
also having syncing issues – trying to sync music but when connect the usb as media device it goes into "initializing usb" mode for 20 minutes plus, does not seem to be working…
I’ve had my captivate for 4 days now and so far only problem is some random choppiness. Well and the known gps issue. Get samsung kies. Samsung doesn’t technically offer it in america yet but just get it for the i9000 (international galaxy s), it works awesome for synching everything and backups your txt msg’s. Don’t have a clue why it’s not advertised in america yet since it’s like itunes for captivate but better. Usb connecting problems are because the phone is defaulted to sync with samsung kies, you have to put it in mass storage mode in settings if you don’t use kies. I don’t have any random app crashes…also battery gets better as you use it. I recommend going to the android forums for captivate, great place for ppl new to droid.
spoke to samsung yesterday, and they should be making the Kies available in us in September.
I got the samsung captivate about 3 hours ago and I think I’ll be taking it back tomorrow. It’s nowhere near as good as my Iphone 3g that I was using and it doesn’t get as good of reception. So far the only thing I’ve found that I like about the phone is it’s speed. I was really excited about the phone when I got it and I have to say it was a huge let down
I have to say that i started off loving this phone, i purchased the captivate on july 20 and have already had to get a replacement. First captivate i was able to send pics for the first 2 days and since i have yet been able to send a single picture. (huge let down since the camera is so nice) Then recieve replacement today and wouldnt you know it.. Cant send a single picture!!! Since initial purchase spent over 12 hours on the phone with tech supports. And to no prevail. ATT doesnt see this as an issue and when i call samsung i am always sent to someone speaking hindi. But if it werent for that phone would be awesome for it to be ATT. Anyone else having this issue, already talked to one person that has gone thru this, but cant find out if its just a freak thing or manufacturer flaw.
Same problem try going in to your cammra settings and resizeing your pics i couldnt send pics was on the phone with tech for about 3 hrs the still didnt fix it but i was messing around and resided my cam now it works just fine pics are still just as good also!
Try adjusting your pic size in your camra setting i had the same problem
Hi troy i did have this issue and when I called att it was a matter of resetting my sms and mms they said that it was no longer on my acct and same with my voicemail it had expired or some nonsense but it has since been fixed all in a matter of an hr it was rectified…Good luck…I am however having a syncing issue and because of THIS i may be returning it as well
Call at&t and have them take a look at your account, usually when you upgrade you have older feature codes on your account that arent compatible with the captivate, they change the codes every month it seems, but once you have one it will provision you, its nothing wrong with the device unless you have the settings wrong, if you a good rep like myself I'd have it fixed in about 5 minutes, call them from a different phone 180033105000
Seriously thinking of returning this phone. This is the second Samsung I've had that randomly shuts off. It's my morning alarm and if the phone shuts off by itself (not low on battery), then it's useless to me. Samsung sucks. For me, the rest of the phone works fine and I'd keep it if it didn't shut off.
hey… i have the exact problem with my captivate that i just bought 3 days ago… i tried getting support on the att site, but they dont know how to fix it either…. i was just wondering if you have figured anything out yet or do you think i just hav to take it back to the store?….. thanks
take it back! I got mine in septmeber, had it for 10 days, and it started randomly powering off. I took it back and exchanged it, and the 2nd captivat seemed fine. Now after my 30 day return period is over the second captivate keeps powering off! Of course AT&T and Samsung claim to have no complaints about this happening from other people, even though it's a known problem all over the internet. So after spending several hours on the phone today with AT&T, a rep finally told me to download the app called keep my captivate alive-so fingers crossed this will solve my problem
I am having the same issue and on my second phone.
Where did you find this app to download….and did it work?
Thanks
I just got my first captivate last week, and I guess I'm going to have to take it back for these same reasons, it turns off by itself! I'm on call with my job and that's how they reach me and it's not like it's a job where I can miss being called in, I work for a Hospital, not good! Thoroughly disappointed and aggrivated with this phone!
Hey,
My Samsung Captivate turns off by its self. I am going to return it. The phone is very nice and has a lot of features. I do not know why it shuts down even though the battery is full.
