Keep Captivate or...

You won't be able to beat the SGS Captivate without getting very spendy. For sub-$100 you're only going to be able to afford a Sansa product, or a NaNiTe. I have no experience with the nanite, but my SGS Captivate sounds noticably better than my Zune 30, iPod 5.5, Sansa e260, and my friend's Sansa Fuze/iPod Classic with Voodoo sound, DSP Manager, and Poweramp.

My suggestion is to take the $100 you have and do the following:

32GB Micro SD: http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B003WGJYCY/ref=sr_1_1_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1321683196&sr=8-1&condition=new <- anything above Class 2 is irrelevant for music playback.

Spare batteries/chargers: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=samsung+captivate+battery&_sacat=0&_odkw=SGS+captivate+battery&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313

For around $40-50 additional, you can upgrade your SD to 32GB, and carry around a few extra batteries to compensate for the battery life. Alternatively you could be a little more spendy and buy an extended battery, or an external battery pack.

my iPhone 4 contract finishes around the time SGS3 should come out, i hope Samsung brings back the great sound quality, the SGS2 doesn't sound that good

The SGS can't be paired with an external amp, but it's not like it needs it. It has the capability to drive demanding 'phones like the HD650 WITHOUT amplification, so it shouldn't be necessary for MOST products. 

People talk about amps as magical sound quality-increasing pieces of hardware when the true purpose of them is to supply enough juice to difficult to drive equipment.

Oh as an FYI, I don't have a contract on my phone, nor even a simcard. Using it as a dedicated PMP with moderate wifi use, I get 16-20 hours worth of use on the stock 1500mAh battery.

Quote:

Originally Posted by XanderTJ 

The SGS can't be paired with an external amp, but it's not like it needs it. It has the capability to drive demanding 'phones like the HD650 WITHOUT amplification, so it shouldn't be necessary for MOST products. 

 

People talk about amps as magical sound quality-increasing pieces of hardware when the true purpose of them is to supply enough juice to difficult to drive equipment.

 

Oh as an FYI, I don't have a contract on my phone, nor even a simcard. Using it as a dedicated PMP with moderate wifi use, I get 16-20 hours worth of use on the stock 1500mAh battery.

I heard that if someone port ICS ROM to SGS, it might be able to have a true line out thru USB

Quote:

Originally Posted by umvue 

I heard that if someone port ICS ROM to SGS, it might be able to have a true line out thru USB

id wait till the official Nexus S ICS update, then the SGS port will be much more stable 

Quote:

Originally Posted by XanderTJ 

 Using it as a dedicated PMP with moderate wifi use, I get 16-20 hours worth of use on the stock 1500mAh battery.

I bet that isn't the stock ROM and Froyo 2.2 like on my Vibrant.

I had to get a spare battery for it just for 8 hours of music playback using Music Player Pro and stock Froyo.
 

Remember that A. Because I have no contract/SIM card, I have no phone line/3g to eat up battery.

I have CM7.1 Nightly /w Voodoo10, overclocked to 1200mhz, running Voodoo control, Cyanogen DSP Manager, and Neutron music player. I've never ran the battery dry, but it's usually at around 30-40% around the 17 hour mark. I listen to music pretty much non-stop from 7 AM to 11 PM. With the volume rocker hack, I can skip tracks just by long-pressing the volume buttons negating the need to even turn on the screen a lot of the time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ricardo Dawkins 

I bet that isn't the stock ROM and Froyo 2.2 like on my Vibrant.

 

I had to get a spare battery for it just for 8 hours of music playback using Music Player Pro and stock Froyo.
 

 

I am about to jump ships to another phone service and was thinking of using this phone for my mp3 player only, thing is the phone only lasts from about 11am to 7pm and then goes dead(Light usage, maybe 10-15 mins of facebook, 2- 5 minute calls, and well thats about it). I cant really test the battery life without a sim card since I might miss calls/texts. Was your phone that bad when you used a sim? I am on 2.2 official firmware.

Not sure how to go about all that custom firmware, is it hard? Does it really help that much? 
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by XanderTJ 

Remember that A. Because I have no contract/SIM card, I have no phone line/3g to eat up battery.

 

I have CM7.1 Nightly /w Voodoo10, overclocked to 1200mhz, running Voodoo control, Cyanogen DSP Manager, and Neutron music player. I've never ran the battery dry, but it's usually at around 30-40% around the 17 hour mark. I listen to music pretty much non-stop from 7 AM to 11 PM. With the volume rocker hack, I can skip tracks just by long-pressing the volume buttons negating the need to even turn on the screen a lot of the time.

 

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by XanderTJ 

You won't be able to beat the SGS Captivate without getting very spendy. For sub-$100 you're only going to be able to afford a Sansa product, or a NaNiTe. I have no experience with the nanite, but my SGS Captivate sounds noticably better than my Zune 30, iPod 5.5, Sansa e260, and my friend's Sansa Fuze/iPod Classic with Voodoo sound, DSP Manager, and Poweramp.

 

My suggestion is to take the $100 you have and do the following:

 

32GB Micro SD: http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B003WGJYCY/ref=sr_1_1_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1321683196&sr=8-1&condition=new <- anything above Class 2 is irrelevant for music playback.

 

Spare batteries/chargers: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=samsung+captivate+battery&_sacat=0&_odkw=SGS+captivate+battery&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313

 

For around $40-50 additional, you can upgrade your SD to 32GB, and carry around a few extra batteries to compensate for the battery life. Alternatively you could be a little more spendy and buy an extended battery, or an external battery pack.

Am I missing something, I find my Captivate noisy, bright, etchy and fatiguing compared to just about anything (Sansa Fuze, Clip, iPod)? I am using stock music player.

I found this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVJWMzCdcsY&feature=player_embedded that looks easy, what would be the best rom for battery life?(I think thats what its called)

I have never had the phone with a SIM/contract. I bought it off someone who's contract expired for the SOLE PURPOSE of using it as a PMP. I had read several reviews comparing it to the Sansa line, the Zune family, and the Cowon X7, all things I was considering buying. Most of the testimonies said that the SGS was superior, so I went for the buy. $100 for a like-new SGS seemed like a steal to me.

With airplane mode on, with moderate wifi usage (a few hours of IM+ and Face Book) I have never run the battery dry, unplugging the phone at 6:30 AM and plugging it back in at 11:00 PM with 30-40% remaining.

I'm using CM7.1 which uses noticeably more battery than Froyo does, AND my phone's overclocked. If I ever bothered with an extended battery (2600-3500 mAh), I could probably get a solid 30-40 hours of constant use out of the thing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spardasieg 

I am about to jump ships to another phone service and was thinking of using this phone for my mp3 player only, thing is the phone only lasts from about 11am to 7pm and then goes dead(Light usage, maybe 10-15 mins of facebook, 2- 5 minute calls, and well thats about it). I cant really test the battery life without a sim card since I might miss calls/texts. Was your phone that bad when you used a sim? I am on 2.2 official firmware.

 

Not sure how to go about all that custom firmware, is it hard? Does it really help that much? 
 

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by tim3320070 

Am I missing something, I find my Captivate noisy, bright, etchy and fatiguing compared to just about anything (Sansa Fuze, Clip, iPod)? I am using stock music player.

 

Voodoo Sound for Galaxy S. Just research it. Google is your friend.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spardasieg 

I found this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVJWMzCdcsY&feature=player_embedded that looks easy, what would be the best rom for battery life?(I think thats what its called)

it is quite easy to root any android device using One click. For custom roms, I recommend the forums of XDA for your specific device. Or trying CyanogenMod if you don't want to fuss too much.