Samsung sneaks out snazzy 3G iPhone rival... the Omnia.

Richdog

Richdog

Richdog

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I saw this and thought it worthy of some serious postage... http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/09/samsung_launches_omnia/

Samsung sneaks out snazzy 3G iPhone rival

In a bid to steal some of the anticipated 3G iPhone's glory - Apple's expected to announce it today - Samsung has launched Ominia, its Windows Mobile 6.1-based touchscreen handset.
sams_i900_1.jpg
Samsung's Omnia: 3G iPhone rival

Based around a 3.2in, 240 x 400 display, the Omnia also packs in GPS, and FM radio, A2DP wireless stereo, Bluetooth 2.0, Wi-Fi and a choice of either 8GB or 16GB on-board storage. Users can up that capacity with Micro SDHC cards.
The handset uses increasingly popular haptic feedback technology to help users interract with the flat touchscreen more efficiently, Samsung said.
sams_i900_2.jpg
sams_i900_3.jpg
Full-feature 5Mp camera on the back

On the back is a five-megapixel camera with image stabilisation, autofocus, and photography flavours of the month face and smile detection.
Omnia - aka the SGH-i900 - has quad-band GSM/GPRS/Edge connectivity plus 3G HSDPA for data downloads of up to 7.2Mb/s.
Samsung first demo'd the Omnia at a European trade fair back in April.
sams_i900_4.jpg



The handset was launched this morning in Korea. As yet, there's no word on exactly when Samsung will bring its little beauty to the West.
The company did say that Omnia will ship initially in South-East Asia during Q3, with a global roll-out to follow.
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Looks very very nice imo and has some great specs... I think I spy a xenon flash too on the back? The battery will also be removeable... a huge advantage ovber the iPhone imo! No word on if it has video recording though...

Interesting. :)

VIDEO HERE! http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/news/news.phtml/15235/16259/samsung-omnia-i900-mobile-phone.phtml

INTERFACE VIDEO HERE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXPP1Cqchr8

WEB BROWSER DEMO HERE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEtgKXzbyII

Looks damn sweet, VERRYYYY damn sweet!
 
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Its odd why Samsung didn't go for the same res as the iPhone really... a bit extra wouldn't have done any harm... but I shouldn't think it will hurt browsing and movie viewing too much. May help battery life too.
 
The more I look at this phone the more I can't help thinknig that the resolution could have really been improved to at least 480 x 272.

I think Samsung really missed a trick there, the phone has everything else you could wish for, and a higher res would do wonders for browsing and office tasks. WHy is it the perfect phone doesn't exist... there's always at least one glaring flaw or niggle.

Little vs comparison here http://www.mobilegazette.com/samsung-omnia-i900-08x06x10.htm
 
I found an awesome little vid on Youtube of the Omnia, showing in detail the interface etc. I have to say for a WM device this looks VERY responsive... and the Samsung Touchwiz looks like an intuitive and uncomplicated little system!

See it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXPP1Cqchr8

EDIT -Web browser demo too! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEtgKXzbyII

*drools*

What I want to know is... is the video recording 30fps @ 640x480 or not!
 
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LeperousDust said:
That's VERY responsive =/ Jesus, you WinMo guys don't expect much then. I watched him tap close multiple time on quite a few apps loaded until they did as theyre told. That is not responsive in my books :)


Ray the browser looks to be maybe Opera mobile 9.5 which has been out with a few mobiles for a while :)
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Very responsive for a WM device I meant. I'll gladly sacrifice a few milliseconds of responsiveness for a phone which actually does useful things. :p

My friend has an iPhone and its great to look at and browse on but that's about it imo. WM, for its faults, is about 1000x more versatile. And now that Apple have castrated 3rd party installer apps in their new completely uninspiring iPhone, it's just not a valid option for me. Plus I use phone cameras a lot for off the cuff photo and video recording (my N82 sees a scary amount of use) and the iPhone effort is nothing short of pathetic, whereas the Omnia looks very competent in that department.

It's all about balance and trade-offs, and unfortunately the iPhone does not suit me as a user in its current state.
 
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The trade-off with the Symbian is the awful UI and the lack of touch which makes navigating and browsing on them a complete and utter bloody nightmare... I would swap it for WM in an instant if I knew that the WM device had all the features of my N82. Plus the added bonus of decent office/business use of WM and for me it's a no brainer really.

The Omnia better have 30fps video recording though... it comes in soooo useful at christmas/birthday parties, and er... other things. :D
 
mrochester said:
It's funny how people started saying this only after the iPhone appeared. Before that, Symbian was a perfectly fine UI with the best browsing experience out there.
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What a sweeping generalisation to make. Honestly. :p

The introduction of the iPhone doesn't suddenly make the S60 user interface an 'awful UI' or the browsing experience any worse. In fact, they are still excellent, AND combine a thorough and sophisticated set of features too. The choice is simple really... The BEST interface + substandard features = iPhone, or, a GREAT interface + excellent features = high end Nokia phone. For me, a balance of a great interface and excellent features is far more important than being all flash with no substance.
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Ok I get it, you love Nokia. A lot. But for the record if you can take the blinkers off for a second... I found the Symbian UI a complete nightmare for browsing LONG before the iPhone was released... and WM users have been enjoying good browsing in comparison to Symbian users for a LONG time. The iPhone made the experience a lot smoother, but Symbian has in my opinion sucked for browsing through lack of intuitive controls and lack of touchscreen since it was released... and i have owned a LOT of Nokia phones since then. In fact i'm not quite sure why the only two phone types you make reference to are iPhone and Symbian (considering this thread and my comments were clearly referring to a WM phone)... my sole point was that in my opinion having used Symbian for years, it is not an intuitive UI or one friendly for browsing due to the lack of touch. Period.
 
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