I love this phone, but I cannot stand this! Its my 3rd phone and no-one can explain why it keeps doing this. please let me know if you have a solution or explaination? Thnx!
Had the phone for about two weeks and I've had it shut down on me repeatedly, twice today. The lack of ability to shuffle e-mails between folders bothers me, too. Also noticed it gets very hot when it charges. Seriously considering taking it back.
QUESTION for veteran users: The Captivate is my first Android phone, and I just got it. When I am on the phone in the middle of a conversation, the screen goes dark and buttons become unresponsive. The only way I can bring it back up is to press the lock button on the side. This is annoying when I am in a hurry to click numbers to make selections on an automated system. Is there a way to keep the screen up, and possibly the dialpad specifically, while on the phone? I can't find a setting that allows me to do this. Thanks in advance.
That's part of the battery saver. The display turns off after 5secs or so when your in a phone call but when you move your phone (ie moving it from you ear down so you can hit the call waiting or whatever button) the display should turn itself back on without you having to press a button if your still in your call.
From your home screen, touch the "Application" icon, then touch "Settings" and then "Sound and Display". Several options will appear. Choose "Screen Timeout" and choose the time you want the screen to stay on before it blanks out. You can choose from 15 seconds up to 30 minutes.
I have tried and tried and tried but I cannot get this stinkin phone to connect to my PC any help would be appreciated. Oh Yeah I've updated drivers installed keis changed the usb manager to mass and notify on startup and still nothing. Please help anyone
I'll tell ya, the only problem I've had is that the back button will "press itself" haha, but it gets aggravating, and a few lockups but I think due more to apps than the phone,. People remember that Android is an open source platform, some apps thatwork great with one kind of phone, may crash another. I've always hated Samsung Phones, and still do, except for this one, and it's 200% better than an iphone, I honestly wished that htc wouldve made a big screen like the one this has for att instead of sprint, but I'm impressed so far with this phone.
I have the problem that many have written on this and other forums – phone shuts off on its own and its just random. In the last 10 days it has shut off some 6 times at different times of the day (though the battery is fully charged).
Though other features are very good I will be returning this phone for this bug.
I thought I was the only person experiencing the issue with phone shutting off by itself. I will be taking the phone back to the store!!! It seems there are multiple people reporting this issue but I have not heard any solution.
i got this phone Christmas eve and ever since then this phones been turning off constantly
i don’t know if anyone is having the same problem like me when i am editing my typing i am not able to navigate to my left or up and down without having to point to the specific point in my document. Am i missing the directional arrow some where?
Battery sucks – will be trading "up" for the iPHONE – all I do is charge it – its starts random tasks, battery drains fast – worst I have ever had – I hardly use any apps, if at all – next thing i know is the battery is dead – time to recharge ….again
I agree…the battery sucks! This would be a great a way to get rid of the iPhone but they gotta have a better battery..at this point the iphone has a better battery life than this one..
Agreed…battery more or less drained by the end of the day after having a 10 minute call, sending/receiving 15-20 text messages, and like number of email messages; downloaded two apps. Granted, the Captivate is "feature rich" compared to original iPhone but I could accomplish the same noted tasks and have sufficient battery left for another day.
Is anyone else having a problem with their camera? Im recording video that looks like bad digital cable at random times. Im seeing rainbow colors and choppy video quality. I thought it might have been some bad apps installed so I factory reset the phone. It was ok for a while but once I change any camera settings, it records bad video again…it looks scrambled. Somebody help PLEASE because I love this phone. I dont wanna send it back but I will.
You guys that are having random turn off issues might want to try installing a task killer on your phone, that may help. The battery life is awful, the only way I can keep my phone charged all day is buy turning off sync and rarely using anything that involves screen power, lol, bcuz if you go into battery monitor settings you’ll see that the screen is what really kills the battery.I also hate how hot the phone gets randomly, I don’t even feel like using it sometimes. Other than that and random freezes, usually caused by Opera Mini (I don’t recommend getting that app), the phone is awesome, people are always asking me about it and I’ve convinced several strangers to buy it or one of it’s sisters on the other 4 carriers. Good job Samsung! But I’ll chuck this as soon as htc puts out a high end android phone on att….
