Samsung Instinct SPH-M800 Phone, Black (Sprint)

by Samsung

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 3.7 x 2 x 0.6 inches ; 2.9 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B001DJTZQ2
• Item model number: SPHM800ZKS
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #121,049 in Cell Phones & Accessories (See Top 100 in Cell Phones & Accessories)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The Samsung Instinct takes touchscreen phones to the next level with a 3.1-inch touchscreen with haptic feedback, advanced features including Visual Voice-mail, and access to Sprint's EV-DO 3G network--perfect for surfing the Web as well as downloading music and video from Sprint's Music Store and TV service. It also includes GPS capabilities for turn-by-turn navigation provided by the optional Sprint Navigation service. Other features include a 2-megapixel camera/camcorder, Bluetooth for hands-free communication and stereo music streaming, microSD memory expansion up to 8 GB, voice dialing capabilities, and up to 5.75 hours of talk time.

The Instinct's touchscreen keeps you in touch better than any other, with an interface designed to quickly take you right to where you want to go.

Sprint Service Options
Supporting the EV-DO Rev. A high-speed data standard, Sprint's Mobile Broadband Network provides blazing fast speeds on the nation's largest mobile broadband network (based on covered square miles), covering more than 15,000 cities and 1,400 airports. With EV-DO Rev. A, peak download data rates increase to 3.1 Mbps and peak upload data rates increase to 1.8 Mbps; average download speeds improve to 600 kbps to 1.4 mbps and average uplink speeds increase to 350 to 500 kbps.

The Sprint Music Store enables you to buy, download, and then jam out wherever you are with new songs or old favorites. Offering a growing selection of more than 1.6 million songs, the store provides you two copies of each song--one for the phone and another for the PC, as well as the ability to burn songs to a CD using Windows Media Player. Save your songs to a memory card with a capacity that's right for you. Use the Sprint Music Store to listen to music while sending text messages, browsing the Web, or playing a downloaded game. And get over 30 channels of music--Hip Hop, Top Hits, Latin Pop, music videos and shows from NPR, Sporting News and more--treamed to your phone.

With Sprint TV, you can make your cell phone your always-on source for news, weather, sports and more. This comprehensive video service combines high-quality streaming audio and video from channels including ABC, The Weather Channel, Fox Sports, E!, CNN, The Discovery Channel, and more.

Whether you use your finger or a stylus, the Instinct responds to every touch with a slight vibration.

Other features include a 2-megapixel camera/camcorder, Bluetooth music streaming, and microSD memory expansion up to 8 GB.

Nicely slim, the Instinct measures 0.5 inches thin and weighs 4.4 ounces.

This GPS-enabled phone provides optional access to Sprint Navigation for driving directions on your mobile phone--by voice and onscreen. Along the way, turn-by-turn directions will be announced in a clear voice and displayed on your phone. For example, Sprint Navigation will say, "Go 1.2 miles and turn right on Elm Street." As you approach the turn, you will hear, "Turn right on Elm Street." Sprint Navigation also provides proactive traffic alerts with one click re-routing. And it's easy to find restaurants, banks, cafes, hotels and more from over 10 million points of interest across the U.S.

With Sprint Mobile e-mail, you'll get easy access to your favorite home e-mail services including AOL, Yahoo!, Gmail, and MSN/Windows Live Hotmail and more. And Sprint Mobile e-mail Work enables you to access e-mail from corporate servers, including Microsoft Exchange 2000, 2003, 2007 and Lotus Notes Domino versions 6.0, 6.5 and 7.0 (with the latest software update).

Phone Features
Named "Best in Show" in the third annual Emerging Technology (E-Tech) Award competition in April at CTIA Wireless 2008, the innovative Samsung Instinct speeds up the user experience like no other touchscreen phone and brings your most-used applications and contacts within a single finger tap. With the Instinct, you don't have to listen to voice-mail anymore. Just one quick glance at the Visual Voice-mail display and you'll know who called and when--and even delete messages without having to listen to them first. The device also offers a Speech to Action button providing many functions using speech activation for calling, texting, picture messaging, traffic, movie, sports, news, weather and search.

