Sprint Movies In Action

After Sprint’s announcement earlier this month that it would begin selling full-length, streaming movies viewable on cell phones, we were excited to test the service out, if for no other reason than to give us an excuse to watch a movie at work.

So when a Sprint A900 showed up in our office, we decided to test the service right away. We tried it with Spider-Man 2, since we were curious about how the movie’s special effects would translate onto such a tiny screen.

The movie cost $4.99 plus tax (newer films are $5.99 plus tax). Once we purchased it, we could view it as often as we wanted over the next 24 hours (viewing periods range from one to seven days).

We noticed while browsing through the list of films that scrolling pops up thumbnails for each film, which is good for those of us who can’t always remember a movie’s title but can always associate plot with movie posters. And when we finally got to and clicked on our pick, the service showed us a list of starring actors and a short synopsis of the film – perfect for helping decide whether you really do want to watch it.

The first thing we noticed once the movie started: The movie viewing area is tiny, approximately a one-inch rectangle, and is noticeably smaller than the phone’s 1.8-inch display. We wished we could turn the phone sideways and watch in widescreen mode, too. Another gripe is that the screen darkened automatically at the start of the movie – as cell phone screens tend to do when we’re not pressing the buttons. You can adjust this in the phone’s settings.

The resolution was better than expected, with crisp images, and audio that matched up exactly with the video. Doc Oc’s tentacle arms looked itty-bitty and a bit grainy but still menacing, and Spiderman’s acrobatic moves translated pretty well onto the small screen. We also liked that we could view the film pretty easily by chapter, which is probably what we’d do instead of watching the whole thing in one fell swoop.

Spider-Man 2 stopped and started several times while we watched it. At one point, the film disappeared and a yellow error message appeared in place of the viewing screen. The screen came back and the film resumed once we pressed play, but, to our annoyance, the error message was viewable in the background for about the next half hour.

Some action scenes were hard to watch – the characters moved and camera angles changed so quickly that the data stream couldn’t quite keep up, and this resulted in some blocky, off-color scenes.

With the screen adjusted to full brightness we were able to watch about 2/3 of the film before our phone’s battery died completely, which is about what we expected. Fortunately, the film can be resumed from wherever you left off, so getting back to a particularly fiery scene was easy once we plugged in.

Be warned: Sometimes it takes a while for chapters to load, so pausing, rewinding, and fast-forwarding can be more annoying than rewarding. And leave reading the credits to those with 20/20 (or better) vision – not surprisingly, the text shows up tiny and a bit pixelated.

Despite the obvious (though not unexpected) shortcomings, Sprint’s first foray into the full-length movie space is worth keeping an eye on. The service may not be the best way to watch your favorite action flick, but it could definitely fulfill sudden movie cravings while on the go. That is, assuming Sprint finds a way to use the phone’s entire screen.

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