Samsung Instinct-M800 Review - Design & Features
Design & Features Instinct does, in fact, look a little like an iPhone with its full touchscreen and rectangular candybar body. A little longer, narrower, and thicker than iPhone, Instinct is eye-catching and plain all at once, with its reflective silver faceplate and darker, soft-grip sides and back panel. Instinct is made of plastic and feels pretty solid and well-balanced in hand. After a few weeks of using my review unit it’s got one small scratch on the bottom of the front panel but no other battle scars or damage of any sort.
Samsung supplanted Instinct’s 3.15” touch display with three touch-sensitive controls — Back, Home, and Phone — lined up in a row just below the screen. I liked the ability to instantly get to phone mode from anywhere in the device’s many menus, and the back button also proved quite handy as I got to know Instinct. I also liked the hardware lock/power key and 3.5mm audio jack, both of which are mounted on the top panel of the phone.
The phone’s display is great to look at and pretty good to the touch. With a 240 x 432 resolution capable of 262K colors, the widescreen looked excellent whether its display menus, still images or video. I have to say that the screen was just a bit cramped for Web browsing, though, especially given the iPhone comparisons that Sprint invited with their marketing tactics.
Instinct is so chock full of features that it’s hard to list them all. The operating system is built around easy, customizable access to the device’s myriad applications. As such, there’s no background image or “skin” to be set on any of the menu screens (you can choose your own wallpaper for the locked-mode screensaver), and you can’t change the system font. What you can do, though, is customize three of the four menu screens with shortcuts to the applications, Web bookmarks, contacts, and playlists you use most. It’s a very utilitarian approach to customization, and while I did miss the personal touch of a background image on my menu screens, I also really liked the one-touch access to so many different features and services.
Okay, so on to those features and services. There’s full navigation with turn-by-turn directions and location-based searching that’s all powered by an onboard GPS chip. There’s a media player that can play audio or video from an SD card, via various streaming services, or take you to the Sprint Music Store so you can buy new tunes by the track. There’s Sprint TV and Sprint Radio support (the latter is streaming audio, not FM radio). There’s a 2MP camera with video capture. There’s Email and Web browsing, and SMS/MMS messaging, if no Mobile IM. There are vertical and horizontal on-screen QWERTY boards and a handwriting recognition mode. And there’s a great voice command system that ties a lot of it together, letting you press a side-panel button and say things like, “Call Don,” or “Go to Search ... Pizza” in order to get the device to do your bidding.
Next: Usability & Performance »Fetch me more...Quickly jump to more information about related topics, cell phones, carriers or phone manufacturers mentioned in this In-Depth Review by using the links below. About our in-depth cell phone reviewsWe take great pride to ensure that the our reviews are thorough and accurate. In no way are our editors directed or influenced by any manufacturers, advertisers, or partners; we believe that honest, opinionated reviews -positive or negative - are the only way to maintain credibility and serve our users. Reviews by companyApple, BenQ, BlackBerry, Eten, HTC, LG, Motorola, Nokia, o2, Palm, Pantech, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Sony EricssonFor a new take and additional coverage, Noah shipped the Samsung Instinct to Ryan. With a full review in the works, this video highlights Ryan's first impression of Sprint's exclusive 3G touchscreen phone.
Noah puts Instinct and iPhone 3G head-to-head in a Web and speed battle. First is a raw download speed test, and then a few Web page load tests. Who won? Watch the video and find out ... Two of the Summer's hottest touchscreen phones go head to head. LG Dare for Verizon vs Samsung Instinct for Sprint: Who reigns supreme? One last Instinct video covering GPS, Visual Voicemail, and the Calendar. Overall it's a really solid phone. And at $129? Best value goin' for Sprint customers wanting a high-end device. Too bad there's no calendar synching, though. Three hot touchscreen phones - which one's right for you? This is the loooong version of a head to head to head between Instinct, Vu, and iPhone. If you're not up for 15 in-depth minutes, check out the short version for the summary. Three hot touchscreen phones - which one's right for you? This is the short version of a head to head to head between Instinct, Vu, and iPhone. If you're up for 15 in-depth minutes, check out the looong version.
When we first received rumors of the Samsung instinct "Mini," it was assumed that the phone was going to enter the market as a smaller version of the popular touchscreen device. Based on the latest pictures, it now appears (and is assumed) that the Instinct S30 will be replacing the original phone. Sporting a design refresh with rounded edges, many of the specific features aren't known as of yet - however we stand behind our original... Great news, Instinct fans - or so it would seem. Opera Software has
announced the availability of Opera Mini 4.2, the free, junior version
of their excellent Opera Mobile Web browsing software. And it works on
Instinct!According to the press release: Opera is also
announcing today that people using the Sprint Instinct can upgrade
their firmware and download Opera Mini, find out how here: http://www.opera.com/mini...
great... Has anyone out there upgraded their Samsung Instinct to the latest firmware rev.? I got a few reports that Sprint and Samsung have unleashed a new version that focuses on the Web browser. Sounds like there might just be a full screen option (mapped to the Voice Command button) as well as general speed and stability improvements.Got an Instinct? Upgraded it? Hit the Web and let us know how it is! Q. hey first off I would like to say awesome reviews on youtube. Ive been looking at three phones to buy; Nokia N95, samsung instinct and the lg keybo(env2). I am looking for a good internet phone with an awesome mp3 player and easy to text. Do u have any suggestions?
