Loading ...The Samsung OMNIA is powered by Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional and comes packed with MS Office (PowerPoint, Excel, and Word). Even though the OMNIA is 100% touch screen, Samsung included an optical mouse for ease of navigation - the optical mouse is similar to what you’d find on laptops. Samsung OMNIA is possibly the best ever smartphone that Samsung has ever built. OMNIA is definitely a better name than SGH-i900, which means ‘everything’ in Latin and ‘wish’ in Arabic. The OMNIA is essentially everything that you can possibly wish for on a Windows Mobile 6.1 smart phone. It brings together high performance business content, high-end design mixed with a full bag of dynamic multimedia rich experience. The OMNIA is the first ever Windows Mobile smart phone featuring Capacitive technology touchscreen from Synaptics! Sorry folks, Samsung representative mispsoke earlier, and just now clarified that OMNIA DOES NOT HAVE CAPACITIVE technology. I repeat, it DOES NOT HAVE CAPACITIVE technology. Unfortunately, it’s the same old resistive touchscreen on every other smartphone on the market today.
The OMNIA also has a 5-megapixel CMOS camera with auto-focus (AF), face and smile detection and auto-panorama shot. OMNIA comes in 8 or 16GB memory configuration and additional storage can be added via extendable slot. 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.
According to CNET Asia, “an orientation sensor is built into the OMNIA i900. When rotated, it does this fancy transition whereby the display shrinks and expands back to fill the screen in a different orientation. The 240 x 400 display does seem a little weird, but is not unheard of–we’ve seen it in the ASUS M930’s internal display. It makes sense, too, if you are to use it as a media player because the aspect ratio is much closer to the 16:9 aspect ratio commonly seen in movie files. To that end, the i900 also comes with a media application that supports DivX and Xvid out of the box.”
As I mentioned earlier, the OMNIA is primarily touch-based so it makes perfect sense for Samsung to include its patented TouchWiz user interface. The OMNIA is Samsung’s first ever Windows Mobile smart phone to feature TouchWiz. TouchWiz lets you personalize the home window with unique widgets. 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.
The Samsung OMNIA is 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.”
Geesung Choi, President of Samsung Telecommunication Business, said: “I am very excited to introduce Samsung , a mobile device that truly delivers the best possible features for today’s busy, connected consumer. Samsung demonstrates our vision for the Samsung mobile business, which is to provide premium phones for users who desire functionality, style, usability and entertainment in one innovative device. The mobile range will help users to be at the forefront of work and play and at the same time, to stay connected anytime, anywhere.”
The Samsung OMNIA will be unveiled at CommunicAsia, Singapore from June 17 to 20 and commercially launched in the Southeast Asian market starting from the same week. The phone will be available in the European market from July.
June 9th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
This is the answer to HTC that it is possible to build a device with all US band, WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth on a small form factor. HTC hold their excuses on crippling devices features because of build difficulties and size.
Hope this makes the difference and stops manufacturers building devices with crippled features in order to earn on future models.
June 10th, 2008 at 12:16 am
this needs time to mature and grow some of the more desired haptic technology from Synaptics,otherwise, a good product I think, and real iPhone 2.0 killer (abortive)
June 10th, 2008 at 3:01 am
It’s a shame that a device as pathetic as the iPhone gets more attention than a device such as this which truly deserves it.
June 10th, 2008 at 8:26 am
Looks like a very interesting phone, but there is one huge down side. It has a Microsoft OS. I don’t want the borg anywhere near my reproductive parts. I’ll wait for s good Linux or Google based phone.
June 10th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Let’s be fair :
- 5 MP camera with video recording
- handwriting recognition
- can assign an mp3 for a contact
- bluetooth with A2DP (allow stereo headphone)
- MMS available
- FM radio embedded
- Lots of video format accepted
- 1440mhz battery (good one)
…that’s what doesn’t offer 3g iphone…
Windows Mobile 6.1 : that could be buggy, but one can be sure of updates and many application available on the net. Freedom and personalisation means a lot !
2 things though..
- Boring design. Not particulary exciting…
- 200*400 will be soon outclassed as xperia will come with 800*480, Iphone 3G with 320*480..etc…
all the success now depends on the price, if the phone come available without contract, and of course of professional reviews.
June 12th, 2008 at 6:57 am
this phone kills the samsung instinct when doen this 1 come out and whats the price?
June 12th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Folks, bad news… this phone DOES NOT have HSDPA/3G for the US. The best you’ll get in the US for data speeds with this phone is EDGE. So to AROD, this phone in fact does not have “All US bands.”
June 12th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Rick, you’re 100% right. Omnia has all 4 cellular bands but lacks the 3G bands for US. It’s not a phone released for the US market so I didn’t expect it to have them. It’s still a kick butt handset though!
June 13th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Does any one has any idea when thid phone will be launched in US market and with thich carrier?
June 14th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Is samsung i900 going to use Sirf Star III gps chipset?
