Sprint Upstage (Samsung SPH-m620) Review - Tour & Design
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Alfredo Padilla Published on April 10, 2007 Comment on this |
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Front Closed
Deciding which side is the "front" with the Upstage is no easy task, for the purposes of this review we will refer to the side with the keypad as the front. On this side of the Upstage you will see the lens for the 1.3 megapixel camera at the top left, with the slot for the phone speaker next to it. Below the speaker is a small 1.3" 176 x 65 pixel display to navigate through the interface. Below the screen is a Sprint logo. All of these items take up the top fourth of the front. Below these items are the control keys and keypad. The control keys are dominated by a large squarish directional pad, with 2 soft keys, a dedicated camera key, back button and send/end keys surrounding it. The keypad is a standard 12 key arrangement. At the very bottom of the front you will see the pin hole for the phone microphone.
Left
The left side of the Upstage has a lock/unlock key near the top, with a dedicated "flip" key below it. Both of these keys are silver, and built into the silver styling that runs along the phone's edges and bottom. Below the keys is a Micro SD slot, with a hard plastic cover that stays attached to the phone.
Top
The top of the phone contains only the lanyard loop on the right side.
Bottom
The bottom of the phone has two gold contacts where the external battery wallet connects to the main body of the camera. The battery wallet is held on by two clips on either side.
Right
The right side of the phone has a rocker switch near the top and a reset hold just below it, both on the silver styling. Below these is a proprietary port for data, charging and the headset adaptor. This port is protected by a plastic cover that is attached to the phone.
Back
The "back" of the Upstage is dominated by a 2" 176 x 220 pixel display. Above the display is the upstage branding and below it the Samsung brand. The bottom of the back is taken up by the control pad, which combines a center select/play button with surrounding touch controls that change depending on the interface you are navigating.
Battery Out
Due to its unique design the Upstage does not have a removable battery. It does however ship with an battery wallet which combines an extended battery for the phone with a case.
There is no information available about the capacity of either the built in or extended battery.
In the Box (4.0)
The phone ships with a decent selection of accessories. In addition to the manual and software CD there is a 64MB Micro SD card to get you started, a charger, data cable and an adaptor that allows you to plug in your own 3.5mm headphones that includes a microphone so you can use your existing headphones as a headset. No actual headphones are included.
Handling (5.0)
The Sprint Upstage is an interesting handset to hold in your hand. It is certainly small and thin, but it sometimes feels strange to feel the other side's screen and buttons as you are interacting with the phone on the side you are currently holding. There also seems to be a lot of "flipping" from one side of the other, especially for tasks where you want to use both the keypad and a larger screen, like entering contacts. We liked the feel of the phone with the soft touch paint and soft plastic controls; even though it is small and thin, it is easy to keep a frim grip on it; we didn't worry about dropping the device.
What did bother us about the Upstage's handling was that we were forever gettign fingerprints on the larger screen on the back as we were interacting with the front of the device. We also didn't like handling the device with the extended battery "wallet", as this added considerable bulk and made accessing the phone's features something of a pain as we had to pry the case away from the back of the phone to access those functions.
Portability (9.0)
Measuring 4.07" x 1.73" x .37" and weighing in at a mere 2.57 ounces, the Upstage certainly falls into the small and slim category of devices. Adding the battery "wallet" adds significantly to both size and weight. Without the wallet the phone will slip easily into any pocket or bag, with the case you will definitely be more aware of the bulk in your pocket, but it should still fit easily into any bag. Overall we felt the Upstage was an extremely portable device.
Aesthetics (8.5)
We like the Upstage's look, and although we may not be young enough to use the word "cool" anymore, if we were we would. We liked the clean lines and soft touch paint used on much of the device. Although we weren't particularly particularly fond of the silver styling along the sides and bottom, this doesn't detract much fron the overall look and feel of the device. We also like that the device sports an innovative form factor, people should expect to get a lot of interest in the Upstage.
Durability (7.0)
Judging the durability of a never before seen form factor is a little difficult. There were no obvious creaks and all of the controls seemed sturdy. We already mentioned that the large "back" screen is a magnet for fingerprints, and we recommend you use a screen protector. Despite the fact that the phone is very thin we felt it was sturdy, and we liked that there were no moving parts that could wear out easily.
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