Samsung UpStage M620 Review
Sprint is well known for its music-capable phones, and the new UpStage by Samsung will not disappoint. It is the first phone in its class to feature a two-sided candy bar design; one side for phone use and the other side for music and entertainment. The UpStage is targeted to the iPod generation, which wants to have an all-in-one device that combines a phone, 1.3MP camera, and music playback, but with a lower price than the iPhone.
The retail package includes:
The retail package includes:
- the UpStage Phone (available in black or red)
- Wall Charger
- 64MB MicroSD Card
- Extended Battery Wallet
- 3.5mm Headphone adapter with Mic
- Software CD
- User Manual.
PhoneArena's Video Review of the Samsung UpStage:
The most noteworthy feature of the UpStage is the thin size, measuring 4.07”H x 1.73”W x 0.37D and with a weight of 2.57oz. This means you can carry the phone around in your pocket and it feels like there is almost nothing there, since it’s almost half as thin as a Razr. Despite the size, the overall plastic construction feels well made and durable. The phone has an integrated battery, which cannot be removed. However, it does come with an Extended Battery Wallet that can provide additional power. When the UpStage was originally launched, it was only available in Black, but is now also available in a bright metallic Red. Over the past year, we have seen a trend that most new phones will be available in a several color choices, such as the LG Chocolate that is available in 5 different colors. We wonder if more color options will be available for the UpStage later this year.
Since the phone has two sides to it; there are also two displays. The display that is used for the Phone side is a small 176x65 Pixel 65K Color TFT. This display is only large enough to see dialed numbers, view contacts, and for entering TXT Messages. The display on the Music side is a much larger 176x220 Pixel 262k Color TFT. This is considered the Main Display, since you can access all the Menu functions, including the Music Player and Sprint’s Vision service. The main display is very easy to view, even in direct sunlight. Color images and text are shown well, but we believe that a QVGA screen should have been used, considering the large amount of phone features that use the display.
The phone side features a 5-way navigational pad that is used to access 4 Menu Options: Call History, Find Contacts, Send Text Message, and Add New Entry. On either side of the navigational pad are the two Soft Keys, Camera, Back, Talk, and End buttons. Below it is the numeric keypad with white backlighting. All of the monochromatic buttons are easy to use and are spaced well, so that your thumb does not accidentally press the wrong one. Unfortunately, it is completely flat, which means using the keypad by touch alone is practically impossible.
The music side has a large touch-sensitive navigational pad, which is used to access the phone’s Main Menu, as well as controlling the MP3 music player. The only part that is not touch-sensitive is the center Play/Pause button. We are unsure as to why this is a standard click button. There are 5 sensor levels that you can choose from, which we used level 5. Response time was good and the touch pad is simple to use.
Around the edge of the phone are the Volume Up/Down buttons, Flip Button (used for choosing which side of the phone to use), MicroSD card slot, Keypad Lock slider, Reset button, and Charger/Data Port. There are also two small metal connectors located on the bottom that are used when connecting the Extended Battery Wallet.
Since the phone has two sides to it; there are also two displays. The display that is used for the Phone side is a small 176x65 Pixel 65K Color TFT. This display is only large enough to see dialed numbers, view contacts, and for entering TXT Messages. The display on the Music side is a much larger 176x220 Pixel 262k Color TFT. This is considered the Main Display, since you can access all the Menu functions, including the Music Player and Sprint’s Vision service. The main display is very easy to view, even in direct sunlight. Color images and text are shown well, but we believe that a QVGA screen should have been used, considering the large amount of phone features that use the display.
The phone side features a 5-way navigational pad that is used to access 4 Menu Options: Call History, Find Contacts, Send Text Message, and Add New Entry. On either side of the navigational pad are the two Soft Keys, Camera, Back, Talk, and End buttons. Below it is the numeric keypad with white backlighting. All of the monochromatic buttons are easy to use and are spaced well, so that your thumb does not accidentally press the wrong one. Unfortunately, it is completely flat, which means using the keypad by touch alone is practically impossible.
The music side has a large touch-sensitive navigational pad, which is used to access the phone’s Main Menu, as well as controlling the MP3 music player. The only part that is not touch-sensitive is the center Play/Pause button. We are unsure as to why this is a standard click button. There are 5 sensor levels that you can choose from, which we used level 5. Response time was good and the touch pad is simple to use.
