Samsung Instinct available June 20th for $129.99, strings attached
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted Jun 18th 2008 9:47AM
posted Jun 18th 2008 9:47AM
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
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"Hover", but not close. Sprint's plans *include* unlimited SMS.
That really doesn't sound so bad.
I mean, your pretty much getting unlimited plans anyway when you get a phone like this right?
It's not an issue for me. I went through this neat company that gave me 10% of every monthly bill. Unlimited plans starting at $70 mean $63 for me. That even beats my corporate discount. They told me that if volume goes up in sales, they'll reach new "tiers" with Sprint and I'll get 15 or even 25% off and automatically apply it to my bill... I'm not sure if I believe that bit, but it'll be cool if it happened...
They also include, GPS Navigation, Sprint Music Premier, Sprint TV Premier, text, picture, and video messaging, etc. Why does Engadget continue to use those old prototype photos of the Instinct?
I did not see where this thing would do SMS. If it does, will it do threaded SMS?
Yes, it does use threaded SMS.
I find that the icons look horribly childish and that itself would make me not buy this phone.
I am assuming you can change the icons to a different theme.
They're icons....
ya, icons have to go... Like the N99i - http://www.wholesaleg8.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1112&HS=1 has prada / ipod nano "simple" appearance and htc like touchflo interface... not to mention it has wifi and winmo 6.0.... instinct will be hit but not a smash.. plus, the "strings attached" kind of is not so attractive...
Exactly, how do you come up with a soccer ball for a sports icon?
The phone has been released to retailers since Saturday. Retailers got their shipment on Monday.
From what I can see, you can't change the icons. But come on, they're icons.
The network is still not ready for the Instinct.. I guess it will be ready on the day of the release
@wodheila
Because an American Football would have been stupid.
Yes not looking forward to this gonna be a big let down!
Mind you so might the iPhone 3G:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hOX6nECSwg
Thought that was rubbish. Who uses a phone to take product shots?
So I guess while everyone in the WORLD was complaining about the lack of 3G and GPS ...this guy wasn't. NOOOOO he was simply holding out for a flash. WOW what an awful review. iPhone clearly has its short comings, but realistically almost every issue (minus camera flash/ forward facing issues) well be resolved in later firmware updates. This is not the final version of this phone. Thats what separates it from every other hand set out there.
I'm sorry, the instinct hardware looks like something from 2001. They really should have put a larger screen on that thing. Not to mention that the touch screen is not nearly as responsive as some of it's competitors.
Thanks for not mentioning that big competitor that everyone talks about these days ;)
a friend of mine works at sprint and i held this in my hand last week when they got it in. the screen is virtually the same size as the iphone's...what phones looked like this in 2001 pray tell?
samsung is obviously copping the iphone, which is circa 2007 i believe
I think the real issue here is that not only is the phone bad.
But after you buy it you can only use it on sprint, and who would want to do that.
Agreed. I have SERO and only pay $30 a month for unlimited 3G EVDO Rev A internet, SMS, mobile to mobile, 7pm nights and weekends, and 500 minutes (which is enough considering most of my calls are after 7pm)...
And I still am trying to get out of my contract. Actually, I'm looking forward to having the joy of talking to Sprint's atrocious customer service today to try to get out of my contract due to horrible service in my apartment.
I keep hearing about sero, but how do you get sero? dont you have to be "invited" or what not?
www.sprint.com/sero find an email address. they're available for the looking. Sero plans are far and away the best thing going, but if you don't have service in your area, that's definitely a killer. I've personally never had issues with service, though. And I've had good experiences with CS, so go figure.
How do you know the phone is bad, do you have one or have you used one?!
Sucks for you.
SERO / Sprint works perfectly fine in my city/state, and most places i've travelled to, and even if/when it doesn't, SERO allows for FREE ROAMING.
SERO plans absolutely DESTROY anything any other carrier has to offer.
iPhone with ATT is a garbage deal compared to phones on SERO.
OnlyShawn: I wish I were as lucky as you. You're likely the only one in the world to only have good experiences with Sprint's Customer Service. I mean, I'd love to say that I'm exaggerating because of one bad experience, but really, I've called them at least 5-10 times, and I'd say EVERY time they screw something up, and typically it takes 30 minutes or more to get talking to the right person who can actually do something (and speak english).
I really usually am a supporter of Sprint, and if I had good signal I'd probably continue to be (aside from CS), but my apartment is on the edge of service where it locks to Sprint with 0 or 1 bars, frequently drops calls, and won't let me roam without manually changing every time.
