Upstart UpStage: It connects TECH TOYS >>
Sprint UpStart media phone earns a flipped thumbs up with ability to stream live video and download music on the go in rural areas of Virginia
Date published: 4/28/2007
By Michael Zitz
Sprint's Samsung SPH-M620 UpStage media phone: $149.
On-the-go, over-the-air song downloads from the Sprint Music Store: 99 cents each.
Live Sprint TV subscription: $9.99 a month.
Being the first in your office to find out who the father of Anna Nicole's baby was (while watching MSNBC News live on your phone at your desk): Priceless.
It has a much lower price and a much more compact profile. But for me, the big thing the Samsung UpStage phone has on Apple's iPhone is media connectivity.
Both phones surf the Internet, send e-mail, have impressive MP3 functionality and play back music and video that has been downloaded from PCs.
But the much-ballyhooed iPhone, set to be launched by Cingular/AT&T in June, won't download music over the air and it won't stream live TV video--two things the UpStage does better than any other phone I've tested.
I got to fiddle with the UpStage in March at the big CTIA cell phone show in Orlando and liked it then for its innovative style, tiny size and cool form factor. After trying it out for the last few weeks here at home, I'm even more impressed.
The UpStage is a great device for users in the Fredericksburg area because, at least for now, Sprint's network is the only one fast enough to stream video, stream music (from Sirius Satellite Radio) and download music here.
In trying out the UpStage over the last few weeks, I've been impressed that it will stream live TV even in rural areas. As a passenger in a car on a trip from Fredericksburg to Richmond via Interstate 95, I watched MSNBC and quickly downloaded songs without a single hiccup all the way through Caroline County.
The live streaming video worked even inside the vault-like Free Lance-Star building, which is so heavily shielded it could withstand a gamma-ray-weapon attack by invaders from the planet Zedtron.
Date published: 4/28/2007
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