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Author: simplyfree.biz

Description: Features

The Samsung UpStage comes with a feature set that strongly complements its conversation-piece exterior. We'll address the basics first. The phone book is smaller than we expected, with a capacity of just 500 contacts. Each entry has room for five phone numbers, e-mail and Web addresses, notes, and a nickname. You can save callers to groups or pair them with a photo or one of 29 polyphonic ring tones.

Other essentials include a vibrate mode, text and multimedia messaging, a calculator, an alarm clock, a world clock, a memo pad, and a planner. And on the higher end, the UpStage offers voice commands and dialing, mass USB storage, instant messaging and e-mail, and a speakerphone. Bluetooth also is on board, and thankfully, the UpStage includes stereo and object exchange profiles. Indeed, we were able to transfer a photo onto the phone with no problem. The UpStage comes with 70MB of internal shared memory. That's a bit on the low side, but a 64MB MicroSD card also comes in the box. If you're going to be a heavy music user, the UpStage can accommodate 2GB cards.

Of course, the UpStage is all about music. Its offerings in that department are similar to Sprint's other music phones, but they're satisfying on the whole. You can access Sprint Music Store for simultaneous downloads both to your PC and wirelessly to your phone. Alternatively, you can use Sprint's Sync Manager software and the included USB cable to transfer songs already on your PC to the phone. The onboard digital music player is nothing too fancy. Though you get album art, the features are limited to repeat and shuffle modes and you can't use MP3s as ring tones. Hopefully, Sprint will improve the dull and somewhat plodding music interface soon.

The UpStage comes with an airplane mode for turning off the phone's calling functions while listening to music in flight. You can also minimize the music player in order to use applications while your tunes are playing. If you don't have a stereo Bluetooth headset, Samsung includes a 3.5mm headphone adapter in the box. It's doesn't actually include headphones too; rather, it's just a microphone and the proprietary connection for the UpStage.

As an EV-DO phone, the UpStage offers full support for Sprint's 3G services. You can connect to Sprint's Power Vision streaming video services for a variety of content, much of which is exclusive to Sprint. Included are Sprint TV, which offers movie previews and programming from channels such as CNN, VH1, ESPN, Comedy Central, and the Cartoon Network, as well as from the carrier's PowerView service, which offers additional shows and downloadable content. If radio is your thing, you also can stream tunes form Sirius Radio. Sprint Movies delivers full-length, pay-per-view movies straight to your phone, while mobile podcasts are available from Samsung on a broad range of topics. Furthermore, you get Sprint's On Demand service for access to a host of information such as news headlines, sports scores, and weather updates personalized for your zip code, In all, there's an impressive assortment of options