Put it this way... without SERO, Sprint has NOTHING going for them that I know of that would make me want to use them over another carrier. It's SERO that credits them at all.
Sero is nice and all, but Sprint's phone selection is so atrocious that I'm STILL planning on switching to AT&T when the iPhone 3G hits... despite the much higher monthly price and pathetic plan features. If the Instinct were available for Sero, I'd probably stick around with Sprint for a few more months (provided there was no contract involved) - but when the remarkably unremarkable HTC Mogul is the best thing you offer, there's a serious problem. Sprint is WAY overvaluing their fugly little iPhone knockoff with these forced plans and contracts, isolating existing subscribers. They really need to start concentrating on keeping their existing customers, because things like this are the reason folks are leaving in droves, Sero or not.
Agreed Sprint is not my carrier of choice but the price isn't that bad... and I am a cheap ass. On second thought price does correlate with quality so coverage and internet speed would worry me.
Me for one. I've been using them for years now and in the Baltmore/DC area at least they are the best provider by far. I get 5mb down/1.5mb up speeds on my phone for $15/mo unlimited. I don't even use SERO because I don't feel like cancelling and then re-joining. I use WMWifi to share this with my laptop when I am on the Amtrak and the coverage is great. They also have some of the best smartphones out at the moment (although not all). If high speed data is your main thing, Sprint is by far the best in many areas. It all just depends where you live.
Just wait for Android
With all the hype around Android, i expect it to be the best OS ever created, manage my life for me, make me money just by me having it, and cure various ailments and diseases the world over.
But something tells me it will just be a decent phone OS.
I high ranked Clak because I liked the Robin Williams joke.
I agree with Ruben...can't believe the number of people praising Android as the almighty OS savior for mobile devices when it hasn't even been released and is being built by a company with absolutely zero experience developing operating systems.
And don't get me wrong, I'd love to see Android live up to the hype as current mobile operating systems leave much to be desired but I suspect we are going to see a lot of disappointed people once Android is actually released.
Please tell me I can tether this one with my laptop for wireless.
And hopefully if it has WIFI, do tethering wirelessly
There is no wifi.... Only 3G for data...
3G is 3rd generation wireless access the data uses EVDO Rev-A.
Digg this story! http://digg.com/hardware/Iphone_Killer_Samsung_Instinct_available_June_20th_for_129
Oh please... iPhone killer? We all know how the "it's an iPod killer!!!" stories panned out.
It comes with a 2GB Micro SD card which can be upgraded to 8GB at a highest cost then the phone itself???? no thanx, AT&T 3G network is faster anyway so i'll pass
where are you paying $130 for 8gb micro sd? that is a little steep ours are about 50 bucks where i work.
It's expandable while iPhone is not. What is wrong with you?
A-hem.
It's expandable to 8 gigs on an Micro sd....anything beyond 8 gigs it cannot contain.
Unless all it takes is a software update, but it can only handle 8 upon release.
...just too add here, ummm, theres no way in hell AT&T's 3G service is anywhere near as fast as EVDO Rev. A. You must've been doing that "Russian reversal" thing or something. :)
@ethan
thats just plan wrong. the instinct can handle micro sdHC which means when anything above 8GB comes out it will still work with the phone, no software updates. your just confused because all that's out is 8GB as the biggest, so that's what samsung put as the limit. :P
@umeadi
you are completely right, EVDO Rev A is WAY faster that AT&T 3G, and there 3G is only available in select cities, EVDO is everywhere (except Montana :( ! )
I have the same plan.
You know you also have Free Roaming through Verizon, you can just set that manually while you are in your appartment
Free voice AND data roaming with Verizon AND Alltel for less then either charge. Sprint is a no brainer these days..
Technically... The Samsung Instinct is $229 at front (before $100 mail-in rebate) compared to the $199 flat price of the iphone... You will need to wait 6 - 8 weeks for your $100 dollars...
The Instinct is a great phone for $129. It does stuff that the iphone can't do like video capture, MMS, etc. Is it an iphone killer.... No
At $229 upfront, it's still only $30 more than the iPhone 3G, so getting that $100 a month or so later will feel like a nice bonus in the mail.
Even though I'm an AT&T subscriber and gung-ho about the iPhone 3G, I welcome the competition by Sprint. In the end, the customer wins, so I'm glad that SOME companies are actually putting in effort this time around. I'm sitting here with shrinking groceries and paying the same amount, and getting nickel-and-dimed by every other company, it's disgusting.
