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Samsung Instinct Review

Published on: 21 June, 2008 by PhoneArena Team

Performance:

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We had absolutely no reception problems with the Instinct, though the bars do jump wildly. We could go from 1 bar to full coverage and back down to 1 without even moving, but call quality remained excellent and we never dropped a call. Bars should be taken with a grain of salt anyway, as they are not a true indicator of signal strength. Callers said we sounded as good as we did on the Touch Diamond, which was the best ever. They even said we sounded “pretty good” over Bluetooth, which is a rare compliment. On our end they sounded great as well, voice quality was rich and volume was fine even in a moving car with the windows down.

Battery life, however, was not so stellar. It is rated at an incredibly high 5.75 hours of talk time, but we were only able to manage a bit over 3.5 hours. Just to make sure, we ran the test with both included batteries, but got talk times of 3h32m and 3h41m. For such a feature-rich CDMA phone those numbers are still on the high end, and we were pretty skeptical of the 5.75 hour claim to begin with.


Conclusion:

We came away quite impressed with the Instinct. The touchscreen is responsive, call quality top notch and multimedia suite expansive. Some of the features need more refinement, such as the portrait keypad and music player, but overall Sprint and Samsung should be commended for their ground-up approach to the phone. We have high hopes for both the UI and the forward thinking that went into it.

So, is it worthy of a crown? Absolutely, just not the one it aimed for. It’s a commendable adversary to the iPhone, and indeed outperforms it in many areas, but in the end the Instinct lacks the slickness and wow factor that the iPhone has. We’d be happy to crown it “Best of the Rest” though, and at just $130 see no reason why Sprint users- or anyone who doesn’t want AT&T but wants a feature packed touchscreen phone- wouldn’t go out and buy one today.

Pros

  • Responsive touch screen
  • Great QWERTY keyboard
  • Excellent call quality
  • Easy to use user interface
  • Rev. A data
  • Threaded messaging
  • Live Search/Navigation/Speech-to-Action combo
  • Easy access to the information you want

Cons

  • Portrait keyboard not T9
  • No IM client
  • Issues with music player
  • Poor camera performance

PA rating

  • Design 9.5
  • Display 9.5
  • Camera 3.5
  • Sound Quality 9.5
  • Battery 8
  • Connectivity 7.5
  • Multimedia 8
  • Organizer 8
Excellent
9
out of 10

How do we rate?

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+1
2.
thank you for rating the PHONE, not like those who just hate sprint and say the phone sucks. Great job.
Reply to this comment
0
3.
Thanks for your review.

I already order one........ let's see how it looks.......n will definitely write comments ...
0
30.
Believe me I have one, this is a beatiful phone and it does more than the iphone plus it comes with an extra battery
as everyone knows iphones dont have that
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Reply to anonymous Hide 1 replies to this comment
0
4.
Went to play with the device at a Sprint Store, I must say it's not what I thought it would be, it honestly feels quite cheap in the hand and it lacks the simplicity that the iphone has with its OS. but, if that's your thing I am sure it will work for you. The speeds with the data varied based on reception, although when it had full bars I didn't notice much lag on it, the phone did freeze a few times on me. The GPS was quite a nice touch, the music player which got low marks already wasn't that great. All and all it wasn't enough to make me go back to Sprint, sorry to say I am going to wait for the iphone 3G when it comes out and if that's not as a WOW factor as the original was for me I am going to bank on the Samsung Omnia with it's FM Radio, 5 MPXL camera, Wi-Fi, WinMo 6.1 and HSDPA. Plus it's a phone I can take with me overseas. All and all I can see why the price was knocked down to 129.99 for it. Just not that stellar.
0
48.
WoW its actually cheap and not tough/durable.
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Reply to mock5 Hide 1 replies to this comment
0
5.
I purchased his phone on the 19th and must say this review is the closest to the experience I have had so far. The QWERTY is extremely accurate and easy to use right out of the box. I did want to point out that you do not need to use the virtual back space button as the permanent back button next to home icon will work as well. I also had trouble with the virtual back space button which will make the keyboard disappear if you missed it. Also I was able to load Google Maps by sending the text link to myself via google.com. The UI is very easy and user friendly but seems to be pretty dumbed down. I was surprised with the lack of options under the Settings icon. My favorite feature is the Sprint Navigation which like the review stated works hand in hand with Live Search. The Navigation was quite to re-route when I would purposely not follow where it told me to go. I can search everything from gas by price to just about anything else under the sun with easy which is all categorized and once you find what you are looking for you are given the phone number, a map, driving directions, and the ability to send the info to anyone! All in all t is a great phone for what I need. If you are looking for email access you are better off to stick with your BB, WM, or Palm because the Instinct will not cut. It is far from a smart phone but has to be one of the best multi-media/GPS phones.
Reply to this comment
0
6.
No... I ... M.... nice....
0
7.
its just a java app, so i wouldnt be surprised to see it in the near future. not shipping with it, however...
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Reply to NoIMQQ Hide 1 replies to this comment
0
8.
I was able to download google maps and use it just fine on my Instinct.
I agree with all the cons. The camera sucks and not having T9 is pretty dumb. I hate not having the ability to personalize the phone with a wallpaper that I can see longer than 2 seconds.
Other than that it is great!
0
44.
no need for T9 when you have a keyboard!
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0
9.
I was going to switch from Sprint to AT&T with iPhone 3G but then I took an hour and tried out Sprint Instinct at the store. It is an awesome phone and a serious competitor (except browser which will be resolved with Opera Mini soon).

