Techcitement Review: Samsung Captivate Glide

I was extremely excited to see the AT&T Samsung Captivate Glide when I first got it out of the box. The phone looks expensive even though it’s made of plastic, feels solid (I really hate phones that feel disposable), and most importantly for me, has a slide-out keyboard. With 4G capability and features like an 8 MP camera, it held a lot of promise.

One of the first details I noticed when I looked at the phone was the sliding cover for the micro USB port, located to the left of the 3.5 mm headset jack. My last few phones have had a little piece that flipped out which can break off, so the slider is an improvement. A few people mistook the Captivate Glide for an iPhone; while they are remarkably close in size, the Samsung screen is a full 0.5” bigger. The Captivate Glide is 4.9”x2.5”x0.5”, with a 4” touchscreen. As I mentioned above, the phone feels solid, but it’s not overly heavy at 5.2 ounces. With those dimensions, it really shocks people when I show them the slide-out keyboard.

The Captivate Glide runs on Android 2.3.5 and has a 1 GHz dual-core processor with 1 GB of RAM. It comes with 8 GB internal memory (seriously, that’s more than the computer I used in college) and is expandable to 32 GB with a micro SD card. The back camera is 8MP with 4X zoom and shoots video in 720p HD. You can use the 1.3 MP front-facing camera for self-portraits with a simple tap on the screen. The screen resolution is 480x800p on a super AMOLED panel and displays 16 million colors. The screen looked great when playing games, using the web, and looking at pictures. I particularly like how the screen responds to the brightness in the room by dimming and brightening as needed, although it is completely washed out in bright sunlight.

The on-screen keyboard is easy to use vertically and horizontally (far superior to the phone I normally use, an LG Quantum), and you can input by typing or with Swype. Do a long press in a text field to switch between the keyboard and Swype in Input Methods. The physical keyboard has backlit keys and is easy to use, but the keys are pretty flush to the surface, so you need to watch as you type. There is a short learning curve to the keyboard because the keys are so flat. The keyboard has four rows with a menu button, home button, search button, and a speak button that allows you to verbally search, call, text, and use the phone as a navigation system. I especially like the dedicated www./.com button on the keyboard.

The battery life on the Captivate Glide is great – I used the phone for calls, web use, and one very long marathon of Angry Birds. I got at least a day’s use out of each charge. Officially, the battery gives you up to eight hours of talk time and up to 16.5 days of standby time. The battery charged quickly at home and in the car, and I set up the power saver options that worked best for me, allowing me to get the most out of battery while traveling.

The user experience with the Captivate Glide is intuitive. Whether switching from landscape to portrait while using the web browser or opening QuickView from the camera, the phone responds quickly. The one real flaw I’ve found is that the power button and the volume toggle bar are directly on opposite sides of the phone from one another, and when I press one, I often accidentally press the other as well. The calls I made on the phone were clear for me and the person I was calling. When tested against our home phone (which is a VOIP), the Captivate Glide was easier for people to hear. The speaker-phone works very well for calls or videos. While on the phone, people on the other end couldn’t tell when I switched to using the speaker. I experienced no dropped calls and no interruption in internet service even as my regular AT&T phone struggled to connect. Integration with Yahoo! was good, although the Yahoo! mail app for Android leaves much to be desired.

One of my favorite features is the ability to unlock the phone by drawing a pattern on the screen. I have three young kids who are always playing with our cell phones and this is the only unlock they haven’t managed to hack. Web browsing in particular was impressive as the phone can handle Flash and image-heavy sites. YouTube videos loaded quickly and played easily. Music played well both from the marketplace and on the phone itself.

The Captivate Glide is future-friendly as it can get updates for firmware by air. The biggest drawback to the phone is the placement of the volume and power buttons, but that is far outweighed by the many pros. The keyboard was what initially interested me, and that in combination with the phone’s weight and the screen size fully sell the phone. The Samsung Captivate Glide is $149.99 with a two-year contract and requires a minimum $15 data service per month. I highly recommend this phone if you’re looking for a great Android phone with a keyboard.