I wonder why Sprint decided to lower the cost of the Samsung Instinct. Since it's supposed to be a far better handset than the iPhone, why would they need to do this? I hope they don't think they're going to sell enough of these handsets to make money from it.
It really doesn't matter what Sprint does with the Instinct. It doesn't even matter that it has more features than the iPhone. People are only going to want to know where and how soon they can purchase an iPhone 3G. People want the real deal and not some counterfeit iPhone.
After watching there adds i found it funny how they're trying to compared it to the old iPhone that was discontinue about a month an 1/2 ago, good work sprint looks like the jokes on you
What were they supposed to compare it against? The new iPhone did not have any pre-production models to review nor was there even a feature set that was made public.
For the sake of argument though the ad is still very valid. EVDO-Rev A is faster than 3G. iPhone has no video. iPhone has no mobile TV. The only thing that is no longer valid relates to GPS.
bjsguess
But but but, ummm.......its still not an iPhone!
(which would be a typical response that I would expect from an apple fan boy)
Your post was spot on by the way, good points.
2 years from now, the Instinct will be but a distant memory.
Then again, so will Sprint.
Buy wisely.
The only good thing is that Sprint 3G blows Att out of the water
/Att customer
I read somewhere that AT&T 3G will/is the fastest 3G in the US... Hmmmmm....
Sprint 3G blows Att out of the water???? it that a joke, lol it's that a joke???
Dude, sprint or verizon will never be as fast as AT&T 3G, they do have more coverage than AT&T but not even close as fast, an by next year Death Star is going to be even faster
Indeed it does, their the first to put EVDO REV-A in this phone, it's the only phone with EVDO REV-A the iPhone has yesterdays 3G, Sprints plan is actually cheaper if you think about it cause your using a WAY faster data network instead of AT&T's 3rd gen NW, Sprints is closer to the 4th Gen spectrum than the standard yesterdays AT&T rip off, opps they dropped my call, and look at all these hidden fees/ i love surprises network and service
EVDO REV-A is crap, Dude the current at&t 3g is capable of 7Mbps that's more than twice of EVDO REV-A an by 2009 it will be capable of 19Mbps,
Dude you say iPhone has yesterdays 3G but is capable of 7Mbps on 3G network which i can't think of another device that has that new 3G chip capable of that, watch the iphone keynote you might learn something, are you joking
@Snitch
Before people spout off BS they need to know what they're talking about:
"AT&T's super-fast mobile broadband network puts iPhone 3G in the broadband fast lane with download speeds of up to 1.4 Mbps."
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/specials/iPhone.jsp
Sprint Rev-A 3.1Mbps Down, also during that "keynote" Jobs said the new iphone will only be 2.8 times faster than the 1st one!
1.4 Mbps is a pretty realistic download speed for a cell phone. The iPhone just like every other HSDPA handset is very capable of speeds over 7.2 Mbps. I believe Apple just used actual speed findings rather then spouting off what it "Could" do.
Although the Instinct will launch with Rev-A it will be upgraded to Rev-B soon. At launch Rev-B will have an initial speed of 9Mbps down with a max of 14.7Mbps down with a system upgrade. With Rev-C to follow...
AT&T's tower might be capable of 7 mb/s, however you won't come anywhere close to that....why you ask instead of blatently believing the marketing hype for twitts?
1) they don't have the T1's or backhaul at the tower to support it.
2) you aren't directly under the tower, with no callers making voice calls on the tower
3) you must pray that your device actually supports those speeds
4) And finally, you hope that you are of those lucky souls who actually have 3G coverage from AT&T given that their 3G footprint is less than 50% than that of Sprint's
Maybe crossing your fingers would help also. But heck, I guess I am just a realist and expect my 3G to work everywhere (not in select areas).
So my question is...What will the cost be if i have the $75 rebate? not including th mail-in rebate..just the total cost?
$449-$75= $375 for a 1 year upgrade....
Out of all the phones I have purchased from Sprint, (they all have mail in rebates)...I never saw a single one.
You mail it, and you wait, and wait, and wait, and the you just forget.
The phone is still $229.00...sorry kids.
Its not their fault you are incapable of keeping track of your own money. If I don't get a rebate from someone, I call them, and have always had it sorted out. I have sent three rebates in to Sprint, and have received two, and one was declined, I called and asked why, and the CSR said she did not know why (which sounded like crap to me, I will admit), but she gave me the MIR amount right over the phone, plus an extra $25.
