Why Samsung Instinct Sucks
Wired says the Samsung Instinct gives the iPhone a run for its money. I say it’s not even close. Here’s why.
1
No Wi-Fi
Can you believe that? A smartphone with no Wi-Fi! Almost every smartphone out there has Wi-Fi built in. With Instinct's inclusion of 3G and GPS, it's almost inexcusable to not have Wi-Fi. Yes, it may have 3G, but there are many scenarios where Wi-Fi is useful. Such as when you are overseas, the cheapest internet you probably can find is a free Wi-Fi hotspot.
0
2
Internet Browser Sucks
As Gizmodo said, "The Instinct's browser is an ABYSMAL failure of design." Its zooming function is nowhere as sophisticated as iPhone's pinch-zoom, and typing URLs on the Instinct is a pain as it does not popup the characters that you typed.
If you like the phone for its other features, it might make a decent phone. But if you're looking for a good web-browsing experience, we suggest that you look elsewhere.
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In my opinion i love the instinct. i also have a mogul from sprint and i never ever us the wifi i have no real need it does nothing for me. i can agree with u about the web browser. not that good but that doesnt make the phone suck. and beside this phones is not being marketed as a smartphone. so of thats what u looking for get a mogul or a q or a palm or blackberry not a instinct. matter of fact the treo 800w just came out…….
The instinct is horrible. I had one for 20 days and it is an almost total flop of a phone. I say almost because I like the touch reactive feature it has, but the internet browser is horrible. I had to set my sensitivity to the lowest setting to get the links to work. It is slow and freezes constantly. The GPS navigation is great and is undoubtedly the best feature on the phone. If I wanted a Garmin with a 100 dollar a month subscription then the instinct would be great. I sent it back to Sprint today and got the new 3g IPhone. Oh and also I’ve dropped probably 50 calls in the 20 days I’ve had the Instinct. In comparison I might have dropped 5 in the 6 months I had my HTC Touch before the instinct. You don’t have the option of setting it to roaming only like you had with previous phones when you’re in a bad area so the phone is constantly searching for Sprint and dropping calls. Horrible phone, horrible coverage, horrible customer service. See ya Sprint! Your Iphone killer is a complete dud.
I love most of the features on the Instinct, but like everyone else, I’m finding the browser to be one of the worst features ever included on any device. I had the Samsung “Blade” before and its mobile browser worked even better than this one’s, and it was faster. I’m hoping for a software update in the near future. Until then, I have my laptop, so it’s not a deal killer. The Nav is really good, and the visual voicemail system is amazing. I could care less about the speech commands though. I wish they spent the time they used with the speech command on the browser. It’s a good phone with some cool features, but don’t expect to get something that you can go web surfing with. It just plain sucks for that.
I have Recently gotten the Samsung Instinct and i have no complaints whatsoever.The enternet works great on mine,the GPS is to die for and i am in complete love with it except for the fact that you cant have a main background like a picture or something.I am a previous Iphone owner and hated it,the enternet was slow as hell, the camera was shitty quality and i lost calls ALL THE TIME. and i don’t see the fuss with everyone complaining about the enternet on it so much,if you want to surf the web that’s what a damn computer is for,People are so lazy these days they want everything super fast and in their hand and perfect and if it’s not, it sucks.
I agree. Samsung pushed out a very poor product. If they spent about 5% of the money they used for advertising, on the actual phone functions, this phone would have been hot. But, this again proves that executives don’t make good decisions.
I just got the instinct today, so not so good. I love the sprint tv, and gps, but the browser is slow and it sucks. Previously I had the 6800 mogul, great phone I will miss it.
I got the Instinct the day (before) it was released. Yes, I fell for the sprint BS. It starts out as a mediocre phone and gets worse from there. It has a bug that causes the browser to get worse and worse over time. Mine is at the point where I don’t even try to use the browser. Now even the navigation has started to crash. I’m past 30 days, so I am stuck with it now. I phoned to complain about the crashing, and the supervisor I talked to had the nerve to tell me they couldn’t help me as I didn’t buy a protection plan for it and that I should try the manufacture warranty. I’m paying Sprint over 200 bucks a month now, for my family phone plan. Most of the other phones are about to expire on their plan. I think I’ll bite the bullet and pay the 200 bucks cancellation fee when this happens and move us all over the AT&T and say goodbye to sprint forever!!!
i returned this phone the other day. it sucks. the battery sucks. the browser royally sucks. when it works 50% of the time, the internet speed is far from blazing. the gps status bar recalculated to 101% and froze! the gps couldn’t recalculate the route and crashed. sprint tv froze and choppy played every time. basically, the only thing cool about this phone is the rubberized body.
