Archive for July 17th, 2008|Daily archive page
Samsung Instinct
Comments (1)Samsung Instinct M800
Sprint has gone after a very specific market with the Samsung Instinct, and succeeded on many levels. The Instinct is a CDMA Rev. A device that brings the ease of use from a typical feature phone to a touch screen form factor that many people desire. This look at the Sprint provided Instinct is designed to give my thoughts on the device over the last 5 days. Keep in mind that your experience may vary.
In the Box
- Samsung Instinct
- 2 Standard 1100 mAH Lithium Ion Batteries
- AC charger
- Charger for extra battery
- Carry Case
- Stylus
- 3.5mm Headphones with microphone
- MicroSD Memory Card 2GB
- MicroSD card adaptor
- USB Charging Cable
- Various guides and CDs
Specs
Like almost all CDMA phones out there, the Instinct has both 850 and 1900 MHZ bands in it. This allows for native coverage on the Sprint 1900 MHZ network, and Roaming on other CDMA carriers via the 850 MHZ band when needed. The dimensions measure 4.55” by 2.16” by .49” and has a weight of 4.52 oz. The battery life is listed at 5.8 hours of talk time which in my use seemed high. I found that with about an hour of phone calls per day and moderate internet use, I was able to get a day and a half before needing to swap batteries. The extra battery definitely came in handy for this purpose, and I was happy to be able to swap them and continue on my way. Something to note is the very tight battery cover that takes some pressure to get off. Each time, I felt like I was going to break the screen with the amount of pressure needed, but on the positive side, the device feels very solid. A 2MP camera takes decent shots via the dedicated camera button. Also, the “Fuzzy picture warning” is a nice touch that helps prevent unusable photos. The phone is available for $129 from Sprint after rebates.
(Instinct Camera photo of the Treo)
Phone
As a phone, I wavered on its quality. When I first turned on the device at my house, I was a bit concerned about the signal strength indicator. I never feel that these “bars” are a very accurate way to measure the phones signal, but it certainly should give you a ballpark idea. The bars on the Instinct constantly bounced from half strength to no strength to full and then over again. When using other Sprint devices at my house, Sprint service is generally very good, and I’ve never had an issue with this behavior. Most of my time using this phone however was in my office, which had poor service, often switching over to Verizon. When this would occur, the phones voice calls would work fine, but data slowed way down, more on this in the next section. Making up for it though, the calls that I did make sounded fine on my end, and decent to those on the receiving end. One thing that Sprint excels at is the quality of its voice network. The Instinct seems to keep that mantra.
Data/Internet
As mentioned, the majority of my time using this phone was at my office, which has poor Sprint service, and caused the phone to Roam onto Verizon. When this happens, the data connection throttles down to 1xRTT speeds, and makes the great features of the “Fun” section painful. Sprint bundles some great functions with many of its devices such as Music, TV/Video, Radio, Shopping, Games and Applications. My trials of these services worked fairly well, with Sprint TV being one of my favorites. Being able to watch certain live TV stations, and clips from other stations is great
Hardware
Like other devices out there, the Instinct has gone with the full touch screen interface. Using the screen for all functions gives a versatility that many prefer over buttons. Distinguishing itself from the iPhone, the Instinct leaves out a home “button” for 3 separate touch areas at the bottom of the screen (Back, Home and Phone). Also, the handset speaker at the top also functions as a speaker for system sounds. On the top of the device, you’ll find a 3.5mm headset hack and the power/lock button. Using this button takes some getting used to, as you must hold it down for a few seconds to get the phone out of its locked state. On the left side is a covered port for charging via the Samsung proprietary plug, and the rocker buttons for volume. On the right are a covered port for the microSD card, voice recognition button, and camera button. The bottom simply has a hole for the microphone.
Software/Features
The software on the device is very easy to learn and use. There are 4 main tabs on the bottom of the screen (Favs, Main, Fun, Web) that give access to all the functions on the device. The Favs tab is especially useful as it is the tab the phone goes to when clicking on home. This gives easy access to the functions you use most. Those looking for integration to an exchange server are going to be disappointed with this device. The only functionality that is integrated is email and the Global Address List. Also, it isn’t push access, so you’ll have to wait as the phone pulls new email at regular intervals. Visual Voicemail is built into this phone, which provides the user with quick easy access to listen to messages the way they want. A great feature that many will enjoy. Built in GPS was a great addition and integrates well with the programs in the phone. The ability to use the Sprint Navigation, Live Search and other programs with the GPS is convenient and useful.
Overall
The bottom line on the Samsung Instinct from Sprint is the step forward in the feature phone market. There will always be room for devices such as the Instinct which do not necessarily appeal to the business user or road warrior, but give the average consumer the fun features they want with a nice new form factor.
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