Sprint may be at fault for not giving you your rebates, if thats true, but you are just as much as fault for not caring enough to follow through.
Besides, with a high profile release like this, and since they are trying to keep people from defecting to AT&T for iPhoneies, you better believe its in their best interest to get the rebates out.
No, sorry, I'm backing up Alex on this one. Sprint tries to screw people over with MIRs.
When I bought my Mogul they were having a $100 MIR offer. They wouldn't give me an instant rebate on the Mogul, because they wanted me to use that offer. That offer required you to pay for a certain priced data plan, however I had SERO. I asked several times if it would be acceptable still, was told every time yes, it will work fine, even mailed a note with it noting that I had SERO and was told it was fine, and what? Declined. Wow, that's the least surprised I had ever been in my life. I knew they wouldn't honor it from the second they tried to weasel out of the instant rebate and give me an MIR.
Actually, I'm gonna call them right now and complain about that and try to get my $100.
To update my last post, I'm on the phone with them right now and the guy goes "Oh yeah, you should apply, i'll recreate the rebate record and get it sent to you". If it's that easy for him to see immediately, why couldn't they figure it out when I sent it in. Seems like Sprint declines rebates if they have some sort of excuse to, and hopes you won't call in to follow up.
So yeah, Derek is right, you should follow up, but I still think they TRY to screw you over until you call them out about it. This is why I hate MIRs. The whole point is that maybe people will forget or something and you can say you have a discount but really not have to give out the discount half the time.
Oh well, what can you do.
I am not even going to take a side on this until I actually get to use it, because that kind of stuff is just ridiculous.
BUT, at the same time, without WiFi and any showing of 3rd party app support (that I have seen so far), its going to play hard catchup to the iPhone, or even other Sprint phones.
I mean, this thing would have been decent competition when the first iPhone came out, similar features, better data, GPS, etc, the Wifi could be overcome since it has a real data network (I have Wifi on my Sprint Mogul, and aside from using WMWifiRouter for wireless tethering, I never use it, EVDO Rev. A ++)
I say wait on the Iphone killer, not a killer, BS until its actually used and has some reviews.
Since the iPhone isn't offered on a CDMA network, it may end up being a decent alternative for those of us not ready to jump on AT&T garbage barge.
It doesnt have 3rd party apps yet, but thats only because no one has decided to make it. Sprint said they arent going to stop any development and its all Java based so it wont be long until there are a ton of 3rd party stuff.
Reminds me of that Eddie Murphy routine where the neighbor kids got McDonalds (iPhone), but Eddie's grandma would make him a pan fried burger with green peppers in it (Instinct).
The first post says it all. The instinct is nothing more than a poorly designed iPhone clone. Samsung/Sprint, you gotta quit hiring college interns to do your designs.
Tell your mail person to stop smoking weed on the route.
@ Samsung
put this on VZW and dont copy the interface of the iPhone to that much of an extent
@ Sprint
get this in a different color (that could be at Samsung too) and dont make the everything plan mandatory- and if you do lower the price
@ Frank Furter
Horrible reference, good point on the clone, and horrible reference to college intern designers
I think this phone's only instinct is to FAIL IT.
Watching other carriers iPhone envy is hilarious.....and I don't even like the iPhone.
Rebate makes this a huge fail. If you want to discount your stuff, discount it. Everyone knows rebates are a shady way to rip some people off. The fact that they think I'm stupid enough to fall for it leaves a bad taste in my mouth, wondering what else they'll try to pull over on me over the course of the contract. No thanks.
I plan on giving an update on my Sprint saga and may emails to Mr. Hesse, the CEO later. We'll see how this works out for them.
it's still cheaper than the iPhones plan actually, because you get Sprints Ultra Highspeed EVDO REV-A network, this is the first phone to use this network as well
It is far from the first phone to use the EVDO Rev-A network, do some reading.
HTC PPC-6800 (Mogul) and the HTC Touch, as well as Sprint's computer connect devices have been using EVDO Rev-A for some time now.
Do some research... the Mogul is EVDO REV-A "Upgradeable" but it uses EVDO as a standard and i said "Phone" I know there Sierras use REV-A cause I'm using one now. Zatvaryay si ustata kuchi sin
Actually the Sprint Mogul HTC-6800 had an official update released in March that did upgrade it to Rev A. The HTC-6900 which is the Touch on Sprint had an OFFICIAL update for the Alltel version that enabled Rev A. So it's not the first phone to have it, but it IS the first phone to have it at release.
