Samsung Plans To Captivate AT&T Users On July 18

AT&T's first high-end Android-powered smartphone, the Samsung Captivate, is coming on July 18. That's right, in just over a week you'll be able to get your hands on AT&T's version of the Super AMOLED Galaxy S smartphone.

This feature-filled phone has a 4-inch WVGA (800 x 480) Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen and 16GB of internal storage. The Captivate was announced in late June and is part of Samsung's Galaxy S line. Although the phone had been previously announced, AT&T just recently revealed the smartphone will be available starting July 18.

As is typical of high-end smartphones, the Captivate will run $200 with a two-year contract and qualifying plan. In a move that's not quite as common, AT&T is offering this phone without the need to send in a mail-in rebate.

The Captivate runs on Android 2.1 and features a 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird processor. In addition to the typical Android pre-loaded software such as Google Maps, Gmail, YouTube, and Google Talk, the Captivate will come with Samsung's Social Hub which integrates email, instant messaging, social network updates, and SMS messages into a single location. The Captivate will also come with AT&T Address Book and AT&T Navigate.

In terms of connectivity, the Captivate supports AT&T's 7.2 Mbps 3G network, Wi-Fi b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0. The Captivate has a 5 megapixel camera and the ability to record 720p HD video. Other features include a microSD expansion slot, GPS receiver, six-axis sensor, accelerometer, and gyroscope.

Samsung recently announced plans to launch four smartphones with Galaxy S specs in the US market. Each of the phones will be on a different network - the Captivate for AT&T, Fascinate for Verizon, Epic 4G for Sprint, and Vibrant for T-Mobile. The Vibrant comes out on July 21, though some sites have reported that T-Mobile may push up the release date to July 15 in an effort to better compete with smartphones such as the Droid X. It will also cost $199.99. Verizon and Sprint have yet to announce release dates or pricing for their respective Galaxy S devices, the Samsung Fascinate and the Samsung Epic 4G.