I loved the phone at first as most other probably did, but its like meeting a new girl that you think is smoking hot and cool as shit but the more time you spent with it the more obvious it flas are. The vidio quality it that of a 1950 vacume tube tv, the wi-fi speed seems like it was made for the slowskis turtules and some time swear that its dial up. In my opinon Sprint must of put presure on samsung to manufactur this phone in a timly manner to allow then to compet with at&t and the i-phone. This phone was poorly built and i feel like a sucker for owning one..
We have been an ebay power seller and paypal confirmed seller of wow gold for years.
First and foremost, this is not a smartphone..so if you are looking for a smartphone, look elsewhere..I recommend the Moto Q. And if you get the Q make sure you purchase the GIG CARD for it..Now as for the Instinct. Hands down the best phone sprint has come out with. I don’t understand what people look for when they purchase a phone. What sells this phone is that it is ALL-TOUCH. NOT A INTERNET BROWSER SAVVY! O and don’t get me wrong, the browser is not the greatest ever, it gets the job down. Unlike these idiots I’m not interested in trying to book flights and all that trash on the phone. That’s what a PC is for..IF YOU HAVE INTEREST IN PURCHASING THIS PHONE FOR SOMEONE FOR CHRISTMAS..DO SO! its a great phone..I have been a sprint customer for over 5 years..handsdown best phone Iv’e owned.
This is a joke of a phone. I am returning it today for a HTC Touch Pro.
The navigation is SO CONFUSING on here, and it was supposed to be its best feature. Horrible internet browsing, in fact, the only thing cool about this phone was the fact that it vibrated a little when you scrolled through things and typed, thats it.
FLOP
I am disgusted with my Instinct. Same story as everyone else, I thought I was a badass carrying around a touchscreen phone. Well I’m not. The browser crashes every other session, wont load certain pages, goes unresponsive for 30 seconds then resets back to my contacts page. The battery life is a joke, one minute its half full on green, next minute its flashing red and about to die which doesnt allow any apps to be used, then a minute later the battery is back to green. MAKE UP YOUR GD MIND!! Dont even get me started on the Sprint App store, you would think for seven bucks per app they would have some resources to make it less glitchy. This phone looks cool but thats about it.
If your satisfied with this joke of a phone, you would probably be satisfied with a banana for a phone. ‘enternet’ lolz.
Samsung Instinct gives the iPhone a run for its money
MY SONY ERICSSON W580I CAN BEAT ALL UR CRAPPY ASS PHONES SUCKERS!!!!!!!!!!!
Only two complaints and the phone sucks!?!? I can give you two complaints about the iPhone: no picture mail, no gps. I could go on. I love my Instinct! GPS, Navigation, voice activation, Live Search, picture mail direct to my Facebook/Flickr/Twitpic accounts, downloads voicemail…etc.
I have had the instinct since fairly early in it’s life cycle, like August of 08. I must say it has been fixed a lot. The browser was awful and “Spring TV + Radio” is a complete joke. The software platform is ridiculous, I am personally sickened by this device as much as Sprint Boasts it. I constantly find myself seeing Samsung phones that are far superior than the Instinct since a month after I got it. Nevertheless it was a mere $100 and for what I paid back then I would consider it good enough for what I spent. For $100 you get sleek touch screen phone with (a limited) media player, gps, visual voice mail, and a somewhat decent web browser. It truly is the Kia of Smart/Media phones and doesn’t work with my bluetooth headset. I will trade it in as soon as I can get an upgrade but for now, I can’t complain too much. The browser has gotten better but will never be as interactive as iPhone browser.
Funny how I am commenting from the comfort of my bed even tho I have my gripes on the speed of the browser. Argh! I am in the same boat as Joey tho. I paid $100 and am on a “all u can almost eat family plan” which is fairly reasonable. But what good is the plan if most of what I want to try or sample is slow to serve. The TV chpopping, omg!! Come on sprint eithet shut it off or jst come clean and say that it is going to be this way so I stop hoping and checking to see if its gotten any better.
And for the love of god, please do something about the lock/unlock button being at the top of the phone and the function of it. Too many times I fiddle with it just trying to unlock my phone. A few times I have powered off my phone by holding it a moment too long. Atleast allow one of the side buttons to lock/unlock the phone. Or make it a slide it touch button which woulf really put a smile on face. I know you would want that right?