I have the same problem with the phone turning itself off randomly but I DO have the App killer and it seems to do its job. So I don't think the App killer will help.
I love this phone but there is one serious drawback for me:
The 4 buttons on bottom of screen only stay lit for a couple seconds then theyre off, even though I set my main screen to timeout after a minute. If Im using my phone while in a dim room I cannot see them.. Is there a way to keep them lit up?
great phone. easy to use, practical. much better than my old unlocked sprint phones. processor is much faster, i love using them. the gps and email are great for my business and my partner loves his for the speaker phone he's always on that thing. our new unlocked gsm phones have a great web browser, we can check out stocks in less than one click!! my wife and daughter love theirs for the faceboook, games and apps! also got our samsung unlock codes and blackberry unlock codes for free! got our last couple captivates at unlockthatphone.com 2 thumbs way up
FLASH CONTENT on web pages is supported! you just have to enable it in settings
I had the phone 1 day and it's going back.
HI
Lost a lot of text messages through code (Messaging not responding, force close), is there any way i can retrieve the old text messages that have been lost??? pls anyone…..
I just signed up with AT&T 1 week ago and ive already had 3 captivates. The phone powers off ALL THE TIME! The only way the phone doesnt power off is if your using it all the time. This is very frusterating and im not what else I should do. Im going out of my mind with this phone. Please Help!
Even i am getting the same issues, (battery life 8hrs and phone switching off), so I spoke the Samsung folks, he said the batter is bad due to use of wifi, so he suggested i should only use data and not wifi, and the switching off is due to 3rd party apps that I downloaded so I should uninstall all the apps.
What is the use of the phone then?
I got the phone for my birthday a couple of days ago. At first AMAZING! then i ran into some issues. I send a text, close the message page and do something else. when i get a reply i go to text back and it doesn't put the area code in front of the number even thought its saved with the area code. Also it took me like a day or two to figure out how to find the live backgrounds that came with the phone. you have to press the home screen for like five seconds to see it. its not even in the settings. plus it chooses when it wants to be turned off…it takes almost five minutes just to turn it back on. another con. you cant erase your recent contacts from messaging, cant put a signature or have ringtones for when people text you. only the ones that came with the phone.
Now don't be fooled. there are a lot of good things about this phone. Like the camera screen android market the many apps and games for it and the touchscreen is perfect for me. i believe it calabrates when you first turn it on but you dont know it. it gets used to your touch and it gets alot more accrerate to you touch. Also something else that is great about this phone is the video quality. go on you tube and type in HD trailer. you will be blown away! It is like my 50" HD TV.
Hope this gives people a better idea about the phone. I think im going to stick with it even though it has a few flaws. what phone doesn't?
Honestly I am about to flip. I LOVE this phone BUT it keeps shutting off 20x's a day randomly even when its fully charged. This is my THIRD phone?????? I dont understand why no-one has an explaination for this. This has to be a bad batch of phones out there? I really do like the phone but this to me is the most frustrating problem! I miss calls, alarms, emails anything. I never know wen its randomly gonna shut off? If someone has a reason/ explanation or a Cure? i would be most appreciative! THNX
Mine is shutting off 20x's a day also. i'll use it then and then when i hit the lock button my phone is completely turned off. I've had it for 4 days it worked GREAT on the first day. then randomly started turning off by itself. I went back to the store they said it was a battery issue and gave me a new battery. Obviously it is not a battery issue because it happened multiple times today with the new battery. I'm not sure if I should request the same phone or get a different phone all together…
Try the Captivate Keep Alive app – available for free in the Markektplace. It seems to help.
I am having problems with the samsung captivate locking on the homescreen. It won't respond to my touch at all and so I can't get into my phone. Please help!!
Everyone is being so negative about this beautiful phone. All phones will have bugs the iPhone 4 had tons! You have to admit that this phone has some beautiful features, I love this phone & I can’t wait for froyo 2.2 🙂
This phone shuts down automatically. Changed to a new battery and it still shuts down. screw it.
