So I'm hangin' out at the Sprint "Webinar" (that's a dumb word), learning all about the still unreleased Samsung Instinct.  Really I'm at a coffee shop, but through the magic of the InterWeb I'm watching, listening to, and asking questions of Michelle from Sprint PR and David, Sprint's Director of Product Commercialization.  So what am I learning about Instinct?

First-off, people keep asking the inevitable but still dumb iPhone comparison questions.  Seriously, if you ask Sprint how Instinct compares to iPhone, what do you think they're going to say?  And haven't you learned anything yet?  You gotta USE THE THING YOURSELF to make a decent comparison.  To his credit, David from Sprint is doing a good job of neither ducking the questions nor pandering to their ridiculousness.  "Isn't this just an iPhone clone?" is met with "Touchscreen is a huge trend in the industry ... we'd be dumb not to do it, too, right?"  Or, you know, something to that effect.

Next, though I'm obviously not in the room, it looks like Sprint's fixed some of the responsiveness issues I saw back at CTIA but not all of them.  Every so often they'll show us the Instinct being demo'd live, and sometimes it looks pretty zippy while other times ... well, not so much.  A few finger taps went unnoticed by the handset, and loading the Music app took a looooong time (long enough that they cut away from Instinct back to the talking heads).  Again, I can't say for myself until I get one to play with, but it's looking more like a Glyde than an iPhone when it comes to responsiveness of both the touchscreen and the device itself.

Okay, as I'm writing this they're demoing some more stuff and maybe I'm being a wee bit harsh.  That one Music app incident notwithstanding, it does look like Sprint and Sammy have done some work since they launched with those Beta samples back in early April.

Now for some specific kernels of info:

Touchscreen - Haptics and resistive touch (not capacative like iphone).  Easiest with stylus/fingernail, less easy with fingertip.  But still easy with a finger, promise!

Keyboard - 3.1" display vs 3.5" for iPhone, but Instinct's QWERTY pad goes landscape for Email and SMS - current iPhone does not.

Accelerometer - No accelerometer but it uses the camera to let you scroll around Web pages via Tilt-n-Pan

Speed - "DSL like environment," "Pulling down Web pages in 12 seconds, 15 seconds"

Battery Life?  1100 ma battery - "feature phones are usually 650, 700 ma"
"Phone is fully kitted" -- 2nd battery, headphones, carrying case, stylus, guides, 2gb card

Demo - Loading music took a long time

Camera - Take & share pics and vids via Web communities.  Sounds like one-click uploads to various sites (Facebook keeps getting mentioned).

Java BREW platform -- Java-based SDK forthcoming -- encouraging developers to build apps

Syncing - OWA for Exchange email, but no calendar.  "Network Address Book" lets you sync Outlook contacts.

Web - Instinct uses the Telica Browser

No price yet.  "Comparable with other products in this class in the industry."  Yawn.

Alright, there we go ... cue outro music.  June 20th in the stores ... sooner in my grubby little Media paws?  Sure hope so ...