Samsung Instinct HD cell phone, specs, user reviews, images, user manual, and more...

The Samsung Instinct HD continues to improve the successful line of Instinct products Samsung has produced. The updated model added a 5MP camera with auto-focus, high res display, and lots of HD functions including video out to TV and video capture. Other key features include Wi-Fi, data tethering, capacitive touchscreen and 3.5mm headphone jack.

Overview

What's Good: Nice design, complete with HD video-out for digital media fans.

What's Bad: Some lag when browsing, erratic reception at times, and mediocre battery life. HDMI cable (to view HD videos on TV) isn't included; costs $30.

Introduction

Following the popular line of Instinct devices, Samsung has taken the brand to a new level with the Instinct HD. The device has grown up, offering new features such as a 5.0-megapixel camera, support for HD video-out, EVDO Rev. A, and Wi-Fi. The design has changed as well, offering a more rounded body as opposed to the standard rectangular form factor. The challenge is the launch price of $250; with numerous Sprint devices such as the HTC Hero, Palm Pre, and BlackBerry Tour coming in at lower price points, is the Instinct HD in a category in which it can't compete?

Design & Features

Offering what seems to be the popular form factor of the season, the Instinct HD is a touchscreen candybar phone, offering a nice silver trim with black tones and a matte back. More importantly, the neutral color scheme of the device broadens the appeal to more than one demographic. Just like I could see this device in the hands of a twittering teenager, I could also see it in the boardroom. Coming in at 4.6 inches long by 2.3 inches wide by 0.5 inch thick, the Instinct HD weighs 4.01 ounces, making it just lighter than the average smartphone. The 3.2-inch LCD display supports 16.7 million colors and offers 320 x 480 pixels. The display was impressive; text was easy to read, and pictures were bright, full of color, and crisp. The screen also seemed to be near-perfect in regards to size; large enough to be legible, but small enough for the pocket.

The left side of the Instinct HD sports the volume rocker and a voice dialing shortcut key, while the right side contains the microUSB charging port, HD video-out port, and a camera key. The front of the device houses three touchscreen buttons, which light up and can be pressed when the option is available: back, home, and phone keys. The camera lens, flash, portrait mirror, and external speaker can be found on the back. On the top left hand corner of the phone, a status light keeps the user informed of missed alerts and charging status, and on the very top of the device, a 3.5mm headphone jack can be found.

Samsung Instinct HD

Though the Instinct HD doesn't ship with all of the goodies that the original Instinct did, Samsung was relatively generous, offering a home charger, 4 GB microSD card, microSD card adapter, USB cable, earbuds, and instruction manuals.

Usability & Performance

Instead of the OneClick user interface that Sprint has become known for, the Instinct HD offers a proprietary Samsung option. Overall, the interface was easy to use, and offered a reasonable level of customization. At the bottom of the display are five icons: Favs, Main, Fun, My Stuff, and Web. The Favs menu is completely user-customizable, while Main houses e-mail, IM, messaging, navigation, and PIM options; Fun offers media and camera options; MyStuff offers personalized content such as ringers, screen savers, and the like; and besides the obvious, Web offers shortcuts to CNN, Bloomberg, Fandango, and My Account. When pressing the phone button, five new menu options appear: Speed Dial, Contacts, Recent, Voicemail (Visual), and Dialer. Like most Sprint devices, the Instinct HD offers Sprint TV, Sprint Radio, and Sprint Navigation as a part of the package. Thanks to EVDO Rev. A, Sprint's included services were a pleasure to use, with little to no choppiness or lag.

The device offers a resistive screen with haptic feedback, and while it was a positive experience for the most part, we did experience some lag when browsing the web and long lists. If you're used to a capacitive touchscreen (Apple iPhone, BlackBerry Storm, etc.), you'll notice a difference. In regards to input methods, the Instinct HD offers an on-screen QWERTY keyboard. While the keys themselves are of a reasonable size, Samsung's strange portrait keyboard threw us off. Instead of a traditional portrait QWERTY keyboard, it is arranged in an ABCDEF format, completely throwing off the way that most of the world is familiar with when it comes to typing. Though the landscape keyboard is a traditional QWERTY one, we couldn't quite get over the portrait keyboard's design. It's something that we never became accustomed to; even after moderate use, we almost always had to resort to the landscape keyboard.

The Instinct HD ships with a 5.0 megapixel camera, and in our testing, image quality was fantastic. The phone offers numerous customization options, including a self-timer, four different resolutions, seven different color tones, four different ISO selections, seven scene modes, and four shooting modes. The camcorder is very good as well; it can shoot in VGA, QVGA, and HD (720p). Videos can be viewed on the device, but in order to get them onto an HDTV, you'll need an HDMI cable, which is not included and costs $30 at Sprint.

We tested the Instinct HD in the Charlotte area, and reception was somewhat erratic. Available bars of service would jump significantly despite the phone remaining in the same spot, and call quality seemed to be impacted as well. Callers would say that we sounded great, and when the Instinct HD moved to one bar or less, they would reference a bit of choppiness. On our end, calls were mostly decent. When testing the device in a known fringe area with no bars of service, the device was so choppy that we couldn't understand the call. Speakerphone, on the other hand, was clear and quite usable; we tested the device in a busy coffee shop, and we could hear our callers well. Though there was reported background noise, callers told us that they could understand most of our discussion. We were also able to successfully pair the Plantronics Voyager Pro to the device. With EVDO Rev. A, data speeds were very impressive. Internet browsing was quick and painless, and other data-intensive tasks such as Sprint Navigation performed well throughout our testing.

