Samsung's Instinct

The Instinct has one big touch screen. Click the image to view our slide show.

(Credit: Sprint)

Last year in Orlando, Samsung's UpStage was one of the biggest announcements of the CTIA show. And this year in Las Vegas, Samsung may have done it again. Today the company announced the Samsung Instinct SPH-M800, which will land at Sprint this summer. The Instinct looks a lot like a certain cell phone from Apple, but Sprint (thankfully) isn't positioning it as an iPhone killer. Rather, a Sprint spokeswoman called it just an iPhone competitor. We're not quite sure what to make of that, either.

But whatever you call it, the Instinct is undeniably eye-catching. (See our Samsung Instinct slide show.) The predominately touch-screen device sports a thin candy-bar design (4.57 inches by 2.17 inches by 0.49 inch; 4.4 ounces) in basic black. At first glance it resembles not only the iPhone, but also the LG FK700 and the Samsung SGH-F490. Indeed, its strong similarity to the latter is more than just a coincidence. Except for a feature changes and a unique interface, the Instinct is a recycled CDMA version of the SGH-F490, which we saw two months ago at the GSMA World Congress.

Yes, it's another thin phone.

(Credit: Sprint)

Features
The Instinct's feature set is well stocked with a host of goodies that should make any media phone fan proud. Inside the 3G handset, which is Sprint's first device to have EV-DO Rev. A at birth, you'll find a 2-megapixel camera, access to the Sprint Music Store for wireless downloads, stereo Bluetooth, audible caller ID, voice dialing and commands, a full HTML browser, a digital music player that shows album art, support for Sprint Radio and Sprint TV, phone as modem capability, Microsoft Live Search, and integrated GPS with Sprint navigation.

Instant messaging is not onboard, but the Instinct will display the full thread of the text conversation. You'll also get multimedia messaging and access to personal and corporate e-mail. And in a surprising move, the Instinct will have some form of Visual Voicemail (yes, Sprint says it should be capitalized), which up until has been exclusive to the iPhone. In case you haven't heard (and really, you should have), Visual Voicemail allows you to pick and choose which messages you want to hear. It's quite a cool feature, but we we wonder if AT&T and Apple are calling their copyright lawyers.

The Instinct features a full alpahbetic keyboard

(Credit: Sprint)

Interface
As mentioned earlier, the Instinct relies heavily on a large (3.1-inch, 262,000 color) touch screen, which will be your interface for almost all of the phone's functions including placing and ending calls. Below the display are three separate touch controls: a back button, a Home key, and a shortcut control that will take you to the calling menu. In an improvement over the iPhone, the display gives localized tactile feedback, and the texting and e-mailing onscreen keyboard will display in a landscape orientation. The user-programmable Favorites menu looked pretty nifty, as well, and we like the multitasking capability, which allows you to move between different functions pretty handily.

But even with those features, the menu interface isn't quite as slick as the iPhone's. It's not that it doesn't have promise; it's just that it falls a bit short in both usability and beauty. That could be because we were using a beta version; we'll have to wait for a final model to give our firm assessment.

Performance
We were glad to see that the phone comes with a 2GB memory slot and two batteries, each of which promises 5.75 hours of talk time. The 3.5mm headset jack is another plus as it lets us use our own headphones without any kind of adapter. That's very cool indeed.

So on the whole the Instinct looks promising, but at this early stage it's too early to give it a thorough shakedown--it won't be available for purchase until June for a price of "under $300."

[majeref]

Very nice looking but why does it only have a 2 MP camera? Can they NOT put at least a 3 MP in there?! GRRR! :-(

[packetman505]

So does this thing have a hard drive? The only thing mentioned is a 2gb slot for memory.

[urlikelol]

A hard drive? Wake up - it can handle 8gb ssd.

If you want moving parts, switch to AT&T

This phone looks great, just needs to be a bit sexier - hardware and software.

[CaneOfMoses]

Remind me which AT&T phone has a type of memory that has moving parts...if you are referring to the iphone it has either 8 or 16 GB of built in flash memory which has no moving parts and is, in my personal opinion, far superior to a removable method.

[packetman505]

So is that what it has? I have been reading articles about this phone that sounds awesome but no one mentions anything about storage. I don't care what it can handle. I want to know what it will handle.

[mhatter13]

I'm really curious about the haptics deal; sounds very cool. Too bad it is on Sprint; will that company still be around come June?

[98dxslpr]

will you be able to zoom in and out of photo's like you can with the iphone?

[bill718]

does anyone know the operating system it use?

[NightWinggl]

Not a bad looking phone. I can see how it can be an Iphone competitor, but I think for that to be even close to realistic, Samsung or Sprint will have to put some kind of real internal storage in the device.

