AT&T Samsung Captivate Impressions/Unboxing

AT&T's Captivate is the first of Samsung's Galaxy S series smartphones to reach the US, and our review unit has just dropped onto the test bench.  Packing a 4-inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird processor and 16GB of onboard storage, AT&T's latest Android device marks a reasonably significant style departure from the original European Galaxy S, though you still get Android 2.1 and TouchWiz 3.0.  Check out the unboxing and our first impressions of the AT&T Samsung Captivate after the cut.

We've already got a pretty decent idea of how the Captivate will perform: inside the new casing it's basically the same as the Samsung Galaxy S we reviewed a few weeks back.  Unfortunately while the style may be different, the less-then-impressive hand-feel is unchanged.  In comparison to rival flagships like the iPhone 4 and Motorola DROID X (read our review), the Captivate feels plasticky, though at least it's lightweight and the plastics are of decent quality.

The Super AMOLED display remains eye-catching, with strong backlighting and vivid colors.  It's obviously not as pin-sharp as the iPhone 4's Retina Display, but it's certainly among the best screens on an Android device right now.  In bright, direct sunlight you'll still want to shade it with your hand, but generally outdoor visibility is improved over, say, the AMOLED of a Google Nexus One.

It's also fast, though we'll be keeping an eye out for the same occasional lag and pauses that periodically marred the Galaxy S.  Samsung's TouchWiz UI isn't to everybody's taste, and there's still no way to easily turn it off and return to the basic Android 2.1 interface.  Android is growing increasingly distinctive with each iteration, and sometimes TouchWiz feels a little too much like it's aping iOS.

We'll be putting the Captivate through its paces over the next few days, ahead of the full SlashGear review.  Until then, enjoy the unboxing and hands-on video!

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