Samsung Captivate vs. Apple iPhone 4

Introduction:

Try as they may, Android's push with AT&T has yet to compare to the level seen with other carriers like T-Mobile and Verizon as they boast some of the most eclectic mix of high-end Android smartphones that can quench the needs of many. For the last few years, Apple's iPhone has cemented itself as the sole premier smartphone offering which has been able to captivate people with its intuitive performance, quality design, and straightforward experience – all the ingredients required for its successful recipe. However, we've just checked out the Samsung Captivate, AT&T's specific version of the Galaxy S, which easily impressed us by its stellar performance, refreshing interface, and eye catching looks. It's a safe bet to say at this point that the Captivate is easily the best thing out of Android on AT&T's lineup which can test the iPhone 4's recent tight grasp. So if you're an AT&T customer sitting idle to find out which smartphone to side with as your next device, then sit back as these two titans are plopped down in a cage to see who can tangle with who.

Design:

Undeniably, we were happy to see the Samsung Captivate exude a strikingly alternate look versus its other brothers and sisters. Although it still employs some plastic, it doesn't feel cheap at all while its metallic back cover adorned with a carbon fiber pattern does make it feel well constructed.

Meanwhile, in just about every angle you look at the iPhone 4, there is no shortage of premium materials used in its construction. Sandwiched in between two pieces of glass like material is a stainless steel band that outlines the usual look of the iPhone we're accustomed to seeing over the years. Clearly, the Apple iPhone 4 embodies all of the aspects that one would expect to find in a premium handset.


Streamline is the name of the game and both smartphones present themselves with some serious slim packages as the iPhone 4 stands in at 0.37” thick while the Captivate is at 0.41” – but we're quite impressed with the slim look of the Captivate when it's packing a sizable 4” display. Holding each handset in the hand, the difference in weight is night and day as the Captivate's (4.41 oz) choice of materials makes it especially light weight over the iPhone 4 (4.83 oz). When it comes to sheer durability, one would have to imagine for the lighter Captivate to hold up more in extreme situations – however, we were surprised to see our iPhone 4 still looking intact and pristine, aside from some minor blemishes, after dropping it from a height of 4 feet onto the hard pavement. As much as we were more careful in handling both units after that unfortunate incident, we accidentally dropped the Captivate from a height of 3 feet. Luckily it lived to see another day as the only damage done was also a minor blemish to its plastic casing.

These two powerhouse smartphones utilize two totally different display technologies, but which ever one you look at, there's no arguing that they're probably the most compelling things to be found. The Apple iPhone 4 relies on a 3.5” LCD IPS display dubbed the Retina Display as it boats a mind boggling resolution of 640 x 960 pixels with support for 16.7 million colors. Naturally with that sized screen and high resolution, it easily provides for more detail as each section of the display is littered with densely packed pixels. On the other hand, the Samsung Captivate explodes with a 4” Super AMOLED display at WVGA (480x800) resolution and equal support of 16.7 million colors. Sure you can see some fuzziness happening around some text from a closeup glance, but it offers for some stunning looking colors, which though can, at times, be too saturated. Although it may look extremely appealing, you can tell things are a tad oversaturated on the Captivate when you  compare the color white – on the iPhone 4 it replicates the color perfectly while there is a slight bluish hue on the Captivate. However, the Captivate produces better pure black over the iPhone 4 as it boasts a higher contrast ratio. At times though, you can make out the individual pixels on an image or text on a web page with the Captivate while everything looks detailed and sharp on the iPhone 4. Both handsets are equally potent in the brightness category and in viewing angles as well, but taking it outdoors in the direct path of the glaring sun, we had an easier time seeing items on screen with the iPhone 4. Each handset has its unique attributes that stand out more than the other, but in the end, it will ultimately come down in how the end user perceives it with their own eyes.


