Screen
The UpStage's phone display has a 176 x 65 px, 65K-color TFT display
that is a lot on the small side, but it gets the job done for dialing phone
numbers, sending text messages and taking self-portrait shots with the camera
phone. Measuring about 1.4-inches diagonally, the screen is big enough to
display signal strength, date, time, internal and external battery life
and photo caller ID.
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Users can view the UpStage's more exciting features when they flip the
phone over to its more impressive 176 x 220 px, 262K-color TFT display.
It's a 2.1-inch screen that is ideal for browsing the Web, navigating through
menus or taking photos.
Both screens use TFT (Thin Film Transistor) technology which generally
offers brighter, more vivid colors and quicker refresh rates compared to
other LCD technologies such as OLED and STN.
Audio
Audio quality on the UpStage seems to be best while using headphones
or stereo headset for listening to songs or music videos. Its single speaker
is located on top portion of the Phone Side, so if travelers are using the
MP3 player or watching videos without a headset, the sound will be pointed
in the opposite direction. Without headphones, sound quality will likely
improve if they hold the UpStage upright in their hand as opposed to laying
it flat on a table.
 In
conjunction with the UpStage's release, Sprint Music Store is now offering
downloads for 99 cents per song - a steal compared to Verizon's VCAST where
customers pay $1.99 per full-length song. With Sprint's Mobile Podcasting
Services, users can also have RSS distributed audio content sent to their
phone.
The UpStage's dual-band network provides superior call quality and fewer
dropped calls. Access to the CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) 800 and
1900 MHz network is standard for more recent phones and essentially allows
more subscribers to share the airwaves.
Other audio features include Speakerphone, Three-Way Calling, Voice-Activated
Dialing, and Voice Memo Recording with the ability to store up to 10, 1-minute
long memos. It has a continuous talk time about 2.5 hours and 6.5 hours
when connected with its external battery wallet/protective case.
In addition to silent and vibrate modes, the UpStage comes with 29 ringtones
and melodies. More are available for download from Sprint.
Messaging
Sprint Power Vision gives users wireless access to the Internet for sending
email, instant messages and joining chatrooms.
Text input options include "Auto-Capital" for automatic capitalization
of words, "Display Cand." for the phone to display suggested words from
its dictionary as typed, "Used word Dic." for inputing new words into the
phone's database of words, dual language for English and Spanish and "Insert
Space," which can automatically add a space after each word.
With SMS text messaging, preset messages can be created with up to 160
characters and sent to as many as 10 recipients at once. Additional forms
of messaging include picture and 30-second video messages, Web-based email
and instant messaging with AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger and Yahoo!
messenger.
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