Caberet,
Your first post was what contained the spurious remark,
"this is the first phone to use this network as well"
No, no it's not.
You just happened to word it VERY poorly if your intention was to later say that it's the first phone to use it out of the box, standard.
The only reason I am pointing out this obvious error in your original post is because myself and numerous others have been using EVDO-Rev A with our Moguls and even the Touch has it I believe.
Just wanted to clear up any potential confusion.
Oh, and the Rev-A update for the touch was made available many months ago, so most have had a chance to get Rev-A compatible ROM's out of the box if they purchased one anytime during the last couple of months.
Sprint overcharged my small (US) company for over $50,000.00. We caught them doing it and now they refuse to refund the over-payments. You can read the full story at www.sprint-really-sucks.com
I also wrote an open letter to Dan Hesse the Chairman and CEO of Sprint Nextel. It is a good read so please consider reading the letter.
www.sprint-really-sucks.com/open-letter-dan-hesse.aspx
dont believe this guy. he has copy/pasted this exact same thing on 2 other posts, this guy is just an apple fanboy / sprint hater.
PS www.sprint-really-sucks.com, now that site really sucks :p
On screen keyboards suck without some type of haptic feedback. Might as well resort to T9.
it has T9 and writing recognition as well, it's not a bad phone
Good thing the Instinct has haptic feedback while that, unlike that phone everyone is trying to kill.
Well.. its an okay looking phone. But the price is too high.. Sure its really close to the iPhone's and it has some features the iPhone is misisng, but I believe that a major part of the appeal about the iPhone is that for $30 less than the Instinct, you get 16GB of memory, and althought that isn't a huge amount of space for holding someones entire music collection (I know it'll be cramped to fit all mine if at all possible) but for a phone, 16GB is a huge amount of built in memory for todays standards.
In my opinion this doesn't even come close to killing the iPhone, because it can't be that *All-In-One* device that iPhone can, at least not without having multiple little SD cards with your music, videos..etc on them.
FYI the 8GB iPhone 3G is $199, the 16GB iPhone 3G is $299.
Sorry, you're right. but you still get my point hopefully. 8-16GB of built in storage just completes the device.
First off as noted, you are wrong about the memory size.
The 8GB model sales for $199, and after rebate, actually costs $70 MORE than the Instinct.
I dont know where you get this $30 less notion from, unless you believe Sprint is flat-out lying about the $100 rebates (class action lawsuit anyone).
Secondly, for a mere $50 investment, one could purchase an 8 GB memory card for the Instinct (provided its compatible with SDHC memory), and it would STILL be cheaper than the iPhone 8GB model by like $20 after rebates.
Still nothing definitive on whether SERO can be used? I keep reading conflicting reports. If SERO is available I'm definitely getting it.
I just got done talking to Sprint customer service.
9:38:26 AM Michele No, you can not have the Sero plan on this phone. This phone will need the Simply Everything plan.
I don't see why you couldn't. I bet if you just called them and told them your ESN to swap onto your account, it would work fine. I don't know what's different on the actual phone, other than they don't want you on their unlimited data so they SAY you can't use it.
Phonedog.com just came out today and said that their highly placed sources indicated that SERO would be available on the Instinct.
Good thing the Instinct has haptic feedback while that, unlike that phone everyone is trying to kill.
ok now i can understand all the fighting with mac user liking the iphone and defending it and others liking the instinct and do the same
weather u like the iphone or the instinct i don't really care and all the people spreading false statement about both phones well that to be expected
u have to take that with a grain of slat
but u have to one huge iphone nut job with blinder on to believe for sec that at&t 3g network at any point is faster then sprints evdo rev a
i thought out all things we can could be fought about with the 2 networks and phones that wasn't one the thing
even die hard mac people where mad that the iphone was coming out on at&t cuz of how bad there data network is
now i know u all love the iphone its a nice phone but dam even the most die hard iphone user should at admit at least to the fact 3g is slower then evdo rev a
it just dumb not to and there now way u can back up such a claim that it is faster
damit typos well i all ready have the worst grammar in the world but the phone make it worst sorry
Translation: AT&T's data network sucks, Sprints is better.
For my part, having used data cards from the 3 major carriers (AT&T, Sprint, Verizon), I can safely say that Sprint does, indeed, have the superior data network.
iPhone!
N99i is where its at - nice ipod nano / lg prada look with htc touchflo and wifi - http://www.wholesaleg8.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1112&HS=1
Snitch just got destroyed.
Nice post p3t3b2