It was first mentioned back at CES when it was known as the Ultra Music, but today Samsung announced the availability of the first mobile phone in the U.S. with a dual-side design optimized for playing music--the Upstage. See our Photo Gallery.

 

The UpStage's phone side is dedicated to making calls, texting, and managing contacts. Should you wish to crank out some tunes, all a user has to do is hit the Flip button, and turn the phone over. This activates the phone's touch-sensitive music controls on the back. Despite housing two faces, the Upstart is a thin and lightweight phone at just 0.37-inches in thickness and weighing 2.5-ounces.

 

A 1.3-megapixel camera is included for taking snaps as well as autonomous GPS for navigation, and a microSD card slot to load the Upstart with up to 2GB of content. Samsung states that the phone will crank out 6.5-hours of talk time and 16 hours of music playback.

 

Operating on Sprint's high-speed EV-DO network, the Upstage can swiftly download music and video from the Sprint Music Store or tune into SprintTV, which features 50 channels of live television. NFL Mobile rounds out the content options with real-time stats, scores, and injury reports.

 

The Samsung UpStage will be available for purchase on April 1st.

 

We got our hands on one and tested it. Read our full UpStage review.

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