Around the edge of the phone are the Volume Up/Down buttons, Flip Button (used for choosing which side of the phone to use), MicroSD card slot, Keypad Lock slider, Reset button, and Charger/Data Port. There are also two small metal connectors located on the bottom that are used when connecting the Extended Battery Wallet.
Interface:
The Main Menu is only viewable by the music side of the phone. When accessing the main menu, you are shown a screen with 9 icons: Web, Call History, Sprint TV, On Demand, Missed Alerts, Music, My Content, Messaging, Tools, Pictures, Contacts, and Setting. There are no menu themes to choose from. The only menu customization that is available is to have the background color white or black, and have the icons displayed as a grid or a list. Despite these limited choices, the menu is laid out well and you can easily find what you are looking for.
Phonebook:
Up to 500 contacts may be stored in the Phonebook. Each contact will allow you to enter in the Name, five Numbers (Mobile, Home, Work, Pager, Other), E-Mail address, Web Site, Nickname, Memo, Group, Ringtone, and Photo. The Ringtone setting will allow you to designate a specific ringtone to be played when that contact calls the phone, while the Photo setting will allow you to specify a picture to be shown on the screen. After all the contacts are saved, you can view them in a list alphabetically and also search through the list by typing the contacts name. There are 98 speed-dial locations that contacts can be assigned to.
The UpStage features built in Voice Commands that is accessed by holding down the Talk button. Available options are Call Name or Number, Send Text, Send E-Mail, Send SMS, Lookup Name, and GoTo App. For stored contacts, you can say “Call Marie Work”, and the phone will automatically dial the Work number stored under Marie. You can also say “Call Number” and speak the digits for it to dial. The other voice commands work in similar fashion, but for “Send TXT” and “Send E-Mail” you must use the keypad to type in the message since there is no speech-to-text dictation.
Organizer:
The Planner is located under Menu and Tools. The Scheduler will show the current calendar month with today’s date highlighted. You can use the touch pad to select any day, month, or year that you want. After a date is selected, you can type in the Name of a Task, Start and End Time, Reoccurrence, and Alert Tone by using the keypad. When that date and time is reached, the phone will play the alert tone and show the task information on the screen.
The Speakerphone must be activated for each call that you wish to use it for. You first dial the number and press the Talk key. After the number is connected, you press the Right Soft key and choose Turn Speakerphone On. There are 8 Volume Levels that can be selected, but we found that going above level 4 can cause distortion to be heard in the speaker. Just like the LG VX8700, the UpStage only has 1 speaker (located at the earpiece) that is used for all sounds (calls, speakerphone, ringtones, music). Because of this, the Speakerphone is not one of the UpStage’s strong points, but due to the size of the phone, we can understand why only one speaker was used.
There is only a meager 52MB of Internal Memory, but the UpStage does come bundled with a 64MB MicroSD card. The internal memory is mostly used for downloading applications and ringtones, where the MicroSD card is used more for storing pictures and MP3 music files. Even though the phone comes with a 64MB memory card, you will find that it does not take long to fill up. Because of this, we would recommend using a 2GB card, which will give most users ample space for MP3 files and storing pictures.
Messaging:
The UpStage is able to send and receive Text, Picture, and VoiceSMS Messages. For text messaging, you press the OK button and select Send Text Message. First you will need to enter in the phone number or E-Mail address of the recipient. Then you use the keypad to type in the message. The phone uses the T9 predictive text entry method, which means the software will try and predict the words that you are typing. This method works well a majority of the time, but some uncommon words will need to be entered manually. Picture Messaging is done in the same way as sending a text message, except that a picture can be chosen as an attachment. VoiceSMS will allow you to record a short voice message that can be sent and played by another phone. This can be easier and more convenient than typing out a long text message.
There are 5 E-Mail options available: PCS Mail, AOL, MSN, Yahoo, and Other. The PCS Mail will access your personal SprintPCS account (youraccount@sprintpcs.com). From here you can read and send new E-Mail messages. The AOL menu will allow you to connect to either the AOL IM service or your AOL E-Mail account. While MSN will connect to the MSN Messenger and Hotmail, and Yahoo connects to Yahoo Messenger and Yahoo Mail. All of these are simple to use and act in the same way as if you were using your PC. Unfortunately, there is no option to allow access of standard POP E-Mail servers. This does not surprise us, since the UpStage is not a SmartPhone.
