Samsung takes stage with two faced phone

Korean handset manufacturer Samsung has come up with a novel way of solving the headache of integrating multimedia functions and phone features in a handset. Put the separate features on different sides of the device.

As the CTIA Wireless conference prepares to kick off in Orlando on Tuesday, US operator Sprint Nextel said that it would begin selling the UpStage device from next month, for either $300, or $150 with a two year contract.

Samsung’s UpStage is an ultra thin candybar style phone with a 2.1″ colour screen and media control buttons on one side of the device. Flip it over, and the other side has all the usual buttons you would expect to find on a mobile phone, as well as a smaller 1.4″ colour screen.

The device features a 1.3Mp camera and access to Sprint services such as the Sprint Music Store and Sprint TV. The unit comes with a 64MB microSD card, which can be upgraded to a 2GB model.

According to Samsung, the UpStage’s 2.5 hour battery life can be prolonged to 6.3 hours through the use of an innovative wallet, which incorporates an external battery.