Tomorrow marks the release date of the Samsung Captivate, AT&T’s new flagship top-of-the-line Android smartphone, for $199 with a two-year contract. I was looking forward to getting my hands on one, but the $200 price completely threw me off. And what’s more, I found out that the Captivate is just a dumbed-down version of the Samsung Galaxy S i9000 phone, which costs less yet has more features, and was released worldwide months ago. In another example of AT&T’s selfish money-grubbing evil tactics, the (AT&T) Captivate does not have camera flash or a front-facing camera (one of the most important features of the (international) Galaxy S: video chatting! over 3G! ha, iPhoners!), and only operates locked to AT&T’s 3G network.
However, where there’s a will, there’s a way, and that’s why a multitude of illegal Chinese cellphone dealers have popped up in areas heavily populated with Asians. This crop of mobile service merchants import phones from Asia and Europe, which is quite a profitable business, because the same phone in Asia or Europe usually costs less and has more features than the locked-down US version. Of course, AT&T frowns on this practice, as they like their industry monopoly, and would like to keep their tyrannous control over what phones we’re allowed to buy, and what prices we’re allowed to buy them at.
So I went through my latest copy of some random Chinese local newspaper, ignoring the news and scouring the ads for an i9000 deal. The latest and greatest deals all seem to involve the HTC Aria and the Motorola Backflip, the only other Android phones AT&T’s CEO likes enough to let you use. After a few phone calls to many of the more prominent dealers, I found that none of them offered the imported i9000, but all of them would have the AT&T Captivate in stock for its release, and many even offered to sell it to me today (a day before the official release date) for $199.
After scouring some older newspapers, I finally found an ad from Tuesday (half a week ago) from Banana Wireless. If you live in the area, there’s one next to the 99-cents store on Duarte, and there have never been any customers, ever. I go to that nearby 99-cents store a lot, and the saleslady always sits there facebooking every time I pass by. It turns out that they were T-Mobile dealers, so I couldn’t get my 99-cent Galaxy i9000 as advertised in the newspaper (quite amusing considering the store was right next to a 99-cents store). The phone itself, unlocked, costs about $550, but the subterfuge contract that saleslady wanted to sell me would probably put $2000 in T-Mobile’s pockets by the time the contract was up.
I would’ve given up on getting a new phone, seeing how the only phone offered by AT&T that almost suited my tastes was the Captivate. Knowing that there was a better version out there made me obstinate about not getting the US version, and as there are no other phones that are good enough for me, I had only two choices: fork up $550 or live with my half-decade-old Motorola RiZR Z3. Now, I absolutely LOVE the Z3’s design. The case is sleek, rubbery, and comfortable. The sliding mechanism was perfect, and the buttons offered excellent tactile feedback. The operating system has always sucked, however, and I’ve probably spent over 40 hours messing with the firmware and flashing custom versions from online forums in an attempt to make the Z3 work for me. However, every firmware hack that fixed a problem introduced a new problem, and soon the Z3 became near-unusable for me. The stereo A2DP Bluetooth audio was a plus that I was able to achieve, but the ELF audio player was totally a hack, and crashed every five minutes. Some other hack messed up my speakerphone, rendering it unusable. And the Z3’s CPU is fundamentally slow, and I need speed when it comes to this kind of stuff. The Java support was sketchy at best, and all my attempts to fix it were fruitless.
So, it’s either wait-for-illegal-chinese-AT&T-dealer-to-import-i9000 which may or may not happen ever (probably leaning towards “may not”, as most dealers probably wouldn’t bother importing something so similar to the Captivate), or get a different phone. Which led to me reviewing some other AT&T phones.
