Samsung officially took the wrappers off of the OMNIA at CommunicAsia 2008 (CMMA 2008) in Singapore. Our editor from SlashPhone was at the press launch, and took a boat load of images for your viewing pleasure.
While the Samsung Omnia is no iPhone 3G killer, it will surely kick the crap out of all the other Windows Mobile 6.1 powered devices on the market. That my friends also include the HTC Diamond and Touch Pro. Similar to the HTC Diamond and Touch Pro, Samsung wrapped Windows Mobile 6.1 with TouchWiz making life easier for owners to navigate through the menus and getting to the things they need quicker.
It’s hard to beat the OMNIA’s 5-megapixel CMOS camera with auto-focus (AF), face and smile detection and auto-panorama shot. While the HTC Diamond comes with 4GB of user storage memory, the OMNIA comes in 8 or 16GB memory configuration and additional storage can be added via extendable slot. The HTC Diamond lacks the ability to expand for additional storage. Of course, a smart phone called OMNIA can’t go without having a GPS, including navigation and geo-tagging capabilities, so you’d never get lost wherever you are.
My biggest problem using the HTC Diamond is that the keys are slightly smaller on the 2.8-inch screen while the OMNIA’s 3.2-inch WQVGA TFT LCD display offers a wider and larger keys to press on. There’s also QWERTY keyboard in portrait mode. The high-resolution touch-sensitive screen uses intuitive tap, sweep, drag and drop operations as well as an on-screen QWERTY keyboard. It also facilitates easy and convenient calling and texting with a dedicated dome key for controlling communications.
While the Samsung OMNIA is nowhere near the size and thickness of the HTC Diamond, I find it much more practical, especially if you’ve got fat fingers. It’s still pretty ultra-slim measuring 12.5mm and has a platinum look finish. Samsung added details such as elegant hairline patterns on the back of the phone to bring the “perfection in style.”
The Samsung Omnia will be available in Singapore this week, followed by Europe at the end of
July. China and Taiwan will get the Omnia in August. The Omnia will cost about 1098 SGD for the
16GB configuration without contract in Singapore. No information on the availability or pricing on the 8GB version yet.
Enjoy the image gallery! Phone Magazine’s review unit of Samsung Omnia should be arriving any day now. So make sure to check back for a full review!
Vincent, I not have to say anything about your great job you did and always do, it is just fantastic. But tell me why the Omnia is not an iPhone killer? Not that I am looking for an iPhone killer but everything seems to be better on the Omnia though. Is it the touchscreen? Is the touchscreen not smooth like iPhone? For me one killer feature is the camera.
It’s quite bulky, juz like iPhone. HTC Diamond is cooler…
Great write up and fantastic to see so many pictures.
One question – why do you think the i900 is NOT an “iPhone killer”?
Samsung can produce the volume, the interface looks identical and the Omnia has at least 5 better specs that I can see (incl. 5.0 MP camera, A2DP Bluetooth, price, etc) that pretty much wipe the floor with the iPhone – how is Apple’s over-hyped offering better than the Omnia?
I think any phone is an iPhone killer. Once, my friend bought me an iPhone from the US and I looked through the instructions to hack the phone on the Internet. Immediately I sold off my phone without even unwrapping the box.
It is not because I don’t have the ability to hack the phone, I am techie enough to create my own Linux distro if I wanted to, I think I can handle the iPhone. It is just that I feel Apple is treating Asian customers as second class citizen by depriving us of a whole generation of iPhone. We have to resort to hacking on order to own a iPhone? I would rather use my e51 which Nokia officially released to Asian customers.
For whatever reason Apple is unable to release the first iPhone in Asia, I think they have made a huge mistake. The other phone makers are going to have so much lead time to catch up with Apple that by the time the iPhone arrived here, it’s edge over other phones would have been minimized or removed. Especially when the iPhone 3G is not a giant leap in terms of innovation over the original.
The Samsung Omnia and HTC touch Diamond, in my opinion is the perfect proof of my point.
My guess is that it won’t be an iPhone killer because of the price. With all the features it has that are better, it’s probably going to be a $599 phone, which puts it out of the reach of many customers who are stretching their budgets just to spend $199 on a new iPhone.