Other than that, it is very customizable, single handed operation for most stuff, fast Touch-screen response, real GPS (unlike iPhone which just tacks on Google Maps) with turn-by-turn directions.

You can even download Google maps (both street view and satellite view) on Sprint Instinct (should be integrated with GPS in a little while as well). The voice command search is awesome (you say Chinese Food and it will find nearby using GPS and even give you a one-touch number to call or one-touch to turn-by-turn GPS directions), and 30+ TV channels and a lot of Radio channels are included. It also has a camcorder that iPhone doesn't. It is perfect size (iphone is too wide).

And best of all, for $69.99 single line or $129.99 for 2 lines, you get everything that iPhone 3G will provide plus UNLIMITED Text messaging (iPhone will cost $20 extra per month!) and UNLIMITED TV and RADIO time (no TV or Radio on iPhone)!

The TeleNav GPS on Instinct is like high-end GPS unit for a car and it has voice command with real names of streets. It also checks for real-time traffic alerts and re-routes you!

You can even set Instinct up to announce (text to voice) the names of phone callers on incoming calls or text messages!

And it cost me $129.99 at BestBuy (no mail-in rebates needed) with renewal of 2-year contract (I was 23 months into the contract). This is the best deal for my money and I got 2 of them for me and my wife and she loves it!
-1
21.
Too bad this sweet phone is on one of the worst "nationwide" networks available. Poor Sprint.
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0
45.
here we go, we know Sprint isnt your cup of tea but it works great for me and my family for the last 5 yrs.
Reply to this comment This comment is posted in response to #21 ( Show )
Reply to JohnJohn Hide 2 replies to this comment
0
10.
now what's left? Sprint needs to improve they network. I still believe vzw and att has the best network in the business. Without a good ASS network all of this ain't possible. Because u will be frustrated with the phone but really is not ur phone is the cell towers that SUCKS!!!!
0
11.
its all about what works in your area, but as one who uses both vzw and sprint and travels a lot i have to admit that sprint has surpassed vzw in the past two years or so. they keep getting better, while my vzw service deteriorates.
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Reply to anonymous Hide 1 replies to this comment
0
12.
The real deal killer for me on the Instinct is that it currently lacks the ability to open PDF's and Office doc's, no push email, and no calendar sync. I know this is not intended as a "business" phone, but these are serious drawbacks for anyone considering the phone for anything but play. Does anyone know if these shortfalls will be addressed?
0
14.
Hopefully the SDK release will solve some if not all of the probelms you listed. The other option is wait util they release the Andriod version which I've read is expected Q4 08 or Q1 09.
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0
46.
well working in retail and selling Sprint this phone is mainly for play, no calender sync and no plans of correcting that as of yet. also this device is not ment to compete with your current line of PDA phones it is not even classifyed as such by samsung and sprint.
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0
51.
do you mean that there is no way to sync your phone with your computer??
Reply to this comment This comment is posted in response to #46 ( Show )
Reply to anonymous Hide 3 replies to this comment
0
13.
I WOULD GET THIS PHONE IF I HAD A FULL QWERTY KEYBOARD LIKE THE GLYDE :(
0
15.
Have you tried to typing on the Instincts virtual keyboard yet? I wasn't sure I would like it myself but after the first day I was amazed with how responsive it was. The only problem I have is the "?" is right next to the space bar so I somethings have a "?" instead of a space.
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