Connectivity:
The UpStage is an all-digital CDMA dual band phone that can connect using either 1X or the faster EVDO 3G Network. Since there is no SIM Card, the phone is only capable of working in the U.S. and on the Sprint Network.
Bluetooth v1.2 is supported and will allow up to 20 pairing. Supported profiles include: Headset, Handsfree, DUN, OPP, FTP, BPP Printing, Stereo A2DP, and AVRC. We tested the UpStage using our Jabra v250 headset, and were able to get up 25 feet of static-free calling. We were also able to use the phone’s Voice Command features while connected to the BT headset. For music playback, we connected to the Motorola HT820 stereo headset, which also provided up to 25 feet of static-free music. We were able to use the music control buttons on the HT820 to play, pause, rewind, and fast forward the music, since it supports the AVRC profile.
Internet:
Since the UpStage is not a SmartPhone, Web Browsing is limited to the standard WAP browser. When accessing the Web, you are fist connected to the Sprint Power Vision home site. The home screen shows 10 options to choose from: My Account, Messaging, Downloads, News, Weather, Sports, Entertainment, Money, Find it, and Portals. Each option has various sub-menus; such as News has 12 choices within it. You can also enter in a specific web site by pressing the Right Soft Key and selecting Go To URL. When used within an EVDO coverage area most WAP sites will load in under 5 seconds, and HTTP site in under 20 seconds. However, since the phone uses a WAP browser, it will not display most standard HTTP sites correctly. If you require a device that offers full HTTP web site viewing, then a SmartPhone would be considered a better choice.
The UpStage is able to send and receive Text, Picture, and VoiceSMS Messages. For text messaging, you press the OK button and select Send Text Message. First you will need to enter in the phone number or E-Mail address of the recipient. Then you use the keypad to type in the message. The phone uses the T9 predictive text entry method, which means the software will try and predict the words that you are typing. This method works well a majority of the time, but some uncommon words will need to be entered manually. Picture Messaging is done in the same way as sending a text message, except that a picture can be chosen as an attachment. VoiceSMS will allow you to record a short voice message that can be sent and played by another phone. This can be easier and more convenient than typing out a long text message.
There are 5 E-Mail options available: PCS Mail, AOL, MSN, Yahoo, and Other. The PCS Mail will access your personal SprintPCS account (youraccount@sprintpcs.com). From here you can read and send new E-Mail messages. The AOL menu will allow you to connect to either the AOL IM service or your AOL E-Mail account. While MSN will connect to the MSN Messenger and Hotmail, and Yahoo connects to Yahoo Messenger and Yahoo Mail. All of these are simple to use and act in the same way as if you were using your PC. Unfortunately, there is no option to allow access of standard POP E-Mail servers. This does not surprise us, since the UpStage is not a SmartPhone.
Connectivity:
The UpStage is an all-digital CDMA dual band phone that can connect using either 1X or the faster EVDO 3G Network. Since there is no SIM Card, the phone is only capable of working in the U.S. and on the Sprint Network.
Bluetooth v1.2 is supported and will allow up to 20 pairing. Supported profiles include: Headset, Handsfree, DUN, OPP, FTP, BPP Printing, Stereo A2DP, and AVRC. We tested the UpStage using our Jabra v250 headset, and were able to get up 25 feet of static-free calling. We were also able to use the phone’s Voice Command features while connected to the BT headset. For music playback, we connected to the Motorola HT820 stereo headset, which also provided up to 25 feet of static-free music. We were able to use the music control buttons on the HT820 to play, pause, rewind, and fast forward the music, since it supports the AVRC profile.
Internet:
Since the UpStage is not a SmartPhone, Web Browsing is limited to the standard WAP browser. When accessing the Web, you are fist connected to the Sprint Power Vision home site. The home screen shows 10 options to choose from: My Account, Messaging, Downloads, News, Weather, Sports, Entertainment, Money, Find it, and Portals. Each option has various sub-menus; such as News has 12 choices within it. You can also enter in a specific web site by pressing the Right Soft Key and selecting Go To URL. When used within an EVDO coverage area most WAP sites will load in under 5 seconds, and HTTP site in under 20 seconds. However, since the phone uses a WAP browser, it will not display most standard HTTP sites correctly. If you require a device that offers full HTTP web site viewing, then a SmartPhone would be considered a better choice.
