Samsung Instinct, 60-Seconds Review

What: Samsung Instinct cellphone, sold by Sprint

Features: Has a 3.1-inch touch-screen display and 2.0 megapixel camera. Comes with a 2 GB microSD card and adapter, but can support an 8 GB card. Includes two batteries, a battery-charging sleeve, travel charger, USB cable, 3.5-mm headphones with microphone, and a carrying case with stylus. Weighs 4.4 ounces.

Price: $129.99 after $100 mail-in-rebate and a two-year contract.

Ups: Selecting something on the screen is confirmed with a light vibration and sound, and because the buttons are large, typing is a breeze.

The menu and interface is easy to use and well designed. It will play music in the background as you do other things, like accessing the Internet. Sprint has some great entertainment features that you can put shortcuts to on your main menu, such as Sprint streaming radio or TV stations.

Downs: It took a little time to get used to the scrolling feature. The camera doesn't have auto focus, so I ended up with photos that were fuzzy.

Bottom line: This is a well-designed phone, and the fast-responding touch screen. Considering what this phone can do and the large display, it's a good deal at $130 and worth getting if you've comfortable using a touch screen.

Samsung Instinct confirms its iPhone-killer prowess

With Apple’s newly enhanced 3G iPhone handset heading for its retail rendezvous on July 11, it would appear that Samsung Electronics and Sprint Nextel are posting pretty decent sales figures for the new Instinct, one of oh-so-many supposed ‘iPhone killers’ heading to market since the emergence of Apple’s trendy touch-screen device.

According to Walter Piecyk, an analyst with Pali Research, the touch-screen Samsung Instinct has performed so well at retail since its launch on June 20 that Sprint Nextel Corp., the third largest wireless carrier in the United States, is presently running low on unit availability.

Shaking free of Apple’s trend-conscious market dominance won’t be easy for rival smartphone manufacturers, but Samsung and Sprint are certainly hoping to prevent the Instinct’s favourable sales from being merely flash-in-the-pan launch performance, which a price tag of just $129.99 should support considering the $199.99 price that will come with the basic 8GB model of the 3G iPhone.

Other makes and models of smartphone also vying for consumer attention against the iPhone include the likes of the BlackBerry Bold 900 from Research In Motion (its first 3G handset), the Voyager and Vu from LG Electronics, the Touch Diamond from HTC, and the Xperia X1 from Sony Ericsson.

Samsung Instinct Interface

Samsung New Flash Memory Chip

Samsung Electronics Co. said Tuesday it has developed a more advanced flash memory chip that will allow increased data storage in digital products such as music players.

Samsung, the world's largest maker of computer memory chips, unveiled a 64-gigabit NAND flash memory chip based on finer process technology using circuit elements that are 30 nanometers wide. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter; a human hair is about 80,000 nanometers across.

"The flash memory device represents a major leap forward in the move to higher density flash storage solutions at a time of exploding demand for flash as the main storage medium in computing and digital applications," Samsung said in a statement.

Samsung touted the development of the chip as a world first and said the new chip marks the eighth straight year that memory density has doubled and the seventh straight year that the nanometer scale has improved for NAND flash.

The company said it plans to begin production of the chip in 2009.

Using finer process technology allows more to be fit on a semiconductor chip and reduces power requirements.

Flash memory chips are used extensively in digital music devices, digital cameras and mobile phones. The chips can retain data even when the devices they power are turned off.

Samsung also manufactures dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, chips used in personal computers.

Last year the company announced 32-gigabit NAND flash memory chip based on 40-nanometer process technology.

Production of that chip will begin next year, said Chae Su-yeon, a Samsung spokeswoman

Currently, the bulk of Samsung's flash memory chips are produced using 50-nanometer process technology, she said.
[Source]