My second phone also started shutting down by itself. I returned the first one for same reason. Now the frequency really went up from 1 or 2 times a day to 12-15 times a day.
I bought this phone from WIREfly.com.
I did following steps hoping to figure out the reasons – but still unsuccessful.
Turned off wifi
Reset to factory default
Kept application screens open instead of home screen before switching off Display.
Removed Adv Task Killer
Kept the phone on table horizontally and then vertically. Vibrate mode was off. In both positions it shut off by itself.
Some times it shuts off with in as little as three minutes after turning it on.
Some times it was on for more than 7-8 hours not shuting by itself off .
Only conclusion I reached – It doesn’t look like an Hardware problem, b’cos it never shuts off while in use – like during a phone call, or while playing a radio app. It never shut off while charging – This almost confirms it as a software problem.
I can't stand that my phone keeps shutting off randomly and automatically backing me out of apps. The main problem is that I can't get my computer to recognize the phone as a device. How can I change this?
Had my Samsung Galaxy S Captivate for a week now with Rogers Mobile (Canada). Phone is pretty good, with all its dazzling features, but the battery life is a huge issue…….I'm having to charge it twice a day with just 1 hour of talk time and maybe 1 hour of browsing/gaming !!
Rogers told me switch to GSM mode only….whats the point of having this phone if I can't access the 3G network just to make it through the day. Very dissapointed……might have to go back to my iphone 3G 🙁
I never liked the iphone, having had only bad experiences with words being correcte and typo filled texts, so I did a lot of research on with android phone I should get when I decided to tack on data to my plan. So far, getting the captivate haas been one of my better decisions. At first I had a tremendous amount of trouble with the battery life and charging the thing, but once I realized I hadn’t ben opening the charge port door all the way, my battery life improved. The lack of flash is no loss for me, making this a near perfect phone that is exceptionally sensitive and vibrant and that makes all of my iphone-using friends very jealous.
 Since this post, is your viewpoint still the same? You are the only one I have noticed that has had something positive to say about this phone.
I have only had my Captivate for 3 months and I am already on my second handset. Phone repeatedly locks up, drops calls, reboots itself, battery life is AWFUL (even with ATK used religiously). Had my iPhone reactivated and I am going to sell the replacement they sent me.
The only good thing about this phone is that the camera and display are amazing. That is where it ends. Don't get seduced by the fancy display. Not impressed AT ALL.
Dont use ATK religiously.. Thats one of the issues why your phone has poor battery life.. Use it once in a while..
Anybody else having trouble with touching the "messaging" button from the home screen and it pulls up something else? usually something that I've been in or loaded recently. won't go back to messaging until I turn it off and then back on.
Got my Captivate earlier this month, and am now exchanging it because it spontaneously powers off (as many have previously noted). Called AT&T who told me that is identified issue with phones manufactured before Nov. 6 2010, as mine is. Does that mean the replacement I just ordered will not have the issue? Great customer service from Wirefly.com from whom I purchased the device; they assured me that the new phone will work properly….
I have a Captivate and it just today started saying everything was force closed when I would go to an app of any sort, it won't let me call out, and keeps dropping my calls.. This all just started today I have had it for 2 months now. What can I do to fix it?
Was able to stop random shut downs by turning this off:
Settings > Sound and Display > Power Saving Mode
Hope this helps someone.
I have the captivate and it also gets hot and turns off by itself. I called at&t they said it is a defect and Will replace it. I Will be selling the one that comes. I’ve had nothing but trouble with this phone since i got it. The first week it got stuck media scanning and would not stop till i put it back to factory settings. Going back to iphone. (:
I got the samsung captivate and the first month it worked great and then it started shutting down on its own and other problems.I called at&t and they sent me another phone. The first day I got the phone it did the same thing but worse at&t said I cant get a diffrent phone they are just going to send me another P.O.S. I have never had any trouble out of at&t until now they are a JOKE
When ever I plug my phone in to charge and i recieve a text message, the screen will stay light untill i either one, answer the message, or two hit the lock button again.. this gets anooying when someone texts me at night and my phone is charging on my desk and ill be laying in bed.. the screen will be light untill i fix it .. anyone know how to fix this problem?