Camera:
Due to the small size of the phone, the UpStage features a mediocre 1.3MP Camera with no flash. The lens is located next to the earpiece speaker, and the large display is used as the viewfinder. The start-up time of the Camera is a reasonable 2 seconds. Pressing the center button on the keypad will capture and automatically save the image in 4 seconds. This means the total amount of time to take an image, save it, and take another image is about 8 seconds. Because of the amount of time between pictures, it can prove to be difficult to capture fast moving objects. The overall picture quality taken by the UpStage leaves much to be desired. Images have faded colors with soft edges and a fair amount of noise. Since the UpStage is primarily a “music phone” and not a “camera phone”, it is no wonder as to why the images are less than adequate. One should consider picture taking with this phone a pure novelty.
Available Camera Options include:
The UpStage can also record small videos for sending as Picture Mail, or longer videos for Phone and PC playback. Videos are only recorded in 176x220 resolution, which means the payback quality on a PC is quite poor.
Multimedia:
Music Playback is one of the main features of the UpStage. Once MP3 files are loaded from your PC onto the MicroSD card, you can insert it into the phone and press the center Play button. This will open the Sprint Music Store application, where you can either buy and download music or play MP3 files that are on the memory card. Music is categorized by Songs, Artists, and Genres. After a song is selected and begins playback, the main display will show the current song info including cover art. While a song is played, you can also use other features of the phone, such as sending a Text Message, accessing the Web, and using On Demand. This is quite useful, since most other phones require you to exit the music player in order to perform other tasks. During the song playback you can use the keypad to Play/Pause, Rewind/Skip Back, and Fast-Forward/Skip Ahead. The quality of the music was quite adequate, but does require you to flip the phone over, since the music is played through the earpiece speaker located on the other side. Volume range was good, and there was no distortion in the speaker. However, we recommend using a Bluetooth Stereo Headset for enjoying true music playback from the UpStage. We used a Motorola HT820 headset, which provided far superior music quality, with better dynamic range and bass response. The UpStage supports both A2DP and AVRC Bluetooth Profiles.
The Sprint TV Service is comparable to Verizon’s VCast, but offers more media choices. The Media Player is categorized into 9 sections: Sprint TV, Music & Radio, Sports, Entertainment, Cartoons, News & Weather, Lifestyles, Movies & Shorts, and Comedy. Accessing any of these options will display a list of “Channels”, which some are free and others are Premium (pay) access. Within Sprint TV, there are dozens of channels to choose. Most are pre-recorded videos, but there are now a few Live TV channels (MSNBC, ABC News, Fox Sports, Fox News, Discovery, TLC, Animal Planet). Watching a Live TV channel on the UpStage is an interesting experience. The screen size is small and the video quality is poor, yet there is a “wow” factor to it. The reason for the poor image quality is that the live TV broadcast is reformatted to 176x220 resolution with a low frame-rate and distributed over Sprints EVDO network. While this method works, the result is a TV image that no way compares to the far superior MobileTV Service by Verizon, which offers better resolution and full 30fps motion.
Software:
The UpStage uses the Java format for downloading and running applications. There are 5 demo games that come preinstalled (Midnight Bowling, Nightclub Empire, Pac-Man & Ms Pac-Man, Tetris, World Series Poker). Downloading additional games will incur a per-month fee, or a flat one-time fee.
Sprint’s On Demand service will connect you with 9 different categories of information (News, Sports, Local Weather, Market News, Maps & Directions, Directory 411, Snap News, Hollywood, FYI). All the information is strictly text and images, and there isn’t a GPS based application for driving directions. This is one area that Sprint should look at developing a program for.
Other phone tools include Voice Memo, Memo Pad, World Time, Alarm Clock, and Calculator. The Voice Memo and Memo Pad will allow you to record a quick voice note, or type in a memo for later use. The World Time will display the current Date & Time in any time zone, by selecting the city shown on a corresponding map. The Alarm Clock features 3 independent alarms, which can be set for Once, Mon-Fri, Sat-Sun, or Daily. While the Calculator allows for simple Add, Subtract, Multiply, and Divide.
Due to the small size of the phone, the UpStage features a mediocre 1.3MP Camera with no flash. The lens is located next to the earpiece speaker, and the large display is used as the viewfinder. The start-up time of the Camera is a reasonable 2 seconds. Pressing the center button on the keypad will capture and automatically save the image in 4 seconds. This means the total amount of time to take an image, save it, and take another image is about 8 seconds. Because of the amount of time between pictures, it can prove to be difficult to capture fast moving objects. The overall picture quality taken by the UpStage leaves much to be desired. Images have faded colors with soft edges and a fair amount of noise. Since the UpStage is primarily a “music phone” and not a “camera phone”, it is no wonder as to why the images are less than adequate. One should consider picture taking with this phone a pure novelty.