I am on my third one. The first one I got right after the big release, it has so many problems, I do not even know where to start, the call quality has been so bad that when I called sprint to voice my issues they could not understand what I was saying, I said that is what all my customers tell me, ( that is great for business). Voice mail, NO call waiting here, someone calls, im on the phone, automatically drops the call I am on and goes to incoming call, Once again great for business!!!! You better watch to see if that text message was sent. the send does not activate message to send unuless you hit it a couple times. THE LOCK UNLOCK BUTTON, OOH I NEED HEART MEDICINE TO WORK THIS THING, YES INTERNET IS SLOW GRASS GROWS FASTER. AND SPRINTS REPAIR ANSWER, WELL THEY DONT HAVE ONE!! they sent me out another one and it is a repeat of the first which I smacked one day while it did its famous dropped the call for the incoming call and broke the lcd screen, WHICHI COMPLAINED AGAIN AND NOW I HAVE ANOTHER ONE SITTING HERE, THIS IS IN 6 MONTHS, THERES MORE BUT YOUR TIRED OF MY BITCHING JUST SAY NO TO THE INSTINCT
Stay away from the Sprint Instinct! Sprint TV is worthless. The live TV works assuming there is no action beyond walking on the screen. Try watching the NFL channel when there is real movement and it’s completely pixilated. The prerecorded clips can’t be viewed at all. After about 2 minutes of viewing they become pixilated, or the screen goes completely green. Awful! I have full bars, EVDO towers, the works, and it still sucks. You’re paying for a service you won’t be able to use. Oh, and if that’s not enough, try the crappy speakerphone out. Almost forgot to mention the worthless web browser. Try using websites with mobile versions and you will see how limited it is. Try any of the airline sites. In case I forgot to mention it…this phone sucks.
I love the phone. IMAP mail works perfectly. GPS is amazing. Native browser sucks but the Opera browser is flawless. Instant messaging and Pandora apps, which are both free, act as the cherry on the top. The best part? Free wifi on my Macbook is nice, too. “What’s that,” you ask? PAM, also known as, phone as modem. Look it up.
Is the Instinct perfect? No way. It’s much better than all the haters out there want to let on, however.
so im sitting here wondering did i make a bad choice… well one thing i didnt hear anyone complain bot is the fact u cant scroll up on ur text as ur typing, and, with the auto correct on u can NEVER
correct it on ur own… and what the hell is the problem of saving a simple picture from a message some times it wont save but most the time it just freezes. im on the instinct right now and 4 some
reason im only allowed certain amountof char. thats bs. and!! why cant i listen to more than 45 sec of an audible message… and THEN only record ten seconds!!! u tube videos work well enough, choppy.
and then anything with a flash player i cant watch… says i need to upgrade wtf? and the music store has crappy search. the video only has 2 min of record time, and the sound cuts out half the time.
Oh im still going! the damn fuzzy picture warning is stupid, i dont know how many times i’ve wanted to take a picture at that exait moment n boom that crap pops up. once is fine! i kno the lighting
sucks i know it, maybe if u built in night vision i wouldnt have this problem. =) the vibration crap is just to make u feel good, wastes the battery. and the phone itself is just plastic, feels cheap.
the nicest thing aaout this phone is the navigation, hell i arready have one, so… that about does itfor me, i dont kno how any times i can the back bton and keep from kiiling someonell i take it bak
oh and just for the ske of ranting i have NOT found one sjngle app or game that will work on this stupid piece of crap. not one. Oh well just go to the sprint store, cant says communication error.arrg
OH! AND MY FAVORITE!!! the mofokn game, wsop poker? the demo that comes with the phone? when?i try to buy it… says not supported by this phone… hahaha i loooooove it. no really i hate it. goodbye.
and thirty dollars for a car charger oh come on guys now ur just breakin balls. the voice cosmands ark ok i guess… if u set it up right fist time. thats it goodbye. im takin it bak this saturday.
I HATE THIS PHONE. DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY.
I made a mistake and purchased 3 of these phones. Seems like one of them would have worked. DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY OR TIME.
This phone sucks. I purchased 3 of them and they are all 3 the same. Slow…only work when they feel like it….freeze up all the time…errors always popping up….disconnects. I am stuck with spending my weekends at the sprint store to get it working again only to have it break again within a couple of days.
the samsung instinct isnt a smartphone
Had this phone for a year, and hated every damn minute of owning it. Screw Sprint and screw Samsung for making such a piece of crap “iPhone Killer” that doesn’t even come close to that holy grail of app goodness. I too bit the bullet and cancelled my contract early. I had been with Sprint for seven years, and it was sad that it had to end on a sour note. Meh… Lovin’ my iPhone 3GS now
Idiots… this phone does what it is supposed to do very well. It’s a multimedia phone that also does GPS. Sprint TV does suck, but I can guarantee you my phone is better than yours… why? Because I pay a whopping $25.60/mo for my unlimited service, what do you Apple fan-boys pay? I’ve tested it, and the 3g speeds in Atlanta are faster with Sprint. Even if the tv service sucks, at least I have it without paying extra. I’m perfectly capable of installing any j2me app I want… because I’m not an inept Apple user. Did I mention I paid a whopping -$10 for my phone? Yeah, I was paid to own this phone. Yeah, the screen is nicer on the iPhone… but since I’m saving a total of $1,140 on my service over the next two years I went ahead and bought a 52″ 1080p 120hz tv. When I’m out and about 240 x 320 Futurama is perfectly entertaining… 480 x 320 is nice, but if I was really concerned about that I’d just buy an HTC Touch Pro 2, 480 x 800, and I’d still save hundreds over switching to AT&T. Wifi? Please, I have Wifi/WiMAX on my netbook… and I don’t transfer files between my PC and phone often enough to warrant the extra battery drain on a phone with wifi. My only complaint with this phone was Sprint gimping the bluetooth functionality to reduce usage of the Sprint radio/tv. You can make fun of my phone for that, because that is ridiculous… why can’t I stream stereo bluetooth audio while watching movies, or listening to the radio? It’s not because the phone isn’t capable of doing it… thanks for that Sprint.