It has a high-tech look with large, vibrant touchscreen a 240 x 432-pixel resolution and support for 262K colors for excellent depth. And whether you use your finger or a stylus, the Instinct responds to every touch with a slight vibration. This localized tactile feedback, called haptics, transforms the virtual QWERTY keypad and other screen interactions into a sensory experience.

This sleek, stylish device offers three dedicated keys on the lower portion of the device to make operation of the device very straightforward and easy to navigate--phone, back and home. The phone key always takes you back to essential voice calling and features including speed dial, visual voice-mail, contacts and the dial pad. The back key is a consistent way to take a step back in the operation. The home key provides quick access to the four menus of functionality included in the user interface:

With Live Search, you can use that GPS technology to search for the nearest gas station by location, price or even grade of gasoline.

• Favorites provides one-touch access to the things you do most, making customization and personalization extremely simple. Web sites, TV channels, text messaging friends and much more can be saved in the Favorites menu so the items used most are always at the user's fingertips.
• Main includes applications such as Messaging, Voice-mail, GPS Navigation and more.
• Fun takes you to Music, TV, photos, games and more.
• Web provides a fast, real Internet experience and all things Web-related, including weather and news.

This phone provides Bluetooth version 2.0 wireless connectivity, and includes profiles for communication headset, hands-free car kits, audio/video remote control, and printing. With the A2DP Bluetooth profile, you can stream your music to a pair of compatible Bluetooth stereo headphones. When connected to a Bluetooth device, caller information for incoming calls will be spoken through the Bluetooth device. Decide to answer the call without ever looking at your phone.

The 2-megapixel camera can capture images up to 1600 x 1200 pixels for prints up to 8 x 10 inches. It features a 2x digital zoom, "fuzzy picture" warning that lets you know if you're about to take a bad picture, and easy viewing of photos by simply swiping your finger across the screen to move from one photo to the next. It also includes a video camcorder function that lets you record video clips up to 2 MB (approximately 6 minutes) for sending via messaging or for as long as you have space on an inserted microSD memory card for saving.

The music player is compatible with MP3, WMA, AAC/AAC+, and KOZ digital audio formats, and it will play in the background even while sending text messages, browsing the Web, or playing a downloaded game. This phone is also compatible with 72-chord polyphonic ringtones, and it includes a vibrate silent mode.

The phone is compatible with text (SMS) and multimedia (MMS) messaging, as well as POP3 personal e-mail accounts. It includes XT9 predictive text entry (the new version of the T9), with such features as a word prediction list and spelling correction that spots transposed letters and missed keys, as well as instant integration into all applications on the device.

Other features include:

• Live Search for Sprint, powered by Microsoft, provides easy access to directory information on-the-go, GPS-enabled directions, interactive maps and one-touch click to call access
• Store up to 600 contact entries, each with fields for five phone numbers, an e-mail address, a web site, and notes
• Organizational tools: Calendar, calculator, alarm clock, world clock, stopwatch and notepad
• Speech to Action feature let's you place calls using your voice, store voice reminders, and record voice memos right on your device
• Sprint Mobile Sync: Load contact info to your phone and sync with PC, any time you add, edit or remove contacts it auto updates the back-up PC contact list.
• Speaker-Independent Voice Dialing: Say the name of any entry in your phone book and the number is dialed automatically without using the keypad. This feature is speaker-independent, so there is no need to train the phone to respond to any one person's voice. Receive an audible status report of your phone's coverage, signal strength, and battery strength.
• Hearing Aid Compatibility = M3/T3
• Bluetooth version 2.0 with the following profiles: A2DP (stereo music streaming), AVRC (remote control), HFP (hands-free car kits), HSP (communication headsets), DUN (dial-up networking), FTP (file transfer), OPP (object push for business cards, calendar items, and pictures), PBA (transfer contacts)

Vital Statistics
The Samsung Instinct weighs 4.4 ounces and measures 4.6 x 2.2 x 0.5 inches. Its 1000 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 5.75 hours of talk time. It runs on the 800/1900 CDMA/EV-DO frequencies.

