How would you change Samsung's Instinct s30?
By Darren Murph 
posted May 30th 2009 4:38AM
posted May 30th 2009 4:38AM
posted May 30th 2009 4:38AM
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Get rid of the crappy Sprint-version of this OS and go with the normal Touchwiz-based one. The Samsung Delve on Alltel shares much in common with this phone and offers a better user experience. Why Sprint felt the need to go with this offshoot crap pile is beyond me.
oh but Sprint was so proud that they created that OS in under 3 months... but for the rest of us, IT SHOWS! it was a rushed, it was not ready and a year later it's still not ready for market.
I am at the point where the only thing that I like about my Instinct is the SEP $99 plan... that's it! so when the new iPhone comes out, I'm telling Sprint where they can stick the Instinct.
There's a reason why the Instinct (both models) are available now for $49!
Give it a physical Centro-style keyboard... the keyboardless slab form factor is overdone and overrated.
worst phone i've ever used, granted i have the original instinct, i can't imagine this being much different
NOTHING WORKS
GPS didn't work, web would fail if you load a... webpage, in the news section you can't click on the video link, it sends you back to home screen, you have to click view full story and then click the video icon, the music player can't work outside of the application... anything and everything about this phone is complete crap
Samsung should issue everyone's money back for selling something like this, it's pathetic
and yes, i should have waited for the pre
To be fair, GPS and Live Search are the only real highlights of the phone. GPS does work and the integration with Live Search to GPS is pretty damn cool. The problem is Sprint has no concept of buffering... so if you drive through a dead spot, you lose the map. It should not be that hard to determine if you are going X speed on Y road, to download ahead the Z maps, but it doesn't work that way. You hit a dead spot and suddenly the map just disappears.
If you never leave a 3G area, then the GPS works extremely well for being phone based.
Mac Fanboys are idiots. I have both an Iphone 3G and a Ipod Touch but there are new phones and MP3/4(s) arriving that offer a lot. When I travel I always take my Sony. The quality of the music leaves the Itouch and ipods sound much to be desired. The Sonys battery also lasts much longer. Lets face it if you realy want to listen to music (at its best) then you would never go Apple.
I have one, and i can say its between the instinct and touch pro that are the best phones on sprint right now, the palm pre doesn't appeal to me. Honestly, sprint just has outdated phones. All the good ones go to AT&T or T- Mobile. The Instinct seriously needs wi-fi, and more functionality, and the fact that they put advertisements in the phone (included in the last phone update) seriously pisses me off, and i'm glad that Sprint as a whole is failing, because just as Sony they aren't listening to the consumers.
i'd make it a palm pre.
The instinct was the coolest phone I ever had.....when I first got it. Once I became familiar with the phone, I noticed browsing the web, texting I don,t have time for the rest of it. The instinct is not as cool as I thought it really was. Iwould like to have the improved model.
Thanks, Not as cool anymore....
I'd jack it up and put and iPhone under it.
I've only used the original instinct in store, so I don't know about the s30, but make the portrait keyboard so that it can be used like a normal keyboard. (using t9)
Yup, I've had my Instinct for a year now and though there's much I DO like about it (thin, narrow and light - haptics - love the slipcover - email and calender sync - replaceable battery!) there's much to annoy: slow, can't read music titles any longer than screen width, poor music sorting, and for-God's-sake fix the Contacts search! I love the drag bar to quickly find contacts, but it SHOULD offer a button where you can sort by (first name, last name, company, nick-name etc.)!
If the new iPhone 3.0 has better battery life (among other fixes) I really might take the plunge and dump Sprint (and byte the bullet to pay the penalties) and do the Apple switch. It just IS the new Newton and the future of mobile computing/communication.
First, I'd dump the OS. It simply sucks. Instead, adopt Android.
Second, I'd add a PTT button on the side for Q-chat. Sorry, in my book, if Sprint is going to introduce a "flagship" phone (and everyone knows that Sprint tried to make the Instinct its flagship phone), then any and all of Sprint's phones should at least be PTT capable...especially if the phone is going to require an Everything Data plan at least. Heck, you already pay for it...might as well be able to use it.
Third, as was mentioned, make a portrait virtual keyboard that one can use T9 typing for. At least then texting may actually be decent.
