Review: Sprint UpStage Mobile Phone
With a retail price of only $99, Sprint’s new Samsung M620 UpStage phone offers incredible value with some highly touted abilities. In this review, I’ll let you know whether the UpStage mobile phone is worth your trouble. Sprint sent me the UpStage as part of their Ambassador program. You might remember last year when I participated in Sprint’s first phase of their Ambassador program and took a Samsung A920 for a test drive. Hopefully Sprint’s latest UpStage offering will perform better.
Form Factor/Aesthetics
For comparison: My Pantech C300 (”world’s smallest camera phone”) and the UpStage.
I remember when I first received the UpStage about 2 months ago. I picked up this package at the student center on my way to class. I hurriedly opened up the boxed and was amazed at the size of the UpStage. To say it is small is like saying a mountain is big - it just doesn’t do it any justice. The UpStage is 0.37-inches thin, 4.07-inches long, 1.73-inches wide and weighs under 3 ounces. Impressively, it’s only slightly larger than my 1st Gen iPod Nano.
Subtle chrome accents round out the stealth black appearance of the UpStage.
Features
As you can tell from the name, the UpStage is centered around being a media device. It seems as though Sprint wanted to take their music store to the next level by pushing out the UpStage. The Sprint Music Store, which can play audio through the UpStage’s internal speaker or through headphones via an included dongle adapter, is the highlight of the UpStage’s software. The store provides over-the-air song downloads, which take about one to one and a half minutes per song on average with the EV-DO connection.
The UpStage also lets you play music in the background while you text message or surf the web. Unfortunately, the phone only comes with a whopping 64MB MicroSD card (about one CD of music), so your music will have finished playing before you’re done browsing. I really don’t understand why Sprint/Samsung doesn’t include a larger MicroSD card. Just browsing on Amazon I spotted a 512MB MicroSD card for under $10. The largest you can go with the UpStage is a 2GB card.
In addition, Sprint bundled a PC application called Sprint Music Manager that allows you to, well, manage the music on your PC and UpStage. The most useful feature of the software is the ability to upload unprotected songs from your computer to the phone.
Continuing with the UpStage’s multimedia theme, there is Sprint TV and the ability to play streaming music from Sirius, VH1 and MTV. However many of these channels tack on an additional monthly service charge that I doubt many people will want to pay for. $9.99 extra per month for “Sprint TV Live”? No thanks, I’d rather indulge in a foot long Quizno’s sub once per month. However, if you do get suckered into find value in these add-on channels, you’ll be able to enjoy them with the UpStage’s vibrant 2.1-inch display which I’ll expand upon later.
As for the quality, it has improved substantially from what I remember with my experience with the Samsung A920. There are times when the video will be choppy/hang and it takes about 20 seconds for the video to initially buffer and load before it can begin playing. However, after endlessly browsing through the channels and content offered on Sprint TV I don’t see any value. Much of the content is just a bunch of short clips - nothing you can really sit down and watch on your CalTrain ride from San Jose to San Francisco. Regardless of the limitations (small screen, loading times), I don’t think mobile video as implemented in Sprint TV can succeed unless the content is worthwhile. Where are my full-length episodes of 24 and Heroes?
Camera
To my surprise, the 1.3MP camera on the UpStage is outstanding (for a cell phone camera). It also takes video clips but with my experience those weren’t anything special. Not much else to say about it, but here are a few example UpStage pictures taken while on a mobile scavenger hunt on Georgia Tech campus for my social media course last semester.
Compare those to pictures taken by my old Motorola Q, which also had a 1.3MP camera. In general, it appeared that the Motorola’s pictures tended to have washed out colors.
The Main Attraction
The UpStage has turned heads with its dual-sided design separating media functions from phone functions. One side has a very small LCD along with all the usual phone buttons while the other side has a much larger display, and a touch-sensitive navigation pad.
But if I’m browsing the web on the “media” side, how can I enter text? You’ll quickly become familiar and annoyed with “flipping”. Whenever you want to enter text, you’ll often be prompted to flip the phone which turns off one screen and turns on the other and enables the buttons on that side of the phone. In day to day usage, this inconvenience was a deal breaker for me. I often browsed the web with the UpStage and constantly flipping the phone to enter new URLs got old very fast.
