As repeatedly announced starting April, Sprint has released today, June 20, its Samsung Instinct touchscreen handset, presented from the beginning not only as an iPhone competitor but also as a device that can easily outperform Apple's handset. Well, the Instinct is now available for purchase, priced at $129.99, so that everyone can try its capabilities. Of course, not "everyone" in the full meaning of the word, but only those who don't mind getting an unlimited data plan (at $69.99 per month) after signing a contract agreement for two years.

Sprint wants to be a generous carrier and, in the initial $129 price for Samsung Instinct, it also offers a 2GB memory card, a set of 3.5mm headphones (with microphone), a carrying case and a stylus. The Instinct can be bought online, from Sprint's official website, or in all of the carrier's US stores.

With an elegant design and at 4.6 x 2.2 x 0.5 inches (117 x 56 x 12.7 mm) and 4.5 ounces (127 grams), the Instinct can easily be seen as a fashionable handset. Moreover, specs-wise, the phone is quite cool. It features GPS, EV-DO connectivity for high speed data transfers, a 3.1 inch TFT touchscreen display with 240 x 400 pixels, full HTML browser, Sprint Email, Sprint TV, Sprint Music Store, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, Microsoft's Live Search, speaker-independent voice dialing, a 2 Megapixel camera with video, and expandable memory (up to 8GB). Plus, unlike some other touchscreen handset that a guy named Steve Jobs is trying to take over the world with, the Instinct is MMS-capable.

Instinct's 1000 mAh battery can provide up to 5.75 hours of talk-time. Its stand-by time capabilities are not known and that's because of Sprint's weird way of presenting its phones without including this detail.

In conclusion, American users can buy, as of today, a device comparable to Apple's iPhone 3G, which will be released no earlier than July 11.