Samsung Instinct to cost $199

It's cheap

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)

Sprint has yet to confirm it officially, but the Samsung Instinct should have a $199 price tag when it goes on sale Friday, June 20. That price includes a rebate but it would require a two-year contract with a Sprint "Simply Everything" plan. We've been hearing buzz of the bargain basement price for a few days now, but Wall Street Journal technology reporter Walt Mossberg mentioned it in his review of the Instinct, which posted today. In all seriousness, a $199 price tag is more than believable as it would make the Instinct just as expensive as the 8GB model of the iPhone 3G, which the Instinct is attempting to take on. For its part, Sprint is still mentioning a cost of "less than $300" for the Instinct. Hopefully, the carrier will come clean soon.

[kingrah1]

really? just a 2 MONTH contract?!?!?!

[cyd2632]

Its two YEARS, not two months. It says that in the article.

[Minestry]

The Phone will be $299.99 With a 2 year contract. thats for brand new customers and 23+ month upgrade. Also you will get a $100 MIR to go along with that.

[o2bpitching]

To Minestry: Partially correct. The 16 Gb model will be $299. However, the 8 GB model will be only $199. Still, with the $199 iPhone having 8GB of storage and the Instinct having, um, 32 MB (which can be ungraded to 8 GB for about $50 as a microSD card), the iPhone is still the beter deal. Plus, the minimum monthly plan for the Phone is $69.99. For the Instinct, to get the good price, is $99.

[bigmc6000]

Saying $50 for the SD card is assuming 1) that it's not proprietary (i.e.Samsung cards only) and 2) the Sprint store isn't going to charge, at least, twice that. I wouldn't at all be surprised if only a certain brand of SD card works with it #1 and #2 that Sprint is going to have a huge mark up on it. Still - seems strange they would try to combat the iPhone with the exact same price for way features...

[billeeyum]

I have had 4 or 5 Samsung phones with micro SD card slots. Samsung has no proprietary memory type, only Sony does. Also there is no way for a company to make only certain brands of memory cards work in it's devices. Either the card reader on the device accepts micro sd cards or it doesn't. So you could use any micro sd card in it, not just one purchased at a sprint store.

[sillyhermitcrab]

what the heck are you talking about?how is the iphone the better deal?the instinct plans are anywhere from 69.99 to 99.99,depending on how many minutes you want.no way,i'll take the instinct and be quite happy

[bigmc6000]

I'm guessing their $300 difference is talking about the fact that Sprint's plan is $100 for unlimited voice, data, and texts. AT&T's unlimited is $99 for voice, $30 for data and $20 for texts. That comes out to basically $50 a month. So for an equivalent plan the Sprint one is much cheaper. However, for my purposes, the iPhone is cheaper because I don't need unlimited mins since AT&T has rollover I only need the 450 min plan. Combined with the $30 data and the $20 text it comes out to $89.99. So, for me at least, the iPhone is cheaper. Also, it's going to double as a portable gaming system so that saves me however much a PSP or Ninentendo DS costs :)

[ortizlgnd]

WANNA BEE!!!! i mean, it looks ok and it might be alot of fun, but lets face it, its NOT the iphone. And it doesnt have Windows mobile either. And for the same price as an iPhone? Its a no-brainer..... Say No to inSTINK't

[bigmc6000]

I'm guessing their $300 difference is talking about the fact that Sprint's plan is $100 for unlimited voice, data, and texts. AT&T's unlimited is $99 for voice, $30 for data and $20 for texts. That comes out to basically $50 a month. So for an equivalent plan the Sprint one is much cheaper. However, for my purposes, the iPhone is cheaper because I don't need unlimited mins since AT&T has rollover I only need the 450 min plan. Combined with the $30 data and the $20 text it comes out to $89.99. So, for me at least, the iPhone is cheaper. Also, it's going to double as a portable gaming system so that saves me however much a PSP or Ninentendo DS costs :)

[Composer_1777]

Being able to use SD is way better than flash, considering unlimited memory potential. A 199 Instinct is a better deal than an 8 gig i phone, cause the i phone is too limited in memory.

[Composer_1777]

Locked phones are bad either way.

[SoloTurtle]

How much would it cost a month please get back to my comment.