Samsung's Instinct HD launching on September 27?

The long-rumored Instinct HD ranks extraordinarily high on our "man, we really wish this thing ran Android" list, but at this point, we just sorta want to get it out of the way so we can move on to the InstinctQ. How do we do that? Well, getting it released is a good start -- and PhoneDog has it on good authority that we can expect to see it on the 27th of the month for somewhere between $99 and $149, presumably on contract after rebate. The 5 megapixel cam and huge touchscreen are both great -- but with a variety of smartphones now available at the $99 mark and the 5 megapixel Hero just around the corner, it'll be interesting to see how this actually fares in Sprint stores.

[vicdezen Posted Sep 17th 2009 3:46PM]

Gotta love Samsung!

[Drdre74 Posted Sep 17th 2009 4:08PM]

I have the first Instinct and i think it's time to upgrade to this. I do alot of picture taking and video of my daughter who's 3 and this will come in handy.

[jonnythan Posted Sep 19th 2009 5:06PM]

This is a great alternative for someone who wants a powerful, feature-filled phone but doesn't want the complication of a WinMo or Android type device.

[Doax Posted Dec 7th 2009 2:47AM]

This post is long after this phone has been released but in case anyone stumbles across it late I want someone to hear my review. I got the Instinct HD ordered up on Oct 11th once it actually released. I waited about 5 months for this phone and was very hyped about it. But when it was finally launched it was $250 after rebates. Overall its a great hardware package. But the OS was buggy and would freeze up and restart in the middle of switching programs. So lets say you are in the "sprint mobile email" program and a notice comes in that you got a new text message whether you pick accept or regect on mine the screen would go all garbled then reboot. The last time it rebooted it nuked my whole text history. Needless to say being this was a $250 phone, I should get a bug free experience.

This phone has a pretty strong proc in it, I heard it was on par or faster than the G1. Plus the fact that it has a back button, home button, and phone button as hard buttons I think this would have been a great candidate for Android 1.6. Sad cus with the hardware being so awesome if they just did something else, like stick a free OS on it I would have kept it. Honestly if the Instinct line did have another phone after this I think Samsung should just make a skin that is like MotoBlur/HTC Sense UI which is over the top of Android that looks like the Instinct UI. I'd have bought and kept that even at $250. But I returned that phone and am now the happy owner of a Palm Pixi, great UI, no bugs, suck camera, but it only cost $99. A lot of people have said, $250 isn't a lot for a phone when you spend $2000 over the course of the two year contract. But I went on to putting that $150 towards a $199 black friday acer one netbook. So I feel like I made out like a bandit.

Sorry Instinct HD I waited 5 months for you, paid too much and tried to love you through it all. But in the end your OS was too buggy for my patience. I still liked this phone very much and probably would have kept it if it was priced at $99 or $150. But I would never have paid more than $150 for that kind of bugginess.