Available Camera Options include:
- Night Shot Mode: On, Off
- Self-Timer: Off, 5 sec, 10 sec
- Fun Frames: Off, Birthday, Bubble, Leaves, Halloween, Fingers, On Air, Big Mouth, Dizzy, Love, Christmas
- Color Tones: Auto, Monochrome, Green, Sepia, Aqua
- Brightness: +5 to –5
- White Balance: Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Manual
- Resolution: 1280x960, 640x480, 320x240, 176x220
- Quality: Fine, Normal, Economy
- Shutter Sound: Off, Shutter 1, Shutter 2
- View Mode: Wide Screen, Full Screen
- Status Bar: On, Off
- Save Pictures To: Phone, Memory Card
The UpStage can also record small videos for sending as Picture Mail, or longer videos for Phone and PC playback. Videos are only recorded in 176x220 resolution, which means the payback quality on a PC is quite poor.
Multimedia:
Music Playback is one of the main features of the UpStage. Once MP3 files are loaded from your PC onto the MicroSD card, you can insert it into the phone and press the center Play button. This will open the Sprint Music Store application, where you can either buy and download music or play MP3 files that are on the memory card. Music is categorized by Songs, Artists, and Genres. After a song is selected and begins playback, the main display will show the current song info including cover art. While a song is played, you can also use other features of the phone, such as sending a Text Message, accessing the Web, and using On Demand. This is quite useful, since most other phones require you to exit the music player in order to perform other tasks. During the song playback you can use the keypad to Play/Pause, Rewind/Skip Back, and Fast-Forward/Skip Ahead. The quality of the music was quite adequate, but does require you to flip the phone over, since the music is played through the earpiece speaker located on the other side. Volume range was good, and there was no distortion in the speaker. However, we recommend using a Bluetooth Stereo Headset for enjoying true music playback from the UpStage. We used a Motorola HT820 headset, which provided far superior music quality, with better dynamic range and bass response. The UpStage supports both A2DP and AVRC Bluetooth Profiles.
The Sprint TV Service is comparable to Verizon’s VCast, but offers more media choices. The Media Player is categorized into 9 sections: Sprint TV, Music & Radio, Sports, Entertainment, Cartoons, News & Weather, Lifestyles, Movies & Shorts, and Comedy. Accessing any of these options will display a list of “Channels”, which some are free and others are Premium (pay) access. Within Sprint TV, there are dozens of channels to choose. Most are pre-recorded videos, but there are now a few Live TV channels (MSNBC, ABC News, Fox Sports, Fox News, Discovery, TLC, Animal Planet). Watching a Live TV channel on the UpStage is an interesting experience. The screen size is small and the video quality is poor, yet there is a “wow” factor to it. The reason for the poor image quality is that the live TV broadcast is reformatted to 176x220 resolution with a low frame-rate and distributed over Sprints EVDO network. While this method works, the result is a TV image that no way compares to the far superior MobileTV Service by Verizon, which offers better resolution and full 30fps motion.
Software:
The UpStage uses the Java format for downloading and running applications. There are 5 demo games that come preinstalled (Midnight Bowling, Nightclub Empire, Pac-Man & Ms Pac-Man, Tetris, World Series Poker). Downloading additional games will incur a per-month fee, or a flat one-time fee.
Sprint’s On Demand service will connect you with 9 different categories of information (News, Sports, Local Weather, Market News, Maps & Directions, Directory 411, Snap News, Hollywood, FYI). All the information is strictly text and images, and there isn’t a GPS based application for driving directions. This is one area that Sprint should look at developing a program for.
Other phone tools include Voice Memo, Memo Pad, World Time, Alarm Clock, and Calculator. The Voice Memo and Memo Pad will allow you to record a quick voice note, or type in a memo for later use. The World Time will display the current Date & Time in any time zone, by selecting the city shown on a corresponding map. The Alarm Clock features 3 independent alarms, which can be set for Once, Mon-Fri, Sat-Sun, or Daily. While the Calculator allows for simple Add, Subtract, Multiply, and Divide.
