Unboxing the Sprint Samsung Instinct

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After reading review after review and probably driving my poor wife up the wall about it, I decided to take the plunge and stick with Sprint(they only have 30 days to prove their worthiness). My obsession with everything iPhone 3G has been outweighed by my necessity to pinch pennies for the diapers my 4 month old Cooper so lovingly annihilates on an hourly basis. So that led me to the much anticipated Instinct, mind you it was purchased at Best Buy as they give you the $129.99 price out the door…no waiting until Halloween for my rebate check! And no the box didn’t get wet, that’s actually how it looks.

Unboxing the Sprint Samsung Instinct

Unboxing the Sprint Samsung Instinct

Inside the main box they seem to have stepped up their packaging a notch from the brown drink holder crate that normally accompanies any phone not made by Apple.

Unboxing the Sprint Samsung Instinct

Once the lid is opened you are greeted with a glimpse of the Instinct, which so far in my opinion looks pretty nice.

Unboxing the Sprint Samsung Instinct

The screen cling that protects the screen has that fun little smiley face and a little message that challenges you to “get in touch with the world…now”. Hope that means both batteries are fully charged…doubtful!

Unboxing the Sprint Samsung Instinct

After lifting off the top tray hold the phone I was greeted by the many accessories that accompany my new toy that include
-Owners manual
-Sprint Media Manager CD
-Charging cable
-Headphones that also work as wired headset
-USB cable that connects Instinct to computer for either file management or tethering.

Unboxing the Sprint Samsung Instinct

Leather protective case that lets you charge the phone while it rests peacefully and protected.

Unboxing the Sprint Samsung Instinct

My favorite part, the spare battery and spare battery charger, for those of us on the go this is money as it allows us to charge the spare battery by either the wall charger or USB cable.

Unboxing the Sprint Samsung Instinct

And lets not forget the 2GB microSD card, adapter, and stylus…wait did I just say…yes STYLUS! Not sure on the use here as the phone itself doesn’t even have a storage option for the stylus.

Few screen shots of the menus

Unboxing the Sprint Samsung Instinct

Favorites menu…no I’m not that boring just haven’t customized yet.

Unboxing the Sprint Samsung Instinct

Main menu

Unboxing the Sprint Samsung Instinct

Fun Menu

Unboxing the Sprint Samsung Instinct

Web Menu

Unboxing the Sprint Samsung Instinct

Dedicated Back, Home and Phone buttons.

Unboxing the Sprint Samsung Instinct

Cool little drop down menu that displays various information regarding the phone, most importantly battery percentage and network.

After a about an hour or so with the Instinct, I am now confident that Apple is no longer holding on to my electronic heart, it has been quite an experience between utilizing the Navigation features and bouncing around the menus. At the $129.99 price point it was hard to pass up this deal, and being that I have a family plan the $129.99 monthly for 1500 minutes and unlimited everything is another great selling point as I am now hearing that AT&T is no longer going to include any Text messages on their iPhone plans, but then again they always surprise us. As I said before anyone wanting to pick up an Instinct should definitely try to go the Best Buy(they have exclusive rights until August) route as you get the rebates instantly as long as you are either a new customer or upgrade eligible. A full review of the Samsung Instinct should follow after I have had enough time to really dive into the features and options.

The Samsung Instinct is available from the Sprint Retail Stores and Best Buy.
MSRP: $449.99 dropped to $129.99 after rebates for eligible buyers.
What I Like: Price Point
What Needs Improvement:

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13 Comments on "Unboxing the Sprint Samsung Instinct"

  1. Those are great pictures — I like. Just think Sprint would have been a lot wiser to undercut AT&T on the service plan. At $40 for 500 minutes and unlimited data I think Sprint would have a lot more keepers. The Instinct unfortunately came out with plenty of time to let people return the phone after they peek at the iPhone.

    I’d love to play around with it — but I don’t think it would become my main phone unless they’d let me put it on my Sprint SERO $30/mo plan.

  2. Oh, there’s a rumor on SprintUsers forum that July 13 there is supposed to be a SERO plan that is compatible with the Instinct.

