Samsung UpStage M620
Phone Scoop Review
Apr 19, 2007 by Eric Lin
Our in-depth review of Sprint's two-sided music phone. read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
Music phone? or Mp3 player?
I got this phone mainly so I would be able to listen to music while running or working out without having to deal with cords to headphones.
Since the phone's so small it's perfect to just strap on your arm and go!
Had the phone for almost 3 months now and Samsung is still out of the damn armband that i need!
The phone functionality is cumbersome just for basic tasks like texting and checking your calender. (Every time I had a reminder on my schedule the phone would never tell me what the reminder was for and I'd have to flip back to the big screen and go into the schedule)
Size is another big problem when making calls. I don't have very large hands nor do I have small hands but this phone just does not feel comfortable while talking.
The music player is great in itself. I just think it will be so much better if it had a proprietary speaker instead of sharing the main one for voice calls.
The touch pad took some getting used to but was by far never convenient.
The camera is very hard to get a decent shot out of. Biggest complaint is that you can't zoom while viewing through the large screen... or it just might be a defect in mine.
Then the phone freezes up when ever I unlock and try to make a call or sometimes when I flip the screen from the large screen to the small screen!
Only times I've used the music player is when friends ask to see the phone other than that It's been used just to make calls and text.
Not impressed!
Pros:
MP3 Player
Flashy Design
Bluetooth Caller ID
Cons:
Too Small
Hard to Use
Battery Life (poor)
Size
Freezes
Trading in this phone for a new Blackberry 8830
Phone is intense
This is the best phone I have had yet hands down, and I am extremely picky. I could list all of the phones I have had, but I would have no room for my review. I have had sprint for 7 years, and I still believe they offer the best phones. I dropped the samsung 920 to get this phone, and I was a little nervous at first. 920, great phone. As a matter of fact, its my back up phone. 900, a joke. I went through three before finally going with the 920. The Upstage, wow. It is not as user friendly as the nokias, but once you get the hang of it, wow. Again, I could go on and on about the pros on this phone, so I wont. I will list the couple of cons I have encountered:
CONS: Reception shows only two or three bars, but as long as the phone works I'm ok with that
No battery to take off when the phone freezes. And I'm dreading that day. Every phone freezes from time to time, all else fails remove battery!!!
All in all those are the only cons I have so far. I would strongly recommend this phone, as well as the Motorola wireless headset.
Had it, liked it, too many cons so it's now returned
I read a ton of reviews on this phone and seems to be a mixed bag. If you can tolerate the cons, the style and cool factor seem to win. I decided to try it, and have taken it back within one day. Many people have complained about the flip function, which I found easy to get used to. The battery life, on the other hand, is very, very poor. Yes, you can use the wallet, but it makes it awkward, and who really wants to always have that thing around. THe main reason I took it back is the reception is very poor. I have some old junker phone and it has always had fine reception, but with this thing every single call I made at some point included the person on the other end saying, "What? Are you there? Hello?" Too much to handle. Upon return the Sprint Asst Manager told me she had the same phone for the cool factor and hates it because of the battery life and and specifically said it gets poorer recption than many other phones. If these aren't issues for you, get it because it looks awesome and the music player works pretty well despite people bitching.
Pros:
Style
Style
Style
Thin
Music Player
Cons:
Battery life (a joke)
reception
Seems to get very hot during a call
One of, if not, the best
Since I no longer needed my PPC-6700 for work, I decided that I wanted to stop carrying around a brick. I had narrowed my choices down to the M1 and the UpStage, and after A LOT of research(my eyes still hurt), I decided, skeptically, to give the UpStage a shot...
I don't regret it for a second.
Even though it has only been two days, I feel comfortable recommending this phone. The flip feature took very little effort to get used to, and the phone comes with an excellent tutorial to help you get accustomed to the touch pad.
Music software is fairly easy to use, transferred very easily. With the use of a ringtone program I found on the net, I have already created and sent 6 ringtones to my phone made from my own mp3's. The only thing I have left to try is making my own .3g videos to play.
Pros:
- Fully integrated with my Hands-Free-Link: Unlike the A900 and the PPC-6700, this phones BT supports all features of my Acura's Hands-Free system.
- Great reception, even buried in my pocket in my car it still received well.
- Battery life has not been an issue yet. I do not keep it in the wallet, and since charging the phone every night is second nature anyways, I have not yet run down the battery to below 1 bar and I use this thing a lot.
Cons: None that I have found yet.
Overall, a great choice and to anyone hesitant about trying the phone, go visit a Sprint store and play with the in-store model. It should help convince you that this is the best!
Love it, You just need to get used to it
Honestly, I work in the wireless industry and all my co-workers and I couldnt wait to get it. Its a great phone, but just like any other phone, it takes some getting used to.
Pros:
*Small sleek and adorable, fits well in the pocket.
