Sprint Instinct - Samsung M800

I've been a Sprint customer since 1997. This is when they opened the first Sprint PCS store in Newington CT.

In the time that has elapsed since then, I've had .. well, let me count... 5 different cell phones from Sprint. Yeah, that averages more than 2 year per phone. I'm good that way!

The latest phone I'm using is the Samsung M800 (aka: the Instinct). If you're not familiar with it or what it looks like, think of it as a slightly smaller iPhone - however, with a little more functionality. I love the phone. I've had it for 8 months now, and I still find a new feature every once in a while.

Here's what I like about it:
* the touch screen interface
* GPS & navigation feature
* visual voice mail
* Text message conversations are kept as a threads
* doubles as a media device for music and video.

Now.. what I don't like about it.
* touch screen slows me down sometimes when I'm typing. My last phone was a PPC-6700 and I could type much faster on that.
* Speaker phone tends to clip the begining and end of your spoken phrases. So, the result is the caller constantly asking you to repeat yourself if you're using the speaker function.
* No speach-to-text or voice dial. This seemed odd that such a powerful phone would not have these features because one of my previous Samsung phones the A900, has both these features. Oh well, I'm sure it was a cost thing (it always is).

Now, I'll agree it may be a little late for me to be blogging a review about the Samsung M800 since it's pretty much yesterday's phone. But, there are still new ones available and Sprint has really dropped the price on them.

Bottom line, if you like a PDA phone that is more fun and entertainment oriented I would highly recommend. On the otherhand, if you're more business-than-pleasure, then there are better phones out there for you.

I think I'm qualified to say this because right before I got the Instinct, my previous phone was a PPC-6700 which was a very powerful business type PDA phone. I find there are serveral things I used to do that I just either can't do or can't do very well with the Instinct. But, that's not a bash on the Instinct, I just accept it for what it is - a very cool, slick iPhone type device.

PS: you're not supposed to use the phone in Phone-as-modem mode, but a friend told me it's blazingly fast! I might post what my friend has to say about that later ;-)