This week at CTIA, Samsung and Sprint launched the Samsung Instinct, a shameless iPhone knockoff. So how does it compare?

UGO's Elizabeth Yun likes it. "It packs some added features that make it a bit more user-friendly than the iPhone," she writes. "There are three shortcut buttons on the bottom as opposed to the iPhone's one - a home button, a back button that steps you back to the previous screen, and a phone button that takes you immediately into call mode. Its home screen has a useful Favorites menu that's customizable so you can add all your most commonly accessed functions, web sites and TV channels. It also features haptic feedback so every time you touch a key, it gives you a slight vibration response to let you know your command registered. Appearance-wise, it's less sleek than the iPhone but it's narrower and lighter."

"Whereas the iPhone's operating system is one of the most advanced ever, with huge potential for developers to create a wide variety of consumer and, eventually, business applications, Instinct runs on a proprietary platform with a Java application layer," writes SmartPhoneToday's James Alan Miller. "While that means their will be plenty of software available for Instinct when it launches, you won't see the same level of sophistication from third-party developers as you do now unofficially and soon will officially with the iPhone or other types of smartphones."

InformationWeek's Eric Zeman is unimpressed, saying the touch interface on the Instinct was "somewhat klugdy, requiring multiple taps to get the phone to respond. Samsung and Sprint reiterated many times that the Instinct device is still running a beta version of the software, and that all the kinks will be worked out come the June launch of the device. After seeing no less than three different Instinct demo units crash while using them, I'd have to say that Samsung and Sprint really need the next two months of development time..."

More here from CNET ... more here from BusinessWeek ... more here from IntoMobile ... more here from SlipperyBrick ... more here from Crave ... more here from I4U News ... more here from Mobiledia ... more here from Electronista ... and more here from the AP.