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
Great, but a few noticable flaws
Not a normal Sprint customer; but we had this as a "live" demo phone before its unfortunate demise to a thief.
This was the 1st time I had extensive use with a touchscreen and it wasn't too bad.
PROS:
-GPS navigation a breeze, and very intuitive to enter coordinates and use. Kudos to Sprint for making this standard on their unlimited data plans.
-HTML browser is nice.
-Decent reception, even with 1-2 bars of strength.
-Layout is easy to navigate.
-Good call quality.
CONS:
-Battery life is much to be desired, primarily when using internet/GPS. Be warned you'll get less than a day of use if you use A LOT of Internet/GPS.
However when using for straight calls, I pulled a little north of 3 hrs, which isn't bad for a CDMA phone at all.
-The phone's UI lags when navigating through menus. For power users who know where everything is, this can get rather annoying very quickly.
-Texting is a nightmare, and T9 is unavailable. Granted, this was one of the 1st mainstream touchscreen phones so I can slightly forgive on this one, BUT this makes the Instinct VERY VERY text UNFRIENDLY.
Overall, a good phone at a reasonable price for those who need a GPS but hate the handheld systems. Not bad for calls either.
Texters and power internet users should look elsewhere.
Why Did I Leave You Instinct :(
I'm currently a Samsung Delve owner dwelling on "why did I break up with my Instinct".
The Instinct Interface is great, makes sense, easy to use and friendly. The phone was considered so cool when I would go out, that I swear I got two or three dates from just having this phone amd two new friends that were total strangers asking about it.
You would never think that technology would help break the ice, but this phone did. Just don't brag about it. Then your are just showing off which is not cool.
The Pros
> Fun
> Easy to use
> Makes Sense
> Works Great as a Phone
> Good reception
> Good microphone
> Good battery Life
The Cons
> Ear wax all over the screen
> Phone locks up once in a while
It's a great phone and I would recommend to hold onto it a little bit longer if you have it. It also makes a great flashlight.
Visual Voicemail and Email
I will try not to be too long winded with things that don't matter like some other ppl are.
I got my instinct a month ago. I have the pink one. I was loving it until the visual voice mail stopped working out of the blue. I read online that alot of ppl have trouble with that. I took it to a store and the girl was pretty ignorant. She couldn't even reset the phone correctly. I brought it home and fixed it all myself. It has been working so far. I had voice mail message from 2 weeks that had never got to me.
Second, email alerts. I have it set to let me know each time I get a new email. That hardly works. I just sat here and sent myself 5 emails to both accounts that I have stored on the phone. First, I had to refresh before I got the mail totally putting the alerts to no use, and then I sent 3 more, finally it told me of those.
I just tried again and what do you know, no alert yet. I'm getting tired of this phone and it's only been a month.
I have also had a little trouble with typing out text or email and then they just disappear before I sent them. So, I have to retype the whole thing again.
Other than that, it's alright I guess. It calls ppl and is okay on the net.
GREAT phone
Great phone, considered the i clone.
Pro-great everything cellular, almost has a mind, it knows what i want.
Con-cant sync outlook folders with basic inbox feature on work email.
My Samsung Instinct!
This is the second Samsung Instinct that I have owned, and to say the very least I love it! The first one that I owned, I returned at the time I couldn't get use to the touchscreen. However, after purchasing and heavily using my Apple Ipod Touch I became more comfortable with my touch screen capabilities!
I love the sound on this phone! The first day I had it everyone commented how much better they could hear me on this phone!
Here are my pros & cons:
PROS:
Very durable, dropped it twice, not even a scratch!
Bright Screen
Locks, which comes in handy for me so that I don't accidentally dial out!
lots of applications can be added to it
wonderful GPS!
Vibrates when touched
Spell Check
very loud ring
comes with many accessories!
CONS:
Camera has no zoom ( can be a pain)
No themes for it as of yet
Not much room on the phone without a SD
fills with fingerprints
Has been known to lag at times, but not a huge issue
I could not be happier with my phone. I owned a BB Curve before this, and it's a great phone, however, I couldn't with the time it took for the phone to start up,and operate!This is a great fit for me :-)
Great Phone
The instinct is a great phone. But for all of you people who are trashing on it because it doesn't do your smart phone capabilities sorry it wasn't made for that it was made to be a media phone not a smart phone. I am in love with my phone! Has amazing things that make it compete with the iphone.
PROS/CONS
It has the voice guided navigation which the iphone does not. And the live search is an amazing App I use it wherever i go.
The Internet browsing isn't as great as the iphone or the music or the touchscreen.
But this phone is still an amazing phone. Like on sprint anywhere the signal is not so great once you get out of big cities and off the highway.
I'm really big into music and you can get the Pandora radio app on this.
And the weather App is very cool too.
The live TV can be choppy if you are not in a great coverage area. But i also watched the whole inauguration on it.
Not a big fan of the texting how the space bar is not center on the phone. And how the exclamation point is not on the home page i mean who uses the question mark more than the exclamation lol.
But all in all I am still in love with this phone I find something more that I love about it everyday!!
Great phone, but not good with sync
Don't get me wrong, this is a great phone, user friendly, and a lot of fun. Easy internet, easy to send email and text. Easy make calls, set up stuff, listen to MP3's etc.. but, the online phonebook and sync option leaves a lot to be desired. It took me 4 seperate times to try to sync my contacts, but some never made it. I had to add them manually. Also, it does not sync with your outlook, so if you are looking for something to interface with outlook, this is not the phone for you.
Overall good phone
To start off, I have had the Instinct for about 4 or 5 months, so I have had plenty of time to mess with it.
Pro's:
Great camera
Haptic feedback
Big screen
Nice size keyboard
3.5 mm headphone jack
Comes in two colors
Great for apps
Con's
OS is slow - sometimes freezes (not that big of a deal for a phone that does so much)
Web browser - again not that bad but definitely could have been better.
That's about all I have. I really like this phone. I have had around 10 different phones with multiple carriers over the past two years, so I there are a lot of phones that I put the Instinct up against.
Nice Phone but good be better
Sprint claims its an I-phone killer, it isn't. But it is a very good phone. There is no such thing as a perfect phone. I live in an area with out 3G so I can't comment on that but when you look at samsung's similar sister touch screen phones (Omnia, Eternity, Behold, & Delve) you have to ask why sprint didn't include some of there cooler features.
PROS:
Excellent screen
Visual voice mail
Comes with plenty of accessories
ringers and music sound great
CONS:
no flash or settings for the camera
no separate volume between ringers and text,
signal strength week in side buildings
could be slightly more user friendly
could be more user customizable
needs more internal memory
If sprint and Samsung want it to be a I-Phone killer they need to step up to the plate especially for the price sprint charges and the plan you have to have. For example WiFi would be nice, a better camera 3.2 or 5 meg camera with flash and editing features. FM Radio, and make the screen slightly bigger with 24 bit res. And the phone needs to be more user friendly in navigating and allow for more user customizing. The last two phones one a samsung slider and a sanyo katana exclipse flip felt more customizable to my needs. I Would still however recommend it to family and Friends.
Overall
I would consider this phone average.
Due to the weak browser anything that is live such as music or video will be choppy.
Due to the weak battery you can't experience the weak browser without the phone going dead.
Therefore, this phone is really only good for phone calls, texting, myspace, and facebook. It is also a great touch screen. For only $100 you can`t beat it for a touch screen.
Tips:
To keep the battery from going dead or carrying around the spare that is supplied to you, you can limit your usage on the browser and just stick to phone calls, texts, and non-video websites.
Finally, this phone is just average due to the battery life and the weak browser.
