Sprint Power Vision

Sprint subscribers looking for a burst of multimedia from their phones will get a kick out of the carrier's new Power Vision service, a pumped-up 3G version of Sprint PCS Vision that offers live TV, streaming and downloadable music, and speedy Web browsing and gaming downloads. At $15 a month for à la carte service and $20 or $25 per month for the various video bundles, Sprint Power Vision packs in a lot of bang for the buck, especially compared to Verizon's V Cast--although with a recently announced music download service, Verizon won't be behind for long. With nearly &ontid=&siteid=&edid=&lop=txt&destcat=sprint&destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Esprint%2Ecom%2Fbusiness%2Fproducts%2Fproducts%2FwirelessHighSpeedData%5FtabC%2Ejsp">200 U.S. markets covered by Sprint's high-speed 1x EV-DO service, there's a good chance you're in the Power Vision coverage area, but be sure to check before making the leap. Sprint is continually adding to its stable of 3G phones; this review of Power Vision was conducted with the Samsung MM-A920.

Video and music
In some ways, Sprint's Power Vision bears a strong resemblance to Verizon Wireless's V Cast service; both feature short (2 to 5 minutes) downloadable video clips that give you bite-size nuggets of news, music, and entertainment. Sprint sets itself apart, however, in its live TV feeds from such sources as ABC News Now, Fox Sports, the NFL Network, the Fox News Channel, the Learning Channel, Fashion TV, Bloomberg, Discovery, and the Weather Channel. Click a network feed and you'll jump into its live programming--a nice service for news junkies, although you'll have to suffer through the same commercials that home viewers do. V Cast doesn't offer live video yet, but it just inked a deal with Qualcomm's MediaFlo mobile TV service, which is set to launch in late 2006.

Moving back to its downloadable clips, Sprint offers a varied selection of programming, such as sports clips from ESPN, Fox Sports, and SportsEdge; cartoons from Cartoon Network and Looney Tunes; news and weather from CNNtoGo, the Weather Channel, and GoTV; style and fashion updates from Diva and The Street; entertainment news and clips from E Entertainment, Access Hollywood, and Swimsuit Model TV; and mobile "shorts" from BlipTV (various comedy clips), mFlix ("underground" comedy, shorts, and cartoon clips), SmashTV (extreme sports), and Fun Little Movies (original comedy clips). There's even something called Adult Swim, which is billed as adult programming for the Cartoon Network. Also available through Sprint TV are movie previews and even more programming, including the Discovery Channel, CNET.com reviews, C-SPAN, the Learning Channel, and NBC Mobile, which boasts highlights from The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

A surprising find was Mspot Movies, a novel but cumbersome service that offers full-length movies (mostly older and B-movies such as Oklahoma, Conan the Adventurer, Short Circuit, Night of the Living Dead, and One-Eyed Jacks) broken down into short downloadable sections running about five minutes each.

Would you rather listen to some tunes? Sirius and Mspot offer 20 channels each of music, and you can watch music videos over Rhapsody Radio, Music Choice, GoTV AltRock, and Pure Phat. What's more, Power Vision subscribers have access to Sprint's new Music Store, which features more than 250,000 songs for purchase and download over the air. The player interface is primitive, but it includes album art and is easy to understand. You can control the player through the navigation toggle or the player buttons that are featured on the front flap of all Sprit's 3G phones. Once the tracks are loaded on your phone, you can organize them into playlists, use the shuffle and repeat modes, or activate the airplane mode for listening to music with the phone functionality off.

Of course, there are a few catches. While you can buy songs for use on your PC at the same price, they're in WMA format and aren't playable on your phone. You can back up songs from your phone on a PC, but they aren't playable there. Alternatively, Verizon's V Cast Music offers dual downloading of tracks so that they'll play on your phone and your PC. On the upside, Sprint's Music Store can play nonprotected songs in the supported formats.

In all, it's an exhaustive offering. Yet what's missing from the mix (for the present, at least) are the slickly produced, much-vaunted mobisodes offered through V Cast, such as 24 Conspiracy (a mobile-only version of Fox TV's 24), Love and Hate, Sunset Hotel, and the upcoming Lost Video Diaries (based on ABC's Lost).

Other features
In addition to the videos, Sprint Power Vision includes many of the features in the old PCS Vision service, including Video and Picture Mail, text messaging, e-mail, Web browsing, downloadable games, ring tones, and screensavers, along with a new Java-powered On Demand application with constant news, weather, movie, and TV info. You can get up-to-the-minute news, sports, and stock market updates. Moreover, you can personalize the information by punching in your zip code. And since the phone has GPS capability, you can access movie and TV listings, weather reports, and maps for your current location. Finally, there's an online phone book and dictionary.

Video quality and performance
As with Verizon's V Cast service, the video from Sprint Power Vision is a small, jerky, and often murky affair. Keep in mind that quality will vary by make of phone, but at 15 frames per second (vs. 30fps for broadcast-quality video), pictures overall are visibly jittery compared to the smooth action on the TV in your living room. The video quality fares best when watching the talking heads on Fox News and CNN, with relatively smooth and clear images; switch to sports or action shots, however, and the frame rate and picture quality drop dramatically, with the image sometimes freezing completely. The good news is that it takes only about 15 seconds or so for the Power Vision media player to buffer and begin playing your videos.

Those in EV-DO coverage areas will appreciate the speedy music previews, which begin almost immediately, and downloads, which typically take less than a minute. Though lacking much bass response, music quality was decent on the Samsung MM-920 and MM-A900. The player won't replace your iPod, but it does the trick for short periods.

Thanks to the broadband speeds offered by Sprint's new 1xEV-DO service, we managed to fly through mobile Web pages and quickly download games and applications; for example, we downloaded the 280K Jamdat Doom RPG in less than 15 seconds. It was noticeably slow in some instances, however. For example, when using the on-demand GPS mapping application, it took up to 10 seconds to pan between map sections.

Pricing
You can get your video clips and feeds à la carte through the $15-per-month Sprint Power Vision Access Pack (most feeds and clip categories cost between $4 and $7 a month)--a price that includes unlimited Web browsing and data access. If you're a sports or fashion aficionado, the $20 Power Vision Plus Packs adds free video clips from Fox Sports, the NFL Network, Fuel, Fuse, and Fashion TV. Finally, full-on video junkies can max out with the $25 Ultimate Pack, which includes all the streaming news and sports channels, as well as music, plus clips from NBC, the Discovery Channel, and the Weather Channel--a pretty good bargain, considering all the content you get.

Music services are priced separately, and trust us, they don't come cheap. Though you can get up to 20 radio channels for $6.95 per month, music downloads to your phone or your computer cost a sky-high $2.50 each. You can get a free preview for a few seconds, but since there's no way to buy in bulk, a CD's worth of songs will seriously impact your wallet. Verizon's music downloads are significantly cheaper, so we expect Sprint will drop its prices at some point.