Product Description

Samsung M800 Instinct CDMA Dual-Band Sprint Smartphone: The Samsung Instinct has advanced responsive touchscreen technology and the ability to customize features to your preferences. Personalize the main screen for quick access to what you use most. Fine the nearest coffee shop, the get audible directions. Surf the web fast and esay with ful HTML web browsing, take advantage of the landscape QWERTY keyboard, and much more. The instinct is so advanced, it practically predicts your needs.Sprint TVSprint Music StoreStreaming-radio applicationsSprint Media Manager PCMP3 and polyphonic ringtone supportSprint Navigation with GPS-enabled audio and visualLive Search for Sprint, powered by MicrosoftMultimedia messaging and picture messagingVisual Voicemail allowing users to listen to messagesBuilt-in 2.0-megapixel digital cameraSprint/Nextel

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

80 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Slick with Lots of Potential, October 5, 2008

By 

Joseph Patrick Breda (Baldwinsville, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Samsung Instinct SPH-M800 Phone, Black (Sprint) (Wireless Phone)

I have used many mobile "smartphones" / "featurephones" in the last year trying to settle on something that meets my needs. The list includes iPhone (1st gen), HTC Mogul, Q9C, Palm Treo 755p, Treo 800w and the Instinct.

My needs and expectations might be different from the reader's, so let me lay them out in advance:
* A decent web browsing experience for regular "desktop" sites.
* Sufficient music capabilities to replace my iPod for most purposes.
* Basic email and calendaring capabilities (Outlook "PUSH" is not one of them).
* An easy-to-use and "fun" interface.
* A reliable phone, with good battery life.
* Navigation, if I can get it.
* MMS capabilities, if I can get it.

Here is where the previous devices have fallen short:

iPhone - Bad AT&T service in my area made it challenging to use as a phone. At the time, EDGE data was too slow to enjoy surfing the web. Pages look great once loaded, but who has 3-4 minutes per page to surf. If I am using WiFi, I might as well have my laptop. No MMS offered. Why?

I know the 3G version improves on this, but AT&T 3G coverage is still not up to par with the EVDO offered by Verizon/Sprint. This is simply the case of a good phone on a bad network.

Mogul - Poor reliability with many bugs that have not been fixed with several firmware update releases. This makes it unsatisfactory to use even for basic voice calls. Who can cope with a phone that reboots during a call? Not a good iPod replacement because you have to use the USB jack or an adapter to hook up a good pair of headphones and bluetooth stereo quality was not good enough to replace wired headphones in my experience. No MMS (can't send pictures of kids to my parents while out-and-about without using email).

Q9C - Almost good enough. Just too darn slow. Too little memory. It does run Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone with some UI enhancements, and includes a 2.5mm headphone jack for audio. A good choice for anyone willing to live with performance drawbacks. Good voice quality and reasonably reliable for a Microsoft-powered device. My back-up device. No MMS (on Sprint).

Treo 755p - Simply not able to get a decent web browser on the device. It does almost everything else OK, even if the interface is a bit too simplistic. The included Blazer browser has difficulty digesting most modern web sites, runs out of memory and is too slow. Although there are J2ME runtime engines that can be used to run Opera Mini, it frequently crashes the phone.

Treo 800w - Does everything, just not that well. Makes a pig of itself with battery use (see my review elsewhere on Amazon). The phone really falls down as an iPod replacement because it does not have an audio jack, only a microUSB connector. Hard to find good headphones for this jack. Stereo bluetooth on the device with my Moto S9 headphones introduces alot of noise. Still no MMS (on Sprint).

Now we come to the Instinct:

WEB BROWSER:

The browser has been greatly improved by the latest MR-3 firmware update, and Samsung/Sprint does seem inclined to continue to roll out improvements. I think the record sales of the device serves as an incentive to continue offering updates to the software. An MR-4 firmware is slated that is supposed to add keyboard support to J2ME applications that should allow the device to run Opera Mini and many other programs. The browser is not perfect, but it is fast enough to surf the web and get a reasonable approximation of most pages I visit. With the latest update you can take advantage of the entire screen for the browser, hiding all controls. Panning is simple with fingertip swipes. Zoom is still a bit clunky but reasonably fast.