June 19th, 2008 at 8:40 am
From what I have read, AT&T will be the carrier and it will be $799.00 for the 8G model.
June 20th, 2008 at 3:42 am
Despite this device only having a WQVGA screen, this phone has everything you wish for in a WM SmartPhone. Who said WM 6.1 is buggy? If you are not a WM fan then this phone is not for you. The biggest plus is having 8 or 16gb on-board plus the ability to expand memory! Does your phone have that feature? Second, it has a 5 megapixel camera complete with face detection, smile feature and panorama. This makes Omnia your everyday camera. Third, the Omnia has built-in GPS. Fourth, the phone comes complete with Touch Wiz interface. And fifth, Samsung used a 624mhz chip to handle all processes.
Samsung has given this device considerable thought. And I will surely get one unit when it comes out of the market.
June 20th, 2008 at 7:33 am
I think this phone could be very nice. It all depends on the price point and the “cutting” that AT&T (likely US partner) does to the phone/software…
I don’t know that the capacitive screen matters that much to me. Haptic feedback is good, but I can’t imagine that it helps battery life any. While I am sure it will be put into all devices in the future, I am not sure that is the best way to implement features on a phone. Why not? Simple–women, men, and hermaphrodites may want to touch the screen with a fingertip and have the device acknowledge the “touch.” Like the iPhone, these screens do not respond to a fingernail making a selection.
I’ll wait and see.
June 20th, 2008 at 8:35 am
The Samsung Omnia Is due for release to the public late 2008 before christmas with a retail price of $1098 U.S dollars, A nice phone but a bit pricey compared to other phones on the market
June 20th, 2008 at 8:37 am
More info as FRANK said the 8gb model will be $799 U.S and 16gb will be $1098 U.S and carrier will be at&t
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:51 am
i was thinking about getting this over the iphone 3g, but i can’t wait that long for it (my phone is pretty much dead and i need a better phone for work e-mail access).
samsung seemed to have a lot of stuff i wanted over the iphone (tether, stereo bluetooth, miniSD card, video camera - i have a baby),l but i don’t think it’s worth 4x the price - i’m already an AT&T customer so the 2-yr contract doesnt bother me.
does anyone know if there will be a discounted price for the omnia if you sign a cell phone contract?
June 23rd, 2008 at 6:43 pm
This is one of the best phones out there.
for more info about the omnia, check out http://www.samsung-omnia.org
July 11th, 2008 at 5:16 am
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 !
July 12th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
Does this phone have a 3.5mm standard audio jack? You didnt explain this really clearly.
July 17th, 2008 at 5:51 am
I perfectly agree with what a colleag said:iphone is mo’ of propaganda ‘cos the Samsung Omnia sounds better in features and applications.Un4tunately it is not gettind the attention it deserves…!The fact that the iphone media-craze has died off within weeks-or even days-proves my point!
July 18th, 2008 at 8:34 am
i would love to know from where could i buy this phone
i live in the middle east
would you mind telling me if there is dealers here or not ???
and also how much iz cost ??
September 4th, 2008 at 2:48 am
guys,
why are we even comparing omnia with iphone. just because they are touch screen phones????
Omnia is a windows mobile multimedia phone, while iphone doesnt have win mo.
Some more differences (am sure ppl know abt these by now)
- Omnia 5 MP camera with lots of options - Iphone 2 MP camera with no flah, no autofocus
- Omnia 8 GB internal memory, expandable - Iphone no expandable memory
- Iphone battery cannot be replaced
- Iphone comes with contract (in india, we generally are not used to contracts, we are free to switch mobile service provider as per our wish
- Iphone cannot copy contacts, cannot forward sms
- Iphone bluetooth is virtually useless
- Iphone doesnt support video calling
- the list can continue
Am not here to bash the iphone (though i am a die-hard omnia geek). its a class of its own. but omnia is much more powerful with more features. Its like comparing a toyota with a ferrari, just because they both run on roads!!!
one ougth to compare the omnia with touch diamond (or xperia)…
September 12th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
I don’t about SAMSUNG handphone or smartphone, I had a bad experience. But I think to have a look, touch and try.
September 18th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
From the documents that say release dates the Omnia will be released in the US market through ATT under the new name Samsung Mirage
website for this is
http://technorati.com/posts/WFNmZF654BndL2%2BD0RGk13c6NZmwVjVdahTw%2BGk%2BqUI%3D
this phone will blow the Iphone out of the water
September 24th, 2008 at 1:35 am
this phone is so cool! i’ll save for it! great features! the best phone i’ve seen in the market today! nice job samsung!
October 6th, 2008 at 7:32 am
Hmm just wondering for this Phone D900, does it have the function to use the video call camera as a normal phone camera? so it’ll be easier for me to take a photo with my gf..
I’m also a samsung user, using slim slim phone of samsung with 2 cameras. the inner camera with the smaller resolution has the function to use it for camera as well as video call.