Samsung Omnia i900 coming soon
Samsung announced the Samsung Omnia i900 just ahead of the Apple iPhone 3G launch, which was a bold move by the company given the level of hype surrounding the iPhone.
It was even bolder when you consider that the Omnia is being pitched as a direct iPhone rival; yes, not just any old touchscreen phone, but what many are considering to be a touchscreen phone that's actually better than the iPhone in many ways.
Whether that's the case or not, we won't know until Samsung actually launches the Omnia, but fortunately we won't have too long to late. According to my sources, it should be released either next week or the week after, and I'm hopefully going to be getting my hands on it some weeks after that.
In the meantime, read on for more details and pictures of the Samsung Omnia i900.
Samsung Omnia i900 overview
So what makes the Omnia so great? Isn't is just like any other touchscreen phone?
Not quite. True, you do get all the usual features of a high-end smartphone: camera, video recorder, HSDPA, WiFi and GPS, all of which we've become rather blase about.
But it's the quality and high specification of the features that Samsung's managed to cram in, combined with some nifty new touches of its own that makes the Omnia stand out.
The Omnia's camera
For example, the Omnia's camera is 5 megapixels, compared with the iPhone's 2 megapixels and the Nokia E90's 3.2 megapixels.
Where the iPhone supports standard 3G (which will transfer data tat around 384kbps), the Omnia supports HSDPA at up to 7.2Mbps.
Even the E90 only supports 3.6Mbps HSDPA.
Better still, the Omnia will seamlessly switch from HSDPA to Wi-Fi and back again when you move into and out of a Wi-Fi hotspot, meaning you'll always be connected without having to manually reconnect.
Haptic keyboard
Then there's the user interface. The iPhone comes with a virtual touch- screen keyboard that takes a bit of getting used to.
The Omnia also comes with a virtual touchscreen, but it uses Samsung's haptics technology, which means that you get physical feedback whenever your finger passes over a key on the touchscreen, making the whole process of text entry much more natural. How well this works we'll have to see, but I should have a full report for you soon.
Autorotation
Like the iPhone, the Omnia also features autorotation, which rotates the screen between landscape and portrait modes according to whether the phone is being held vertically or horizontally. Whereas the iPhone uses an accelerometer to achieve this, though, the Omnia relies on its camera to determine its orientation. Not only is this a nifty approach in its own right, it also saves on batter power and compents, as you don't need any extra hardware for it to work - it's all achieved with software.
Multimedia and Web integration
The Omnia supports a wide range of multimedia Codecs, enabling you to view music and listen to tunes encoded in many different formats. There's also integration with YouTube and Facebook, letting you upload your pics and videos at the touch of a button. With its GPS functionality, your pictures can also be geo-coded, so you can identify them by location and by date.
...and much, much more!
As if all that wasn't enough, the Omnia comes with a huge amount of memory (8GB or 16GB depending on the model you choose), and a battery life that's double its nearest competitors. Better still, unlike the iPhone, you can actually remove the battery and buy another one if it ever fails, whereas the iPhone's battery is sealed in. Once the iPhone's battery goes, so does the phone itself, never again to work.
Not so the Omnia, as you slap in a replacement battery (you know, like you'd expect to with any other phone! Forgive the sarcasm, but this is one things that really annoys me with the iPhone).
As it's based on Windows Mobile, you also get mobile version of Microsoft Office, letting you view and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents. This does also mean you get Microsoft's Mobile Internet Explorer, but you can't have everything!
Samsung Omnia i900 reviews
- DialAPhone currently have a good review of the Samsung Omnia i900, and are preparing to sell it shortly.
- Phones4U are also gearing up to sell the Samsung Omnia, and have a great promotional video of it on show.
- Finally, watch this space, as I should be getting my hands on one for a thorough testing real soon!
[Source: DialAPhone, Phones4U]