Also, for Kent, and all other readers. This is not Sprint's first EVDO Rev A. Device (Sorry Kent, but do your homework), The Sprint Mogul was a recently firmware updatecd by both Sprint and HTC, to give access to it's Rev A. Radio. Making it, the first Sprint Rev A. Device.

[javaski]

reread Kent's statement and let it process:

"which is Sprint's first device to have EV-DO Rev. A at BIRTH"

Unfortunately the HTC Mogul was not Rev. A when it first came out. Maybe should reread the article a couple times before making a "witty" remark.

[rubylin]

the mogul is sprint's first EVDO Rev a device, but he was right. the instinct is the only device to have EVDO Rev A from the get go. whereas the mogul was updated

[AppleSuxLeo]

Wow ! GPS , Rev A , Haptics , landscape keyboard , voice dialing/commands , Sprint TV , PHONE AS MODEM !! two user-replaceable batteries. A memory slot. Multitasking.
iPhone has NONE of these features. Nice job Samsung. Rev A...which I have used is blazing fast. I was getting 2100kbps down and 800kbps up ! And Sprint really is UNLIMITED , unlike Verizon.

[arnulfo1020]

You are very correct, the HTC mogul was sprint's first foray into the Rev A protocol.

[CigarJohnny]

I'm not a big fan of Kent but he did do his homework. If you reread his statement, he said it is the first device to use it "at birth". Sure other devices have been enabled for it through firmware updates but none, until this one, have been released to the public with it enabled right from the beginning.

[jkb13]

Will this phone have WiFi enabled?? I have yet to read any mention of Wifi capabilities.

Thanks!
Kevin

[patleeman]

Truthfully if you have the unlimited data plan, you don't need wifi with REV A. I have a mogul, it has wifi but i just use REVA all the time, it's usually faster than my home internet. Although wifi is a cool feature to have in a phone.

[Schneiderdriver]

You beat me to it, CigarJohnny... Kent did get that right, as you said. The previous posters sounded knowledgeable, but were wrong on that point. This is the first Sprint phone to be Rev. A ready out of the box. The Mogul was Rev. A capable, but wasn't Rev. A functional until that recent firmware update. I did the update on my Mogul, but haven't really put it to the test yet to see if it is a noticeable improvement in my connection speed. I do like the fact that one feature of the Rev. A update is that GPS is now enabled on the Mogul. For anyone who has a Mogul... Sprint makes a point of including their Sprint Navigation as part of the update (not sure if it was on the phone already). You may have already been using google maps (www.google.com/gmm). If you go and download google mobile maps again, after you do the firmware update on the Mogul, you will get a new version that is GPS capable. Once you open the program on your phone, you can go into the menu and turn on GPS within the program. It will give you a poor man's navigation system. Not as slick as Sprint Navigation, but it's free. You can get directions like before, but you will now have an onscreen cursor that follows your progress on the route. If you go off the route, it won't automatically recalculate like a navigation system will. You also don't have a cockpit view with ETA, speed, any of that. Anyway... Sorry for getting so off topic! I do plan to buy one of these Instincts when they become available. Hopefully I will be happier with it than I was with my (similarly touted, award winning) UpStage last year. And I was wondering about Wi-Fi also, but I'm assuming it doesn't have it, or they'd have surely mentioned it.

[ebaker13]

umm wow!!! great phone but wrong network! it really is just an updated iphone with new features and icons. with the phone being on the sprint network your taking a lost when trying to connect to the web u might get error1012 67 or the device just might not respond at all. lets be realistic here sprint is a popular company but doesnt have no coberage at all. what are you to say oh i got i nice phone but i dont get any service your waisting ur money. just wait until att gets it where u get all kinds of service i think you will be more satisfied

[abcyesn]

check out http://www.instinct-samsung.com for more information.

[abcyesn]

Best fans website for the samsung instinct is at http://www.instinct-samsung.com

check it out folks.

[JerryRiggg]

Looks like a nice phone but I have to ask. Where is at least a 5mp camera, where is instant messaging and why isn't it an international phone? Samsung and Sprint should stop playing catch up and set a trend for a change. And since they only come out with one or two new phones a year we'll have to wait until at least next year for any improvements.

[DeborahGlenn]

I want that phone, I love it. I have a Samsung tv mp3 player web and text. Love it but it is 4 years old and I want to update to a new phone. Love the style and new look.

[clsskb22]

i love the phone does anyone know how to take off the escalte ring that it has ive tried switching the rin ger and everything but every time i get a call or message it starts off real low then gets louder by second

[angeunique]

The problem is an English phone, you won't be able to talk in French or Spanish!! C'est un problème, c'est un téléphone Anglais, il sera impossible de parler en Français!! ¡¡El problemo es un telefone Ingles, entonces sera imposible hablar en Español!! ...