Instinct should go for between $199 and $299. Exact pricing hasn't been made available yet.

This smartphone, launched at CTIA Wireless in April, was one of the most talked about cell phones at the show. Samsung and Sprint worked on Instinct for nine months leading up to CTIA, Sprint's director of product commercialization, David Owens, explained to us at the time.

They wanted to build a handset that offers a touch-centric user interface "consistent with the iPhone", which Owen’s readily admits raised the bar for usability for everyone in the industry.

Whereas the iPhone's operating system is one of the most advanced ever, with huge potential for developers to create a wide variety of consumer and, eventually, business applications, Instinct runs on a proprietary platform with a Java-application layer.

While that means their will be plenty of software available for Instinct when it launches, you won't see the same level of sophistication from third-party developers as you do now unofficially and soon will officially with the iPhone or other types of smartphones for that matter.

Instinct's initial storage capacity is limited but expandable, as it sports a microSD slot for up to 8GB cards. It also includes a GPS chip to support some highly-integrated Telenav-based location-based services.

These include GPS-enabled audio and visual turn-by-turn driving directions, one-click traffic rerouting and more than 10 million local listings. A feature called Live Search provides access to directory information, GPS-enabled directions, interactive maps and one-touch click to call access.

Like the iPhone, the Instinct sports an advanced touch interface that allows your fingers to easily do the flicking and navigating on its 3.1-inch display.

The integration of haptic vibration feedback—Samsung was one of the first OEM's to adopt haptics in its phones—courtesy of technology from a company called Immersion, is a nice touch for Instinct. When I tested the Instinct's virtual keyboard at CTIA, for instance, each time I touched a key, I felt a slight vibration to tell me I was successful.

There are a number of games designed for previous haptic-enabled Java phones that'll be ready to take advantage of haptics inclusion in Instinct when the phone is released in a few months.

Underneath the screen are dedicated keys marked phone, back and home. The phone key always takes the you back to essential voice calling features, such as speed dial, visual voicemail, contacts and the dial pad.

The back key is a consistent way to take a step back in the operation. And the home key provides quick access to the Instinct’s four menus of functionality: favorites, main, fun and Web.

At 2.17 x 4.57 x 0.49 inches, Instinct is slightly smaller and narrower than the iPhone.

As with the iPhone, Instinct sports a 2.0 megapixel camera (but with the ability to take video), Bluetooth, and visual voicemail, and while the iPhone's battery is not removable, to the chagrin of many users, Instinct's is. To emphasis this, Sprint is bundling two batteries in the Instinct’s package.

Instinct will be the first consumer device from Sprint to support the ultra-fast Rev. A data network, which leaves AT&T and the iPhone's tortoise-like EDGE data network, which will be rectified with the next-gen iPhone, in the dust.

In addition to those mentioned earlier, supported services include Sprint TV, Sprint Exclusive Entertainment channel with made-for-mobile sports and entertainment videos, the Sprint Music Store, and Sprint TV.

Sprint will offer Instinct with its all-you-can-eat data and messaging plans.

The only differentiating factor in what your monthly fee will be is the number of voice minutes you choose. So service starts at $69.99 for 450 minutes and tops out at $99.99 for those who would like to talk to their hearts content without worrying about both data and voice overage fees.

Click here to learn more about Instinct, including a full list of technical specifications.