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
Best Phone I've Ever Owned
I've been a Sprint customer for about seven years. I've owned everything from a Samsung SCH-3500 to an HTC Touch and a slew of others in between and this is easily my favorite of the bunch.
This phone does everything and does almost all of it amazingly well. The feature that has been most impressive to me is the Navigation. Telenav has been doing great work for years now, but never have I seen the application integrated so well into a phone. Combined with the Live Search feature, you can say the name of a business and the phone will find that business and then allow you to call it, map it or get turn by turn directions to it. What blows me away is that I use this feature quite a bit and it has worked EVERY TIME!
PROS:
-Great call quality
-Navigation
-Comes packed with an extra battery (I think they just did that to take a shot at the iphone)
-Touch screen is extremely responsive
-Visual Voicemail is awesome
Cons:
-Web browser needs improvement
-Music Player only has 8 levels of volume. For me level 7 is not loud enough and level 8 is a tad too loud.
-Camera has no options
-Can't open PDF files (yet)
This is a great device. The only people I wouldn't highly recommend the Instinct to are hardcore PDA users.
I love it so far
I have had this phone for 7 Days as of today. Prior to this phone I had the Palm Treo 755p and the HTC PPC6800 Mogul.
I LOVE THIS PHONE.
Pros:
All touch Landscape QWERTY keyboard.
I like that it gives you the option to correct your spelling but does not auto-correct (for when I want to type in netspeak).
Email is fantastic, I am really Impressed.
Favorites and Speed Dials make using your favorite applications easy.
2 Batteries is awesome. I never go without a freshly charged battery.
Camera quality is good, wish it had a flash.
LIVE SEARCH is SWEEET. Who needs On Demand or Pocket Express when I can just say what I want and have instant results.
Visual voicemail is awesome and easy to use. I find it easier on my Instinct than on my mom's iPhone.
Cons:
No way to type a name to dial a contact. (This is a pain when you have as many contacts as I do).
No way to change conversation colors in threaded text chatting. The light grey/dark grey is really hard to see the difference in the sunlight.
Cannot sync phones contacts to outlook contacts on the computer.
No Microsoft Office Document or PDF viewer.
Excellent high end phone
Let me start off by saying that this is not an "iphone killer." Nor is it some pathetic wannabe that can't hope to compete with other high-end touch screens. It is, however, a great alternative for Sprint customers pining for a feature-packed multimedia device. Some pros:
Call Quality: I've read a lot of reviews saying that call quality is suspect (obviously coverage-dependent) and that the reception bars tend to jump around a lot. While my phone's bars do that, I've had no problems in making or receiving calls. The sound is loud, clear, and crisp. Granted, I live in the NYC area, and the coverage here is great.
Touch interface: The Instinct's selling point. It doesn't utilize the multi-touch technology of the iphone, and some people wished it did (as they've similarly wished for other touch devices). Nonetheless, I found it to be very responsive and I've been using it with a screen protector. As with most phones, there is an initial learning curve (and it does offer calibration). But I found it easy to use after about 30-40 minutes. It comes with a stylus, but I don't think that it's very useful.
GPS: I've found that the majority of GPS applications in mobile phones have limited value. So to say that the Instinct's GPS is undoubtedly the best ever may not be saying much. But if you've been hesitant to invest good money for a solid car GPS, then the Instinct's is a fantastic choice. Live search is one of my favorite features.
Speech-to-Action: Verizon phones offer it, but Instinct's takes it a step further. Not only with calls, but SMS/MMS and quickly accessing other features. Truly hands-free multi-tasking. Now some cons:
Internet: The side bars make the screen cramped. Some lag in scrolling. Camera-button tilt is a gimmick. No viewable email attachments.
Camera: Pic quality sub-par. But it's a phone, after all.
TV: Mostly pixelated images with noticeable hiccups.
No WiFi: Maybe next year's model.
Hopefully, updates will fix the kinks. Highly recommended.
