Good The Samsung Instinct M800 was part of the first wave of last year's iPhone knockoffs. But unlike most clones, the Instinct was actually quite good, and ended up being one of Sprint's best-selling phones ever. This time around, Samsung infused the new Instinct s30 SPH-M810 with a number of upgrades, including a more responsive touch panel, a thinner and more streamlined design with Cobalt Metal and Touch of Copper color options, and an Opera Mini 4.2 browser upgrade (actually added midway through the first version's product cycle). Individually, these changes aren't enough to compel original Instinct owners to upgrade. But they add up to a decent refresh; combined with a lower price ($99 with two-year contract and after rebate), the Instinct s30 is a solid choice for Sprint subscribers—that is, if the Palm Pre doesn't tempt them first.
Compared with the original, the new Instinct s30 is a bit lighter (3.9 ounces versus 4.2 ounces). It's also thinner, at 2.2 by 4.6 by 0.5 inches (HWD). The design is rounder and sleeker than before, and it's now even closer to the iPhone's look. The sides contain Power, Camera, Voice Control, and Volume buttons. There's also a side-mounted microSD card slot, a standard-size 3.5mm headphone jack, and a covered proprietary charger port.
Unlike most of Sprint's recent handsets, this is a dual-band (850/1,900 MHz) EV-DO Rev 0 phone—not the faster Rev A. It also still lacks Wi-Fi support—a disappointment. In a rural area northwest of Boston, I had some trouble with reception. Whereas a nearby Sprint BlackBerry Pearl 8130 stayed solidly in EV-DO mode with two bars, the Instinct often displayed just one bar, which likewise showed in some test voice calls. On occasion, calls broke up and sounded a little spotty throughout. (The 8130 never had this problem.) Wind resistance, on the other hand, was good, with the other party never noticing a moderate breeze on my side. Voice timbre in both directions was a tad harsh compared with the 8130, but not terrible.
The s30 paired automatically and sounded fine with a Plantronics Voyager Pro Bluetooth headset. The speakerphone had just enough gain for outdoor use, as long as there wasn't a ton of background noise. The Speech to Action button lets you control the s30 with your voice; the handset also supports visual voice mail and voice dialing, and there's no training required. The removable battery lasted 4 hours 18 minutes, about average for a slim CDMA phone.
The 3.2-inch, 240-by-432-pixel touch screen has a lower resolution than the iPhone's—and looks it, with drab icons and blocky menu graphics. But Samsung wasn't joking about the touch-screen upgrade: It's a tenth of an inch larger and considerably more responsive than before, and feels about as precise as the iPhone's capacitive touch panel. The subtle, pleasant haptic feedback (vibration as you touch the screen) can be disabled if you don't like the effect.
The software design, however, needs work. For example, the phone opens to a favorites page rather a menu of icons. That's good if you like to custom-configure things but annoying otherwise. What's more, when you tap the dial button, it defaults to a speed-dial list instead of the dial pad. So it takes a few clicks to get around, and the favorites page and speed-dial lists are rather unattractive looking, as well.
Technically, the s30 still isn't a smartphone, since it's not equipped with an open OS for running thousands of third-party apps, as can the iPhone OS, Windows Mobile, and the Palm Pre (once it begins getting third-party apps in earnest). But Samsung is blurring the line by giving programmers access to core Java APIs and other handset features. That makes the handset more "open" than before, and Samsung is bringing these changes to the original Instinct as well. The effects of this on the third-party app market, however, remain to be seen. There's still no Mac support or ability to sync calendars or notes to a PC.
Browsing the Web is better than before owing to the Opera Mini 4.2 browser, which is always pleasant to use. Combined with the expansive touch screen, it's a decent package on paper. But in operation it still felt somewhat clunky with its lower-resolution screen, lack of two-finger pinch zoom, sometimes unexpected sluggishness given the slower 3G radio, and the blocky UI elements surrounding the browser window. In addition, Sprint finally added an IM client (with Sprint's usual AIM, Yahoo, and MSN support)—a curious omission on the original, given how many other Sprint handsets come with one. Many of the s30's other features carry over from the original Instinct.
The s30 won't leave you wanting for media options. Music playback sounded clear but tinny through the included set of Samsung earbuds, and unusually bassy and muffled over a normally bright-sounding pair of Motorola MotoROKR S9-HD Bluetooth headphones. The built-in speaker was loud enough but sounded too thin to play music through. Album art blew up to a nice size on the screen, but the player app chopped off the edges of some album covers. A variety of sideloaded video files played back well at a smooth frame rate, but the LCD's flat colors made it difficult to discern details in dark scenes. In addition, you have to store them in a folder called MEDIA or the Instinct doesn't see them. The s30 plays games well, and it supports streamed Sprint TV, NASCAR and NFL video, and voice-enabled, TeleNav-powered GPS navigation—all of which are standard with Sprint's Simply Everything plan.
The 2-megapixel camera is unchanged. There's no LED flash or autofocus feature, and you still can't adjust the resolution, ISO, or other settings. Even so, the s30 takes nicely detailed pictures with even, balanced lighting. None of my test photos immediately screamed "camera phone" when I opened them on a nearby iMac. Indoors or out, the s30 did well, although color was a little flat and lifeless regardless of the setting. Recorded 320-by-240 videos were relatively smooth and usable as well. The s30 also automatically detected my 8GB SanDisk microSD card and saved photos and videos to it, which is a nice touch.
Sprint's Instinct s30 SPH-M810 occupies a unique place in the company's lineup: It has more power than most feature phones, but it's not really a smartphone. The Palm Pre is our Editors' Choice Sprint smartphone due to its stunning touch-screen UI, powerful messaging, and slide-out QWERTY keyboard. But the s30 has longer battery life, less weight, a thinner design, and a lower price in its favor. You could also go with the $199 HTC Touch Diamond, which has a much higher screen resolution and most of the same media options, or the $299 HTC Touch Pro, which adds a slide-out, five-row QWERTY keyboard—although both of these are more expensive and more difficult to use. If you're a messaging fiend, you may want to skip the touch screen and go for the free Samsung Rant, which offers a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, though it's not nearly as capable in other ways. Overall, if you want an iPhone-like experience on Sprint, but you don't want a Palm Pre, the Instinct is a solid choice.
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