Sprint Upstage (Samsung SPH-m620) Review - Messaging
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Alfredo Padilla Published on April 10, 2007 Comment on this |
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Supported Email Services (0.0)
As with most of Sprint's regular phones, the Upstage uses web access for email. We do not score web access email because it fails to provide the ability to read your messages when you are not connected to a data network, nor does it allow you to access basic POP3 and IMAP4 accounts that are not always available via the web or web based services do not work with the browser built into the phone. For these reasons the Upstage will receive zeros in many of these sections. Push Email (0.0)
There is no built-in email client, so there is no support for push email services such as Microsoft Exchange.
Multiple Email Accounts (0.0)
There is no built-in email client, so there is no support for multiple email accounts.
HTML and Attachements (0.0)
No email client.
Email Customizations (0.0)
No email client.
Time to a New Message (0.0)
No email client.
Email Auto Complete on Address (0.0)
No email client.
Email Usability (0.0)
No email client.
Supported IM Services (0.0)
As with all of Sprint's regular phones the Upstage supports instant messaging via AOL, MSN and Yahoo's services. The phone uses an online client that requires you to log into each service separately. We would have preferred to see a client built into the phone that allows you to simultaneously connect to all the services. We also would have preferred that Sprint didn't charge you for a text message for each IM sent or received. We do not award points for IM services that use SMS gateways such as this.
MMS Support (6.0)
MMS messages on the Sprint Upstage are called "picture mail" as they are on all Sprint phones. You cannot turn an SMS message into an MMS message, however there is good integration with the camera. After taking a photo or video you can choose to send it in an MMS message from the menu when you review it. We found MMS a little clunky to use due to the unique design of the Upstage. When creating an MMS, if you wish to enter a phone number in manually, you will need to flip the phone in order to do so. This is a drawback that we encountered in many places when using the Upstage. Compared to regular phones where the keypad is easily accessible, this is a drawback. Except for this item, we found the experience little different than other Sprint phones we have reviewed, such as the Motorola Razr V3m.
SMS Smiley Face Interpretation (8.0)
To test how well the handset interprets smiley faces as graphical representations, we send the phone a test SMS message with 4 common smileys. We were happy to see that the Upstage interpreted all of our smileys correctly in the received message. This is in sharp contrast to the Motorola Razr V3m and Sanyo M1, which displayed them as simple text. Unfortunately the Upstage does not support automatic insertion of smileys, instead requiring you to enter each manually using the text equivalents.
SMS/MMS Ease of Use (4.5)
The SMS/MMS client on the Sprint Upstage is located in the Messaging menu. From here you can send and view messages. SMS and MMS messages each have their own section and inbox, meaning you cannot view all messages at once. To get to another inbox you will need to go back to the messaging menu. Messages are organized in a simple list that you can move up and down with the directional pads, or you can scroll using the Upstage's touch sensitive pad on the back of the phone by running your finger up/down the touch sensitive area. You can send messages to multiple users, however we did not see support for sending to groups. As with other areas where text entry is necessary, you may find yourself flipping the phone over quite a bit. Overall the experience is little different than other Sprint phones we have reviewed, such as the Sanyo M1 or Razr V3m: straightforward, but a little clunky.
Time to a New SMS Message (5.88)
To measure how easy it is to send an SMS message, we time how long it takes to go from the home screen to a new SMS message dialogue. We repeat this five time and take the average for our score. The Upstage has a curious interface for creating new SMS messages as a result of its unique "flip" design. On the front of the device there are a limited number of menu choices, however creating a new text message is one of them. If you are interacting with this side of the phone it only takes 1.7 seconds to access a new message. If you are interacting with the "back" of the phone however it will take you longer to navigate the larger menu, plus you will need to flip the phone in order to enter text using the keypad. This will add a couple of seconds to your time. We chose to score the Upstage on the faster of these times. Using either method we found getting to a new message dialogue faster then either the LG Chocolate or the Razr V3m. | Previous Next | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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