I've also had problems with this phone and the battery not holding a charge for much more than 5 hours – despite not using the phone at all! Very annoying. I got a new battery and it still has the same problems. ATT is sending me a replacement phone now so we'll see if that works. It also doesn't seem to work very well when it is plugged in.
My phone randomly pops up with a screen saying that facebook katana or something like that is not responding, anyone else?
I ‘m only having one problem with my Captivate. Whenever I power off the phone myself, the only way to get the display to turn back on is removing the battery and reinserting. Anyone have any ideas on why this happens? Any help would be wonderful!
I just got this phone about a week ago and am getting frustrated with it as well.
1) The email feature that the phone comes with does not work well. I set up my yahoo! account and it is SO slow, plus it does not give me email notifications even though I've set it up to do so. The first day it did (very delayed) and then it stopped. The guy at the AT&T store downloaded the Yahoo Mail app (free from the 'Market') but that is slow too and also very inconsistent with sending alerts. I've had to uninstall and install that app several times.
2) I used to use my other samsung for my wake up alarm and it had a setting so that you could turn your phone off at night and it would still "wake up" at the set time to wake me. With this phone it seems you have to keep your phone on for the alarm to work. With all the other posts about phones randomly turning off this worries me!
3) Last night when I plugged the phone into the power it got very hot and there was a hazard icon (yellow triangle with exclamation mark) and also an icon of a thermometer. That worried me too and I unplugged and turned the phone off. Good thing it was the weekend so I didn't need me alarm to wake me!!
Seriously considering returning this phone for something else. It's too bad because the other features are great.
I have had my phone for about 4 months and for the past two months it freezes up on incoming calls and you are unable to answer the call. The battery life now lasts about 10 minutes if that long. It runs applications in the background that I never open and when I do open one it will not close once I end it. You can't adjust wallpapers to fit your screen. This phone is most annoying and I wish that I had never bought it.
On to my third Captivate in less then 60 days. First one was shutting off randomly then the camera lens cracked for no apparent reason, filed a claim got a new one and immediately the internal issues started. Shutting off on its own again, apps opening and closing without commands random messages being created without me creating them and now the SIM card wont connect. Its not the SIM card cause it worked fine in my husbands phone (HTC Inspire) My husband told me not to get a Samsung and I didn't listen, now I am regretting it. Off too the At&t store to have them confirm to the insurance company that I am being truthful OH JOY!
A few days ago my phone started telling me that my memory was almost full. I ignored it because when i bought the phone the guy at AT&T told me that was a reported problem with the phone. Last night my phone started to freeze up and it started to pop up with forced closings for logsprovider, google, and anything else i tried to pull up. then it comes up with a notification that says null null and you have to click ok. i dont know what thats supposed to mean but this phones starting to piss me off. ive had it for about a year with few to no problems.
I had the same problem , phones not worth it get a different android . This is my 3rd phone in less than a year . All with the same problem . You have to factory reset your phone which erases all data .
Mthe haptic vibration on my keyboard suddenly stopped working. I have tried turning it off and on, but it still wont work. Funny thing though is that it still works on the four home buttons. Any ideas?
My received messages are on the top and sent messages on bottom. I am getting tired of scrolling up constantly to read my text. Any ideas how to fix this??? tobymdanr@hotmail.com
 I have realized this is a service issue. If you are in a place where the service spotty it will put your sent messages on top of your received messages. It should work as normal if you are in a good service area.
captivate owner 1 week now and the phone randomly vibrate and shut down. i have to take out the battery and reinsert it to get the vibration to stop. what is going?
I have had my Captivate for almost a year. I have gone thru the shutting off and now the charging sometimes twice a day. I am not on my phone that much. It has also lost the pictures of my granddaughter, and now a message comes up that my SD card is not there. I will probably not get another Samsung although my son loves the Note.
The power button has suddenly stopped working and the phone cannot be turned off. I am charging it constantly and now the battery is about dead. Is there a “problem” with the power button? AT&T will do nothing about it.
 My phone did the same exact thing. I had to either put it on the charger or take the battery out. I called AT&T and they sent me a replacement.