Having reviewed several phones for the blog already, I think it’s alright review the phone I actually use on a daily basis.  That would be the Samsung Instinct for Sprint.

I have to admit, I almost got caught up in the iPhone craze.  I almost got caught up again for the iPhone 3g.  I’m completely amazed by the way that the development community has surrounded it.  You can look at the iTunes store and find almost anything you want program-wise.  The iPhone has the best browser and a lot of other “bests.”  But there are some things it can’t do, that my Instinct can.

The Samsung Instinct, the phone I use every day. (Image courtesy: samsung.com)

Read on for the full review.
Part of the reason I stuck with the Instinct is because I’ve been a Sprint user for so long.  The network has treated me fine. There are certainly horror stories from people who have had bad service with every company, but when something is working I’d rather just let it keep working.

It also helps that I have a really competitive plan that gives me unlimited everything and I don’t pay all that much. (Partially because my plan is tied back to the dark ages where phones weren’t really used for browsing the web.)

Now, being a Sprint customer I’ve never really had the greatest of phone options.  (Well, really, before the iPhone, none of the carriers were putting out phones that were that nice to me.) But then Sprint got wise.  A lot of the phone industry got wise when the iPhone was released because users finally had a phone that could do (almost) everything.  I’m not going to do a direct comparison between the two, because I think both have their merits and seeing as I have an iPod Touch it’d be like arguing against myself.

I really like my Instinct.  There are many things that are great about the Instinct.

It has a touch screen.  It’s not the best on the market, but it’s still capable.  It has push email (that means the phone tells me when I have email.)  It has the internet, though it’s definitely NOT the best mobile browser I’ve used.  (That honor is Apple’s alone.  Mobile Safari is great.)  In fact, I actually downloaded Opera Mini and have been using that as my primary browser on the phone.

There are also a good number of programs that use the internet but are outside of the browser.  Weather, News, Sports and Movies are all seperate entities that have their own options.

For weather you can add any zip code you want.  I chose Grand Rapids and Canton (my home town.)  It gives you a rundown of the 7-day forecast, wish it was 8-day.  You can view the live doppler radar, it’s not Storm Team 8, but it’s adequate.  Most recently I even found out it gives me weather alerts which come directly from the national weather service.

The sports section allows you to follow any sports teams you want.  I chose my hometown teams (Detroit sports) and my Spartans.  It also allows you to check out the latest scoreboards, any leagues that you want and all of the latest AP news.

The news section is also fairly robust, sending down the latest AP news headlines.

I have Sync in my car which takes advantage of the Bluetooth connection on the Instinct.  I also transferred photos and numbers from my old Sprint phone to the Instinct over the Bluetooth connection.

3G speeds.  The fun iPhone ads that tell you that you can do everything on the internet twice as fast. Well the Instinct has that going for it to.

The text messaging is great because it has the touchscreen QWERTY keyboard.  The Instinct also does picture mail and videomail and has the Visual Voicemail feature as well.

It’s got a favorites menu that allows you to launch your top picked items.  I chose Email, text messaging my wife, Photos, Twitter, NFL Network and Opera Mini.

The NFL Network is just one of the many channels offered for entertainment.  The Instinct doesn’t have an actual mobile TV signal like the LG Voyager and Vu, but it offers up channels over its 3G network.  Right now, I have access to programming from the Disney Channel, CNN, Fox Sports, NFL Network, USA, Bravo, Sci Fi (with Battlestar Galactica!), ABC, CBS, NBC, MTV, Comedy Central, Nickolodean, SPEED, SpikeTV, CW, LOGO, The N, VH1, CMT, and more.  It’s actually fairly robust. If you have a good signal, there is certainly entertainment to be had.  I actually watched the BSG shorts on my phone, because I first spotted them there.

I also use the GPS feature on the phone more than I thought I would.  Getting from point A to point B is nice, but it also has a feature called “Live Search.”  Basically, the Instinct gets my GPS location, and then asks me to say what I’m looking for.  It then gives me the location closest to me, and several others. It’s a nice feature to have.

The camera phone is pretty standard.  It shoots 2.0MP pictures, but does not have a flash.

Which brings me to the bad about the Instinct.

The number one thing I hate about the Instinct and it’s a pretty big one for me, even though you may not care that much.  Touchscreen Tetris is awful.  It’s the absolute worst.  EA coded what has to be the worst controls I’ve ever seen for Tetris.  The game is so bad it’s probably worth an entire post so I could rant endlessly.  Tetris is meant to be played with buttons but that can’t be done on the Instinct.

I still carry my iPod, which means its not a true MP3 player replacement.  The phone has a microSD slot and I could use it to store music, but I find myself using it more for pictures.

I turned off the tactile feedback (it vibrates when you touch the screen.) and the chirp that it made when you touched the screen.  They’re nice for some people, but it just wasn’t right for me.

I’m also not a huge fan of the lock/unlock button.  I’d much prefer the iPhone’s slider unlock.

There are some other features I haven’t really used at all. Radio, Calendar and Shopping have gotten ignored for the most part.

That being said, this is by far the best phone I’ve ever owned.  It’s not the iPhone, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  There are positives and negatives about every single touchscreen phone out there.  The most important thing is that the industry is starting to take customers seriously.  Phones will only continue to get better and that’s the most important thing the iPhone did.  Apple made the industry stand up and take note.

Have questions about something? You can email me at matt.schuler@woodtv.com. And for more, shorter updates, check out my Twitter by clicking on twitter.com/mattschuler.