Admit it: Since you had kids, your purse has only gotten bigger and heavier. And not just because of all the bottles, blankies and transformers you’re lugging around. The REAL headache (or should I say backache) is all the DEVICES a mom needs to carry just to get through her day: Phone. MP3 Player. Camera. Video Camera. eReader. The kids’ video games.
I’ve been excited to see a number of “all in one” smartphone devices come to market over the last few years that can help simplify the lives (and handbags) of busy moms. So when I had the opportunity to test-drive the new Samsung Captivate, I jumped at the chance to put it to the test.
The highlights:
- The design is clean and thoughtful. There are almost no buttons on the device, and the USB “trap door” closes to keep it from clogging with the crumbs at the bottom of my bag
- With the biggest touch-screen of any AT&T device on the market, it uses tap and swipe technology, which I preferred to an external keyboard (impossible to keep clean).
- It’s like five different devices in one: Phone. Text messaging. Camera. Video. Internet Browser. Music. Email. Social Networking. Apps and games. The only thing it doesn’t do is the laundry.
- The 5 megapixel camera was high quality and easy to use, complete with instant cropping/rotating features that made my images picture-perfect for mobile uploads. (I just wish it had a flash option.)
- It comes loaded with a number of standard Android apps, and they’re easy to download and organize.
- I had the phone on for 24 hours and never needed to charge it.
- For everything it can do, it’s surprising light and slim.
- When I unboxed it, it was covered with a powerful “It Can Wait” film…a poignant reminder from AT&T’s campaign against texting and driving. We all need the reminder, especially when we’re shuttling precious cargo (like our kids).
Overall, the Captivate really does it all (and does it all well). And it may just be the device that finally gets you out of a diaper bag…and into a fabulous clutch!
Are you “captivated” yet? Well I have good news! We have one Samsung Captivate to give away to one lucky reader
Here’s how to enter:
Leave a comment here and tell us how the Samsung Captivate will help keep you calm, cool and connected. Your e-mail address and phone number must be accurate in your comment so we’re able to contact you. Make sure you double check. (Your contact information won’t be published.)
No purchase necessary to enter or win. Void where prohibited. This sweepstakes runs from 12:01am ET Thursday, August 26 to Wednesday, September 15, 2010, 11:59 pm ET. It is open only to individuals who, at the time of entry deadline, are legal residents of the United States and are 18 years or older; one entry per person. Wireless service is not included with the phone. The winner will be notified via phone on or about Friday, September 17, 2010. For complete contest rules, including eligibility, click here.
About Lisa
Social/Digital communicator at Fleishman Hillard. Trend watcher. Gadget geek. Textbook Gemini. Olympic caffeinator. Shoe shopper. Crazy-busy married mom of two gorgeous boys and one miniature dachshund. Opinions my own.
joanna says:
August 27, 2010 at 2:06 pm
We already have AT&T service, so winning this would be awesome! The Samsung Captivate will help keep you calm, cool and connected because it’s the first time I’ll have a smartphone, and the possibilities are endless! I’ll be a mom for the first time in a few months, and will have lots more to juggle.
Karen Tribble says:
August 27, 2010 at 2:10 pm
2 of HIS kids plus 2 of MY kids, plus 1 of OUR kids equals 5 KIDS—ALL GIRLS!!!—Helllllp ME!!! I’m swimming in a swirling hormone pool, including my own!
Tara says:
August 27, 2010 at 2:14 pm
This would help me soo much. My purse has expanded to a monster bag. specially since i’m now back in school. I need to keep pen&paper&my laptop&phone and all sorts of other jazz in there and then the baby stuff to. My phone is OLD. like i ahevnt bothered to update my phone for the past 4 years. and my daughter just flushed it a week ago. It dried out enough where i can use it but I have to charge it like every hour for it to even stay usable. I need a phone that is a touch screen [preferably] and has the internet and more then anything a phone that WORKS.
Courtney says:
August 27, 2010 at 3:23 pm
Love my Captivate! Swype is so easy and I love how easy it is to share photos on fb and twitter. Would love to win one for my hubby so he could communicate more easily with me.
Stacey Royal says:
August 27, 2010 at 4:36 pm
If there is something that even says it MIGHT make me calm and cool – it’s worth the try. My two little boys are never allowing me to be calm. Someone is always falling, crying or “not calm”. Perhaps instead of asking for Calgon to take me away, I just need “captivate” to take me away.
Katy M says:
August 27, 2010 at 4:46 pm
I don’t have a smart phone yet and could care less what others think of my “retro phone”!
But, I think this Captivate could actually be such a time saver. I feel like I’m always waiting…in line, for people to finish, to pick someone up, for appointments, you get the idea! I would LOVE to use Captivate to keep me calm and cool while waiting by making that “lost time” usable again! I could catch up on emails, tweet, blog, whatever I felt like! I’d also be able to stay connected to my loved ones who I miss terribly right now!
Thanks for the awesome giveaway!!!