The “phone” side.
Alternatively you may choose to battle it out by entering text with the “media” side but this method of text entry is rather slow.
The “media” side.
The touch-sensitive navigation pad found on the “media” side caused the most aggravation for me. Sometimes it was too sensitive and sometimes repeatedly pummeling it with my finger wouldn’t even register with it. You have the ability to adjust the sensitivity from 1 to 5 but I could not find a setting that made it just work. Combine that with a UI that seems a tad under performing (although, don’t get me wrong it’s much faster than the A920 from what I remember) and you’ll often press the pad one too many times and have to go in the opposite direction because the phone is always a step behind you.
As an example, if you’re browsing through the menu and you accidentally select something like On Demand, you’ll have to wait for it to load before you can exit. If Samsung had skipped trying to be fancy with the touch-sensitive pad and just stuck with traditional buttons that provide oh-so-satisfying tactile feedback, they could have saved money and created a better phone.
Wrap Up
Sprint’s marketing of the Samsung M620 as a do-it-all yet reasonably priced media device is changing the industry. The UpStage is, to my knowledge, the first phone with such powerful features and unique design to sell for $99 (can be found for $49 with rebate). Also, Sprint has since restructured pricing on their music store from the A920 days where each song was $2.49 - songs are now 99 cents and can be downloaded over-the-air. They really want people to use their phones as more than just phones.
In my post about the A920 I talked about how using a phone as a media device is pointless and that most people carry iPods with them anyways. I still stand by that. The music player on the UpStage takes 4-8 seconds to open up and then 2-3 seconds to load a song you want to play. It’s just not a viable music solution at the moment. Do you rely on your mobile phone for media playback?
The usability of the UpStage is fundamentally flawed with the necessity to flip the phone. The quirky touch-sensitive, feedback-less pad also detracted from the phone’s ease of use. Considering the features, price and drawbacks I would give the Sprint UpStage a 7 out of 10.
Oh I forgot to mention the battery life. With the internal battery you’ll get about 2.5 hours of continuous talk time. However, Sprint bundled a great case with an integrated battery which boosts the continuous talk time to 6.3 hours. Okay, so what does that translate to in real world speak? Relatively crappy battery life. You can always use the battery case but you’ll look like an idiot talking with that thing on.
I also forgot to mention the UpStage has bluetooth support that allows you to utilize its EV-DO Internet access capabilities on your computer.
Nice review mate.
Media playback on phones, never. And even if you that on this phone, do consider the battery.
Secondly, the interface seems quite cluttered on the smallish screen they have.
I’ve played around with the UpStage a few times (I work for a mobile phone carrier).
Personally, I hated how it felt in my hand and controlled but it looks like the trend to mimic the Motorola Razr won’t be going away anytime soon.
Awesome review.
Yeah these do-everything in a teeny-tiny-package (phones, pda’s, and ultra-compact computers) hardly ever have decent battery these days. Maybe someone will come along and figure out a better battery technology and save us all.
@Jeremy - wireless power is the future! haha
I got the same phone after i got out of basic military training…
paul, do you know how to transfer photos via usb?
Ralph, I haven’t tried that. I usually just email the photos to myself or my flickr email address.
Great review! To answer your question, I don’t use my phone for music ;) Then again I only have a pebl that is godly hacked. Well not godly. Great review!
I probably have the phone that is the best for music: Nokia N91 (4gb memory, front media keys, wifi, and etc.). Even though it’s loaded with 2-2.5 gigs of music right now I almost always use my iPod.
Never been a fan of Samsung, in terms of usability and functionality of cell phones, Sony and Nokia are clearly far ahead.
I never have been a fan of the interfaces on most sprint phones. While I do believe that it is inevitable that media and such will eventually be on the cell phone as a viable device (the entire industry is simply pushing too hard in that direction for it to NOT happen), its still not there yet. I have a sidekick 3, and I’ve never used the mp3 player on there at all. A buddy of mine has the same phone, and uses it all the time…go figure.