Samsung Instinct Is Soooooo Smooooth!!!!
I am the type of person who has to have the latest and greatest when it comes to cell phones, and the Samsung Instinct definitely doesn't disappoint. I have had all types of phones from the mogul, touch, treo 650, treo 700, sanyo m1, blade, blackberry, etc. You all get the point. I currently have an i880, the instinct, and a blackberry curve (through t-mobile) and I have to say the Instinct is excellent. It does everything I need it to do, web browsing is fast as i have ever seen on a cell phone, the touch screen is very responsive, messaging is a breeze, and the phone is very very user friendly. The only fault I see is that there is no spot on the phone for the stylus, why? Other than that it is a 5 out of 5, so if you don't have it, drop the cash and get the hottest phone out right now!!!
Interesting design, poor reception quality
I have been a Sprint customer for over 11 years. For the last 9, I've used Sanyo because of they're excellent signal strength and sound quality, even in "iffy" areas.
While the features of this phone are exciting, the true "core" of any communication device should be it's phone abilities.
I live in the South Florida area, and after purchasing the Instinct on a trial basis, I'm impressed, yet disappointed. The GPS, Web browser and other features are great.
The biggest problem I see is signal strength. I've already had 4 dropped calls since I purchased this phone today. There are barely 2-3 bars ever. So my real concern is, if the reception is marginal how well can these other applications run?
This is first and foremost a mobile phone, the other features are great, but if you don't have a good "foundation", how solid can the house really be?
Best phone i have ever owned
I have had many cell phones over the past years... and this one is by far the best... Sprint's reception is great where i live so the tv and radio works fabulous... the only thing i am still trying to figure out is how to change my homepage on the browser... texting is very easy... which is a major plus for me... for those who are getting angry with it not having great reception here is a clue for you... it's not the phone its the service where you live... just a little FYI... i would highly recommend this phone to anyone...it is easy and fun to use
Not perfect but fun
I got the instinct about 4 day's ago...
and mostly I like it... Yes there are a few issues... So here are my pro's and con's.
Con's:
1. It freezes sometimes
2. the tv still is not great
3. some calls do go directly to VM but I think that might just be sprint.
4.the battery cover is really hard to remove
5. not quite as user friendly as they implied.
Pro's:
1.Texting is fun and easy and keeps a log of your texts.
2.Love the camera (warns you of fuzzy pics!)
3.The voice mail feature is cool
4.love that it came with 2 batteries, & a separate charger for the extra!
5.Easy Myspace uploads! :)
All in all the phone is not bad... Sprint has some fixing to do... hopefully it will be quick with the updates and fix some of the bugs... Then it will be great :)
Bad ASS
This phone has great features and is a lot of fun to use.
The touch screen is really accurate and I can touch the smallest link with my fingers easily.
Battery life has been really good even with the screen on full brightness.
My emails come in great, and the navigation is phenomenal. It also keeps full conversations of text messages and pulses lightly every time I get a new email.
I am not a fan of the I phone but I don't think it is a bad phone. The instinct has the features I need and I did not want a PDA type phone yet this phone gives me some of those features but is also a lot of fun to use.
WOW
Great phone. I have had this phone for about three weeks now. I work for Sprint and I got one early to do training on. Lucky me. My phone isn't even working all the way due to getting so early. Even though that is so, this phone is awesome. It is very very easy to use. Touchscreen works great. Visual Voice mail is very impressive. Hopefully all of Sprints touch screens phones will have this from here on out. Very easy to download music on to. Sound quality is very impressive. The navigation is also really impressive. It has been able to pull up my location every time. Never getting it wrong.
Went from the Palm Treo 755p to the Samsung INSTINCT!!
Oh my goodness... this phone is Amazing... I work at an Indirect store and I would hands down recommend this phone to people!! Glad I made the switch to this phone from my Treo!! It's so worth the money!! Way to go Sprint... you made an awesome selection!!