    I’ll believe it when I see it.

  3. Adrian Leibas | June 23, 2008 at 12:09 pm |

    I was game enough to buy this phone now as I still have the 30 day return policy which puts me just within the time frame for the iPhone 3G or the Palm 800W. One thing I am a little peaved about is the Sprint Connection manager says there is not a tethering option on the Instinct. So far though the phone has tons of muscle, and the GPS Navigation is killer.

  4. Joel McLaughlin | June 23, 2008 at 2:10 pm |

    Man…..I hope VZW gets something like this! Or is the Glyde the VZW version of this??

  5. Adrian Leibas | June 23, 2008 at 6:34 pm |

    I have played with the Glyde and the experience is very different. The Instnct is more of an iPhone type screen feel, where the Glyde is more of a soft screen. The res on this screen as well as the responsiveness and slide ability are a notch above the Glyde, but that may just be my opinion.

  6. Adrian, how’s the texting on this phone since it doesn’t have a slide out keyboard?

  7. Adrian Leibas | June 24, 2008 at 7:21 am |

    At first it was a little weird, as I am used to my Treo 700. Then after a few messages and emails I realized that I had not calibrated the screen, much like the process you go through with PDA’S. After that it has been a breeze, you can choose to type in normal or landscape mode. I find landscape mode the easiest as I am able to hold the phone and type with both thumbs, by the way I have fat thumbs(my wife says I have Shrek fingers) and I have yet to have more than one or two errors on an email. One of the greatest things is that it has Spellcheck which will highlight the word in red and underline it…to sum it up the texting is pretty good!

  8. I’m not familiar with the iPhone enough to make a valued comparison, however, I’m pretty impressed with the Instinct. I’ve had it for five days and can’t put it down.

    Impressed: I like the phones elegant feel, look and touch screen as well as its menus. It’s slim enough to fit into the top pocket of my scrubs without weighing it down heavily. I also like the ployphonic alarms, GPS program, email functions, favorite set-ups and dual ability to transmit media player audio thru 1/4″ headphone jack as well as Bluetooth. The ergonomic (for me) landscape QWERTY touch screen keyboard which took about ten to fifteen texts for me to get used to is tight also. A few modifications could be made but not a major deal. Eg. the L/R, up/down arrows are on a sub screen so if you misspell then it takes two extra actions to correct a misspelling… one touch to get to the arrows and one to get out. Also the next screen button is too close to the backspace button so sometimes when you want to backspace you go to the next screen instead. My workaround for this is to use the illuminated backscreen arrow located below the phones “Sprint” logo and to the right of the illuminated “home” menu button. Its use provides for a faster text correction of you haven’t passed the misspelled word already. Oh, and get used to the screen defaulting to the portrait position after you’ve typed your text and read the confirmation screen to send the text 90 degrees off… I had to. Love the added ability to use the scribble pad option for entering text… but nowhere to park the stylus guys! DUUUUUUUUHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! You don’t reaaaaaly want us to use it… just to show off the fact that you could create it, right? Lot of other cool junk on it. Web browser is sweet

    Distressed: Not too much here, could use a function for locking out photos, email, videos, texts and etc., on a selectable basis rather than just locking the whole phone out. Games/apps… VERY limited in what’s available. Some tv programs (I watch MSNBC and FOX News) video resolution is poor and blocky. History Channel is very good however. One BIGGIE. THEY INCLUDE A DATA CABLE BUT THE BEST USE FOR THIS DISC IS AS A COLD DRINK COASTER!!!!!!!!!