Nowadays touch sensitive buttons seem to the trend in exuding a premium quality handset, just like what the Captivate offers, but we still find the physical button employed on the iPhone 4 to be less aggravating. In any case, there is a decent amount of spacing in between the bottom of the touchscreen and touch sensitive buttons to minimize any accidental presses. As for the rest of the buttons adorning the sides of each handset, we liked the ones on the iPhone 4 as they felt pretty good and well sized over the plastic ones in use with the Captivate. The iPhone 4 follows Apple's tradition in utilizing its proprietary port for charging while the Captivate sides with the standard microUSB port – but thankfully both find a common ground with their 3.5mm headset jacks. The iPhone 4's speaker is found where it should be towards the bottom edge of the phone while it can be found in the rear on the Captivate. Both smartphones include a 5-megapixel auto-focus camera towards the upper left corner on the rear, but the iPhone 4 tacks on an LED flash – so it's almost unimaginable to see a high-end phone to lack one, but it's omitted from the Captivate. Most users would like to see a removable battery and microSD card slot, which are present  on the Captivate – but these are of course naturally lacking on the iPhone 4.

Software:

The Apple iPhone 4 easily blows out a good handful of AT&T's current Android offerings out of the water when it comes to speed – which is thanks to its A4 processor that's presumably clocking in at 1GHz. It enables the phone to fly like no other in almost every aspect like scrolling between menus, navigating around a web page, and launching applications. Regardless, the Samsung Captivate is able to give the iPhone 4 a run for its money in the speed department with its equally impressive 1GHz Cortex-A8 Hummingbird processor. It surely comes in at the same level of performance witnessed on the iPhone 4 as it's able to move between home screens so fluidly with some graphically intensive widgets on-screen. On one side, you have iOS 4 which is one of the easiest and intuitive platforms to get situated with, while Samsung's customized flare with TouchWiz 3.0 running on top of Android 2.1 adds more personalization that's pretty much non-existent on the iPhone 4. Depending on your taste, either platform will suffice, but we have to concede that the Samsung Captivate is the sole AT&T Android offering that's able to keep up to the fast pace of iOS 4 on the iPhone 4 – plus it's able to provide a plethora of useful information directly on the home screen.



Android as a whole offers a notification system that is supremely light years ahead of what's offered on the iPhone 4 with its intrusive one. Not only do messages, emails, and other notifications pop up without disturbing you from your current place on the smartphone, but you'll even have access to some other functions like the music player and turning Wi-Fi on/off. On the iPhone, you'll receive a text message notification that's displayed on top of what you're doing.

Bar none, TouchWiz 3.0 on the Captivate offers a widget called Feeds and Updates to allow you to view specific social networking accounts without having to rely on a native app. We like how you're also able to post a status on multiple accounts on the Captivate all from the widget, however, we still find the iPhone's Facebook app to be more in-depth and better integrated with some other native apps.

There are a lot of people who enjoy the vast selection of videos on YouTube, but depending on your taste, either handset will be able to satisfy your insatiable appetite. The YouTube app for Android is clearly well developed as its interface provides for a similar to desktop experience, but we also like how it allows you to share videos through other mediums like Twitter and Facebook. In order to watch high quality videos on the iPhone 4, you'll have to be connected to Wi-Fi, whereas you can do it over 3G with the Captivate. Both are able to play YouTube videos without a hitch, but if you're really into YouTube and all of its features, the experience on the Captivate is definitely better.



The iPhone 4's included front facing camera does offer some people the option of doing video chat via FaceTime which can be seen as a novelty thing right now. Unfortunately, the Samsung Captivate does not have a front facing camera for true video chat capabilities. Even if it had one, your option would've been Fring, which at this point does not allow good voice quality and synchronization between audio and video.


There's no arguing that Android's Google Maps experience is far more in-depth to anything else out there – even on the iPhone 4. Not only can you find directions to specific locations, but it aptly integrates some of Google's popular services – like Buzz and Latitude. Unfortunately the iPhone 4 still offers the same exact experience that we have witnessed on the previous versions.

