T-Mobile, AT&T race to release first U.S. Galaxy S device

We've been touting the T-Mobile Vibrant as the first Samsung Galaxy S device to hit a U.S. carrier, given its July 21st launch date. On Thursday, AT&T announced that it will be launching their Captivate on July 18th, which would beat the Vibrant by a few days. Ah, but maybe T-Mobile heard about this: there are rumors, but no official confirmation, that the Vibrant will launch July 15th.

The new Vibrant (above) date is unconfirmed, as the last date given on Samsung's Twitter feed still says July 21. it does, however, sound likely given the AT&T date.

Both the Vibrant and Captivate will ship with 16GB of internal storage. That is unlike Verizon's Fascinate and the Sprint Epic 4G, which will have 2GB and 1GB respectively. However, the latter devices will have LED flash, and the T-Mobile and AT&T versions will not.

These four devices will all have the Samsung Hummingbird CPU and Super AMOLED screens. While people should stop using the term "iPhone killer," they are obviously very competitive in terms of hardware.

Additionally, the Spring Epic 4G will support WiMax, and have a forward-facing camera that the others are missing. All will receive Froyo in the future.

Finally, the Captivate will not allow side-loading, as AT&T has said before is basically a way to make developers "be accountable for the apps they submit." Side-loading is the installation of non-Market builds on an Android device. You need to change a default setting on the phone, but AT&T feels that is not enough protection.

Sounds a little App Store-ish, doesn't it?

Let's also not forget that the Captivate will be saddled with AT&T's overburdened network. Sagging under the weight of the iPhone, it will be interesting to see how it handles the Samsung Captivate.