The Instinct was described as a potential iPhone killer leading up to its launch, and Sprint isn't subtle about making the comparison, at least to the first-gen iPhone. While the Instinct's not an iPhone killer, or even necessarily an iPhone wounder, it does successfully take some design cues from it and is a compelling device in its own right.

Features
Measuring 4.6 x 2.2 x .5, the Instinct is slightly narrower and taller than an iPhone, and at 4.4 oz it's a bit lighter too. Being a Sprint device, the Instinct communicates via CDMA networks (800/1900) and supports EV-DO Rev A for data connections. Unfortunately, Wi-Fi support is conspicuously absent, leaving you with no fallback option if a cellular connection isn't available.

The Instinct's built-in memory is a relatively paltry 32 MB, which you can increase up to 8 GB (equivalent to the base iPhone) via the microSD card slot conveniently located on the Instinct's right edge. The Instinct comes with a 2GB card to get you started.

One of the criticisms of the iPhone is a battery that isn't easily replaced by the device owner, but the Instinct imposes no such limitation. The back panel slides off to allow easy access to a 1000 mAh Li-Ion battery, which is rated for 5.75 hours of talk time.

With significant use of the data features and a handful of voice calls, we got about 48 hours of life out of the battery. We noticed that the battery power indicator wasn't very linear, however; it took quite a while to go from full to around half, but not long thereafter we were greeted by a low battery warning.

Included with the Instinct is a second 1000 mAh cell, along with an adapter that allows it to be charged outside the phone. The catch is that the adapter is basically a plastic box with a lid that's required to keep the battery against the charging contacts, so losing the lid would render the charging adapter useless.

User Interface
The Instinct's broad face is dominated by a 3.1 inch, 240 x 432 touch screen display (compared to 3.5 inches and 320 x 480 for the iPhone). Below the screen are three hard buttons, consisting of a Home key flanked by a Back key and one that summons the Instinct's phone-related functions.

The Instinct's haptic touch screen responds to contact with vibrations, a feature we like a lot since it provides the tactile feedback you'd normally get from mechanical buttons. (You can turn this off if you want.) The responsiveness and accuracy of the Instinct's touch screen were quite good; we encountered only the occasional input error while using the dial keypad or on-screen keyboard (the phone switches to landscape orientation when you use the latter).

Many, though not all of the Instinct's functions can be invoked by swiping a finger, a motion that's easy for the device to interpret.)

The Instinct uses a simple grid menu with large buttons that's divided into three tabs, Main, Fun, and Web, plus a fourth Favs category that you can put your own preferred applications into. Overall the UI is intuitive enough that unlike many smartphones, you won't need to spend much time with your nose in a manual to get the gist of how things work.

Voice & Data
When it comes to call quality, the Instinct left us slightly disappointed. There was often a muddy, hollow quality to the audio on incoming calls-including when using the speakerphone-- and several callers remarked that things sounded "tinny" on their end.

Like the iPhone, the Instinct's voice mail is a quantum leap ahead of the typical phone. You can browse your list of messages via the on-screen menu, listen to them in any order you want, and easily do callbacks or save numbers to your contact list.

As an Internet access device, the Instinct is a bit of a mixed bag.

The Instinct's browser makes scrolling Web pages pretty easy, but the content window is small relative to the screen (though you can reclaim a bit of space by hiding one toolbar). The browser supports full HTML (but not Flash) so it can display many Web pages more or less like they would on a regular monitor, and a button lets you access the mobile version pages for better performance. We used that feature more than we expected, because even with an EV-DO connection the browser performance tended to be clunky and we spent a lot of time waiting for pages to fully load (here's where Wi-Fi would come in handy).

The Instinct lacks support for instant messaging, but you can use it to access e-mail accounts from all the major Web-based providers (AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo)-all you do is enter your account info, and you're up and running within a moment or two.

How you accessing a work e-mail account depends on what kind of mail server it is; if it's Microsoft Exchange with Outlook Web Access enabled, you can access it directly with Instinct. Otherwise, you'll need to get to it indirectly by downloading Sprint's Mobile E-mail Desktop Connector onto your PC, which requires it be left running.

The Instinct also has an integrated GPS receiver that enables you to use the device for voice-guided turn-by-turn directions. The Instinct works very well as a GPS device-better than most smartphones, we think-- due mainly to the relatively spacious touch screen which makes it easy to view and interact with the display.

Camera & Multimedia
The Instinct's got a 2 megapixel camera and includes a self-portrait mirror, but there's no flash. The camera took decent-looking photos, but it doesn't offer any configurable options, nor can you choose photo size, apply effects, or edit your shots afterward. On the other hand, the camera pops up an on-screen warning if you're about to take a fuzzy photo.

You can also record video with the Instinct (something you can't do on the iPhone). A configurable length setting will cap your videos at 2 minutes in length (around 6MB in size) so they can be sent over the air. Otherwise, you can shoot videos as long as available storage will allow.

The Instinct is no iPod, but it does have a music player capable of MP3, AAC, and WMA audio formats, among others. The Instinct supports the stereo Bluetooth profile and uses a standard 3.5mm audio jack so you can use the listening device of your choice (a wired stereo earbud set with inline mic is bundled). You can buy tracks for 99 cents each, or same yourself some time (but not any money) with 6-song bundles a $5.94.

As with some other Sprint phones, you can access a few dozen channels of video in various genres (news, sports, weather, entertainment, etc.) through the Instinct, along with a handful of love network TV. The quality is usually acceptable but often degrades to barely watchable with pauses and compression distortion.

With the bundled Sprint Media Manager PC utility, you can transfer your own audio, video, and photos to the Instinct. Putting an Instinct in your pocket (it comes with a slim carrying case that omits a belt clip) won't take an outsized chunk of your cash. The phone costs a fairly reasonable $129.99, reflecting a $100 mail-in rebate and the obligatory two-year agreement, and service plans are $69.99 and $89.99 for 450 or 900 voice minutes respectively or $99.99 for unlimited voice minutes (and all plans include unlimited data).

The Instinct isn't the technological tour de force it would have been if the iPhone didn't exist, and it has its share of weaknesses and missing features. On balance, however, we think the pros outweigh the cons, and it's still a well-designed and powerful communications device.