Customizable Samsung Instinct Can Be Controlled By Voice (Sort of)
The days of actual tactile buttons seem to be numbered, at least that's what a slew of new cell phones would have you believe. Samsung's new Instinct, which made its official debut at the CTIA Wireless show in Las Vegas yesterday, makes use of two currently hot ways to control your phone -- touchscreens (made popular by the iPhone) and voice-recognition.Slim and light, the Instinct is jam-packed with state-of-the-art features, including EV-DO (for fast surfing, downloading, and live TV watching), GPS with turn-by-turn directions, a music player with direct-to-phone download capability, and a 2-megapixel camera. So far, a lot of these features are found on plenty of other phones, so why exactly should we care about the Instinct?
What makes the the Instinct stand out is its robust voice-recognition capability, which lets you do more than just dial numbers. In fact, by just pressing the "talk" button on the side and uttering commands such as call and text and then some names or numbers, you can save yourself a few keystrokes when you want to call or send text messages -- something that can come in handy when you're driving. Combined with GPS turn-by-turn navigational software, the voice-activation even lets you get results for nearby fast-food restaurants when you utter a word like McDonald's, for example.
Unfortunately, the voice-recognition stops there, as you'll have to physically press a button on the touchscreen to actually get the directions (a similar let-down comes when you're texting, since you can only use voice recognition to literally call up a number and send the text, not to actually type the text).
We got some hands-on with the phone yesterday, and found the touchscreen to be responsive, for the most part (the phone is still in test phases). The screen features haptic technology, which uses the cell phone's vibrate function to give the user the feeling that he or she is actually pressing down on physical keys.
We also liked the phone's customization features, which essentially let the user pick a series of widgets for music, mailing, GPS and other functions to show up on the phone's main screen.
The phone is due out by the end of June, on Sprint, and will cost $199.99 with a two-year contract. It requires purchasing an unlimited data plan, so the cheapest monthly rate will be $69.99 (which might make signing up for Sprint's $99 Simply Everything Plan a good idea).
For a deeper look at the Instinct's cool interface and functionality, check out Engadget's video walk-through of the device.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Marshall Leaman @ Apr 2nd 2008 10:23AM
It's not an LG. Just look at the picture you've posted. It says Samsung right above the screen.
Joshua Fruhlinger @ Apr 2nd 2008 10:41AM
You're absolutely right, Marshall. Our bad. Got two headlines mixed up! Fixed.
TROTH @ Apr 2nd 2008 11:35AM
DO NOT PURCHASE ANY SAMSUNG PRODUCTS! THEY REFUSE TO STAND BY ANY CLAIMS FOR DEFECTIVE PRODUCTS THAT THEY SELL! WE HAD ONE OF THEIR WATER FILTERS CRACK IN HALF IN OUR REFRIDGERATOR AND FLOODED THE KITCHEN AND THE REFRIDGERATOR! THEY SAID: WE ARE NOT RESPONSBILE FOR ANY DAMAGE DUE TO A DEFECTIVELY MANUFACTURED PART, AND "THAT'S AOUR POLICY!"
WE'RE THROUGH WITH ANY AND ALL SAMSUNG PRDOUCTS!
corinne @ Apr 2nd 2008 3:07PM
I love Samsung phones! Can't wait for this one to come out.
To the TROTH person who forgot to take off CAPSLOCK, I don't really know about their refrigerators, but this article was about cellphones..
Besides, I've got a D500 and it's the only phone that I've had that has survived my abuse - it has been dropped, flung against a wall, stuck halfway in mud for a day in the rain, slammed in my car door on accident (there is a dent now but it's minimal..), fallen down stairs, yeah so it has majorly exceeded my expectations. I've used Nokia's, Motorola, LG, etc. (This D500 has lasted me 3 years already~ woohoo!)
Besides, my ipod broke the first time I dropped it(yea yea i kno my bad), and if the iphone is any way close to being made the same way, it just won't be able to handle my clumsiness like a Samsung will.
I do wish it looked all nice and metallic and sleek and was a slimmer version of the silver LG Shine with a self-viewable picture taker ::drool::, but I can't always have it my way.
abcyesn @ Apr 13th 2008 9:07PM
http://www.instinct-samsung.com has more info about this phone.