Samsung's UpStage Looks To Trump iPhone

bj sends word of Samsung's recently unveiled cell phone, called UpStage. It will ship April 1 (no fooling) for $300, or $150 with a 2-year contract from Sprint Nextel. "...the UpStage is a candy-bar style handset that's less than half an inch thick and not much taller or wider than an iPod Nano. Other multimedia-friendly cell phones struggle to balance the sometimes-conflicting requirements of a conventional handset and a music or video player; the UpStage solves this quandary by simply putting phone functions on one side of the device and the multimedia functions on the other side."

Comments

It's all about the looks

[lemmen]

It doesn't matter if a phone has all nice features, a lot depends on the looks (both physical and OS).
A small phone with MP3 playback option won't win it of iPhone just because of the MP3 functionality.

Just my 2 cts.

Re:It's all about the looks

[Virtual_Raider]

It does have a neat feature that I swear I was thinking about some time ago. That spare battery that charges the phone while in the walled. I should have patented it =( I think its biggest downside would be that flip thingamabob, it just to much annoyance potential. IANAAF (I am not an Apple Fanboy) but I read that Jobs supposedly sent designers back to the drawing board because he was unhappy with the usability of the iPhone. I wonder if the Samsung engineers actually spent any time playing with a functional prototype. I feel it would be pretty hard to use this device the way I use my Nokia 6820: play song - text some SMS - read email - pause music - consult the time. If I had to Flip back and forth all the time for half of this things it would certainly make ME flip :P

Re:It's all about the looks

[arivanov]

The ergonomics on the recent crop of Samsung (quick look at the article shows that this is valid for this one as well) is absolute crap.

To the point - the side buttons which allow it to be narrower and smaller than a comparable phone by other manufacturers make it impossible to fit the phone in a car holder without pressing at least one of them. Further to this, while it is possible to disable them when the phone is inactive they get activated when you answer or call. As a result you end up with your phone being "friendly" and rejecting a call, adjusting the volume or doing something else wonderfull in call for you if you are answering using a handsfree in a car.

No thanks.

I would rather have a slightly bigger and less buggy phone, which I can fit in a proper car holder. Even if Samsung has actually provided a proper headphone socket this time which I bet it did not so you are stuck with the original crappy headphones.

double sided phone?

[Taelron]

You just know we are going to read about these in a couple of months failing because the screens are getting cracked and busted left and right.

Re:double sided phone?

[kjart]

You just know we are going to read about these in a couple of months failing because the screens are getting cracked and busted left and right.

I don't understand - why would having screens on two sides of a phone make them more likely to be damaged? I'd be more worried about the screen on the iPhone since it is a) large and b) the only real input method on the phone. Lets say the the multimedia screen breaks on this device - you still have a functioning phone. If it breaks on the iPhone, you have an expensive brick.

Not exactly in the same league

[edwardpickman]

It's impossible to compare the two. Out of the gate the screen size is nothing like the iPhone and the features and system don't compare. Smaller isn't always better. Remember the old calculators on pens? How many weeks did those last. It's another smart phone not an iPhone killer. Love it or hate it iPhone isn't like other phones on the market so they are tough to accurately compare. In another release or two the differences should get a lot more obvious.

Re:Phone vs multimedia GUI?

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

Wouldn't a stylus approach, with a touch screen allow for arbitrary button placement? Wouldn't this solve this problem?

Gak! Stylus? On a phone - like I really want to need two hands to use my phone...