Samsung UpStage: Up Close and Personal

Sprint and Samsung made a splash yesterday with their new flipper phone, the dual-screen UpStage (a U.S. version of the Samsung Ultra Music F300), and last night I took the svelte handset for a quick test drive. Roughly the same size as last year's wafer-thin darling, the Samsung SGH-T509, the UpStage felt a bit heavy in my hands, even though it only weighs about 2.6 ounces. On the "front" of the phone, as advertised, are all your standard calling and messaging functions, including a numeric keypad, a four-way navigational control and a sliver of a screen. As I feared, the small display isn't much good for texting; you can only see about three lines of text, which is sure to cramp the style of SMS fanatics.

Press the "flip" button on the side of the phone and you'll activate the music functions on—you guessed it—the flip side. I liked the UpStage's music splash screen, which lets you jump right into your list of tunes, but if you were hoping for slick, seamless music experience, you'll be sorely disappointed. The UpStage uses Sprint's standard music store interface, which has always been a bit on the boring side; even Verizon Wireless' tricky V Cast Music application looks more polished. I also had some trouble with the boxy touch-sensitive music controller; you're supposed to swipe across or up and down with your fingertip to navigate the various menus, and while it's workable, it's a poor substitute for a wheel-shaped controller, a la the Apple iPod. You can also access the UpStage's main menu from the music side of the phone, including all the applications and the messaging interface, but good luck composing a text message without the numeric keypad.

On the plus side, I loved the bundled wallet accessory that doubles as an extra battery. Plug the UpStage into the little wallet and you'll get an extra four-plus hours of talk time, or up to 16 hours of music playback. Also, when the phone is attached to the power wallet, the handset drains the wallet battery before switching to the internal battery. Pretty cool—but without the wallet, the UpStage only delivers about two-and-a-half hours of talk time.