A few "web applications" are present under the web tab that offer an attractive interface to some features you would normally use the browser for such as: weather, news, movie times and sports scores. Much better than using any browser to access this data. I would like to see more of these offered, in fact (how about a YouTube front-end?).

You will also find a version of Microsoft's Live Search to use speech to find local business found with the assistance of the built-in GPS. A very nice touch. Once found, you can call them up or get turn-by-turn directions to get there.

MUSIC

Ahh... finally, a phone with a 3.5mm headphone jack. This allows you to plug in standard iPod-like headphones and enjoy music. Bluetooth playback on the S9 headphones is also very good. The music application is nice, and you can use up to an 8GB SD card to store songs. You can buy music over-the-air from the Sprint Music Store which is integrated into the music application. Still not an iPod touch, but plenty good enough for my uses.

EMAIL AND CALENDAR

The email is simple and easy to use. It offers enough features for a mobile device, although a few options such as a custom signature would be nice. It does not render HTML email, but does help you along by including any web links that might be embedded in an HTML message. For my use, this is a faster alternative than asking the phone to download and render a full HTML version with images for my email on the go.

I would appreciate the capability to view some simple file formats, particularly PDF. I understand this is slated for the MR-4 release and the fact they recognize this need placates me for the time being.

Calendering, on the other hand, is the Achilles Heel for replacing a typical smartphone with this device. There is no provision to sync your calendar with the web or desktop. Accordingly, while there is a calendar app built in, I don't even use it. For the present, I muddle through accessing the mobile version of Google Calendar. Sprint needs to do something to fix this. Maybe a front-end to Google Calendar. If not, it is my hope that a more complete Java stack will open the door for third-party solutions. (See more about Java on the Instinct below).

INTERFACE

The interface is attractive and easy to use. Much better than poking around menus with the tiny stylus on a Windows Mobile device. I know about keyboard shortcuts, but I am more of a point-and-click kind of guy. Just personal preference.

The touch screen is very responsive for a non-capacitive sensor, much better than say the Treo. Not as good as the iPhone, but nothing has a better touch interface than the iPhone.

The Instinct does have "haptic" (vibration) feedback that makes it feel almost as if you are touching physical buttons and makes the phone very satisfying to use.

PHONE, NAV AND MMS

The phone sounds great. Call options are right where they should be, with easy ability to add a conference call or mute the microphone, for example. An in-call menu allows you to access common functions such as the address book or notes while in a call. Photos linked to contacts show up during income/outgoing calls.

The phone also has very good "speech to action" capabilities. You can use this to quickly dial a number or call one from you address book. No voice training is necessary and it is very accurate and usable.

Navigation is simply second-to-none. Tell it where you want to go by talking (through the Live Search discussed above) or type an address, intersection or business name and you are off with turn-by-turn directions and an animated moving map. You can also search for close by businesses and the like (such as the closest gas station or fast-food joint while on the road). Easily meets my navigation needs. Apple should take note and try to put something similar on the iPhone. Google Maps is good, but not like this.

MMS is the cherry on top. You can easily send and receive pictures and short video clips. I use this all the time to send quick snapshots to my wife's phone (a Centro) or my parents. The Treo 755p is the only phone listed above that has this capability. Why such a common innovation is left out of Sprint's smartphone lineup is simply beyond me. There are hacks to do it on Windows Mobile, but it is not the same as having it built into the phone's UI.

MISC

In terms of other attributes, I find the phone has enough battery power for my needs. It is attractive and easy to slip in/out of your pocket. Bluetooth pairing is simple (Widows Mobile -- take note). The speaker is loud enough for ringers. Physical controls are easy to understand. Sprint includes a generous accessory package with the phone: Music syncing application (Windows only), USB cable, wall charger, 2 batteries, a spare battery charger, a handsfree stereo headset, and a 2GB SD card.

The camera is perfectly fine for a phone. Nice pictures and a simple interface. If I want something better I'll use my Nikon dSLR. It records video and the quality is actually surprisingly good for what it is. I always wished Apple would put this on the iPhone, but they just don't want their customers to have it for some reason.

