Samsung Omnia Review

y Franz Bicar

The Samsung Omnia is arguably one of the most sought after smartphones of 2008. Along with the RIM BlackBerry Bold and Sony Ericsson Xperia X1, the Samsung Omnia has made news as one of the alternatives to the very successful iPhone 3G. The Samsung Omnia couldn’t boast of its touch screen feature, after all, the Samsung Instinct couldn’t quite make it. However, Samsung’s TouchWiz interface has piqued the curiosity of a lot of people. This feature brings drag-and-drop widgets for the Today screen and provides an extra level of device customization. Its not as slick as the iPhone but it does make Windows Mobile much easier to use. As an added bonus, the smartphone is loaded with productivity and multimedia features that truly make it an all-in-one device that will satisfy both consumers and mobile professionals.

For now, the Samsung Omnia is available only in Europe. But pretty soon, it will be available to a lot of countries so we all just have to wait. The Omnia is a beautiful smartphone, no doubt about that. It is both simple and elegant. It has an attractive black-and-slate silver chassis and slim candy bar design that measures 4.4 inches tall by 2.2 inches wide by 0.4 inch deep and weighs 4.4 ounces. While light and compact, it has a nice solid construction and feels comfortable to hold and use as a phone.

On the outside, the phone is very simple and has a minimalistic design. There aren’t a lot of external controls and it focuses more on its touch screen capabilities. The Omnia features a 3.2-inch diagonal TFT screen with a 262,000 color output and 240×400 pixel resolution. The display isn’t as large as the Instinct’s or the iPhone’s. The screen, however, is sufficient for most tasks, and very easy to read and vibrant.

For text entry, you can either use the full QWERTY keyboard, the Block Recognizer, or the Transcriber. The touch screen is mostly responsive and offers haptic tactile feedback that lets you know that your touch has registered with vibrations. You can adjust the intensity of the feedback as well as choose from various vibration rhythms under the VibeTonz folder in the Settings menu. In addition, the Omnia’s display has a built-in accelerometer so the screen will rotate from portrait to landscape mode when you turn the phone. Continued...