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

[aztracker1]

Personally, I think it's a horrible idea, the first problem, what kind of case, carrying/clip is going to be available. The fact that you have one screen in your hand, and another against your face when not using the headset is another (smudgy filthy screen). Not being able to setup playlists on the side that controls playback is a bad idea all around.

Honestly, if you want a decent phone with mp3 playback there are more than a few options out there with mp3 playback, and MicroSD support. I'm using a Nokia 6133, the music interface isn't so great, but is good enough to get through a workout without the need for an extra device (leash).

I think that overall the "Chocolate" line of phones seems to be the best mix of cell + mp3, the biggest limitation on any of them is capacity. It really isn't *SO* hard to have a usable interface for music playback, and regular general phone usage. I honestly like the idea of music in my phone as it's one less device to carry around, but honestly, my iPod is still going to be my preferred device for this. This phone is a gimmick, and to be honest, just seems like something that will annoy people after more than a day of using the thing... Ala nokia's nGage, which was a cool idea, poorly executed...

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.

Re:double sided phone?

[superpete]

I don't mean to criticise you, but have you ever owned any of the new phones at all? I've only ever seen one phone with a colour screen crack. Compare this to the old Nokia 5110 which had a recall for screens just failing. In fact, I've seen more monochrome screens fail or crack then I have any colour phone displays. On the other side, I don't see what makes this phone so special. Almost every phone on the market here in Australia has MP3 Playback support. In fact you can pick up a Sony Ericsson W300i walkman phone for AU$200 as a prepaid option.

Phone vs multimedia GUI?

[nebaz]

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

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...

Re:Phone vs multimedia GUI?

[kjart]

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

This is a solution, but I wouldn't say it's the solution. I currently have a PDA-phone and though the touchscreen is nice for the PDA aspects, having to use it for dialing is a pain. Having to a) look at the screen and b) use two hands to do almost everything (as opposed to dialing single-handed and without looking on a normal handset, for example) is a pain. I'm glad cell phone makers are not all on-board with the touchscreen thing because I still think there keypads make for far superior phones. If I didn't have a phone provided through work (hence the lame PDA-phone), I'd possibly consider one of these things.

$300

[mastershake_phd]

$300 isnt too bad. Seems like phones have been getting too close to PS3 price territory.

"Looks To..."

[Telephone Sanitizer]

"Samsung's UpStage Looks To Trump iPhone"

And fails.

Okay, I have no experience with the phone. I'm just saying that as with all recent Samsung phones, it almost certainly has two fatal weaknesses:

1) the typical Samsung phone interface (designed for the cheap and ignorant and their pet hamsters); and

2) the typical Samsung advanced feature-set (a.k.a. the self-destruct which activates immediately upon using it for anything other than voicemail).

Re:"Looks To..."

[Aqua OS X]

true true.

here's the phone in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-XFK8zOt9E

This think strikes me as another clunky convergence device with a million buttons..

Re:"Looks To..."

[Dan East]

Did you catch the part where the lady from Samsung is showing how you can flip the phone - one side for PDA / playing music and the other for making calls? The Gizmondo guy asks "There's no way to get both, right?", to which she replies "No, you wouldn't want them both.". Oh, really? So if I'm in the middle of a phone call and want to lookup a piece of information, or take down a piece of information, or do something as terribly extreme as using a calculator app, then I'm out of luck? I just love the way these marketing people dictate what people are supposed to want. Instead of saying "No, there is a technical limitation" or "We just couldn't get that flexibility into the first generation" she responds with something more along the line of "People smarter than you decided this is how you are going to use this phone".

Sorry, that just really jumped out at me.

Dan East

Re:"Looks To..."

[AaronLawrence]

You could presumably switch it to speakerphone, or you might be using a bluetooth earpiece. Or you can just say "wait a sec"...
It's not like you can use a normal smartphone while talking on it.

Re:"Looks To..."

[glesga_kiss]

So if I'm in the middle of a phone call and want to lookup a piece of information, or take down a piece of information, or do something as terribly extreme as using a calculator app, then I'm out of luck?

Unless you are on hands-free, every other phone is like that. Unless you have eyes above your ears? :-)

Still, telling customers how they should be using it is very backwards.

Ironic name.

[Anonymous Coward]

Ironic name, seeing as they're trying to upstage Apple with their product. Wonder what PR genius thought that up. Gives me a chuckle, at least.

Re:Ironic name.

[hc5duke]

Ironic? You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means...

How does it trump?

[SuperKendall]

It has a smaller screen, and what sounds like (to me) a more confusing UI that will really get fingerprints and palm prints on the device since you are always turning it over in your hands... And it has its own software for sync. Chances that is better than iTunes?

Also, as you get into pure touchscreen devices (which the media side of this is) then the in-phone UI is crucial, and Apple has shown they can do a good job with consumer UI in small devices.

Now what does sound like a kind of good idea, is the battery pouch where it recharges its smaller battery. That is an interesting ide to keep the device size down while keeping battery life good and shifting some weight to your hip where it an be borne easier.

uPhone?

[dotslashdot]

Shouldn't they just call it uPhone? That way, when someone asks, "iPhone?", you can reply, "No. uPhone."

WhaHuh?

[Telvin_3d]

Um, how does this have anything to do with the iPhone? What is the point in comparing the two devices? For all I know this phone will turn out to be successful, but it is a completely different product.

iPhone - 4-8 GB of storage
Upstage - 64 MB (HA! yes Megabyte!)

iPhone - 3.5 inch screen at 320x480
Upstage - 2.1 inch screen at 176x220

iPhone - Ability to upload your own video content
Upstage - Access to Sprint TV video clips

Why are these being compared? They are not in the same product class or market.