*Wow factor it a really nice plus
*Touch sensitive buttons on the media side take some getting used to, but once you have got it down, its actually kind of fun.
*Will play music through bluetooth stereo headsets (FINALLY Samsung)
*Comes with extended battery (the phone will last for 4 days on standby with it.
*Love the features
*Sprint TV doesn't look too bad either.
*Love the fact that I dont have to buy all my music, and it comes with software to manage music.
Cons:
*The phone side has very small screen
*Extended Battery wallet a little awkward.
*Flipping the phone constantly takes some getting used to
*Wish their could have had a better speaker, but hey, it doesn't sound bad!
All in all I love the phone, and would recommend it.
Upstage so far pretty good
I bought the upstage a week ago, so far I'm happy with it. The stereo bluetooth is great with my moto stereo headset. Battery life is okay with the sleeve thats included but its a lot to carry around. overall happy.....until it locked up on me last night. I powered it off and couldn't turn it back on. Due to the lack of a user replacable battery like I could reset the phone like my ppc-6700( which by the way is junk)so my I was forced to exchange it, after loosing all my contacts that are now stuck in my original phone. There is a button that says reset but I'm pretty sure its fake because it didn't do anything on the new or old phone.(thanks samsung) but other than that lovely experience I'm pretty happy with it.
Pros:
sleek design
wow factor
stereo bluetooth
ease of use
nice screen
cons:
stupid permanent icons
proprietary charger
presumably fake reset button
no flash on the camera
still some bugs to be worked out
sub par speaker (for an mp3 phone)
Good Phone, Bad Phone, Im up in the air.
Well, Its tough to say with this phone, i guess ill do pro's and con's and then explain after.
Pros:
Small, this footprint is about that of the A900 closed.
I love the touch buttons, and they work well, much better than chocolate.
Music is great.
Speaker is REALLY loud for ring-tones etc. I find myself turning it to level 3 or 2 when I'm at home. And even out in the shop no more than 5 (of 8)
Unique idea. Very Eye catching, People are very intrigued by the phone. Especially when you flip it over!
Navigating is Easy once you get used to it.
Smart T9 HUGE upgrade from the A900...T9 didn't even have ? or !. Made it difficult. This learns everything.
Wallet is awesome, i just keep it in the glove box, and when my battery is low, toss that on.(i have yet to drop or scratch it, but it seems like it would take a fall quite hard)
Removable SD
cons:
FLIPPING. You might not realize it, but unless you use the touch pad to text (quite awkward and slow, and i catch on to stuff like that fast), 90% of the time you are looking at the little screen. I feel like half my money is put to waste, because i never get to see the sexy screen...
Battery life is Meh. But the wallet is really nice.
Music doesn't continue through texting...if you receive, if you send it works fine, but it exits if you receive and read.
No removable battery.
Lock switch is difficult to slide, so locking the phone becomes a "two handed" job. Keeping my lazy self from doing it, resulting in pant calls.
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Overall i like the phone, but i feel like half my money is wasted. Just letting those awesome touch buttons, and beautiful screen sit there all the time kills me. I'm pretty sure I'm going to try the m610, and see how that goes. same basic phone, just put in a flip.
So far so good
Just as described, great features and better then my a900. It is on the small side for my big hands. But that is my issue.
Pro
The mp3 players works very nicely no lag time between songs. I have an 1 gb sandisk card in the phone. So far 112 songs a little over 620 mb available on the SD card.
Pro/con
Samsung didn't include an adapter for the head phones. But I bought it at Costco for 79.99 and they included for free the adapter and car charger, and free activation.
Con
The wallet could have had some more thought put into it, as far as looks. But I knew what it looked like before I bought it.
Pro
Yes the wallet is also a pro. I used to carry an extra battery in my wallet for my a900. No need since it came with a wallet and case for the phone.
Con
The only real con , the ringer could be a bit louder.
I bought this to replace my a900 and it does everything the a900 does! And one the a900 did this phone does not.....is restart it's self one or more per week!!!!!!!!!!!!
awesome battery
This phone is by far the best ive ever had. It leaves nothing to be desired it has it all. My wife and I both currently carry it. The music functionallity is the best ive seen in a phone. If music isnt important its probably not worth it. On a full charge in the battery wallet only needs to charge once a week. One correction to the main review, the phone when in the battery wallet uses combined battery power from the wallet and internal battery. If the phone is out and you get a low battery alert you can not put it in the battery wallet and continue using. The phone will still die. All that aside this phone is great.
Upstage has created quite a stir!
This is a GREAT phone!
A Sleek, Stylish and Versatile phone.
Pros:
Signal Strength: good
Size: compact
Battery Life: good (better with extended
battery wallet
Sound: Conversations, loud and clear
Cons:
Only one shared battery and headset
port.
Summary: Get this phone and have some fun!
