Sprint TV and radio are more frustrating than enjoyable. The stream constantly freezes up and I have found that the only way to fix it is to exit the application and start over from the beginning.

The GPS is slow and sometimes slightly inaccurate. I flew out to LA last week and the GPS function couldn’t get me to the 101 expressway. I actually pulled over and dug through my bags for the Mapquest directions that I printed out before I left.

Maybe my expectations have been tainted by the intelligence of the iPod but I feel that the MP3 player on this thing completely lacks anything even resembling intelligence. Sometimes I will load an album onto the SD card and the phone’s software will store the songs alphabetically rather than in the order that they appear on the album. There are other times where I will load an album on to the SD card and it will not show up under “albums” or “artists” when I start the music player. The phone will save the songs alphabetically under the “songs” menu which makes it impossible to listen to a complete album. I haven’t found a way to correct this issue and it drives me crazy.

My biggest issue with this phone is that it is absolutely impossible to see the screen if you are outside in direct sunlight. I have owned numerous phones and have never had this issue until I bought this abysmal piece of junk. I’m not over-exaggerating when I say this. If you use this phone outside on a sunny day, you can only see the faintest image of the phone’s interface . . . making it almost impossible to navigate through the menus and do anything with the phone.

When I first got this phone and opened the box, I thought it was really cool that they provided you with an extra battery and an external battery charger. Now I understand why they did this and I don’t think it is so cool anymore. The battery life on this thing is a complete joke. First off, the phone will only report that the battery is either 100% charged, 60% charged, 40% charged, or low. Often times, it has trouble deciding how much battery life is left. I will fire up the web browser (or any other application) with 60% battery left and the phone will suddenly tell me that the battery is low and will immediately close the application. Once the phone goes back to the main menu, it will report that there is 60% power left again. What good is this thing if I can’t use any of the features with 60% battery life left?

I bought this phone shortly after my iPod photo died and at the time my Sprint contract was expiring. I thought I could use this as a replacement to my iPod and get some cool features as well. Since then, I have shelled out another $200 for a new iPod because the Instinct’s MP3 player is a joke, I’ve dropped numerous calls, and I got lost in LA while using the GPS. I am only two months into my new contract and I am going to head over to the AT&T store after work today and buy an iPhone. I don’t care if I have to pay $200 to break my contract. It’ll be worth it. Besides, I don’t get Sprint coverage in my house and my corporate discount is better with AT&T. My monthly bill for the iPhone will actually be cheaper than what I pay for this garbage.

Despite all of the issues that I have had with Sprint, I have put up with them for 6 years because it was convenient NOT to switch providers. I will actually thank Sprint for releasing this phone in the sorry state that it is in because they finally gave me the motivation that I needed to break my contract and go elsewhere.

I personally am looking forward to the Palm Pre, hopefully that phone will keep up to its promises