If you’ve been hanging around the Android community, you know how developers are hard at work on making sure that you can enjoy a unique and customized experience on your Android device. With virtually hundreds of ways to improve your device’s performance, push it to its limits, and change its appearance, it’s impossible to get bored with your device.

If you’re feeling like your phone needs a change, stroll over to the XDA Developers forums and see what’s cooking in the kitchen. The latest trend to emerge from recognized XDA member saranhai and Team Inferno’s kitchen is CyanTablet 9. It’s CyanogenMod 9 and that gorgeous UI you find on Android tablets, all packaged neatly into one ROM for your Samsung Captivate. That means that you can enjoy turning your phone into a mini-tablet.

Of course, we’re not exaggerating when we say mini. Because a tablet’s interface was designed to fit a larger screen, squeezing the UI into a phone’s display results in text and icons being tiny. It’s a small price to pay if you want to make your Captivate stand out from the rest.

Warnings:

• The instructions in this guide are intended for use with the Samsung Captivate, model number SGH-I897. Applying these instructions on another device or model may produce undesired outcomes.
• The information in this guide is provided for instructional and educational purposes only. There is no guarantee that these instructions will work under your specific and unique circumstances.
• Use these instructions at your own risk. We shall not hold any responsibility or liability for whatever happens to you or your device arising from your use of the info in this guide.
• Read and understand the whole guide first before actually performing the instructions.

Requirements:

• A rooted Samsung Captivate with ClockworkMod Recovery installed.
  • See our guide on how to root the Samsung Captivate SGH-I897.
• Backup all personal data on your phone to make sure you have a copy of your personal data (e.g., contacts, SMS, MMS, Internet settings, Wi-Fi passwords, and the like) in case the procedure in this guide erases such data.
  • For backup tips, check our guides on how to sync your data to the cloud and how to create local backups of your mobile data.
• Fully charged battery to prevent the device from shutting off in the middle of the flashing process
• CyanTablet 9 package for the Captivate (update-CyanTablet-signed Captivate.zip, md5um: 124b90a8f21005683a806fe8504b90af)
• Latest GApps (Google Apps) package (gapps-ics-20120429-signed.zip, md5sum: 7c524e1e078164f681e0aa6753180b2c)

Instructions

Flashing from Stock or from Another Custom ROM

1. Download both the CyanTablet 9 and Google Apps ZIP files to your computer.
2. Copy both the CyanTablet 9 and Google Apps ZIP files to the root of your Captivate’s SD card.
3. Turn off your phone.
4. Boot into Recovery Mode by pressing and holding down the Volume Up button, the Home button and the Power button until the screen turns on.
5. Once in Recovery, create a Nandroid backup by selecting Backup and Restore > Backup.
6. Select Wipe Data/Factory Reset.
7. Select Wipe Cache Partition.
8. Select Install ZIP from SD Card and select the CyanTablet 9 ZIP file.
9. Once the CyanTablet 9 has finished flashing, select Go Back.
10. Select Install ZIP from SD Card and this time select Google Apps.
11. Once Google Apps has finished flashing, select Go Back.
12. Select Wipe Data/Factory Reset.
13. Select Wipe Cache Partition.
14. Select Reboot System Now.

Remember to wipe both data and the cache partition after you’ve installed Google Apps or else the Calendar Sync will not work.

Upgrading from CyanogenMod 7

1. Download both the CyanTablet 9 and Google Apps ZIP files to your computer.
2. Copy both the CyanTablet 9 and Google Apps ZIP files to the root of your Captivate’s SD card.
3. Turn off your phone.
4. Boot into Recovery Mode by pressing and holding down the Volume Up button, the Home button and the Power button until the screen turns on.
5. Once in Recovery, create a Nandroid backup by selecting Backup and Restore > Backup.
6. Select Wipe Data/Factory Reset.
7. Select Wipe Cache Partition.
8. Select Install ZIP from SD Card and select the CyanTablet 9 ZIP file.
9. Once the CyanTablet 9 has finished flashing, select Go Back.
10. Select Install ZIP from SD Card and this time select Google Apps.
11. Once Google Apps has finished flashing, select Go Back.
12. Select Reboot System Now.

Upgrading from CyanogenMod 9 (CM9) or ROM Based on CM9

1. Download both the CyanTablet 9 and Google Apps ZIP files to your computer.
2. Copy both the CyanTablet 9 and Google Apps ZIP files to the root of your Captivate’s SD card.
3. Turn off your phone.
4. Boot into Recovery Mode by pressing and holding down the Volume Up button, the Home button and the Power button until the screen turns on.
5. Once in Recovery, create a Nandroid backup by selecting Backup and Restore > Backup.
6. Select Install ZIP from SD Card and select the CyanTablet 9 ZIP file.
7. Once the CyanTablet 9 has finished flashing, select Go Back.
8. Select Install ZIP from SD Card and this time select Google Apps.
9. Once Google Apps has finished flashing, select Go Back.
10. Select Reboot System Now.

Once you’ve rebooted into CyanTablet 9, head on over to Settings > Display > Font Size and set it to Huge.

Congratulations! You’ve successfully turned your Samsung Captivate SGH-I897 into a mini-tablet.