Performance:
Even though the UpStage is relatively small and has an Internal Antenna, the overall Reception and Call Quality was remarkably good. The phone able to maintain good reception while used in the South Florida area, yet fringe areas can be troublesome, as with any phone. Voice Quality in the earpiece was also clear and lacked any static; however turning the volume up too loud would cause some distortion. We found the voice quality to be significantly better than the LG Fusic, which we reviewed last year. Ringtones and Message Alerts are also played loud and can be heard from up to 40 feet away.
The UpStage features a built in LiIon battery that is not removable, and is rated to provide up to 2.5Hr of Talk Time. On a full charge, we were able to achieve 2.5Hr Talk Time or 4 Days of StandBy Time. There is also an included Extended Battery Wallet, which also doubles as a protective carrying case. With the extended battery wallet connected to the phone, the UpStage will use both batteries and get up to 6Hr of Talk Time. Even though the wallet is useful for the extra battery power, we would have rather seen a removable battery designed into the bottom of the phone.
Conclusion:
The UpStage is a fashionable device that features a dual-sided candy bar design. One side is used as a phone, while the other side is for music, videos, and all other menu options. The phone is remarkably thin and light, which makes it easy to take wherever you go. The plastic construction feels durable and it should hold up to normal use. The Main Display is larger than anything you’d see on an iPod Nano, with images and text that is easily viewable in a wide variety of lighting conditions. Unfortunately, the 2nd Display (on the phone side) is small and is only large enough to see dialed numbers, contacts, and text messages. The 1.3MP Camera quality is also lacking and should only be used to take quick pictures. We believe that a 2MP sensor was not used to help keep the cost down. The phone’s Menu System is very graphical and is laid out well, but lacks any themes. Music Playback is truly one of the strong points of the UpStage. Even though music is played through the earpiece speaker, there was no distortion even at higher volume settings. Just remember to turn the phone over so that the speaker is on top. For true music enjoyment, we recommend using a Stereo Bluetooth headset, which will provide better you with better sound quality. The phone’s Reception and Call Quality was above average, with no static or interference. When we first got the UpStage, we were skeptical about the call quality, but we are glad to say that this is not a problem. If you are looking for a quality device that combines a phone and MP3 Player in a fashionably thin body, the UpStage is for you.
Even though the UpStage is relatively small and has an Internal Antenna, the overall Reception and Call Quality was remarkably good. The phone able to maintain good reception while used in the South Florida area, yet fringe areas can be troublesome, as with any phone. Voice Quality in the earpiece was also clear and lacked any static; however turning the volume up too loud would cause some distortion. We found the voice quality to be significantly better than the LG Fusic, which we reviewed last year. Ringtones and Message Alerts are also played loud and can be heard from up to 40 feet away.
The UpStage features a built in LiIon battery that is not removable, and is rated to provide up to 2.5Hr of Talk Time. On a full charge, we were able to achieve 2.5Hr Talk Time or 4 Days of StandBy Time. There is also an included Extended Battery Wallet, which also doubles as a protective carrying case. With the extended battery wallet connected to the phone, the UpStage will use both batteries and get up to 6Hr of Talk Time. Even though the wallet is useful for the extra battery power, we would have rather seen a removable battery designed into the bottom of the phone.
Conclusion:
The UpStage is a fashionable device that features a dual-sided candy bar design. One side is used as a phone, while the other side is for music, videos, and all other menu options. The phone is remarkably thin and light, which makes it easy to take wherever you go. The plastic construction feels durable and it should hold up to normal use. The Main Display is larger than anything you’d see on an iPod Nano, with images and text that is easily viewable in a wide variety of lighting conditions. Unfortunately, the 2nd Display (on the phone side) is small and is only large enough to see dialed numbers, contacts, and text messages. The 1.3MP Camera quality is also lacking and should only be used to take quick pictures. We believe that a 2MP sensor was not used to help keep the cost down. The phone’s Menu System is very graphical and is laid out well, but lacks any themes. Music Playback is truly one of the strong points of the UpStage. Even though music is played through the earpiece speaker, there was no distortion even at higher volume settings. Just remember to turn the phone over so that the speaker is on top. For true music enjoyment, we recommend using a Stereo Bluetooth headset, which will provide better you with better sound quality. The phone’s Reception and Call Quality was above average, with no static or interference. When we first got the UpStage, we were skeptical about the call quality, but we are glad to say that this is not a problem. If you are looking for a quality device that combines a phone and MP3 Player in a fashionably thin body, the UpStage is for you.
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