Samsung Instinct M800
Phone Scoop Review
Jun 13, 2008 by Eric M. Zeman
Samsung and Sprint break out the touch screen Instinct to combat the swelling ranks of touch devices. Does it compare to the competition? With video tour. read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
worst touch phone
Ive had this phone foe about 1wweek ans ill bw takn it back tomorrow. as you can tell im typin feom the phone itself. the touch keyboard sux and its ao easy to hit other lettees when tryn to write something. i hqte tge keyboard. tne touch screen isn't evfn mensitive and have to press down hard when tryon to type something in the wwb browser and it takes forwvee for for the keyboard to come up. this phone isn't even fast ans the web is very skow. it cant evwn keep up with how fast you can type bwcause if u text fast your words are fonna end up lookinq like this. pain in the ass. i loce samsung but after thia...im disapointes. this phone isnt even worth $450. ill be takn this phone back today. i jys wantes pwople fo see how sh!tty the keyboard is. and i did not make theae errors of spellinq on puepose. this is how it looks if you text faat. ir canr even spell woeds right or keep up and then as im typing thia it qill switch to portrait modw even if i didnt hir the butron. uqhh i dnt even wanna write anymore bc i cant stand how rhe wirds are showing up. i strongly DONT RECCOMEND THIS PHONE ESPECIALLY IF U PLAN ON PAYING R.S.P....NOT WORTH THE MONEY. THIS PHONE IS WAYYYYY OVERRATES. TGERE NOOOO CUSTOMIZATION EXCEPT FAVORITEA...THE SCREWNS ARE SO DULL AND SIMPLE. ILL NEVWE BUY A ONLY TOUCH ACREEN PHONE AGAIN. PAIN IN THE A$$. THE CAMERA SUX. NO FLASH. BAD QUALITY. BRIBE YOU WITH THE 2 BATTWEIES AND 2GB MEMOEY CARSD. THEERES NO POINT FOR 2 BATTWEIEA. THIS PHONW DWFINATLWY AINT FOR PPL WHO LOVE TO TEXT. THE TXT SOUNDZ LIKE DIEECTIONAL SIGNALS...SOUNDS SOOOOOO ANNOYING. SOO WHATS SO GREAT ABOUT THIA WANAN BE IPHONE CLONE...NOTHING...ID RATHEE THROW THIS PHONE IN THE GARBAGW. BECAUSW THATA WHERW UT BWLONGS. PEOPLE ONLY WANNA IT BC OF THE TOUCH SCRWEN AND BXLC THWY THINK THEYLL LOOK RICH IF PPL THINK ITS THE IPHONE.... GUESS WGATV THIA PHONE DOEA NOT MAKE U OOOK COOL. OK IM DONE I CANT TAKW WRITING ON HEEW ANYMOREEE...SOUND IS DRIVING ME NUTS!!!!!!
BADDDDDD PHONEEEE
Nothinq Special
I had this phone for about 2 weeks, and COULDN'T stand it. This phone is nothinq special to brag about. If it didn't have a touch screen, then it would be just another regular phone. I hate texting on the onscreen keyboard, its a pain in the a$$, because when your trying to type something, you accidently hit another key. theres no special features on this phone, and the visual voicemail sux. The internet is SUPPERRR slow and pictures take forever to load, i compared the browser to my palm centro, and the palm is faster. This is NO IPHONE Killer!! the camera is nothing special, you can't even zoom or anything, it doesn't even have a flash, wtf??!! and people want you to pay 400 for this worthless phone! haha, thats a joke! Soo glad i didn't use my upgrade for this phone, lucky for 30 day return policy! then when your textinq and you wanna send it, you have to turn the phone around aqain, thats just really annoyinq. YOU CANNOT personalize the colors of this phones menus, just the favorites menu, and people brag how they can customize, OO please!! You can't do anything with this phone. or change the background, just when the phone is locked you can change that screen, thats real nice. NOTTT!!!!!! The scrolling with your fingers is not easy, you have to scroll down in order to go up and scroll up to go down, does that make sense?? atleast to me it doesn't. What does it need a 2gb memory card for anyways?? Theres no use for it. This phone has very little memory. You can't even save pictures from the internet....on the centro you can. not to mention WHY PEOPLE CALL THIS A SMARTPHONE??...haha!! THIS IS NOT A SMART PHONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This phone is not worth no 450 its junk and nothing special. It would be just a regular phone if it didn't have the touchscreen, so now whats so hot about it, UHMM NOTHING, because its a basic phone!!!!!!!!
DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY!!!
people brag oo look i have the instinct?? yeah and oo that piece of garbage!
Thumbs Down
I have been with sprint for many years, so I did not qualify for an upgrade so I paid full price for the Instinct. I took it back yesterday. Why?
CON: 1. It does not ring loud at all.
2. You have to touch the button more than once for it to work( that's with the sensitivity set to the highest level).
3. It keeps freezing when you are watching the TV.
4. The visual voice mail is a joke, and
5. You constantly have to push the unlock button.
I just don't like it at all. I thought with all the hype it would be better. I will stick with my Palm Centro.
