Entertainment

The Surge comes with Juicecaster, an application that lets users post updates, messages photos and videos to sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Flickr.

It also offers a variety preloaded demo games such as Guitar Hero 3, Monopoly, Asphalt 4 HD and iPlay Bowling. Consumers can unlock the full version or shop for more games at AT&T's Media Mall.

The handset comes with MobiTV, a service that brings television to the phone. For a $12 monthly subscription -- in conjunction with AT&T's $30 a month unlimited data plan -- customers can download and watch shows from 35 stations, including NBC, Fox News and ESPN.

All these services cost extra, and the charges add up. At the minimum, customers should plan on signing up with a $30 a month data plan, otherwise the Surge loses a lot of its luster.

Internet

The Surge has one advantage over the iPhone, its Web browser has Flash support -- so users can watch videos on YouTube or listening to audio clips on sites through AT&T's Mobile Web service.

It has high-speed HSDPA Internet for data speeds of up to 3.6Mbps. However, it doesn't have Wi-Fi, which means customers should plan on spending money for a monthly data plan.

Storage

The Surge has a decent 120MB of internal memory with a microSD slot that takes cards up to 8GB in size. Users can keep track of memory usage through the File Manager menu.

While significantly less than the iPhone's 8 or 16GB storage, the Surge comes with more enough memory for what it was intended for -- text messaging, email and Web browsing.

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