First up is the heavily-lauded HTC Aria, which every other AT&T reseller is advertising as free. Considering the phone only retails for $300-some, of course it would be free with 2-year contract. AT&T makes a few thousand per contract, after all. Compared to the i9000, which sports a 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird processor (which is probably faster than a high-end desktop not long ago), the Aria clocks in at 600MHz with its Qualcomm MSM 7227, a little over half as fast. Both come pre-installed with Android 2.1, and both should be upgradable to 2.2, Froyo, in the near future. While the i9000 will definitely be upgradable when Android 3, Gingerbread, comes along, the Aria will almost surely not be upgradable. The Aria weighs in at 115 grams, while the i9000 is not much heavier, at 118g. The Aria’s camera is 5 megapixels, the same as the i9000, but the i9000 (international version) has flash and HD video recording (at 720p), both essential features for a heavy phone user. The i9000 can completely replace my digital camera, with nighttime shooting capabilities and better video quality than the average point-and-shoot, while the Aria is only good for quick snapshots when you forget to bring your camera. Reviews have indicated that, along with low camera quality, the Aria’s speaker was very cheap and low-quality, making music and speakerphone difficult to use, especially in situations with large amounts of background noise. The Aria also does not have a front-facing camera, so no video chatting here. Also, HTC Arias only support dual band 3G: UMTS/HSPA 850/1900MHz, as compared to the tri band 3G supported by the i9000, which adds the 2100MHz band that nearly all European carriers and Asian carriers use. The Galaxy S line also supports Bluetooth 3.0 (as one of the first, if not THE first device to do so), along with Wireless-N technology, none of which is built into the Aria. Surprisingly, for all the shortcomings I have listed, the HTC Aria is rated five stars out of five on Amazon.com. The Aria is very small, which is a crucial feature to me, but in every other field it is stumped by the Samsung Galaxy S i9000.
The second phone I considered was the HTC Tilt 2. I like the sexy slide-out hardware keyboard, but I don’t text much, so I don’t see myself putting much use into that keyboard. It would probably end up as extra weight, but I still like it nonetheless. The Tilt 2 is not an Android device: it runs Windows Mobile 6.5, and god knows if it will be upgradable to Windows Phone 7. It does have tri band 3G, but the two main points I am concerned with are the massive weight (178g, compared to i9000’s 118g) and the lack of a 3.5mm stereo port for headphones. Without an audio port, I would have to either use A2DP Bluetooth all the time (which is a horrible waste of battery, and I don’t always have my headset with me all the time anyways) or carry around HTC’s massive 3.5mm adapter with my earphones, which, owing to my absentmindedness, I could never remember to do. The Tilt 2 has 3.5 stars on Amazon, which is pretty bad, and the CPU is slower than the HTC Aria, clocking in at 528 MHz. It also has no HD video recording, no front-facing camera, no BT3 or Wireless-N, etc. But… that sexy keyboard ~_~
So those are my top three choices for my new phone. The HTC Aria is generally free, and with some digging I can probably get the HTC Tilt 2 for free too. AT&T’s Captivate costs $199 with contract, but maybe some haggling can bring that number down a little (not much, as the Captivate is a brand-new release). I’d rather import an i9000 from Singapore or Australia, though, so I’m still searching for an illegal Asian dealer that will sell me an i9000 on contract for cheap.
Phones I am considering, in order:
1) Samsung Galaxy S i9000
* 1GHz Hummingbird (Samsung)
* Tri band UMTS/HSPA 850/1900/2100MHz (international 3G OK)
* Bluetooth 3.0
* Wireless-N (802.11b/g/n)
* 5 megapixel camera with 720p HD video recording
* 118g
2) HTC Aria (HTC Legend)
* Android 2.1 with HTC Sense
* 600MHz MSM 7227 (Qualcomm)
* Very small and light
* Five stars on Amazon
* Bad speaker/speakerphone (too soft; distortion at high volumes)
* Not powerful enough for Flash and many other Android features
* Probably not upgradable to Android 3, and maybe not even to 2.2
* No HD video recording
* Bad camera quality
* No flash or FFC
* Dual band UMTS/HSPA 850/1900MHz (no international 3G)
* 115g
3) HTC Tilt 2
* 528 MHz MSM 7201a (Qualcomm)
* Windows Mobile 6.5
* Tri band UMTS/HSPA 850/1900/2100MHz (international 3G OK)
* Internal GPS antenna (REAL GPS)
* No 3.5mm stereo plug!
* 3.5 stars on Amazon
* 178g (HEAVY!)
4) HTC HD2
* 1GHz SnapDragon (Qualcomm)
* Windows Mobile 6.5
* No HD video recording
* Bad camera quality
* AMOLED screen (too reflective to use in direct sunlight)
* Great case design!
* T-mobile exclusive
5) Samsung Captivate
* Same as Galaxy S i9000, but without:
- Front facing camera
- Camera flash
- Tri band UMTS/HSPA (only dual band 850/1900MHz)
* Gyros (?)