Samsung M800 Instinct Cell Phone
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- Screen Size (Diagonal): 3.1 inch
- Connectivity: Bluetooth
- Performance: Dual Band
- Design: Mobile
- Style: Touch Screen
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Pretty Good Touchscreen Phone
Pros
Touch screen looks cool, Sprint Navigation works well, slim profile, comes with spare battery
Cons
Touch screen implementation needs work, Flipping to the bottom of the contact is tedious
Recommended it?
No
The Bottom Line:
Cool in concept! Check it out if you like, there are more usable phones on the market.
I've owned the Instinct for about 1 year now, and it's a good phone - in concept. The touchscreen is relatively responsive, and the tactile feedback is pretty cool. There have been a few bugs in the software, but it looks like Sprint (or Samsung) is still pretty active in producing updates so I'm not going to rag on it too much.
The phone software is pretty good, except the big problem I have with it is that it takes forever to scroll to the bottom of my contacts list. Everytime I switch to the phone function, the contacts start at the top which wouldn't be much of a problem if there were an easy way to slide all the way to the end of the contacts. But instead if I wanted to get to the letter "Z" I have to flip through screen after screen of contacts until I get to the bottom. Which brings me the the other irksome thing about the Instinct - as cool as it is to be able to "flip" through various screens (web pages, contact lists, navigation maps) the implementation of it on the Instinct is a little lacking. Sometimes it works like you expect, an other times you accidentally select something you meant to flip past. Maybe it has to do with the resistive touch screen (vs. capacitive on the competitors).
But compared to other touch screen phones, the profile is slimmer and narrower which is the main reason why I chose it over the competitor.
Battery life could be a big issue for some people. Under constant use (talking on the phone, using the navigation, etc) it lasts maybe 3 hours. Which is probably why it comes with a spare battery and a spare battery charger. If I know I'm going to be using either of these for an extended amount of time I try to take the spare battery with me.
One note about the tactile feedback: It's neat because it tells you when you've "pressed" a button, but it does register "false positives". There are times when I go to "press" a button and the phone vibrates but the application doesn't respond. It's strange (this is also mentioned on CNet reviews, I think) and bothersome if you're already annoyed at something.
I would also add that the virtual keyboard needs a little work. The Instinct lacks an accelerometer, so it doesn't know (or care) if the phone is in landscape mode (wide) or portrait mode (tall). As little as it is to touch the little button to change orientation, its rather annoying when you are entering text into the browser and you have to keep flipping back and forth to browse and enter text. It's a small thing, but could be a deal breaker for some.
I have had no problems with Sprint's network, so I'm not really sure why they get such horrible customer service ratings every year. I even get some coverage where other services don't reach.
It may be worth a look if you MUST have a touch screen phone, but I would check out the competition first.
The phone software is pretty good, except the big problem I have with it is that it takes forever to scroll to the bottom of my contacts list. Everytime I switch to the phone function, the contacts start at the top which wouldn't be much of a problem if there were an easy way to slide all the way to the end of the contacts. But instead if I wanted to get to the letter "Z" I have to flip through screen after screen of contacts until I get to the bottom. Which brings me the the other irksome thing about the Instinct - as cool as it is to be able to "flip" through various screens (web pages, contact lists, navigation maps) the implementation of it on the Instinct is a little lacking. Sometimes it works like you expect, an other times you accidentally select something you meant to flip past. Maybe it has to do with the resistive touch screen (vs. capacitive on the competitors).
But compared to other touch screen phones, the profile is slimmer and narrower which is the main reason why I chose it over the competitor.
Battery life could be a big issue for some people. Under constant use (talking on the phone, using the navigation, etc) it lasts maybe 3 hours. Which is probably why it comes with a spare battery and a spare battery charger. If I know I'm going to be using either of these for an extended amount of time I try to take the spare battery with me.
One note about the tactile feedback: It's neat because it tells you when you've "pressed" a button, but it does register "false positives". There are times when I go to "press" a button and the phone vibrates but the application doesn't respond. It's strange (this is also mentioned on CNet reviews, I think) and bothersome if you're already annoyed at something.
I would also add that the virtual keyboard needs a little work. The Instinct lacks an accelerometer, so it doesn't know (or care) if the phone is in landscape mode (wide) or portrait mode (tall). As little as it is to touch the little button to change orientation, its rather annoying when you are entering text into the browser and you have to keep flipping back and forth to browse and enter text. It's a small thing, but could be a deal breaker for some.
I have had no problems with Sprint's network, so I'm not really sure why they get such horrible customer service ratings every year. I even get some coverage where other services don't reach.
It may be worth a look if you MUST have a touch screen phone, but I would check out the competition first.
