Sprint announces Samsung UpStage, 99 cent songs over the air - Engadget Mobile

Sprint announces Samsung UpStage, 99 cent songs over the air

As , Sprint has announced the SPH-m620 "UpStage" dual-faced musicphone today, giving Sprint a decided "wow" factor in its lineup -- for the moment, at least. Manufacturers seem to be turning to unusual form factors in an effort to gain some differentiation in a crowded high-end and specialty phone marketplace, and the UpStage fills the bill nicely with a full side devoted to traditional phone activities -- "calls, text messaging, and contact management" to use Sprint's verbage -- while the entirety of the flip side takes the form of a traditional MP3 player; a button press switches between sides. Naturally, the phone offers a microSD slot for up to 2GB of external storage, a 1.

3 megapixel camera, and stereo Bluetooth, while an included 3.5mm jack adapter lets folks use more traditional headsets if they so choose; even cooler, incoming calls are announced via text-to-speech while you're jamming out. Also included is a Music Manager app for sideloading tunes to the phone via USB and a unique "battery wallet" boosting the phone's stamina for playing music up to a solid 16 hours or 6.

3 hours of talk time (up from 2.5 hours talk time without) -- you sacrifice a bit of girth from the phone's normal, svelte 1.73 x 4.

07 x 0.37 inch form, but for music junkies, the tradeoff may be worth it. Simultaneously with the phone's release in early April, Sprint will be offering 99 cent over the air (nice!

) music downloads good on its entire Music Store catalog, which we reckon is just perfect for a phone of the UpStage's nature. Look for it to hit shelves for $149 on a two-year agreement with a $50 rebate available.

I have gotten to use this phone and it is really nice.

It's barely bigger (thicker) than my gf's iPod nano that I compared it to. The touch UI is very nice. Sure, it's not a perfect device (main flaw is texting on the phone side), but nothing really is these days.

It WILL be my next phone (upgrade from A900) and hopefully very soon. Unfortunately the people at the Sprint store today were still clueless about it.

but how do you set it down?

lol, this thing looks amazing, too bad it doesnt come in canada

beautiful. time to unlock this bad boy
Daddy like!!

! Time to UpStage the old Sprint fone! (BWAH HAH HAH HAH!

!!)

my girl friend just got this phone, its different for the sake of being different but its not better.

The controls are confusing and the extra lcd screen isnt necasairy.

yessss i want a nice music player/phone.
dual faced phone.

.oh man thats so cool!!

Sprint PCS brand new from the begining all lucent technology all the way up...

The UpStage is just that a lot of phone squeezed into a wafer thin package with a new dynamic of front and back use...

just another fun way to flip a phone...

my business cells right now are Sprint all the way-Send it this way-Thanks-George

Have a nice day everyone. :)
What will they think of next! I'd like a three sided phone myself!

Sprint eh? Yeah, I could do Sprint. Oh, I'm drooling for this.

Send it quickly please.

This would make a nice graduation present for me.
I guess I could go back to Sprint and be gouged if a nice phone came along.

...

.

Hopefully Apple will get the hint and offer iTunes downloads directly to the iPhone!
I will never go back to sprint.

ill sprint a few miles to get this phone!!
Gives a whole new meaning to flip phone.

I work for Sprint. Sprint is betting big time on this beautiful beast. Personally I have to feel the phone, coz its a weirdest concept phone :)
Another me too - thanks for the contests guys!

This phone is a phone and a MP3 player, FTW I want one!
Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.
To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you.

You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted no need to use p or br tags.