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, which may be a major advantage for those who find the iPhone's width a little wide and uncomfortable. The material it is made of is less smooth as well. Together, this allows you get an excellent grip on Instinct.

As with the iPhone, Instinct includes 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 in the dust. EV-DO Rev. can reach download speeds as high as 3.1 Mbps with the average transfer rates ranging between 600kbps to 1.4 Mbps. EDGE, on the other hand, averages data transfer rates of only 70 to 135 kbps.

Sprint would like to make use of EV-DO to help them differentiate Instinct through its services. "This is the device that brings these services to life more than anything else," Sprint’s Owens noted. The point, he added, is to make it as intuitive as possible to use these services; hence the name Instinct for the phone.

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.

Is Instinct an iPhone killer some are claiming? I don't think so.

While we're impressed by what we've seen so far, we think it simply falls into a different category of phone. That doesn't mean Instinct doesn't have huge potential.

There are plenty of people who don't care what platform their cell phone runs on, let alone if it is labeled a smartphone. They require a simple-to-use mobile handset that offers plenty of the services and features they want at an affordable price. Instinct could fit the bill nicely.

To make sure people know it exists, Owens said Sprint is launching its biggest advertising campaign ever, larger than previous ones by a factor of three, to support Instinct's launch. After all, as Owens pointed out, all the press the iPhone received leading up to its much-hyped release last June resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in free publicity for Apple. If it wants anything comparable for Instinct, Sprint knows it'll have to generate the publicity itself.

See next page for more images of Instinct.