Thursday, August 28, 2008

Video of Unresponsive Touch Screen of Sprint Instinct phone

UPDATE:
Only the touch sensor seems to have failed. If I press the voice command or the camera button, they both work but no features requiring the touch screen work. In other words, something related to touch sensor (both the screen and the 3 touch buttons) failed. Apparently, the local repair stores only work Mon-Fri 8am-5pm and will not be doing any repair work until after labor day so no phone for my wife until then. I did show her how to use voice command to make call in case of an emergency. Because the touch screen is not responding, she can't answer an incoming call even though the rest of the phone "technically" works but is still practically unusable.


Today my wife's Instinct phone froze on the Speed Dial screen. It is not responding to any touch on the touch-screen and the touch-buttons (the home, back and dial buttons). There is no way to reset because touch screen and lower three touch buttons are not responding. They need to be working to reset the phone according to the user guide.

I have removed the battery a number of times (for as long as an hour) but on turning the phone back on, it comes to the speed dial screen and is not responsive on the touch screen or the three touch buttons at them bottom.

My wife is pretty upset with this phone. Few days ago her Instinct camera was giving the memory card not found error. She only uses this phone for calls, text messages and pictures. She doesn't even use her phone browser. We bought our phones on 6/21. Maybe they are from a batch with faulty chips or something. Mine crashes on browser and GPS Navigation application crashes after using it for a while too.

The gently cared for phone has been unusable since this afternoon. Here is a video:




This is what my wife said:

"I want a reliable phone and this isn't one of them!"

So more than likely we will be switching phones within the next month or so! At the moment she is without a working cellphone and pretty upset about it.

16 comments:

Roadtrekkin RV Adventures said...

I got my phone 6/19 and it crashes on the Navigation, the browser and if I install Google Maps, I have to reinstall on a weekly basis as it become corrupt. After 6 tech calls I got told to go exchange it, but my local Sprint store was out of stock. I have since been told that I can't get a new phone as I didn't take out an equipment protection plan. I'm actually considering paying the $200 bucks to get out of Sprint all together.

This phone could have been so great. Maybe Sprint will fix it. Maybe not...

Anonymous said...

Mine crashed a bit when I first got it, but it seems to work fine now... I think the updates fixed some things. It used to lock-up on the browser, music player, and a few times when witching between the bottom buttons...

Anonymous said...

I go between loving some features - live search an navigation, and just hating the actual phone part. Mobile sync is so messed up - import contacts online and they won't show up on phone - or will double. Occasional lockups, which seem to have something to do with some communication (such as mobile sync). Overall, it could be nice, but it's a flaky experience. I now literally don't have a way to restore my contacts. I shouldn't have to go to a sprint store for help. Plus the missing java keyboard, which rules out the killer applications. I want to OWN my phone. I wish I'd known about the Neo Freerunner...I'd be running Debian on my phone right now. And I'd have gotten my wife a nice stable usable phone like she wanted. Simply Everything has been great for her, but the other crap, not so much.

Anonymous said...

I'm definitely paying the 200$ fee to get on board with Android. Sprint, seriously, you FAILED on this one. You were very unfair for releasing such a flawed phone and market it as your own 'iPhone'. You're a horrible service provider and I hope you lose all your customers. You could at least give us a refund on our phones, but you're too good for that aren't you?

Anonymous said...