Fourth, make it CDMA EVDO rev A and WiFi capable. After all, if Sprint insists that you can't roam more than 300 minutes per month, at least give your subscribers a larger network, or WiFi...better yet...BOTH!
Finally, probably the best option, just strip away EVERYTHING that has to do with Sprint and make it completely unlocked. That might allow people to WANT to develop apps for it too!
Instinct...should be call the "It Stinks" Can't say anything good about Sprint...they treat their employees like crap and their customers worse.
As far as the PRE...Possible Returns Expected...Sorry Palm...good try, sorry you chose Sprint, they can ruin a good dream...
Sprint could have carried the iPHONE... they were approached....BUT NO!!! They had plans of their own...to drive the company into the ground...
Good luck Sprint with the PREcaution...PRE bank bankruptcy...PRE mature instead of PRE should of called it a POS
I wish all the employees would all revolt and throw all the corporate B**T**Ds out and buy the company...hostile take over...
um, well although i don't actually have the s10, i do have the original, and all i can say is that it is a steaming pile of crap. for 1 with the s10 they could have completely re-done the OS. because it blows and lacks any sort of visual appeal. the only reason i got this phone was because my rents paid for it and it had just came out, sprint was the first to get this generation of phone's from samsung, and go figure it was the worst. hopefully when this phone goes to crap and i take it into sprint i can con them into giving me a palm pre, but im not going to hold my breath.
So...now that all the haters are out of the way...any owners of the s30 have anything to say?
As a 1st generation instinct owner, I can tell you that both Samsung and Sprint fumbled the football with the Instinct.Where do we begin with this utter overhyped, underperforming, and probably one of the most annoying phones I've ever owned?
The fault really lies with Sprint. I've never met a company so fucking inept at basic and fundamental customer service. The list of our fixes for the Instinct has been on the Buzz About Wireless Forum. I've personally emailed Dan Hesse, CEO of Sprint. Did he listen. HELL NO! Some stupid representative "passed on our concerns to the developers." We've even posted the problems on the Sprint developers website. Did ANY of them listen and even attempt to address those concerns? No. The problems with the Instinct are 99 percent software fixes that could be fixed if they bothered to do even the most basic of concerns.
Here's our remixed must have fix list for the Instinct, not in any preticular order.
1. Lock the phone's screen in call situations as many have suggested. - Major battery saver if we ever got this.
2. T9 option for those users. This should be very simple fix.
3. Stock Ticker with individual stock monitoring.
4. Adobe Flash and Sun Java support/compliancy.
5. Fix the camera for better results in low light situations.
6. Update the music player with addtional file formats, greater
performance, more intuitive, and automatic song recognition with
downloadable cover art.
7. HTML email support.
8. Better Google Apps support.
9. The browser Out of Memory Error still persists. This needs to be
fixed pronto. Many pages can't be viewed because of this problem from MR-4.
10. Acid 2 browser compliancy.
11. Easier wallpaper download and switching without sync.
12. Custom Icons, colorful UI, and changeable UI interface.
13. A complete browser overhaul.
14. Speed improvements.
15. PAM without paying an additional 50 bucks.
All of these fixes are possible, if Sprint would get off their duffs and get to work. But we'll probably never see this even with Sprint hemorrhaging not just Sprint customers but Instinct owners as well. What good is Sprint's top selling phone, when users abandon it before their two year contract is up? Has Sprint done anything to address and make it right for Instinct users? No. Its been take away our television choices with nothing to replace the removed stations, show down the Instinct in the s30 to Rev. 0. They effectively neutered all the enhancements of Rev. A for a cheaper made phone. But you're paying more for the s30. How is that right?
Yet we're still paying $99.99 for Simply Everything yet we've got less service today than when we started. All the corporate discounts Sprint offer's its premier customers don't apply to Simply Everything. Yet if I went to Verizon, I'd get 20 percent discount from my employer on their version of unlimited voice and data. However, ponying up to switch and screwing your credit is a hard price to pay for Sprint's utter incompetence. And yet Sprint CEO Dan Hesse made a grand total of $14.2 million total, with a base salary of $1.2 million, plus a performance-based bonus of $2.7 million, and stocks/options $10.1 million, with $7.8 million in shares, and the rest in options. Yet Sprint is failing its customers MISERABLY, failing to replace or change dissatisfied customers with newer or different phones or altering the terms of Simply Everything to allow for discounts, Phone as a Modem at no extra charge, restoring TV content and fixing this half assed completed phone?
