Samsung OMNIA Review

Interface:

All-in-one, but user friendly. That’s the main idea of the personalized Windows Mobile interface, which Samsung OMNIA runs on. Although called TouchWiz by the manufacturer, the only similarity it has with the one seen in F480, are the widgets.


The overall impression the interface creates is for incompleteness. Some elements like the homescreen, the main menu and the contacts for example, have been modified in such a way that they resemble the non-smart phones and their purpose is to facilitate operating entirely with fingers. However, the original Windows Mobile applications with small and inconvenient icons, forcing you to use a stylus, are actually always apparent. They are closed from the top right corner, and the personalized ones from the bottom left, which is very annoying as well. We appreciate the attempt made by the manufacturer to modify the phone, thus allowing a wider consumer audience to use it, but it’s not working. All most frequently used functions had to be redesigned and not only a few, just to say they’ve done it. The final touches of such details are what make the difference between a good and an exceptional device.

We were impressed by the fact that scrolling is done as in F480 and most other phones with sensitive displays, and not like the previous Samsung models. In order to scroll you have to run your finger on the screen in the direction opposite to the one you want to move to.

We shouldn’t forget the presence of the accelerometer, which main function is to rotate the picture, depending on the phone’s positioning (however, you cannot turn it upside-down). The transition is not annoying when working with the OMNIA, and we will discuss the interesting application of that extra later on. Unfortunately, there are no preloaded programs, which to let you fully take advantage of that function like in the game Teeter, seen in HTC Touch Diamond.

There are two possible variants of the Homescreen. The first option represents it divided in three tabs with the main one housing the clock, call log shortcut, messages and e-mails. The other two are intended for speed dialing and frequently used settings (like activating the motion sensor, the mouse cursor, Bluetooth and WiFi). This way of organizing reminds us of the convenient and orderly HTC Home plug-in, we know from HTC Touch. Regrettably, the options offered in OMNIA’s tabs are much less and you cannot take advantage of the full functionality the device offers, just by relying on them. If you want to have more applications on the screen, it is mandatory that you use the stylus to scroll among them since the arrows become miniature. In landscape mode, the majority of the icons remain hidden, which is annoying.




The other option is “our favorite” Widget screen, we are familiar with from F480. Thanks to it, you have access to a few different types of clocks, calendar, music player, radio, profiles, game shortcuts and notes. The last ones appear to be an innovation, but unfortunately, have a limited functionality since their contents is not visible. All these elements can be moved around, according to your needs. On top of that, due to the accelerometer, you actually have two such displays, depending on the screen orientation. This allows you to have plenty of applications and get fast access to them, bypassing the limited screen size.


For desert, we have left the variant, which we think is the most convenient. It visualizes 12 large icons, similar to the ones you will see in the main menu. The top and bottom rows cannot be customized and give you access to the call log, messages, e-mails, the dialing pad, calendar and the main menu. If you press and hold an icon, you’ll be able to modify them. This will allow you to place six applications of your choice, and they will be fully accessible in landscape view.

As a whole, the widgets offer a little bit more options, compared to the ones in F480. Once you click on a clock for example, you can modify the hour and the date. However, the lack of variety in the applications present and the inability to add additional ones of your choice, still transform this plug-in in the next colorful marketing trick, to attract attention. The good customization options make the home screen with the big icons our preferred one. Overall, TouchFLO 3D’s homescreen remains the best for Windows Mobile at the moment, and TouchWiz makes a pleasant, but not very successful attempt to shorten the distance between them.


The main menu is a big innovation. It has large icons, which are extremely convenient for work with fingers and it looks like the menu of a regular phone, structured in a grid. This feature gives you access to all functions and makes the standard Windows Menu pointless.


It gives you access to a shortcut submenu where you can choose 11 from all applications available and put them in order, by drag & dropping them. The submenu combining all those programs in an alphabetized list is also very nice. It will save you wandering around, but you’ll have to do some heavy scrolling.



Phonebook:

The idea of the phonebook is similar to the one seen in iPhone; it gives you fast access to a specific letter by selecting it from the field on the right-hand side. It’s nice that the names are written out with a very large font. Once you chose a given contact, the next personalized screen appears, from which, thanks to the enlarged icons, you will be able to easily dial the mobile, home, or the office number of the person and to send a message. The Caller ID, which unfortunately, is very small here and on incoming call, is also visible.


Aside from it, you can setup a ringtone, multiple numbers, addresses, emails and notes. Naturally, the search is done by both parts of the name, but there are no number matches.

In order to take advantage of this function, you need to enter in the dial pad. When inputting numbers there, the search is done in both, the phonebook and the call log, by name and number.


Organizer:

From OMNIA’s personalized menu, you can set countless alarms, which to repeat daily and others, to remind you every week/month/year (marked as memorial days). Here, you will also find a World Clock with a very pleasant design, which will let you select your city and resembles Google Maps. The timer is the last application included in this menu.


The Calendar is absolutely standard for a Windows Mobile device and here, you can enter your appointments. You can use options like: reminder (PRIOR NOTICE 1/5/10/15/30/45 minutes, 1/2/3/4/5/6 hour/day/week), recurrence (Once, Every (same-day-of-the-week), Day (same-date) of every month, Every (same date-and-month) for every year, sensitivity (normal, personal, private, confidential). You can also add attendees (required or optional) from your contacts where e-mail addresses have been added and where meeting requests will be sent.


Examining the calendar can be done by day/week/month/year/agenda and you can choose starting day for the week and the week duration (5-6-7-day week). The appointments for the day are clearly shown in their time limits, so you can see your free time at a glance.

You have Tasks menu, where you can add to-do items. For a given Task you can set subject, priority (normal, low, and high), start/due date, reminder (to be notified if it’s due), category (business, holiday, personal, seasonal) and write a note. The Task can have recurrence (Once, Every (same-day-of-the-week), Day (same-date) of every month, every (same date-date-and-month) for every year and sensitivity (normal, personal, private, confidential). Examining the tasks in a list, you can easily see which of them are finished and which are not. The tasks options can be: sort by (status, priority, subject, start date, due date) or filter (all, recent, no categories, active, completed).


The calculator has been redesigned but doesn’t offer better functionality than the standard for Windows Mobile. You also have a unit converter (called Smart Converter), which is very easy to work with.

‘Notes’ are simple notes in which you can input text by the keyboard or by hand as an image. They can be synchronized with outlook.

Search is an application searching in all files in the phone. You can specify certain types of files (calendar/contacts/excel/messaging/notes/etc), but the best option is All Data, which will rummage everything in your phone.

File Explorer is the mobile alternative of Explorer in Windows environment with computers. We use it to view the phone memory, including the system folders of the device, which feels like working on a PC.

The phone is offered in two variants – with 8 or 16 GB built-in memory. If that’s not enough, you can expand it up to 32GB via a microSD HC card. In other words, you can own a mobile device with the “modest” 48 GB of memory.