In my previous post I spoke about the wonders of Sprints new Instinct. And don't get me wrong it is a great phone.. But the luster quickly wore off.. Why? Well like all non "Apple" product it didn't "just work".  Now I'm not going to bash Sprint or Samsung. They tried really hard, they gave it a valiant effort.  But in the end things just stopped working and Sprint was unable (in my case) to fix them.. The issues I had were as follows.

• Exchange integration never worked
• Contact Sync stopped working when my number was ported and they couldn't fix it (at least not by the time I cancelled the service.
• Browser got worse the more I tried to like it.. (I really wanted to like it, but it just couldn't hold up to the iphone).
• Tethering was techically possible but a Billing problem made it not work.. Tethering was almost worth keeping the phone, but Sprint CS said it was not likely to get fixed in the near future (something to do with the new Packaging).
• Sound quality wasn't that great. It wasn't that bad; but its no good and the speakerphone was all but useless.
• Customer service is lacking.. Sprint trys to be nice, but there customer service team is all but useless. They are very nice about being useless, but still useless non the less.

In the end I waited inline for a 3g iphone.. And let me tell you.. 3g + everything else an iPhone does + everything "just works" and, ya its just a winning combination.

So given that the 3G iPhone is just around the corner and Sprint has a 30 day cancellation policy on their accounts; I decided it would be fun to play "phone evaluator" for a few weeks while I waited for the 3g iPhone. So went down to the sprint store and got myself a Samsung Instinct. Now I have had an iPhone since June 30th 2007 and it is a great device.. Below is a breakdown of how the two devices compare. Now for the most part these two devices are very similar in functionality and design.. So I'll just breakdown who has what vs. the other; And how similar features compare. Also, assume 3g Iphone here or atleast iphone 2.0.

 iPhone:

• Actual Exchange integration with ActiveSync for Email, Calander and Contacts.
  
• View PDF and Word Docs
• iTunes Music Store
• iTunes App Store
• MultiTouch Interface
• 3G network

Instinct

• MMS
• Exchange support (email only)
• Turn by Turn navigation
• Live TV
• Internat Radio
• Sprint Music store
• Location based Services with Voice Command
• Location based movie search
• Voice Command
• Voice Dialing
  
• EVDO network
• Extra apps like News & Sports
• Hyptic feedback (the phone kinda feels like you are pressing a button when you press something because it buzzes on press and when you let go)
• Tethering (ok its not on the phone yet.. but technicly it supports it and Sprint is working on fixing the "Simply Everything" plan so they can fit in Tethering as an addon.)
• Messaging is included in your plan.. SMS isn't an add on Yah!
• MicroSD slot with support for HDSD (or atleast up to 8 gig)
• Cheaper: $129 with 2 gig card.
• Removable Batteries and the phone comes with 2 batteries AND an external charger (so charge in phone, and keep the spare charged too!)

Overlapping features and Whos is better.

• Webbrowser: Now Sprint and Samsung gave it the old college try, but without multi-touch they just don't have the same elegent easy to use experience that iphone users (like myself) enjoy all the time.. But its not bad.. I would say a solid 2nd place for those I've used.. Oh ya, and the Samsung browser doesn't seem to support aJax.. Some javascript, yes.. but not Ajax for some reason.. 
• Mail: Again the iPhone can leverage its webbrowser so its got html mail and it looks and works flawlessly
• Virtual Keyboard: Again the iPhone wins.. Samsung trys but with the smaller screen they can't fit a qwerty keyboard in portrait mode. Instead you can have one in landscape or you can use an alphabetical keyboard OR a stylest input in portrait mode.
• Touchscreen: Again (I'm sounding like a broken record) iPhones multi-touch screen is just more responsive.. I find my self pressing things 2 or three times on occation..
  
• Volocity style Scrolling (zoom your finger and the list zooms): Guess what.. iPhone wins again.. The biggest problem with the  Instinct is that it keeps miss selecting stuff after I try to scroll... the iPhone is just smarter about this
• Full size headphone jack with mic/answer button support: I was so happy to see this, but a SUPER simple feature was left out of the Instinct that makes the iPhone better. You can't use the mic button on the  headphones to skip songs or pause media play! Ya ya, its SOO simple but man that is one of my favorite iPhone features.. I have a set of headphones for my iPhone with just 1 earbud (cut the other one off) so I can cycle with it.. And having that button to change tracks is great.. Especially when I need a little more out of my music because I'm on a tough hill!
• Development enviroments: I'm not going to choose a winner here. The iPhone has Apple impossed limitations and the $99/year app distro costs; and you can only code on a Mac.. Instinct is a Java based platform and it doesn't look to limit too much (haven't dug that deep), but you'll be lucky if you have 1/10 the audiance of an apple app.. 

So in the end who wins.. Well the funny thing is as much as the iPhone beats the Instinct on every overlapping feature. None of them (for me) are deal breakers.. Its all the extras (like the tightly integrated location services or voice dialing & voice commands) that make a winner out of the Instinct.. Ya you heard it here first, I like the Instinct MORE than I like my iPhone.. Now I have about 20 days to continue testing and decided if in fact my initial opinions hold thru till the release of the 3g iPhone.... But at the moment, I think Sprint has a winner (all be it probably under appriciated) in the Instinct.

 

After some OLED display supply issues and a few setbacks, it looks like Lebedev and company have finally settled on a launch date and price for the king of keyboard, the Optimus Maximus.

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