I shall continue to wait until I get to play with the iPhone. Not long now….
I am really impressed with the camera on that thing. I get the feeling that mobile makers, (in Europe anyway), are holding back till they know how much damage the iPhone will make.
Always had Nokia phones, can’t get to grips with the Samsung interface.
Nice post!
worst phone i ever had i gets freze a lot the 5 way sensitive navigator totally hate it it sucks it dosn’t let me move faster
Some thoughts not mentioned in the review:
No FM Tuner! (if only).
Can’t play back mp4 videos
Flipping back and forth is NOT that big of a deal.
Does play MP4 (itunes) music by just copying onto Micro SD Card came with phone
Copying Videos and Pictures (high rez) a challenge to change the extension to get the phone to view the photos.
Its light…aka ipod light! Armband coming soon from Sprint!
Stereo headphones adapter is a horrible idea (who wants more cords?).
Works as a disk drive on Mac and Windows (to copy music is a cinch).
iPhone will crush this phone (I wish it were not so!).
I just recently purchased this phone and it’s very good with so little flaws. The biggest one I see which I’m sure can be fixed, does anyone know how to make your music in general load faster?? I have 57 songs on it right now, and after I press “All My Music”, it takes me to a loading screen where it literally takes about 10 MINUTES to load all of the 57 songs. Can’t seem to find a faster way and of course, the user guide reads as if loading doesn’t even exist. NEED HELP!!
song loading only take a few seconds for me, flipping is not that big of deal.
The wanna-be iPod touchpad on this phone is maddening and almost renders all the cool features pointless. What good are any of it’s functions if the user input mechanism is always a hassel? They should have just used the same click pad that they have on the phone side on the mp3 player side. It’s a sexy cool little phone with some neat features that are a real challenge to use thanks to a terrible input device.
Thanks for a great review… My husband and I just ordered this phone and await the arrival of UPS to deliver them.. Your information is outstanding.. You should probably be doing TV commercials for SprintPCS….
Thanks again
I’ve had the phone for about two weeks now and am pretty satisfied. The phones people are comparing the Samsung to are large and clunky by comparison. The IPod is huge! I want something that can fit in my pocket, work as a decent phone and eliminate the need for a separate MP3 player. It’s great for me and the input on the music side just takes some getting used to. I am quite satisfied and the red phone looks totally cool!
Now, can someone tell me how I get my contact information from my computer to the phone. I was told it was no problem and a cable was included. I cannot seem to find a way to sync the phone with my outlook contacts. Can anyone help.
By the way, the MP3 downloads from my PC were no problem.
hey, on my phone it is taking about 5 minutes to load only about 80 songs every time I open the music library. Anyone have any ideas how to fix that?
I have the same problem with loading the music. If any one knows how to fix that please let me know. I called Sprint tech support and spoke to them for an hour, no one seems to know what’s wrong with it. I went to a Sprint repair store, the technician told me that the problem might be the speed of my memory card. I try a diferrent card and I still have the same problem.
To add to my post above. It takes about 25-30 minutes to load about 259 songs every time I go to the music library.
I found another way to play music on the phone without having to wait so long. The downside is that you can’t multitask while using this particular method whereas you can multitask using the one that take so long.
Here is the other way:
*Go to Menu
*Click on Tools
*Click on Mass Storage
*Click on File Manager
*Click on Memory Card
*Click on Music
These six steps should get you to your music faster.
But if any one how get the music faster using the other method please let me know.
Alright, update on the slow music loading, all of my songs were in wma format, so I tried erasing the memory card and using actual mp3 files and the loaded much quicker. I only had time to try four .mp3 songs but those four loaded almost instantly, much better than about 30 seconds for four songs earlier. Hopefully this is all the issue is.
Dan,
I hope that works, but I think the number of songs affects the speed. I tried a new momery card after I was told by Sprint that the card might be the problem. I added 10 songs and tested it. The songs loaded immediately, but when I added 20 songs, it back to the slow way. I will try the mp3 format with about 20 songs to see if it works.