ok...but when she bought it was it doing that?????, no!...so yes the phone is defective NOW but how did it get that way???...its a phone! i bet it spent time in the hot sun in the car, in a purse that has everything but a kitchen sink, i bet its been tossed around alittle or sat on the wet bathroom vanity a few times while she was getting ready. If you bought it that way then um??? Did you seriously not test it first? Phones.. ya drop em, get water on em. make up plus tons of stuff in purse banging on it? HMMM to not sound to rude in your favor it could have just jiggled something loose aka plan ole defective. ALWAYS GET INSURANCE...its a cell phone!!!!, how many have you messed up in the past or your friends messed theirs up in strange ways. The insurance is VERY cheap!!!...seriously!!! 7 BUCKS, that was a big thing getting this phone over the iphone...those have major problems anyway. Now mobile synch has bugs but if you go to the forums they have work arounds for everything. my instinct works great 99% of the time and i bought it the day before it went on sale. I wish the tv worked better but it is good enough, its and signal issue not really such the hardware tech. Now nav is very good but sometime had issues when data / gps signal is weak..but again..thats expected nowdays. I used to have att...sprint data is alot more stable so is there data rates. att 3g is awful it switches to edge constantly back and forth...if i had a iphone id have drop calls all the time. Also why i didnt get the iphone. Now what absolutely positively sucks about the samsung instinct. THE WEB BROWSER!!! we need to focus our complaints there!!!...sad enough, I am in dallas metroplex, the people that made the crappy web browser has the usa office right by me. I wanna drive by and toss eggs at the place and tell them what the heck were they thinking! Also the sales guy that scored the contract to put the obigo or whatever browser on it is a CLOSER...only a super sales CLOSER could sell a crappy product like that to a big company. NOW SPRINT FIX IT! sorry you got closed! now give me a nice web browser(java keyboard) and then change the text mode from abc to QWERTY style in the vertical mode and ill be happy as a pig in crap.

FYI.....dont be cheap, get insurance...its electronics!!!, crap happens when they pump out tons of em out of a 3rd world country.

Me said...

This seems like a hardware failure (touch functionality on screen failed). It should be covered under manufacturer's 1 year warranty. I don't see why Sprint would deny standard warranty coverage (otherwise it would be like engine failure on a new car bought 2 months ago). There was no physical damage to the phone. It has been handled gently. I will find out when I take it to the Sprint repair center.

Anonymous said...

Okayplayer.com

arrojenkins said...

http://www.okayplayer.com

Anonymous said...

Anonymous #3, what the heck are you talking about? The phone is a complete failure. It has nothing to do with damaged hardware. The phone just sucks at doing what it's supposed to do. I could make a list of the things that are wrong with the Instinct, but it's just not worth it. A lot of people are not happy with their Instincts. Sprint advertised the phone as an iPhone competitor. Consumers expected it to be as such. What we got was a mediocre phone that tries to be an iPhone, and despite all it's features, all of them are still mediocre. The web browser being the worst. And hey, where are the apps? The phone crashes alot, it's unreliable. You can't even get phone calls while streaming data. Yeah, you can fix that but at what cost? When you do get a phone call or text it freezes your phone, and we shouldn't have to fix it to begin with. Oh, and I can't even access my favorites in the browser without the phone crashing after I exit. There are so many things wrong with this phone and it's not just me or the blog owner, read the forums, this phone SUCKS.

Bottom line, this phone is pretentious and despite it's many features, all of them are amateur at best. I would say the navigation is good, but it failed me a few times when it wouldn't load certain parts of a map when zooming. Just give it up, it's a falsely marketed device and it's all Sprint's fault.

Anonymous said...

Hey everyone, let's all check out what we're going to throw away our Instincts for - the first Android phone:

http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2008/08/30/htcs-android-driven-dream-revealed-in-glorious-spy-photos/

I hate myself for not waiting for this phone. Instinct - what a pile of crap.

Me said...

Android phone looks nice (not slick though). But the browser should be like iPhone's browser because both use the Webkit engine. I might have to check it out. I am now torn between deciding whether to keep Instinct or get Sprint HTC Touch Diamond (if Sprint will let me buy it for $299.99 instead of full price), Apple iPhone 3G and the new T-Mobile Android phone...
Let's see if they will repair my wife's Instinct phone touch screen or not...

Roadtrekkin RV Adventures said...

If you press the Camera button, does it do anything? Is just the touch screen on the blink? Hope you have hardware protection coverage

Me said...

The camera button works. Looks like only the touch screen sensor failed. To top it all, when I bought the 2 phones and asked for total equipment protection (TEP) plan, it was only added to my Instinct and not to my wife's. So while my Instinct phone is covered, my wife's actually failed! I am hoping that it should be covered under manufacturer's 1 year warranty. If not, I am going to Apple store to try my hands on you know what... :-)

Anonymous said...

Android can technically be put on the instinct. its just an OS not a phone.

Anonymous said...

Have you got the wife's phone issue worked out yet?

Me said...

Yes, after major hassle, Sprint repair center replaced it for $55 but I had already switched to iPhones by then.

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