Estimated talk time is 5.8 hours, and in our testing, battery life was mediocre. With moderate use encompassing experimenting with the device for several hours, clicking through menus, and the like, we were able to make it just over one day before the device powered down. With little to no use, the device lasted just over three days. Granted, these numbers will vary with usage, but overall, the battery life isn't as great as others in its class.

Conclusion

Regardless of whether it was intentional or not, the Instinct HD is targeted for a select group of individuals. Digital media fans? The Instinct HD is for you. Road warriors and those that e-mail or text message on a consistent basis? Probably not, due to the strange reception and mediocre battery life. Be sure to check it out prior to purchasing, though at $250 after various rebates, you'll probably find a better equipped smartphone for a similar price - and thanks to Sprint's "Everything Data" plans, you're not paying additional monthly fees to do so.

Write your own Samsung Instinct HD review

Pretty Nice

Overall Rating:

4.3 out of 5

By: scottie s on Wednesday, August 05, 2009
From: newburgh, NY (United States)
Experience: 6 Months

Pros: pretty good toch screen it wont piss u off like the glyde or the voyager...and even if it is botherin u u can always higher then sensativity of course its not as glamourous as the iphone but its still a nice durabile phone from sprint

Cons: not sure if i have any unleess ur really picky

Summary: very durable phone ive dropped it off numerous stairs and my friend had ran it ovr with a skateboard...and it didnt dent nor crack nor even smudge the screen i like this phone very much as i had said ^^^^^

Great Phone

Overall Rating:

5 out of 5

By: Warren Whyte on Wednesday, July 29, 2009
From: Miami, FL (United States)
Experience: 9 Months

Pros: Live Search, Navigation, Visual Voicemail, Stereo Bluetooth, Favorites Tab, Opera Mini

Cons: No Flash on Camera, Instinct Web Browser

Summary: I have had the phone for 9 months and I like it. Yes I know its not an iPhone killer but I wanted the best service for the best price which was Sprint. The features on the phone are great. The features I use the most are the stereo Bluetooth which I can play music on most of the day and not worry about battery. I usually kill my Bluetooth headset battery before the Instinct hits 70% battery. The other feature I really like is Live Search. This is the first phone I have owned with the Live Search feature and I love it. When you open up the application you can say or type in what you are looking for and it looks up all the information for you quickly. Example: I Live Search McDonalds...It pulls up the nearest McDonalds to my current location and displays the address and phone number to the location. If I push the phone number it calls the McDonalds. It also can open up the Navigation application and get me directions with one click. I can also get a map of the location or turn by turn directions. I can also share this information if I wanted. It saves time in searching for locations, getting directions or even looking up phone numbers. I have had family members ask me to look up places online and I use the phone because it is honestly faster to just say the name of the location and get all the information in a few seconds.

While I do love the phone I would be lying if I said the phone was perfect. The Instinct web browser sucks and you can read that anywhere on the internet...everyone agrees, but you can install Opera Mini and it does work a whole lot better. As for the camera...it is an ok camera. You need good lighting because there is no flash and a steady hand because sometimes the pictures blur.

Overall I like my phone and I just hate when people review it and say "Its not and iPhone" If you want an iPhone then buy an iPhone.

PS. the phone comes with a stylus but no place to put it on the phone, but I never used the stylus

JUST HYPE!!!

Overall Rating:

2.8 out of 5

By: breezzy blam on Monday, May 25, 2009
From: Brooklyn, NY (United States)
Experience: 7 Months

Pros: none...but the looks

Cons: everthing!

Summary: i had this phone for a while , when i first got i was hype. and thats all it is "hype". the phone didnt even work properly...since i got it it been given me problems i been thru 4 since november already.....thinkin bout gettin a G1(android)???

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful

Disappointing... hardly an 'internet phone'

Overall Rating:

2.5 out of 5

By: D P on Monday, May 18, 2009
From: West Covina, CA (United States)
Experience: 7 Days

Pros: Horizontal texting, navigation, haptic feedback, streaming TV/music

Cons: Near-worthless internet, no calendar sync, minimal apps development

Summary: This is more of a messaging phone than a multimedia "iPhone killer" as it has been widely advertised in the "Instinct vs. iPhone" commercials. After 1 week of use with this phone, I gladly paid the $150 cancellation fee to get out of Sprint and defect to an iPhone. The navigation and haptic feedback are very nice. The internet capabilities are a joke - you are left with the mobile versions of websites, or it can't load them at all. This phone struggles on the internet - period. There is no app-store to speak of, aside from additional paid channels for streaming services. This phone is no 'iPhone killer' - it shouldn't even be compared with the iPhone, and it was suicide on Sprint's part to advertise it as such. I hear the new version of the Instinct will include a better Opera browser and sync-able calendar.. nothing to make me go back to Sprint anytime soon...

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful

I own one. Best phone ever! Tops all!

Overall Rating:

5 out of 5

By: Joey Allard on Tuesday, April 07, 2009
From: Nashua, NH (United States)
Experience: 7 Months

Pros: I love this phone! It has very good response. You can adjust the sensitivity for the screen and calibrate it. Texting and typing is sooo fast. Really good conection. When my friends dont get service, i get it crystal clear. Sprint has the best and cheepest plans. I haven't had a single dropped call and i had this phone for about 7 months. It has several neat options that you can toggle on or off. This phone is very durable. It fell out of my poket millions of times and it doesn't have a scratch

Cons: The camera could have been a little better with maybe 3 instead of 2 mega pixels. It will rarely lag or freeze a little bit. Since it is a fairly new phone and design, some games or apps are not compatible but there is still a large selection.

Summary: Very fast and durable. A very customizable phone but they should make more accesories for it. Plans are the best and cheepest. Still pretty much the best phone out. It is very competitvely priced. Recomend this to almost anyone!

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful

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