What is the process to get mp4/itunes songs onto my upstage? Do I need a card reader or can I use the USB cable with the music manager? Thanks.
First off, thank you to the post of going directly to mass storage and playing music from there. Much quicker and a great tip.
Riddle me this batman… When playing the music directly from mass storage, I have this Windows Media type pictures that “dance” around. Why don’t I see the same thing when playing music the other way?
Sway,
I don’t have an answer to this one, but I’ll let you know if I find one. As for the slow music loading, Dan was correct that wma files are slower to load on the upstage than mp3 files. I erased by memory card and converted all my wma files to mp3. Now my 321 songs load in about 2-3 seconds.
First, great review! Second, I wonder why it takes your phones so long to load your music. I have 400 songs on mine and it loads them in about 10 seconds or less. I absolutely love this phone!
i have the upstage:
upside. if you buy a new memory card (1 gig is available from say fry’s or comp usa etc) and its about 34.99
64 mb card which it comes with fits about 14-16 songs
but a gig is over 1200 mb’s so thats WAY more.
downside: you have to LOAD ur songs each time to be able to view them on the mp3 player side, which I have about 150 songs and it takes a few minutes to load. if i want to listen between classes or something that doesn’t work because by the time all the ongs load i’m already at my next class. ANNOYING. wish i had an ipod.
no speaker phone
can’t delete more than one text at a time, and each time u get a new text, it tells u your mailbox is full and that it will delete your oldest text, which is already explained in your options. PRETTY ANNOYING.
upside: the extra battery pack which adds 6 hours of talk time. totally awesome and when listening to music, you can listen for a LONGGG TIMMME without diminishing any battery.
downside: you can’t put it down without worrying about the screen of whatever side you put it down on, it doesnt have a stand or something, and the battery pack is a little too large for my taste.
did i mention no speaker phone?
and flipping definitely gets annoying. and i wish it had the circular sweeping motion on the touch pad side, not just left and right. and its hot where i live so people have clammy hands. gets hard to use the touch pad side.
hey! that tip about the menu to reach music helped a lot:
*Go to Menu
*Click on Tools
*Click on Mass Storage
*Click on File Manager
*Click on Memory Card
*Click on Music
but all my music IS in mp3 format and i have about 150 songs and it still takes about 3 minutes to load. ANNOYING……
FSC: awesome that you figured that out.. what brand memory card do you have? i’m wondering what the issue could be..
Nik,
I have the SanDisk MicroSD. It’s two gigs. I had the same problem loading my music because they were all in WMA format. Once I changed them to mp3, my songs load in seconds (about four seconds) and I have 331 songs on mine.
As the other issues, the upstage has a speaker. when you’re on a call press option (three dots on the right side), highlight speaker and press ok. You speaker should turn on.
I don’t have any problems with texting. It could be a problem with that specific phone. I suggest you take to a sprint store for diagnostic.
thanks fsc :)
If you can, how do you put songs from iTunes onto the Sprint UpStage?? I’m so confused about that…
oh, you can use speaker phone, you know. While your talking to someone, just click the button with the three dots on the right side and it will say turn speaker phone on or off as one of the options.
I bought the phone primarily for the form factor. Its small and it feels good in the hand. I was originally concerned about the “flipping” but I find I don’t have much need to use the media functions. Simply as a phone, its great.
The main thing for me is that it doesn’t fell like I’m carrying a rock in my pocket.
DELETING TEXT MESSAGES. If you choose to delete your text message while in the inbox, but NOT viewing the actual text, it will give you the option to delete them ALL. :}
Can you upload songs from iTunes using a MAC(book) computer???
If so..
how would I go about doing that?
OH AND…
IS THERE AN INSTALLATION CD OR N E THING THAT NEEDS TO BE DOWNLOADED ON A PC LAPTOP IN ORDER TO DOWNLOAD MUSIC?
When I plug in the USB plug into my laptop as it is connected to my cell… it says it cant find the sofware or w/e it needs to use it…
Am I missing something here???
Please help!!!
