The Samsung Captivate is the newest Samsung Galaxy S smartphone to receive an introduction, following the June 15 debut of the Galaxy 3 and Galaxy 5 in Singapore. It’s schedule to arrive within the next few months on the AT&T network, where -despite being the exclusive home of the Apple iPhone – it may still garner some attention.
First, there’s its 4-inch AMOLED touch screen. In addition to supporting multi-touch gestures such as pinching and vertical and horizontal swiping, the technology is said to allow for an overall thinner form factor, and AT&T is calling the Captivate “one of the thinnest, most responsive full-featured smartphones in the industry.”
The Captivate will also run Android 2.1, so users can expect the full assortment of Google Mobile Services, such as Google Maps, Gmail and Google Talk, as well as quick access to the Android Market, which now has more than 60,000 applications. Additionally built on Android is Samsung’s Social Hub technology, which seems to tie together all incoming and outgoing communication, whether emails, SMS messages or Facebook updates. There’s also, of course, a full HTML browser.
Powering these capabilities is a 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird application processor, which is designed to make for quick upload and download times, add HD-like richness to multimedia content and produce “amazing 3D graphics,” per AT&T. These, paired with the Captivate’s 3D sound capabilities, will complement the inclusion of a 3.5mm headphone jack, MP3 player and 16GB of on-board storage that’s expandable to 32GB.
Other multimedia goodies include a 5-megapixel camera/camcorder with HD video recording (at 720p) and an accelerometer and gyroscope for a physical-but-fluid gaming experience.
A world phone, this newest Galaxy can connect to tri-band 3G networks or quad-band GSM, and there’s also 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0 connectivity.
“Add up Captivate’s amazing screen, huge amounts of onboard storage, a super-fast processor, all fueled by the nation’s fastest 3G network and a nationwide WiFi network and you get a smartphone we know our customers will crave,” Jeff Bradley, AT&T’s senior vice president of devices, said in a June 17 statement.
Going forward, the Captivate will also have access to the Samsung Media Hub – a library of video and literary (likely e-books and magazines) that’s still a work in progress. A pre-loaded app on the Captivatee will deliver users to the Hub, and a DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) technology will allow users to share their self-generated media content to other DLNA-enabled devices, such as televisions, monitors and laptops.
Pricing details or an exact launch date for the Samsung Captivate have yet to be announced.
EDITOR’S NOTE: With apologies, this text has been corrected to reflect that the correct name of the device is the Captivate.