_______________________________________________________________
CAVEATS
*******
Now the downsides, many of which I hope to see remedied:

JAVA

This phone is advertised as being based on an "open" platform in that J2ME applications can be run on the phone, opening the door to many third-party applications. The problem is that Sprint inexplicably does not offer the standard text input libraries developers expect to have present on a J2ME device. This means you can load Opera Mini, but you can't use the on-screen keyboard to enter a URL. Sprint knows this was a gaff, and they assure that a fix is in the works... Read more ›

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Samsung Instinct, September 27, 2008

By 

Wild Bill "Bill" (CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Samsung Instinct SPH-M800 Phone, Black (Sprint) (Wireless Phone)

Samsung instinct, September 27, 2008
By Wild Bill "Bill" (CA) - See all my reviews

Pros:
#1. GPS is a cool feature especially if you drive a lot and need directions.

#2. Easy to use with the touch screen
#3. Good looking phone. I really liked the large screen size.

I really wanted to give it a fair shake, that's why I had it for 3 weeks. It was not compatible for my use and here are the problems I had with it.



Cons:
#1. The Samsung Instinct-I owned the phone for 3 weeks. During that time I was calling sprint's technical support almost everyday.
The main problem was voicemail. It had a bug that when my customers, (that's right I use this phone for business.)Called and it would go to voicemail it gave the message "All circuits are busy" Intermittently. The tech support told me that they had a nationwide outage of voicemail but my son has the same service but different phone and his never did this. I kept calling for tech support and week three the last operator told me to replace the phone. Which I did with a Palm Centro.

#2.When you push a button like the web or e-mail many times it would not respond. I would wait a bit then it would work to me. It seems as if it was running slow.

#3.The Battery: There is a reason why they give you 2 batteries. It uses a fully charged battery just using the phone function, voicemail and e-mail in about 2 hours. If you buy this phone get a car charger.

#4. Email: The emails I receive many times have attachments such as word or PDF files. This phone won't open them up!

#5. The web: I could not log on to my bank account because of compatibility so it really was worthless-That's why I bought it, one of the main reasons to check my accounts and to go on my website and check orders. Didn't work. You could only surf. It is soooooo slow!!!
3G or not it is very slow. Dial up is faster. But you can watch videos so I guess it is faster than dial up. Loading pages took a long time.
There were more problems that I had but these are enough major reasons for certain people to not buy it.

I ended up with a Palm Centro. Excellent phone. No trouble with voicemail. Opens and stores PDF files word and excel docs. The web browsing is at least 3 times as fast and it isn't even 3G. I think I will do a review of the Centro when I have had it longer than 3 weeks, Great Phone if you are in business and need it to actually work! Don't buy the Instinct

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The best phone I've had but..., October 24, 2008

By 

Charles D. Tucker - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Samsung Instinct SPH-M800 Phone, Black (Sprint) (Wireless Phone)

This is a great phone, but there are a few things that could really turn this phone into an amazing phone.

1. Better music player: The phone comes with a 2gb card which is great for storing music. However I have put on 2gb's worth of music and the phone takes forever to load, probably about 6-8 minutes. I thought this was only going to be the first time it read the music, but that is definitely not the case. Everytime I open the music player it has to go throught this whole process again. I tried taking of a lot of the music and put on about 30 songs to see if it would be faster. Well it was faster, but still not nearly fast enough. It takes about 1-2 minutes to play those songs. I am hoping for a program update to resolve this issue. Until then I am stuck.

2. Viewing of Word, Excel, Powerpoint: This phone is very capable of viewing e-mail and it does a great job of it, even managing 2 e-mail accounts(yahoo mail, and my work e-mail through microsoft exchange server). The only problem is that I have a lot of e-mails that contain attachments of word, excel, and occassionaly powerpoint. There are several other phones, in this class of phones,that have capabilities of doing this and this one should be included. Another thing that I will hope a program update will fix. Until then...

Other than the 2 points above I would say this phone is great! It is by far the best phone I have ever had and everything else that it does is awesome. My favorite feature is the GPS with search. I can pull up the program and say "pizza" and boom within seconds I have 20 pizza places that are close to me to choose from. Even better I can click on the one I want and see the phone number (one click to call), address (one click to start my GPS driving me there), and reviews which I can view and create.