Samsung OMNIA HD i8910 Review

Interface:

As we mentioned, the Samsung OMNIA HD i8910 runs the latest Symbian OS version geared to touch screen sensitive phones (v9.4 S60 5th Edition), similarly to the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and Nokia N97 with the major difference being it has been modified to utilize the Samsung´s TouchWiz 3D interface. In our preview we tipped you off that certain changes in the interface were quite likely and we were right. There are new things indeed, but more of them concern the outer appearance of the software. Just like other TouchWiz cell phones, the interface looks great, shiny and funny and widgets are open from the bar on the left hand side of the screen (you should press the arrow first). A number of them come preloaded onto the phone, plus you can easily download more using a dedicated widget.


Unlike other TouchWiz phones, the OMNIA HD brings along three separate widget screens that are quite easy to switch between through touching an icon at the top of the screen, just the way you do when using a computer with several desktops. We do like that you can lock the position of every widget onto each separate screen as to avoid displacing them. Now, let´s go on with the other airs and graces of the interface.

3D navigation is one the eye-candies that can be switched off should you not really like it. Just touch in the home screen and slide it to your right and you´ll switch over to the Photo Contacts screen. As suggested by its name, you can call up contacts by just touching the assigned photos. They are pretty easy to tag in a Facebook-like style which is really cool.



Now, let´s go back to the widgets, but slide a finger from right to left and get to the main menu. It looks in character with the TouchWiz interface, with all these showy eye-candy icons appearing in a 3x4 grid. Changing over to a vertical item list is pretty easy as well. 

Some people would find the widgets likeable a feature, others won´t. If you are one of those who belong to the second group you can easily change the theme over to Finger Use or Basic. There are only wallpaper and the four icons at the bottom of the screen in Basic mode, whereas Finger Use allows customizable quick access to four functions of your own choosing, just like the shortcut bar on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. Additional info like upcoming calendar events and song name pops up on screen if the music player is on.

Submenus on the Samsung OMNIA HD i8910 appear as a vertical list of functions and you need to double-click one to select it just like on the 5800 XpressMusic. There is no way you can break away from this, but this method should at least help you make less wrong picks.