The seriously hyped Samsung Omnia i900 has finally arrived, but does it live up to all of the acclaim? The short answer is yes and no and while this smartphone certainly isn’t an iPhone killer, it has a few tricks up its sleeve.
On the outside, this phone is great. It measures 112 x 56.9 x 12.5mm, weighs 127g and feels expensive in the hand due to its brushed metal back. The controls are nice and the optical mouse brings something new to the table. And though the screen is generally bright and inviting, it’s not as vivid or vibrant as the HTC Touch Diamond or the iPhone 3G.
Equipped with an accelerometer, the Omnia can rotate from vertical to horizontal, though the animation to rotate the screen is slow and can be annoying. It also incorporates haptics, which vibrates the phone each time you touch the screen. Seemingly useless, this feature may be incorporated to help cover up the fact that the screen is less than responsive, requiring that you touch with an even degree of pressure in order to swipe, stroke and select.
The interface can only be described as inconsistent with the graphical interface of Samsung’s TouchWiz GUI laid on top of existing Windows Mobile 6.1 applications. This makes for uncomfortable navigating, at best especially when standard programs are involved with tiny scroll bars and buttons.
But the Omnia does succeed in the realm of media. With the intuitive Touch Player replacing Windows Media Player, you can preset radio stations, record shows, and listen to music. Plus, the sound quality is very good, though the 65,000 color display is a bit subpar.
Other features include a 5 megapixel camera with an LED flash and autofocus and a microSDHC slot that supports cards up to 16GB. You can record short bursts of video (though they’ll be jumpy) and geotagging is incorporated into your picture editing abilities.
Our biggest complaint? The Samsung Omnia is quadband GSM, but its UMTS is only 2100MHz. It’s built for 3G but only capable of EDGE. This is only the case on the U.S. version of the phone, however, so those abroad should enjoy the high speeds this phone was meant for. Hopefully this will be fixed before the U.S. release.
Be sure to head over to SlashGear to read the full review.
Check out the gallery below:
[via SlashGear]
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