Folks, don't buy into Sprint's hype. The Pre sounds cool, but I think Sprint will find a way to screw that phone too. Stay away from Sprint. FAR FAR AWAY FROM SPRINT! Give Verizon, T-Mobile, and I can't believe I'm saying this... AT&T your business. These guys do not care, the Instinct is not worth it, and until they really do learn to make it right; this phone and company is toxic.
I had one for all of about 30 hours. I had the first Instinct and was excited when they announced the s30. They were boasting all these unlocks for developers to make better apps. More access for them to the GPS, camera, ect. Then it came out and made complete liars out of them. If it would have been everything they said, it might have been .004% better, but we all know how that worked out. I quickly switched to the palm pro and have not regretted it one bit.
On the S30 Weather, Sports, News and Movies open in a browser window that is not as easily customizable as the pocket express application that was used on the original instinct.
The orginal Instincts pocket express software used GPS to provide customizable weather for your city, movies in your area, and sports for teams close to you without typing in a zip code or city. All that data was only two or three finger touches away. On top of the convenience it had a full HTML browser like the S30, but the S30 has slower connectivity because it's on a lesser network.
On the S30 If you go to movies you're directed to fandango, go to sports you get a crappy web page, go to weather more crap in browser. At least the old Instinct allowed you to filter the crap, and get what you wanted quickly...or view the crap. Those who buy this phone without checking out the original Instinct may not know they are buying a weaker model than the first, they might be satisfied with the browser and navigation. I bought this for my girlfriend in hopes it would be like my original model, and when she saw that it didn't have any pocket express convenience apps she was disappointed. Don't buy it and decide you want to exchange it because Sprint customer service and billing is as painful as the S30 to deal with. The friendly people at the Sprint store didn't even know the S30 was a downgrade until I took mine to them and we compared apps together, they even thought it sucked, because most of them own the original. My experience with the S30 coupled with customer service resulted in me leaving Sprint all together.
improve software
different ringer volumes for calls vs alarms
improved screen sensitivity
I bought one and like it. Since it is my first touch screen phone, I really don't have anything to compare it to. Another poster complained of his original Instinct crashing and hanging on him regularly. I have not experienced it. For the most part, it is a good phone. My only complaints are that the camera quality is poor and the UI is dull and boring. After looking at some UK sites, I wish I could get the Samsung Pixon M8800 or M8900 with the Windows-based UI. But I doubt Sprint is that forward thinking.
I have the first Instinct.
I love it and because it always had solid features, I rely on it for so many things.
Which makes you wonder why they couldn't iron out all the little things that make it so cumbersome to actually use? I mean the GPS is awesome, the voicemail, the radio, live TV, extra complimentary swappable battery, etc.
So the programming is solid. It's just that no one felt like touching it up any further. Like it was 95% complete, and they didn't bother with the easiest 5% that would improve the lacking/glitchy interface by miles.
I'm still happy I bought this instead of the crappy iPhone though, which seems to be useful only for those who like to play with their toys instead of getting things done. Apple promised a decent GPS for years, and they never delivered.
hello everyone the ultimate phone consists of a few things. Easy to use features and web browser but at the same time not forgeting the true purpose that it is a phone. The layout is fine with the instinct but there needs to be applications that would be helpful. We dont need to compare the instinct to any other phone but discuse what would make it better. The phone itself is amazing and samsung took more time on it than you would think but the real thing they need to think about when making a phone is if the majority of people are going to like it. The web applications are nice and handy and the games are more or less just a money barden on sprints part but to make the phone easy as possible to use and still be extraordinary are the little things like being able to chang the song on your phone while it is in lock mode and having a faster internet. Another cool thing is to have you facebook and myspace linked to your phone without having to get on the web everytime. Copy and paste would be great also. Its always the little stuff that make the phone easy and funcunable. But remember dont compare are discriminate the phone because its all preferance but think of ways to build it up and make an ultimate easyto use poupular phone.