Re:WhaHuh?

[carpe_noctem]

Why are these being compared? They are not in the same product class or market.

Because it's an "iPhone killer", duh!

Oh wait.... since the iPhone hasn't been released yet, I guess that would instead make it an "iPhone aborter"..

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.

Already Obsolete

[bmo]

The blurb in the ad says that it's upgradable to 2GB.

Sorry, but the new SD cards are 4GB. Devices that max out at 2GB don't even see that the card exists.

A coworker bought one to stuff in his smartphone. He should have read the fine print.

--
BMO

Re:Already Obsolete

[Geekner]

It is hard to find high capacity SD cards that work in most devices. First, most devices have restrictions like filesystems and older SD specifications for the card reader. Only revised SD specs support 4GB cards. Even worse, there are new SDHC (Secure digital high capacity) cards, special cards that use a completely different filesystem and make it even harder to find the right card for your device. For example, while looking for a card for my palm tx, palm's website stated a max of 2gb for SD cards. It turned out, since the TX has support for fat32, you can use non-SDHC 4gb cards without issues (possibly goes for trio phones too). Some devices don't support fat32 at all, so they must use 2gb cards with fat16. Even worse, older devices use early SD specifications, which do not support 2gb at all. Its quite a mess, but overall I still like SD cards over the other types of memory I have tried. I just wish more MP3 players supported full size SD, the sansa players I have seen only support miniSD.

One word:

[Goatboy]

Ugly.

How can you compare something that looks like a cellphone and an mp3 player stuck together back to back with something as undeniably sleek and well-designed as the iPhone?

C'mon cell phone manufacturers, it's not that hard, hire some designers can actually design something that looks good and is functional - this is all that Apple does, it really is as simple as that; they've proven that people will pay extra for something that is beautiful and 'just works'

To paraphrase Ballmer: "Designers! Designers! Designers!"

Re:One word:

[Ed Mooring]

"C'mon cell phone manufacturers, it's not that hard, hire some designers can actually design something that looks good and is functional - this is all that Apple does, it really is as simple as that; they've proven that people will pay extra for something that is beautiful and 'just works'"

It actually is that hard. You don't just go out and hire a designer. You need to spend time and money figuring out what people want so your brilliant designer can make something that is "beautiful and 'just works'".
PHBs don't understand this, so you get something that the PHB thinks that other people think is cool. Unfortunately PHBs aren't cool, and rarely ever get it.

Re:One word:

[kjart]

Ugly.

Some people don't judge things based on appearance. Attractive does not necessarily mean usable and ugly does not necessarily mean unusable. My old blackberry was significantly more easy to use than my current Windows Mobile phone but it doesn't look nearly as nice.

I simply don't understand ...

[TheRealNecator]

Why is the iPhone the reference?
1) It even isn't there yet.
2) Most of those fancy Windows Mobile (and versions before) were touchscreen only bar like phones ... what is the new thing about that iPhone -- except, that you are not allowed to use your own software?

So, may somebody tell me the great thing about the iPhone, besides that it is from Apple?

stylus

[arcite]

But using a stylus is annoying. They are usually smaller than a pen or pencil so they are uncomfortable to use for long periods of time. And then what happens when you lose it? IMO iPhone uses a much better technology...human fingers.

Faster approval?

[ktappe]

The supposed reason we're waiting for the iPhone (at least for those of us who are waiting for it) is that Apple needed 5 months to get FCC approval for it. How are all these "iPhone killer" rivals getting their products to market faster? Sure, one could say "they started first" but when why don't we know about their products already? Apple seemed deathly afraid of not being able to keep their application secret, but it is said they could not keep it secret any longer once they submitted it to the FCC. This implies that if there is an "iPhone killer" out there, its application to the FCC is on file and all we need to do is check with the FCC or get a spy there to leak the info. N'est pas?

Whatever happened

[chuckymonkey]

to using a phone to talk to people? I have a cell phone under protest and that's all I use it for. My camera takes better pictures and my mobile music player holds much more music and can be strapped to my arm. So why this insistance on making a phone a small computer. Some use it for work sure, and I don't get that really. Work stays at work for me, family is much more important.

Urg

[grrrl]

Surely the screen sizes are the wrong way around?

My Ericsson T18 had a screen that big, and while you can certainly SMS with only two lines of text that was the good old days when we SMSd in the snow and liked it, or something. I think we are well past that now - seeing the entire message on the screen is a little more user-friendly.

For music though, you don't need as much space - the iPod nano only has 6 or 7 lines per page and is very usable.

Supports java too

[LarsWestergren]

Runs J2ME, so I can use one of the many open SSH implementations, GMaps, lots of great games etc.

Being more open and home brew friendly makes this much more attractive to me than the iPhone.

American Phones Suck

[paulkimchee]

I'm in Korea right now, and the technology that they put into phones is amazing. They've had DMB http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Multimedia_Br oadcasting in their phones for about a year now... The cameras in their phones go up to 5 megapixels, broadband internet (WiBro)... they have tons of phones that trump the iPhone... hands down, but not in the US market. When Samsung exports phones to the US, we're getting phones that Korea had 2-3 years ago...

Cluster

[Morky]

A Beowulf cluster of these things couldn't upstage the iPhone.

Two things I want in my new phone

[tsa]

WiFi and Skype. If it can't do that, I won't buy it. I'm only interested in calling cheap. That what a phone is for. Skype is the cheapest way I know to call people, provided they also have a Skype account.

Moo

[Chacham]

The UpStage trumped the iPhone, which killed the iPod, which replaced the Flight Data Recorder, which ...