So, after having my old Motorola phone for slight over a year and a half, I finally needed to break down and get a new phone. I had tried my best to delay it as much as I can considering Sasktel (My telephone provider) was switching networks sometime in 2010. However, considering my phone was now being fussy to even charge, I really didn’t have much choice in the matter. I know that I don’t have to actually pay for my phone, but it would have been nice to not have to get one to tide me over until Sasktel hopefully gets either some Android phones in or the iPhone.
One of the big reasons I had against getting a new phone too was because Sasktel’s phone selection is less than impressive at the moment. Most of the phones were over a year old, horribly outdated, and with no real technology I was impressed with. Blackberry’s are stupid from the little that I’ve used them, and the one Windows Mobile phone was meant to be used with a stylus (Something that makes me really hate WM6+). In the end, I decided to get myself a “smart stupidphone” in the form of the Samsung Instinct. Motorola, to my dismay, had no good phone options at the time, and this phone looked like it had some interesting possibilities.
The Samsung Instinct. Mine looks pretty much exactly like that.
(Minus the Sprint logo, of course)
So, much like all pieces of technology, this phone certainly does have its flaws. Some forgiveable, some not. The LCDUI keyboard doesn’t work in Java apps, but that’s Sasktel’s fault more than anything since Sprint customers got an update to fix that already. As well, the phone isn’t smart enough to add a 1 to the start of numbers of people who phone me long distance – I need to actually press three buttons to redial someone. Lastly, I have actually missed a few calls due to the ringer being a little quiet, but I could probably even fix that by amplifying any custom ringtones I create. I do work in radio and know how to do that kind of stuff!
Still, comparing that to my KRZR before, this phone wins solely based on the HTML browser it has. To be able to look up parts numbers on Google when out at transmitter sites made this phone well worth the few things I needed to give up/put up with. I’ve already used it to look up the part number of a transformer on Wednesday, and that saved any kind of taking pictures/remembering info/driving back.
Oh, and I can play Scene It! on it when I’m bored. That must account for something too!