Samsung Omnia CDMA Review

Messaging:

Both CDMA and GSM versions of the Omnia offer the same Messaging program, allowing you to send and receive Text, MMS, and regular E-Mail. Composing a new message can be done while the phone is in portrait or landscape mode, with the latter being our preferred method. There are also 7 available modes of inputting text: Block Recognizer, Keyboard, Letter Recognizer, Samsung Keyboard, Samsung Keypad, Samsung Phonepad, and Transcriber. Each one is different and offers their own advantages. However, we found the easiest way of typing a message is with the phone in landscape mode while using the Samsung Keyboard. This provides a full virtual QWERTY keyboard on the screen, which is easy use with your thumbs. It also allows for T9 predictive text entry, so that you don’t have to type out every letter for each word, but instead can select a word from a list after a few letters are entered. Being a Windows Mobile device means that you can also view HTML E-Mails with pictures and can save (or send) attachments.



The program allows you to add your POP3 and IMAP e-mail accounts in only a few steps. One nice feature is that it will automatically try to setup the account (configuring the server address) after your username and password are entered. While this works most of the time, we found that with some accounts you will have to manually enter the incoming and outgoing mail server address. There is also the option for it to be synchronized with your company’s Exchange Server.

For people who use Instant Messaging, the phone also comes preloaded with Verizon’s Mobile IM, which can connect you to AIM, Windows Live, and Yahoo. After logging-in, you can view your buddy list and send and receive messages, but they will count agents your Text Messaging plan.



Connectivity:

The Omnia is dual-band CDMA phone that operates on Verizon’s 800/1900MHz network. Unfortunately, it lacks quad-band GSM support; unlike the Samsung Saga and BlackBerry Storm, which can be used overseas. For data, the Omnia uses Verizon’s EVDO Rev A network, which can offer downloads up to 1.2Mbps, but most of our downloads speeds were between 600-800Kbps. The device comes with Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) that can be used in areas that offer Wi-Fi access, and Bluetooth 2.0 is also supported.

For web browsing, most people will opt to use Opera Mobile 9.5 instead of the slower Internet Explorer. While using Opera, you can flawlessly view complex HTML pages with ease. Panning around is fluid and simple, full-screen mode is automatic, and tabbed browsing is supported. To zoom in or out on a page, you can move your finger up and down the right side of the screen, or you can tap twice on an area of the page to zoom directly to it. Tapping twice again will zoom out. While panning around the page, there is a “minimap” – a small thumbnail shown in the top-left corner, displaying what area of the page you are viewing.

Pressing on the small arrow at the bottom of the browser will turn off the full-screen mode and show the address bar across the top, and icons for Back, Bookmarks, Tabs, Home, and Menu across the bottom. Naturally, you can enter in web addressing using the Samsung Keyboard. Our only complaint about the browser is that embedded flash files in pages are not shown, despite the Advanced menu having an option for enabling “Flash plug-ins” and “Java Script”. Thankfully, the browser does support the Mobile YouTube site and can stream videos, which are played in Windows Media Player and can be viewed in full-screen mode.


The phone synchronizes with a PC via ActiveSync (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. There is also a Mass Storage option when connected via USB, which turns the device into a USB drive, allowing you to transfer files to and from the 8GB of internal memory.