    BIGGIE: VERY DISAPPOINTED WITH THIS FEATURE. MY PREVIOUS PHONE WAS A V3XX AND I’M USED TO TETHERING MY PHONE AND SYNCING/UPLOADING DATA. THE SOFTWARE DISC INCLUDED WITH THE INSTINCT IS NONFUNCTIONAL. POP IT IN AND THE “INSTALL” BUTTON WON’T ENGAGE. SO HOW DO YOU USE THAT TWO FOOT WASTE OF WIRE AND VINYL CALLED A DATA CABLE? LIKE THIS (AND I’VE ONLY BEEN ABLE TO TROULBESHOOT TRANSFERRING MP3 FILES, SO IF ANYONE HAS CREACKED THE CODE FOR TRANSFER OF OTHER TYPES OF DATA… HIT ME UP. I HAVE WIN. XP SP2

    MP3 TRANFER:

    1. CONNECT THE DATA CABLE TO YOUR PHONE AND THE OTHER END TO YOUR COMPUTER. THE COMPUTER SHOULD ASK FOR THE LOCATION OF THE FILES IT CANT FIND. INSERT THE “COLD DRINK COASTER”… THE SOFTWARE CD INCLUDED WITH YOUR PHONE. DIRECT THE FILE SEARCH REQUEST FOR THE FILE NOT FOUND TO THE FOLDER AND MATCHING FILE ON THE DISC. DOUBLE CLICK.
    – CONTINUE THIS PROCESS FOR EACH FILE THE COMPUTER SAYS IT CAN’T FIND.
    2. ONCE FULLY LOADED THE COMPUTER SHOULD POP UP A MESSAGE SAYING THAT THE HARDWARE IS READY TO USE.
    3. IF YOU HAVE MP3 FILES YOU WANT TO TRANSFER TO THE PHONE THEN GO TO “MY COMPUTER” ON YOUR DESKTOP AND OPEN IT > REMOVABLE DISC E > MUSIC > CACHE. MANUALLY COPY YOUR MP3 FILES TO THE CACHE FOLDER. ONCE COMPLETE, CLOSE THE WINDOW AND DISCONNECT THE DATA CABLE.
    4. ON YOUR PHONE OPEN THE MUSIC PLAYER UNDER YOUR “FUN” MENU. YOU SHOULD GET A MESSAGE “SCANNING CARD” AND THEN A SCREEN “MY MUSIC” WITH THE CATEGORIZATION OF MUSIC YOU LOADED.

    5. IF WITHIN 30 DAYS OF BUYING YOUR PHONE THIS PROCESS FRUSTRATES YOU AND SAMSUNG HASN’T UPDATED IT’S SOFTWARE TO EXPEDITE THIS PROCESS AND OTHER DATA TRANSFER ISSUES… YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO…

    RETURN THE PHONE AND PURCHASE AN IPHONE. THEY HAVE 25 DAYS LEFT UNTIL IT’S FIXED.

    AT FIRST I THOUGHT IT WAS THE DISC THAT WAS FAULTY BUT WHEN I GOT A REPLACEMENT DISC AND TRIED IT… NO LUCK.

    So those are my thoughts on the Instinct. If I run across more, I’ll post it.

  9. HALLELUJA!!! And I’m not even a Christian!

    After a little searching around, I found it!!! Go here to get the Instinct’s Media Manager software… The story is complete. Sorry Apple, I love my Instinct!

  10. …oops! Sorry. Try this link instead and then click on

    Samsung Instinct: Sprint Media Manager

  11. Amazing that Best Buy is reporting this is their best selling phone ever — I’m wondering if that includes the Motorola Razr as well? Maybe they were talking about smart phones?

  12. There is a place to store the stylus in the case that comes with your new Instinct!

  13. just unboxed… for Linux users the tether works for at least charging and file sharing, don't know about phone-as-modem functionality as I haven't activated that and won't until I'm out of my 2 year deal for the Merlin (which does work under Linux, but it's a hassle).

    Stylus appears to be an antenna extender, too; and it is stored in the sock-type case. I really like the phone a lot so far. I have an iPod touch and this is definitely comparable. I like the two batteries (hitting right at the iPhone on that one…) and removeable micro SD. iPod/Phones are no use on Linux unless you jailbreak and do all sorts of other stuff; obviously iPhone doesn't work on Sprint, either, though.

    Just wanted to give the Linux perspective. I'd say this is the best iPhone option for a Linux user, and maybe for just about anyone – batteries and removeable media are a big deal to me; apps & iTunes aren't as much.

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