A. Thanks for the kind words - glad you like the reviews! Since you said "Easy to text" I have to ask if you like to use T9 or full QWERTY to text. If you like full... A couple tips and tricks for the Instinct users on Phonedog...
Ever want to charge your Instinct with your computer and still talk? To charge your phone (usb-computer) just hit the push to talk button and then connect the usb cable. The home screen will pop up and allow you to still you use your phone while charging.
Sick of holding your Instinct while watching Sprint TV or sideloaded videos? The Instinct has a built in stand! ... At long last Sprint's given the go ahead to its vendors to unleash a slew of application updates upon Instinct owners. A post on Instinct Insight details the release process, and makes it clear that the actual app updates are coming from the third-party software makers and not directly from Sprint. Sprint basically opened up the floodgates here and its up to the vendors themselves to decide what to release, when, and how (or so says... hello my Question is can i put some of my itunes on to my verizon barrage? i have a big library of itunes on my mac book? I dont want to spend anymore money then i have to please help. i have multipul removable storage files. i dont know which one to click. then how do they get transfered to my phone after iv put the music in the file I own an instinct right now, and i changed from a blackberry curve to it. In my own opinion if you want a good calander for appointments get the Curve. If you want good games, get the curve, the instinct basically has none. Texting on both is about the same. If you are going to email get the Curve because the instinct lags when a message becomes greater than 300 chracters. Battery life is better on my instinct and it came with the extra battery,... definately go for the instinct i dropped mine and there is a fairly noticeable scratch on the top but thats it im going to get a case for it and then put the inviseble shield on it but its definately my best phone I have ever bought.. Hey i really need help i followed the steps you said except i got my music from lime wire and transferred them over into the music folder in my cpu and after i was all done i took out the usb out of my instinct and i looked in music and no songs were there at all i dont know what to do and iam very lost please help well what you need to do first is connect your instinct to your computer.Then, click on start on your computer and then click on my computer. After that, there will be a folder saying removable disk. Click on that and then all your instinct folders/files will be there and just click on the music folder and then drag your music from your itunes into the folder. If you have any questions send me a message or something. How do I get the music from my iTunes onto my instinct phone.Sprint does not want to tell me how! I know there is a way eventhough the phone is only compatible with Windows.Please help..... To get full screen while your on the internet go to the browser and click the Speech to Action button and then you get the full screen to go back just click the Speech to Action button I say the instinct so far im loving it. Of course it has its issues, as does every phone, but it really does excel in many areas especially the gps. And of course the price and plans available you cant find any better. Thanks, for the information.
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4.5
Like, For Example, You will text a hugely long message, and then right at the end when your at the point of sending it, the screen blinks and then freezes. Forcing you to remove the battery and waiting for it to turn back on. And once it loads again, you get the wonderful suprise of your message no longer being there. Making you retype it ! :[ - Idk if this happens to everyone, but it happens to me normally about 5 times a day.
It has hardly anything you can customize either. Again, For Example, Your menu and main color scheme is an ugly grey color. You only get to see your screen saver about 5 seconds. Not very many ringers included. Etc.
-The internet is hard to use, if you try to touch a search/URL bar, you have to continuesly click on it to get it to load. So make sure you have long nails too, because the search/URL bars are extremely small.
-When you talk on the phone, make sure it's in a quiet place, because the volume is very low.
ALSO ! The TV/Radio function is the worst about it ! In a phone that REQUIRES you to have the certain "Everything" plan, the tv/radio is horrible. The TV's quality is horrible. Everything comes in blocky, and it is always freezing and taking forever to load.
I understand that everyone thinks OMG! A touch phone ! But really, they cannot be worth all the fuss. They are hard to use and can be a huge pain in the butt ! Especially when your typing a message on an all touch phone and when you touch the space bar, it types a B or an X.
Also, I know that the touch phones are just really beginning to take off - And so i know you cannot expect everything about it - But lets just hope that the Samsung Instinct 2 is alot better than this one, because otherwise i think there would be more unhappy customers.
There are a couple positives on the other side (As if it matters) -
-The MP3 player
-Great Camera (only color pictures, and no "fun frames" :[ )
-The different alarms and things under the "Clock" menu.
-SOME things in "Email"
Sorry to say this, But i've owned this phone since Christmas, and i am REALLY missing regular "Push" Keys. :\
took a couple of weeks to get used to the new layout/features but overall this seems like a very good interface and I have had it for almost a year....no flashy customization, games, or apps like the iphone, but its smaller size fits in my pocket well, the selectable keyboard is way better than the iphone, not many mis-types.....and the video capture is amazing for a phone(the iphone does not even offer video) alarms/calendar is good, GPS is solid, emails great, voice command/livesearch awesome......the screen looks good but on this smaller size it is not great for the internet, but you can do what you need to.....I have gotten several mobile updates that have modified the unit for the better, and hope they keep offering more goodies for it