If it manages to get a carrier to subsidize part of the price, it might get closer to killer range.
Additionally, I don’t see a release date for the States in the article, which means it’s at least a month later than the iPhone. Many people here ready for a new phone might have purchased the new iPhone before the Omnia is even available.
Hi guys, I am using an iphone for a year plus and I get fed up with this over rated
phone ( Iphone), I still didn’t have to chance to surf Omina yet, but I do believe that in terms of functionality is far much better than Iphone, however the omnia interface touch screen stills not up to Iphone standard the keyboard is small, anyways what is Omnia price?
To Farid… you said “however the omnia interface touch screen stills not up to Iphone standard the keyboard is small”, however u should look thru the videos online. It can change from vertical to horizontal keyboard and in QWERTY.
And regarding the price, Samaung phone is sold by two telecoms named Starhub and M!, with a price of $200++ with a contract of 2 years and trade-in 200 bucks. However, the original price is stated as $1000++, which is side by side the HTC touch. Of course, the battle is going to begin, with Omnia releasing its phone from Asia outwards, and iPhone from North America into Asia. Let’s see who sell better. We cant forget about HTC Diamond Touch and LG Secret that is releasing out around the same time.
2 taerin June 17th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
u r forgetting that iPhone is 199, but you must count the expensive contract, that comes along with it(the final price for 8gig is equal to or more expensive than omnia 16gig+u can’t add storage with SDHC cards to iPhone) btw omnia cost standalone about 800 bucks for 16Gig version. this device is definitely better than iphone and who can’t see that must put his “apple glasses” away…
Folks no one will be able to buy an IPhone (or any decent new smartphone) for less than US$700
The prices for the IPhone with a contract appears to be close to $1800!!!! (depending on the supplier).
For example Vodaphone in Australia demand a two year contract with $69/month plus $200 for the IPhone this comes to a WHOPPING $1,800
If you want Vodaphone to sell you one of these off plan that will cost you an extra $200. So that ios AUS$2,000 for a Phone !!!!
I bought my first car for less than that !!
The samsung Omnia unloocked is currently selling on EBay for AU$1,056 and that price is bound to come down.
So it has more features a good UI, great performance and a lower price – WHY WOULD YOU BUY an IPhone for double the price!?
Is the interface worth double the price !??
The UI on the Omnia is very good and though it isn’t going to beat the IPhone the functionality in the UI brings it damn close (i.e. the screen rotates on almost all screens whereas the original IPhone did not).
Oh and by the way you still can’t remove the battery from the IPhone !!
You also can’t move your data around as easily as using a memory card.
You also can’t add memory to the IPhone – IT DOESN’T HAVE A CARD SLOT!!!!!
p.s. Beware of the HTC Diamond as there are multiple reports that it is very sluggish (just search the web for “HTC Diamond slow” or “sluggish”)
Even the latest HTC Diamonds are still slow. The HTC Touch Pro (which has a keyboard) is exactly the same as the HTC Diamond but has a bit more memory and a card slot. I assume therefore that the same problem exists with this phone also.
Samsung Omnia all the way for me !
I do not believe this
IMO, the iPhone and the Omnia should have a matte finish instead of the glossy finish which only make them look cheap and tacky.
I realised that whenever i install 3rd party apps. and those are required to be installed in the device memory, it will install in the device memory’s storage, but not program memory. is there anyway to install them in program memory? because the device storage have very little space. I have 3.14mb storage memory and 48.92MB storage memory left in the device.
http://www.Samsung-Omnia.org really helped me a lot.
very sweet phone..
Good information. These days I just got a Samsung Omnia SCH-i910 inside mail from ebay, and it at this time looks that it’s at stock settings for the Verizon Network. I prepare to make use of this cell phone on Metro PCS. I also wish to set Windows Mobile 6.5 on here, but I’m not confident which purchase I need to do this in. Really should I acquire it to Metro PCS as is and have it activated, after which it afterwards flash the ROM with 6.five? Or must I modify the ROM 1st after which it consider it to Metro PCS? I’ve been searching all-around and I’m unable to find the answer to this.