Kate says:
August 27, 2010 at 6:47 pm
As a mother of 2 year old triplets and a 4 year old, this would help me immensely. I just went back to work and it would be nice to get a smaller purse!!!
Branden Martin says:
August 27, 2010 at 8:01 pm
Helping run a Boy Scout troop,leading a Civil Air Patrol Squadron, volunteering at the fire department, and keeping my personal life in order is really hard.
I have about five devices that I depend on right now. The Samsung Captivate would be a giant help. Email on the go as well as scheduling, task lists, and calling would definitely help me stay calm, cool, and connected.
Dana Valle says:
August 27, 2010 at 10:18 pm
This will help me keep calm cool and connected by allowing my instant access to my blog, facebook, twitter,giveaways, kids school and extra cirricular activities, church duties and activities, monthly meal planner, and family budgeting charts!
Thanks for the chance!!!
Jun zhang says:
August 28, 2010 at 10:01 am
I am tired of having to carry around a flip phone,gps, camera, and mp 3 player around every where and when I go to vacation. Just seeing my friend have a cool droid x and rubbing it in my face make me mad. Please let me win this phone so I can rub it in his face and surf the web at the same time.
Becky H says:
August 28, 2010 at 8:04 pm
The phone would help me stay connected with my family while I am away at college. It will also help with keeping in touch with my friends who aren’t at the same college.
It would be great to have all the features that allow me to access the internet. The internet capability would allow me to find places quicker and easier.
I would also love a new phone whose battery lasts for more than 12 hours. Having a new phone would make my life less complicated.
David Scammell says:
August 30, 2010 at 10:30 am
This phone will help me stay calm, cool and connected to my wife, who is a stay at home Mom and needs a new phone (she has an old 8525). In order to save costs, we did away with our “wired” phone line and only have AT&T cell phones to communicate.
Knowing that I can always reach her and vice versa, is extremely important. That is one reason we have been loyal AT&T customers for many years. AT&T keeps us up & running so that we can stay connected!
This would also help us stay connected via Social Networking tools and media, having it all available at our fingertips.
Having a 2 year old and another one coming in December, these are the precious times that are best captured and shared instantly using the right tools that are available on the Captivate.
Thanks for this incredible opportunity. Please help me to “captivate” my wife!
Laura N says:
August 31, 2010 at 12:32 pm
Calm cool and collected… The andriod has a lot more versatility and will allow for easy access to my laptop (non-apple). Plus, will allow for faster connection to applications and the 5 pixel camera allows for easy integration between my real life and sharing on social networks. I’m looking for a chance to move away from the iPhone and to an Andriod – and this device looks like it’ll be perfect.
Corey McMahon says:
August 31, 2010 at 2:07 pm
I’ve been an avid iPhone user but I think the features of the Captivate are hard to argue with. What a great way for AT&T to make a splash in the Andriod device market.
Alecia M says:
August 31, 2010 at 2:37 pm
I am Captivated! A new AT&T smartphone adds “cool” to everyone’s life. Mom’s want to feel cool once and a while, even with kids around. I would love to have a cooler phone than my teen, I could be better connected than him. I think the days of calm are long gone, but it would be willing to give it a try! Thanks for the offer!
brb Warren says:
September 1, 2010 at 6:27 am
I’m a father of one excitedly expecting another. My wife and I see starting a ranch from scratch. I have a full time job during the day and my wife has a full time job during the night. We put everything we have into making see ranch grow. The Samsung Captivate would let watch livestock markets, feed costs, deals on equipment, and stay connected to my family while on the go keeping me cool, calm and on my game.
S Nutting says:
September 1, 2010 at 9:01 am
Calm – Relaxing with a game, or surfing my favorite blogs in my spare minutes without having to get out the laptop, and knowing my family is a phone call or text away. Also, knowing I can use AT&T Navigate to find my way to any destination means I can stay calm on the road.
Cool – This is the coolest phone out there right now, with its Super AMOLED display, it will garner Oo’s and Ah’s from friends. The kids can never accuse me of being a tech dinosaur.
Connected – Being able to share pictures and videos of the kids taken with the Captivate’s 5 megapixel camera with relatives straight from the phone means I’ll always be in touch, especially when connected to AT&T’s great 3G network!
Ty Hickok (typod) says:
September 1, 2010 at 11:52 am
This phone looks completely awesome! The huge display no doubt is a time eater while waiting to do almost anything. The Android OS is getting more and more popular because of the functionality and the touch screen rivals many other phones! Who wouldn’t want one!
Tequila says:
September 1, 2010 at 4:02 pm
Winning the Samsung Captivate will definitely help keep me calm, cool, and collected. With the slim and sleek design I can officially call myself a hip smartphone packin mom. Not to mention I will be able to catch up on e-mail while waiting for the kids to finish soccer practice, listen to my favorite music while working out on lunch, and I will finally be able to move out of the duffle bag Ive been carrying that holds my pda, ipod, and out-dated brick nokia cell phone. I will also be able to see what its like to have all my social networking applications at my fingertips instead of waiting to put the kids to bed before checking my facebook. With precious little ones that have precious moments to capture it would also be nice to have a camera phone.