Sprint - Please Remove Instinct from your PDA/Smartphone Catagory
Anyone who hasn't purchased the Instinct yet, please be aware that this is a media phone, not a PDA/Smartphone (even though the Sprint places it on the top of the list when you search on their website for PDA/Smartphone)
I give the phone a 4 1/2 star for the media aspect of the phone (pics, music, etc.) and I give it a "0" for contact management. There isn't even a space to put the name of a contact's company. Therefore, I have lost all of my contacts that have a company name only, with no contact name. (For instance, "American Airlines" and its 800 # is no longer in my phone since I have no contact person for that company. You obviously then can't search by company name, which I would do often if I couldn't remember a contacts name.
If I'm doing something wrong, someone please offer me some guidance, but I'm probably going to return the Instinct today or tomorrow.
Sprint's Instinct by Samsung
Reception is VERY weak in many places and changes a lot as you move. I have had many dropped calls.
When my phone is on, my phone often does not ring and the call goes directly to voice-mail and sometimes, the phone rings, but if I don't answer, it won't switch to voice-mail--so I miss some valuable calls.
Television is worthless. Screen freezes (where it works)and it won't work from my home where the signal has no bars to one bar or no service.
Ending a call is difficult by sliding the bar sideways--it often doesn't respond when I try to stop a call to a wrong place that was accidentally touched.
The battery cover is hard to remove.
The phone has many features I want, but they are unreliable. I think there has been more hype than testing of this phone before it was released.
Some of the problem might be traced to the fact we live in a smaller metro area and Sprint has waited until the last minute to start installing newer, faster technology on their towers here,and I live a few miles outside of the largest city and they might not ever address my problem.
I bought the phone on Friday, June 20, the first day it was made available and am taking it back tomorrow, Tues, June 24 asking for my old phone to be reinstated, because it never dropped calls, even with only one bar showing (and it never had No Service like this instinct sometimes does).
THIS PHONE IS TIGHT.....EXCEPT.
I had the moto q9c and i decided to change to the instinct because i was within my 30 day grace period..so i went and got my phone and it was working great..i loved how the touch screen was very accurate and everythin. all of the sprint features worked great such as tv, navigation, etc. my problem came when i tried to look at my email, i couldnt open my excel attatchment. after that i was texting and wanted to reconfigure my touch. so i went to settings and did that...and as soon as i was finished..my home key, back key, and phone key would not work at all. so i am now stuck on the settings screen. another thing i was surprised with was with all of the features on this phone and using the iphone as a model....there is not instant messenger application unless u purchase it for a monthly charge. if this phone was fully functional and had some sort of document viewer for excel and such, and maybe a file browser so you can look through the files on your phone or storage card. this would be an amazing, perfect phone.
Real Talk on the instinct
In a sense a PDA is a personal handheld computer on the instinct, you have a proprietary OS as opposed to Windows based operating systems, thus not allowing you to install apps such as Excel and Word, and not to mention everything else you can install on a PDA. Personally I felt deceived by the instinct, number one the size and number two the OS, the browser isn't anything close to the iphone, this phone was supposed to save sprint not embarrass them but that's exactly what it did.
Not Good....
Reception on this phone is ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE!!! Should have made the home button at least a physical button and not touch.. Menu's and music player definitely not as good as the iphone. Sprint t.v. on this device is BAD, choppy and not clear.. Calls going straight to voicemail without the phone even ringing...Wait until July 11th everyone.. TRUST ME!!!
Really dissapointed
I had been waiting for this phone to come out since I was out of contract and knew i could get a good deal. Brought it home yesterday from Best Buy and have been pulling my hair out since. I've come to realize that this phone is not all that and has some serious shortcomings:
-first & foremost, as a phone, the reception is spotty. I'm using it in the exact locations as my previous Sprint phones and some of my calls have dropped. Other calls are going straight to voice mail without the phone ringing. The signal strength meter is all over the place all the time, so i don't know if this is the call/reception problem.
-no syncing between phone and Outlook
-Sprint tv is a joke. No wonder they include it in the plan. Choppy, pixelated, frame-freezing garbage.
-still not able to get OWA setup!
-removing the battery cover is near impossible.
-It supports attachments in emails but you *can't* view them from the phone! They get downloaded and have to be viewed offline.
-very limited settings customization choices
My plan is to continue to use it in hopes that a software update is released that fixes some of these problems before the 3G iphone comes out. If not, I'm returning it and jumping ship.
Instinct
I dont have the phone as of right now but I do work for Sprint...saying that, my judgement of this phone has nothing to do with my job...
Since I work for Sprint, of course we get to play around with phones (which is an awesome way to sit around & get paid) and I have been looking at this phone for myself since my contract is now eligable for an upgrade.
So far I love the features of it. There are some things I dislike about it, like when browsing the web, I would like to be able to flip the screen sometimes...
But...people kinda tickle me when they compare this phone to the iphone & any kind of blackberry...number one...its not an iphone or a blackberry. and another thing is HELLO PEOPLE....IT'S A CELL PHONE!
Personally, I dont like the iphone. A friend of mine has one and it has too many glitches for me. & Im not a big fan of the Blackberry. I wouldnt mind trying out the Blackberry Storm but Im not switching carriers for a phone...besides, Verizon doesnt have good service where Im located.
If you want something that browses the web with no problems & get attachments from emails...get a laptop. Why would anyone want to browse the web with such a little screen?
Anywhooo...overall I think the phone is awesome, I'm purchasing mine this week.