You should have gotten the CD with the phone. It should have been in the box with the phone. Use the link below to downloads the Sprint Music Manager. Or you can go back to the place where you bought and ask them to give you the CD.
http://musicmanager.sprint.com/choose_os.php?phone=m620
I have been reading a lot of reviews on this phone, both from this site and others. Are you able to download Limewire or Napster songs to this phone?? Thank you in advance.
Thank you for the post.
I just converted my 400 WAV files to MP3s and it loads like lightning!! It took me over an hour before. Thank you, thank you!
Even erasing the songs via the phone was taking forever. I had to insert the memory card into the adapter and sort by type. For some reason the WAV files were reading as AA files on the memory card. However … they are all gone … and replaced with MP3s and I’m very happy!
i’ve messed around with this phone and i love it, and when ever it rings people get amazed, thinking its some kind of designer phone, i got the 2gb memory card and it only takes like 5 seconds to load 300 songs on my music library i would give this phone 9 out of 10, flipping its not a big deal for me, i like it better than the iphone
yo i have this phone and i love it but even though all my files are mp3 it takes 4EVER!!!! u think its a defect???!!!
lol
im debating what type of phone to get right now and i thought this one would be a good phone to get. i would have to get it in pay as u go and it costs 330 $ for the music version and 350 $ for normal one. any idea why the music version costs less wen it comes with a a 2 gig card n adapter n the other one doesnt? overall is it worth the 330 or should i just get a razr
I cant seem to get new ringers to my phone, i have to download new ones. I have several that a friend downloaded to my phone via bluetooth, but i cant seem to get them to work with my ringtones. the only ones that work are the ones that I downloaded from sprint. Is there another way?
My guess at the music version costing more is they plan to recoup lost costs when you use the sprint music store.
I’m looking at getting this, but i’m thinking i’ll stick with a razr. I know some people don’t mind flipping for texting but when I run through 1500+ texts in a month i think i’d rather have the flip phone.
I accidentally deleted the “all my music” icon from my mass storage. Now it won’t let me load music anymore. Any idea how i can get that back?
I turned my phone off and now I cant turn it back on….any ideas? I’ll have to take it in tomorrow, but it really sucks b/c it’s my alarm clock as well!
Is is kinda cool my cousin has it and he likes it I have the Sprint Muziq and I like that better then the upstage.
i hated this phone
ive had it since august and i have had to get 2 of them
my phone turned off and wouldnt turn back on
im not the only person who had this problem either
i think that this phone has a problem and should not be sold any more
and in some places where i live they WONT sell it anymore because of the problems
so if i were you i would buy the rumor
I got the UpStage last September to trade out a phone I had had for 5 years. I was really excited to experience all the new features on this phone…. but then came the charges. You can’t do much on this phone unless you add it to your plan. All the features are great, but there’s been a few complications I’ve experienced. Firstly, I hate the camera on this phone. All my pictures come out blurry and if there’s a lot of light in the background it’s pointless to take a picture. I don’t know if that’s just a glitch in my phone, or if its universal but oh well. Secondly, the battery life is rediculous. I’ll have it on a full battery when I leave my house and within a few hours (and its on silent mode the whole time) it will be at its second bar (out of three). Right now my battery’s not even taking the charger from the wall (first time its not worked) to charge the phone. My last upset about this phone is that it freezes up a lot. I don’t know what the deal is, but I’ll be texting someone and out of no where my phone will just freeze up.
The good things about this phone are the music (watch for charges when browsing, it adds internet charges) which is great to listen to because the phone looks like an ipod almost, and the sound quality’s good too. I like the feature on this phone where you can set 30 sec. videos you take as your ring tone.
Overall, I really like this phone, but lately its been a huge pain in the neck. Hopefully my phone is just a bad product and the rest of the UpStage owners aren’t having as much difficulty as I am.
My uncle gave me this phone and it was missing all of the accesoris but he found a charger that fits and it wont turn on!!!
this is a dissapointment knowing sprint and samsung can do better!!!
I got the upstege on my birthday last year june6,2007. Is it possible to download windows media player or limewire to my phone.
They forgot to include that it freezes a lot and will randomly not turn back on and you will have to either get a new one or a different phone! :p