Diane L. Vescio says:
September 1, 2010 at 8:10 pm
I have a smartphone and I love it, but I’d love to win one for my husband or daughter. We have a family plan with AT&T. We all stay connected to each other via our cell phones. My daughter dropped and “killed” her phone this week – thank goodness I had a backup phone. When you take your phone everywhere with you, phones get “beat up”. Would love a nice new phone to stay calm, cool and connected!
Troy J. Broussard says:
September 2, 2010 at 8:51 am
This Samsung Captivate will keep me calm, cool, and connected by allowing access to my facebook, twitter, and linkedin pages. My busy schedule keeps me on the go and this smartphone will keep my daily activities in order. By the way, it would make a Great Birthday present for me on 9-17-10. I look forward to the announcement!!
Have a Great Day!!
Justin says:
September 2, 2010 at 11:52 pm
I would really like a Samsung Captivate because I’m juggling my senior year of college, my full-time job as a resident assistant and a slate of medical school interviews all at once. Not counting personal commitments, it’s extremely difficult to balance all these appointments, commitments and due dates without a smartphone – my current phone, the Mythic, can’t even sync correctly with Outlook. If I were to have this superpowered phone, I would use every facet of it, because every facet would play an important role in organizing my life. Please consider me. Thanks!
Daniel Lovejoy says:
September 5, 2010 at 1:16 pm
To everyone entering this contest – good luck. I just bought the Captivate and it is by far the best phone I have ever had.
There are thousands of free apps, I found a program that allows me to sync my phone with Microsoft Outlook (It is called Samsung Kies – found on a European website, AT&T doesn’t want you to know about it).
I just heard that Sprint is going to carry the phone as well.
There are so many functions on the phone, I am still learning, and according to some web sites, the operating system is going to be updated to a new version in September. The new version supports Adobe Flash.
So far, I can’t find anything bad to say about this phone, and I’m a computer tech who frequently likes to complain.
Michael McMillen says:
September 5, 2010 at 9:17 pm
It would be so cool to have a super phone like the Samsung Captivate, with it’s huge bright screen, it’s 5MP camera and it’s even got Sweype (I think I am pronouncing this right =)) All packed into Android (2.2 I believe) Plus I am already on AT&T so I can just take my Sims card out in put it in!
Thanks for the chance =) -McM96 (aka Michael McMillen)
Sam says:
September 6, 2010 at 10:15 pm
I am an avid Google products user, particularly with Gmail and Google voice. I always want to be notified about important new emails, new text messages from GVoice, but with a feature phone I have to go to ridiculous lengths to do so – this involves forwarding certain email to a Hotmail account and using an AT&T application to deliver notifications – and then opening another application to actually respond to the email. Google voice is essential because I have a very limited texting plan. Syncing my Google Calendar with my phone is a huge hassle, doesn’t always work, and has major limitations as well. These are all important features that can be solved with an Android smartphone.
I am on AT&T and my Android selection has been very low historically – I don’t like iPhones too much. This would be my first smartphone and I am extremely excited about the Galaxy S series, particularly the Captivate. With this, I would no longer have to worry if the alerts system was failing (which it often does), whether the right emails are being sent through, whether I’ve missed an important Facebook message, or have an important meeting coming up. I am a college student so I have a lot of things to juggle in my mind, and it can get very difficult. In addition, college costs me 50k a year (of which I pay a substantial amount myself) so a free phone would be extremely appreciated.
I hope that I win this Samsung Captivate! It would solve so many of my problems and definitely will keep me calm, cool, and connected.
Milcah says:
September 7, 2010 at 6:30 pm
The personality of this phone would rub of…it’s calm, cool and connected..
Robert H says:
September 8, 2010 at 9:45 am
I would use the Captivate to keep track of my teenager. In addition, I may captivate her attention since I would have a cooler phone than she did!
Grace says:
September 8, 2010 at 11:24 am
I could really use something that will make my life easier right about now.
Chad says:
September 8, 2010 at 10:08 pm
I would like to win this phone because my wife needs a phone. So if anything happens when I am not around, she can get help.
Matthew says:
September 13, 2010 at 10:31 am
My work environment rarely allows for ‘downtime’ or the ability to step away from the frantic and often manic “rush” requests we get day in and day out. Its an explossive environment.
I had a chance to fondle the Samsung Captivate this past weekend and fell in love with the large 4″ moled screen, its vivid and bright colors brought a tentative smile and a ray of vibrant color into an otherwise dreary and mind numbed pespective. I spent 30 minutes cycling through the various demo options but kept coming back to the video demo awith its slide show of amazing and brilliant shots of nature.
Given the chance, I’d gladly drop the sim from my current 5 year old samsung into this beauty and set it up horizontally on the stand beneath my monitor and bask in the depth and clarity of this gorgeous screen.
Anonymous says:
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