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.

"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

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.

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.

Cluster

[Morky]

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