on an instinct for the first time right now and am totally not impeessed. to type it takes you out of the browser. the touch recognition sucks and theres no gestures to browse. it sucks bigtime!!!
Hmmm…let me start, the only reason I would keep the instinct is the PAM function, and the opera browser is decent(better than the one that comes with it). But the worst thing is not being able to control your phones features and functions. My main thing is incoming txt. You can’t stop them from showing up, and only put in background as notification. You can be typing and next thing u know you are hitting the reply button and don’t be on any websites where u can blog, email etc because you’ll lose all you typed before submitting. When a voicemail comes it locks up terribly. They should’ve made the answer button for calls like the end call and the mute button as well, I hate being on the phone and wondering why no one is responding to what you’ve just said. The phone is straight but needs alot of work and the S30 well, another topic, I wish they incorporated the A900’s functions in the instinct.
I hate this phone. My touchscreen is totally screwed up. I can’t text anymore and oh yes, dial the number 7. I have a 7 in my SS number, so I can’t check any of my account balances on the phone anymore. My employee ID has a 7 in it, so I can’t call into my company’s travel center to book travel. If I hit the space bar, it types the letters above it. I try tapping below the space and still get letters. This thing sucks and I hate it. Sprint told me when I emailed them that there were no complaints about this phone. From what I see above, that is untrue.
1) Bad touch screen hit detection. Calibration tool is useless.
2) Horrendous calendar. Laughably bad calendar. The-developer-who-coded-the-calendar-ought-to-be-fired bad calendar. Want a reason? How about a maximum of 60 entries, the inability to set an event to repeat on a regular basis even though it allows you to specify this, a 32 character limit on event information, a bug that causes events to be set for the day following the one you specify, and a time consuming “cool” wheel-based method for setting the time.
3) Terrible web browser that does not respond to clicking on hyperlinks. Chances are the thing will zoom in and out for no reason when clicked than activate the link.
4) Terrible web broweser that does not go to links! If you manage to click on a link you run a big possibility of getting the Instinct’s famous “Link Expired” error.
5) Missed calls and texts give one reminder and that’s it.
6) Flakey alarm that will ring hours off for no reason whatsoever.
7) Freezes, stalls, and hangs for no good reason.
9) Can’t hang up by putting the phone in standby.
10) Unpredictable keypad: will it show up in portrait or landscape? What buttons will be available? No one knows until it appears.
this phone sucks! noone buy it, same withe the motorola rival, it sucks too
bought both!
Yeah instinct has it’s failures, lockups and pop ups. Could’ve been way better. But I do have one thing to ask if anyone knows this, how in the world, or is there a way to stop text messages from popping up, I mean, jeez not only I don’t want someone to be using my phone and someone decides to send me a XXX text, but also I can be texting, emailing a long email or whatever and it’ll pop up and I’ll hit it and everything I typed before other than a previous text is gone, and you can’t just simply hit back to go back to what you were doing, that has to be an issue with most users cause that sucks so bad.
EPIC FAIL… SUCKS SOOO BAD…. THANK GOD ITS DISCONTINUED.
FEEL LIKE KILLING MY DAD FOR BUYING IT…. WANT SOMETHING ELSE…. BLACKBERRY CURVE ROCKS…. BUY IT INSTEAD
I hate the instinct. Worst buy in a phone I have ever done. The touch screen is horrid and the internet is terrible. I am very eagerly looking forward to the HTC EVO. The EVO looks awesome! Forget the phone using wi-fi… it is going to be a wi-fi hot spot! So cool! Can’t wait for summer to get here so I can ditch this piece of junk instinct.
Pretty much in line with everyone. Native browser sucks, limited to only 200 characters if I use opera mini and don’t even get me started on the speaker/headphone volume. Ever try Pandora?
I Have had the Instinct for 2 years in those 2 years I have sent it back 10 times they have neither fixed the problem or replaced it. The problems include Typing on its own, Not charging, Pushing its own buttons, Forwarding random texts to other contacts. I am stuck with this phone for 2 more months and will never buy Samsung again.