So, I am in the office earlier this semester, immersed in work as I normally am, when the phone rings. One the other end is a woman who not only sounds bright and cheery, but also wants to send me a free Sprint phone for a period of time.

In exchange for unlimited use of the phone and all of its services I am to agree to write a review once I send it back.

Obviously, I agreed. I am not a complete idiot.

A few days later the phone arrives. A brand new Samsung Upstage. The same one those Beyonce clones dance around with in that commercial. Then, the fun begins.

The phone itself, basically a telephone/MP3 hybrid was cool enough. Especially the fact that it comes with an auxiliary battery in its carrying case.

So, sure, the phone was pretty sweet. But, this is not a review of the Samsung Upstage. This is a review of the array of services offered by Sprint.

Let’s get to it. At first I was planning on just using the new Sprint phone as my regular phone for the time that I was allowed to use it. This was more complicated than I thought it would be. Trying to let everyone know that your number has changed, and only temporarily at that, is not as simple as it may seem.

So, what I used the phone for was all of the great services I was supposed to be testing anyway.

First, the Sprint Music service. I had actually just broken my Ipod right before the new phone came, so the extensive music service was pretty much a godsend.

You can download songs directly onto your phone for a relatively low price of 99 cents per song. You can also purchase online in the Sprint Digital Music Lounge for the same price and then easily transfer that music to your phone.

Now, 99 cents may seem like a lot for one song, but that is the same price songs go for on Itunes. The speed of the download depends on the reception that your phone has at any given time. Basically, when I was outdoors things went pretty smoothly. Sometimes, when inside certain places, like the arts desk at The Mass Media office apparently, the download time was a bit slower.

Selection was good, but not as great as that of Itunes or some of the other digital music stores. There were some lesser known artists that I searched for who were unable to be found. And, some of the lesser known songs but more well known artists were absent as well.

But, despite that I still pretty much used the phone as my replacement MP3 player, and it did its job at that. I was able to download plenty of music to keep me satisfied for the little over a month that I had the phone.

Music is not the only great feature I was able to take advantage during my test drive of the Sprint services.

There is also Sprint TV. Now, how many time have you sat in class and really wanted to watch some “Hanna Barbera” cartoons? Well, with Sprint TV you can do just that. For a mere $4.95 a month you can have access to those cartoon you knew as a kid. Or, at least the cartoon I knew as a kid. There is also sports programming, like ESPN and NFL Network. You can get the Accuweather forecast whenever you want for $4.95.

Basically, you can sit in class and watch TV. Problem is it is hard to keep that kind of thing secret from the professor.

So, if you’re looking for a new cell phone provider with all the bells and whistles, look to Sprint. They’ve got it all. Television, radio, cartoons, music, it’s all there.