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Samsung UpStage, Now in Red

by Tom Samiljan on June 13, 2007 at 12:29 PM

Already a marvel of innovative design and compact size, Samsung's UpStage – literally a dual-sided "flip" phone with phone keypads on one side and music player controls on the other – is getting a hot new color. Starting Monday, Sprint will offer the UpStage in red.

We've had a chance to play around with the black version of this phone and this is what we think: Like its similarly multi-colored and sexy-looking cousin, the LG Chocolate (for Verizon), the UpStage has received a lot of favorable coverage and awards, but its controls are clumsy. (For example, you have to press a "flip" button every time you want to switch between controls, and you need to use an adapter to use headphones.) Additionally, Sprint makes you install and use its proprietary Sprint Music Manager to transfer and manage your Upstage's music.

Most surprisingly, everyone -- most recently MacWorld -- seems to think the UpStage is some kind of iPhone-killer. It's so not an iPhone! The UpStage has no virtual keyboard, no OS X-like operating system with its accompanying computing tasks, a tiny screen, and no serious video-playing capability, to name a few features. What the UpStage does have is fast surfing and song downloads, since it runs of Sprint's high-speed, 3G EVDO network.

That said, anyone who cares about aesthetics and nifty, head-turning gear will get some mileage out of the distinctive red-colored UpStage.

From Engadget and Sprint.

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