Jun 21 2008
Sprint-bound sales pros: give the Instinct a look-see
If you are tied to the Sprint mobile network in the US, either by contract or by some weirdly unexplainable emotional bond, and you have iPhone envy bad, then you owe it to yourself to look at Samsung’s new Instinct, released this week at a bargain price of US$129.99 with a 2-year contract and a US$100 mail-in rebate - or get some professional counseling, although that’s probably more expensive. (Just think of the phone as a form of therapy, and save some money.)
Though it’s not quite the “iPhone killer” it was originally touted to be, the Instinct is a darned nice unit, with some useful features for sales pros, including:
- Touch-screen interface — although it’s not multi-touch like the Apple iPhone, and therefore, less cool, it definitely is easy to operate — just point and touch the screen
- Real-time GPS navigation and routing - Unlike the iPhone 3G, the Instinct includes spoken and graphical real-time, turn-by-turn driving directions, and location searches direct from the handset
- Tons of e-mail connectivity options - synchronize mail delivery to your handset from AOL, Yahoo!, Gmail, MSN/Windows Live Hotmail, Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes Domino
- SMS Text Messaging - an absolute requirement for sales teams
- Web browsing - although it’s theoretically not as fast as the new iPhone 3G, it’s definitely faster than the old AT&T EDGE network, which makes the Instinct fast enough for most web search tasks
- 2.0 megapixel camera and video camcorder - ever need to record that flip-chart or whiteboard after a sales meeting? Just snap a picture or a quick video with this high resolution camera. (Also, the iPhone doesn’t record video - I’m just sayin’…)
- Speakerphone - but you probably won’t use it much, because it is…
- Bluetooth® enabled - Including Stereo BT profile, another feature also not available on the iPhone
- Bluetooth spoken caller ID - When connected to a Bluetooth device, caller information for incoming calls is spoken through the Bluetooth device, so you don’t have to look at the handset display
- MicroSD Memory - a 2 gigabyte card is included, and can be upgraded to 8GB
You can play music, either downloaded or streaming from the Sprint Music Store, or watch a selection of live TV from the Sprint TV network — both are more limited than the Apple iTunes options, but it’s better than nothing. And besides, this is a working phone for busy salespeople, right?
Sprint requires purchase of either their “Everything” or “Talk/Message/Data Share” plans, which include domestic voice, e-mail, texting, and GPS navigation services, in order to use the Instinct. Those plans start at US$50 per month.
UPDATE: CrunchGear provides a very balanced review of the Instinct — on the whole, it’s good, although the browser does not compare to the iPhone.
UPDATE: Users report data problems on the new Instinct
UPDATE: How would you change the Samsung Instinct?
UPDATE: Instinct gets firmware update, another one coming soon