Thanks to the swift performance of the platform on both smartphones, typing messages is a breeze due to the responsive on-screen keyboards they offer. The iPhone 4 still stands as having one of the best predictable text options as it just knows what you're trying to type out, but it's not to say that the Captivate accomplishes the same feat. In addition to offering various keyboards like the stock Android one, Samsung, and Swype, there are also a handful of hand writing options at your disposal on the Captivate. When using the landscape option, we found ourselves easily typing away on the Captivate with few to almost no mistakes being made. Still, we found the iPhone 4 to also excel in this area despite its smaller size – which should only pose to be a problem with individuals with larger sized fingers.



Data and Connectivity:

Let's get it out of the way, both handsets offer a rich web browsing experience thanks to their responsive kinetic scrolling and intuitive performance, but each have their own specific attributes to uniquely separate them. The Apple iPhone 4's Retina Display makes for the best details as there are few instances of hazy looking text versus the noticeable ones when you zoom into something with the Captivate's web browser. Even though Super AMOLED provides for some eye catching colors, there is a striking difference in tones as it's slightly more saturated. It's evident when you look at something colored white as the Captivate's display looks more blueish as opposed to the exact white color produced by the iPhone 4's Retina Display.  Sure it may not be too bad for some people, but if you want more realistic looking colors without some obtrusive hues mixing in, the iPhone 4 is able to provide just that. However, we have to say that the Captivate closely follows a true desktop-like experience as Flash Lite enables for some Flash elements to load. Looking further down the road, Android 2.2 Froyo will catapult the Captivate to new levels with full Flash support in tow.



International travelers will find either handsets fitting for their needs as they're both quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) models – so voice calling is perfect in this regard. However, the iPhone 4 is a quad-band UMTS handset (850/900/1900/2100 MHz) and has a minor advantage over the tri-band UMTS (850/1900/2100 MHz) Samsung Captivate. 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi is aboard both phones, but the Captivate packs Bluetooth 3.0 versus the iPhone 4's Bluetooth 2.1.

Storage options are pretty much the same, that's unless you consider the 32GB version of the iPhone 4, but both offer at least 16GB capacities. However, we found that the Samsung Captivate actually provides for 13GB of free storage out of the box after everything is initially set up on the phone.

Camera:

In all of the recent comparisons we've done with the iPhone 4, it has managed to beat out others that offered higher megapixel count cameras – so it doesn't necessarily mean that bigger is better. It actually all comes down to the lens and optics employed on the handset, but this time around, both the Captivate and iPhone 4 settle with a 5-megapixel auto-focus shooter. Right off the bat, the Captivate sorely lacks a flash, which already finds itself in the hole when you think about how it should be considered a standard feature among high-end smartphones. Again, the Apple iPhone 4 easily produced sharper looking images and natural looking colors. The Samsung Captivate's reproductions might be seen as tolerable by most people looking for a decent point and shoot replacement, but you can tell that they're less detailed with washed out colors. When taking images in poor lighting conditions, the iPhone 4 also had a leg up in this department – ultimately making it the choice for people who truly want to meticulously capture precious memories.






There have been many Android smartphones we've pitted against the iPhone 4, but the latter still manages to come out on top when it comes down to shooting videos. Now the Captivate comes to the table offering 720p video recording like everything else we've been seeing of late, and it actually presents itself as a decent competitor to the iPhone 4's performance. Clocking in at a capture rate of 29fps, the Captivate boasts the smoothest looking videos out of any Android handset we've seen thus far, but you can still see a minimalistic jerkiness with fast moving objects in view. The iPhone 4 captures at a rate of 30 fps and looks pretty fluid for the most part, but we still notice how the white balance can adversely change when going through different lighting conditions. Detail is pretty good at all times with the iPhone 4 just because you can tap to focus at any time while continuously shooting, which is something not featured with the Captivate. The Captivate is easily the best phone to date to challenge the iPhone 4 when it comes to recording videos, but ultimately we believe that Apple's pride and joy still has a slight advantage.

