A few days ago, I finally broke down and got a new phone.  I settled on the Samsung Instinct, because I didn’t want to switch to another carrier.  I’ve had it now for just over a week, so I thought I’d type up some of my initial thoughts.

My primary use of my cell phone is text messaging, because I can use it to manage and receive updates from Twitter, Facebook, and Google (including Google Calendar), so it was my first concern.  At first, I was hesitant about going with a touchscreen keyboard, but I have been pleasantly suprised with the Instinct.  The phone vibrates just a bit whenever a button is pressed giving it a little bit of tactile feedback.  The on screen keyboard is also very accurate, and I rarely mistype on it.

The next feature that sold me on this phone was the GPS navigation (though a lot of Sprint phones are capable of that).  Turn by turn directions are very good, and the rest of the phone also makes good use of the GPS location feature.

The phone has also replaced my iPod as my primary mp3 player.  While the iPod is still a superior player, it’s not enough to warrant carrying two devices.  It came with a 2GB MicroSD card, but I’ve ordered an 8GB card that should give me plenty of storage.

I’ll be writing some more in-depth thoughts on the phone over the next few days, for now I have to head to sleep.