After spending a couple weeks with the Fascinate on Verizon, and now using an Epic 4G as my daily driver, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at one of the GSM flavors of the Galaxy S.
The Vibrant on T-Mobile (which our editor in chief Mitchell uses as a back up phone) and Captivate on AT&T were released within days of each other, so I opted for the Captivate.

I’m glad I did.
Out of all the USA Galaxy S phones, the Captivate has the most unique feel to it. The other three phones all have a lighter, plastic build, rounded corners, and chrome accents. The Vibrant and Fascinate feel pretty similar to the original European Galaxy S (and extremely similar to each other). The Captivate on the other hand has harder corners, and a bit more heft to it. In the hand it feels almost as heavy as my Epic. I praised the Fascinate for being a feather weight, but there’s also something satisfying about a phone that feels a bit more solid.

The sharper corners remind me a bit of some of the higher end Blackberry phones I’ve used. All of the Galaxy S phones fit in the hand comfortably, but I like the way the corners fit in my hand when using the phone in landscape. The tapered edges also make the phone feel a bit smaller than it is, even if its actual measurements are almost exactly the same as the Fascinate. The bottom of the phone has a slight lip that aids quite a bit in finding the capacitive buttons on the front.

One of the biggest criticisms others have lobbied at the Galaxy S phones is the snapping back plate. With the other three phones, you slide a fingernail under a gap, and pry the back off. It can feel a little flimsy. The Captivate differs again. The bottom back panel acts as a lock, once you slide the lock out, the back panel slides out revealing the battery, memory card, and sim.

It’s in taking off the back panel that I found my favorite “feature” of the phone. The back plate is made of metal. All of the Galaxy S phones are premier handsets, but the Captivate feels the most “high end”, especially when compared to the glossy (easily scratched) backs on the Vibrant and Fascinate. I know, right? Metal. How exotic…

For everything that I love about the hardware, I have to say I do miss the LED flash for the camera. It’s the same great 5MP shooter as in all of the other phones, but GSM (AT&T and T-Mo) handsets lack a flash. Just an odd division to have as the CDMA (Sprint and Verizon) have this handy little piece of hardware.

Generally, this is the same experience you’d have with any of the other handsets (like my review of the Epic), namely powerful and with an amazing screen. Thankfully AT&T has resisted the urge to pile on TOO much bloat (and we’re spared the phone being “Binged” like on Verizon). The more I use these phones, the more Super AMOLED has become my favorite screen tech. Text does look a little crisper on the iPhone 4, but just about everything else looks better on SAMOLED.

One topic that keeps coming up, in regards to these phones, is GPS. Before using the Captivate I thought the “GPS Bug” was just the internet echo chamber at work, angry nerds on forums complaining. The GPS is perfectly usable and accurate, but of the three Galaxy S phones I’ve used, it had the most trouble getting a lock, and took the longest to warm up before I could get to turn by turn directions. If you use GPS constantly, the delay is going to bug you.

One other interesting quirk of the phone relates to it’s network. I don’t live in a good area for AT&T 3G. Reviewing the Vivaz was difficult, as I couldn’t test any of its features at home. Firing up the Speedtest.net program on both the Epic and Captivate, the Captivate would crush the Epic on 3G, often by a 2:1 ratio in benchmarks. However actually USING the phones would be a completely different affair. Web pages hung on the Captivate. Apps took forever to download. Video was constantly buffering, and hi-quality Youtube would be out of the question.

AT&T was reporting much faster download speeds, but Sprint was giving me a much more stable and sustained connection. If you live in a good AT&T data area, you’re in for a treat, otherwise you’ll probably end up cursing the network like I did. The phone is just too pretty to not get good data…

So here’s the deal. Samsung’s phones just get better the more I use them. We’re still waiting out the Android 2.2 update, and each handset will have its own individual issues (GPS and lack of LED flash  I’m looking at you), but if you’re looking for a premier handset on AT&T (without an exposed antennae problem or a back that can shatter), then the Captivate would be at the top of my list…