Samsung Captivate sample video 1 at 1280x720 pixels
Samsung Captivate sample video 2 at 1280x720 pixels
Apple iPhone 4 sample video 1 at 1280x720 pixels
Apple iPhone 4 sample video 2 at 1280x720 pixels

Multimedia:

Well, well, the Samsung Captivate's music player is hands down one of the prettiest for Android – and it also gives the iPhone's Coverflow interface a good run for its money as well. Presentation is clearly what's placed highest on the totem pole for each handset as there are some 3D like effects going on when you're browsing through your laundry list of songs. Coverflow on the iPhone 4 remains to be the same experience as it was on the original, but it's difficult to find something that can pleasantly follow its prowess. Nonetheless, the music player in use with the Captivate goes all out, and maybe more, by meeting the level of experience seen with the iPhone's Coverflow. We like how it presents a carousel of discs when you're browsing in landscape, but we also like the tasteful amount in options like specific equalizer settings and to even enable a visualization to run when playing a song. The iPhone 4's speaker didn't stand a chance against the Captivate's sharp and powerful tunes. In addition, the option of 5.1 channel sound effect on the Captivate exhibits more natural sounding tunes through the 3.5mm headset jack.




Video playback is smooth all around with no presentable issues whatsoever on either smartphones as they played fluidly with no evidence of hiccups. If you're watching some kind of animated video where colors are plentiful throughout its playback, then the Samsung Captivate's Super AMOLED display is naturally more suitable as colors have a saturated look to them. Detail was also great on both handsets, but the Captivate's 4-inch screen has an advantage in the size department.

Performance:

Calling quality was just the same on both handsets as they were average at best as voices sounded muffled on the Captivate while static noises can be heard on the iPhone 4. When it comes to raw power, the Captivate's earpiece emitted some stronger tunes which made conversations a little bit easier to comprehend in areas that are noisy. Just like playing music, the Captivate's speaker was clearly stronger, but screechy sounding at the highest volume level. Unfortunately, the iPhone 4's speaker phone volume was obviously lower, but still manageable when it comes to distinguishing conversations.

Using the smartphones in the same exact location, the Captivate generally displayed one less bar than what's seen on the iPhone 4. In any respect, we didn't notice the Captivate drop any of our calls or data connections to the network. Although we did experience bars fluctuating on the iPhone 4 when holding it on the lower left corner, this did not degrade calling quality or cut out our connection to the network.

Implementing a larger capacity battery over the previous iPhone 3GS model, the iPhone 4 managed to present a longer battery life against the host of Android phones we've pitted it against. Finally, we have a true competitor with the Samsung Captivate as it managed to beat our expectation. We've all heard about how Super AMOLED technology provides for a lower power consumption on paper, but our testing in real life situations made us believe it to be true. Setting both handsets to automatic brightness and using them heavily, the iPhone 4 was able to live at least a day, but it was almost to the 20 percent mark by the time our day was up. However, the Samsung Captivate was only at 50 percent battery life after a full day of heavy usage. Taking into consideration that you can extend it by lowering he brightness and turning off non-essentials like GPS, we wouldn't be surprised to see this get 3 days on heavy usage.

Conclusion:

AT&T customers will no longer have to resort to siding with mid-range Android offerings as the Samsung Captivate easily leaves all of its competition in the dust. It definitely has the hardware to make the iPhone 4 sweat in its tracks as the Captivate offers a responsive interface, gorgeous Super AMOLED display, and one battery life that's truly amazing. At the same time, TouchWiz 3.0 overlaying Android 2.1 is a refreshingly new experience for AT&T customers as it's able to provide users with a myriad of useful information directly from one area – plus it just looks so good! However, the iPhone 4 continues to excel in the camera department as both its photo and video capturing prowess are unbeatable. In addition, Apple's finest is still backed by a rich, industry-leading catalog of apps and games.

Some may have believed that Android's presence on AT&T would've been limited due mostly to their partnership with Apple, but the Samsung Captivate breaks down the barriers and easily stares down the iPhone 4 at the same level in a broad range of categories. Priced accordingly at $199.99 for each handset, it'll be one difficult decision for any one to make – but to tell you the truth, both are wonderful solutions that you won't regret.

Samsung Captivate vs. Apple iPhone 4 Video Comparison: