Samsung OMNIA Review

Messages:

A versatile device such as OMNIA cannot have limited messaging options. The main feature here is the convenient modes of text input, which are as follows:

• Block Recognizer
• Keyboard
• Letter Recognizer
• Transcriber
• Samsung Keyboard
• Samsung Keypad
• Samsung Phonepad

We think that the Samsung’s Keypad is the best option for a landscape-oriented display. It is a SureType-like keyboard, which combined with the T9 predictive text support, will let you enter text really fast. If you are using the horizontal view, the full QWERTY is a better solution. The only problem comes from the “space”, which is located on the side and not in the middle, therefore requires some time to get used to.

Just a few steps away are the options to add your e-mail account (POP3 or IMAP) and to use it on your mobile phone. Very nice extra is that the phone can try to get the email settings automatically from the internet, and so we configured our Gmail Account by entering only the username and password. Windows Mobile 6 already supports HTML formatted e-mails. The client is very similar to the Outlook on a computer, you can filter your inbox to see just some results, reply to message or forward it to other person.

The support for attachments allows you to download or send one, in addition to the text body. The phone can be set to synchronize with your company Exchange Server.


Connectivity:

Samsung OMNIA is a quad-band GSM, which makes it a World phone, but regrettably, because of the single band UMTS, it is not suitable for high-speed Internet in the U.S. It supports GPRS, EDGE and HSDPA speeds with the last one getting up to 7.2Mbit/s, when used in Europe.

The phone packs a Wi-Fi b/g radio to allow for data transmission when off the cellular network. For data transfer on short distances, the phone supports Bluetooth 2.0.

The browser is almost identical to the one we saw in HTC Touch Diamond. It is a customized version of the yet-to-be-released Opera Mobile 9.5, and unlike Opera Mobile 8.x it is powered by Opera Mini’s Presto engine. Browsing is, in short, fantastic. Complex HTML pages are rendered flawlessly, panning and zooming is fluid and simple, full-screen mode is automatic and it supports tabbed browsing. Pages are loaded as an overview and the user can easily drag the page to pan around. On top of that, while you are reading through the page, a small map appears which makes navigation easier. HTC Touch for example, doesn’t offer such extras. Another unique feature is the option to zoom out by running a finger on the right side of the display. A double tap zooms in on the selected area and another double tap zooms back out. When zoomed in the browser renders text to fit the view, eliminating the need to constantly drag back and forth to read a paragraph. Rotate the device in either direction and the page moves to landscape view nearly instantaneously.



When not in full-screen mode there is a menu bar at the bottom with Back, Favorites, Tabs, Home and Menu. At the top of the page is the address bar and stop button, as well as a close tab button.In contrast to HTC Touch Diamond, the accelerometer positions the picture very well even after fast movement. The bad news is that you are not able to view any Flash objects such as videos. iPhone’s Safari at least recognizes YouTube videos and they can be played in a separate player.

Pocket Internet Explorer is of course available as well, but we fail to see why it would ever be used.

The phone syncs with a PC via ActiveSync (Windows XP) or Mobile Device Center (Vista.) Users can choose to sync any number of items, such as contacts, calendar, tasks, favorites, notes, media and more. We tested it with ActiveSync and had no issues syncing with our existing Outlook database. Officially there is no Mac support, but programs such as Missing Sync can remedy this. The phone also gives you a Mass Storage mode option when you connect, enabling use of the device as a USB drive