This entry was posted on Thursday, May 6th, 2010 at 8:41 am and is filed under Samsung. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Samsung Instinct
The Apple iPhone made a groundbreaking scene in the mobile phone industry that manufacturers have started coming up with new models to match up the iPhone’s capabilities. One notable phone is the Samsung Instinct, which at first glance looks almost the same to its competitor, with some feature distinctions. It incorporated visual voice mail, 3G network compatibility, integrated GPS, and work e-mail support and a number of other features.
As the Instinct is identical with the iPhone, it did incorporate a very eye-catching design although originality is a point of debate. This candy-bar mobile phone measures a dimension of 4.57 x 2.17 x 0.49 inches and weighs 4.4 ounces, portable and comfortable to keep in the pocket. Its simple black and silver design made it looked sophisticated. The Instinct is dominated by its 262,000 colors and 432,240-pixel resolution, 3.250-inch touch screen, showcasing an impressive display of colors, graphics and texts. Users can adjust the brightness and the backlighting however the menu is unalterable. The menu interface features a set of icons at the bottom of the display: Favorites, Main, Fun, and Web, which are attractive and very easy to use, all of which are represented by illuminated icons.
The Main menu offers the messaging, organizer, and GPS; the Fun menu for games, multimedia options, and camera; and the Web menu for browser shortcuts. These features are easily navigable through the intuitive touch interface. Users can also adjust the display calibration and its touch sensitivity.
Of course, aside from the touch screen, the Instinct still includes other keys: a back button, a home key, and a calling control, and an alphabetic keyboard, which is easy to type with the thumbs, thanks to its landscape mode. Aside from the keyboard, users can enter via the graffiti method, with the stylus. The only problem is that unlike the iPhone, Instinct doesn’t include a slot for stylus so it is a hassle.
The camera shutter, voice activation control and microSD card slot are located on the left side of the Instinct while a power/display locking control and a 3.5mm headset jack are on the top. The left spine houses the charger port and the volume rocker rest on the left spine while the the camera lens and the self-portrait mirror are on the back side. Phone features are relatively superb in the Instinct. The phonebook can hold 600 contacts. It also included visual voice mail and text and multimedia messaging. Productivity tools include a calendar, a notepad, a calculator, a unit converter, a tip calculator, an alarm clock, a timer, a stopwatch, and a world clock.
Connectivity options include Bluetooth with a stereo profile, GPS phone as modem supports, audible caller ID, a speakerphone, mobile syncing for stored contacts, and USB storage, although it lacked Wi-FI connectivity. It doesn’t include instant messaging, which may consider as a disappointment. On the other hand, the e-mail features are at best, with its support for POP3 accounts for AOL, AIM, Hotmail, Yahoo, and Gmail and connecting to e-mail is easy with Outlook Web Access. It has the Instinct’s Web browser which is commendable enough, but it lacks the support for Flash and some users have aired disappointments because the texts appeared a little cramped. Instinct also offers dedicated channels for weather, sports, news, and movies.
The GPS in Instinct is a big help in acquiring traffic information especially that the touch screen has made panning through the 3D maps way easier and quicker than on the Web browser. Instinct’s support for Sprint’s 3G services allows users to connect to Sprint’s Power Vision and Sprint TV, which include channels such as CNN, E!, MTV Mobile, Discovery Mobile, ESPN, Logo Mobile, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon. Multimedia support in the Instinct includes the music player that can play MP3, AAC, AAC+ and WMA formats, and the 2.0-megapixel camera which features very limited options, but still produces usable images.