This is Phone Arena’s video review of the Samsung Omnia i910 for Verizon Wireless. With all of the smartphones being released this season, the Omnia is truly one of the best all in one devices combining a large 3.2-inch display, 5MP Auto-Focus Camera and 8GB of internal storage.
It uses the Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional Operating System and also it comes with a few extras such as the Opera Mobile Web Browser, VZ Navigator and the ability to playback a wide variety of video formats.
The overall size of the Omnia is pleasing to hold as it does not feel too big or thick like the Touch Pro. It has a very simplistic appearance with only black plastic and shiny chrome used on the exterior. The only buttons occupying the front are the Send and End keys and an optical mouse that can be used as a virtual cursor or a five way D-pad.
Located on the top is the Power button with the main menu, volume rocker, and camera button located on the right side. Opposite that is the charging data port and the small hook to attach the included stylus. In order to get to the microSDHC card slot, you’d have to remove the battery cover and the battery but it does accept up to 16GB memory cards.
The front of the Omnia is dominated by the large 3.2-inch display which has a resolution of 240x400 and supports up to 65 thousand colors. The screen offers good color representation with automatic and manual backlighting adjustments but it still can be difficult to view while in direct sunlight.
Like most Windows Mobile smartphones, it is pressure sensitive which means you have to press a little harder with your finger to get a response, unlike the ultra-sensitive capacitive screen used on the iPhone.
Despite this, we had no issues using our finger for navigating through the software and not once that we have to use the stylus. By default, the Omnia comes with the Widget Today Screen activated which we previously saw on the Samsung F480.
It shows a column on the left side of the screen with over a dozen icons that can be dragged and dropped directly to the desktop for one quick access. Once you’re done with them, you can drag them back to the Widget bar and also change their locations.
Another useful feature is the main menu screen which shows 12 icons at a time on a 3x4 grid. Pressing the bottom arrow will show the next screen of 12 icons. There is also a shortcut screen where the user can select out of 11 icons and place them for easy access.
Since the Omnia is a Windows Mobile Device, it comes with a same messaging program that current smartphone users are familiar with. You can send and receive text, MMS messages as always can figure it to work with your POP3 and IMAP accounts including exchange servers.
We found the easiest way of typing a message as with the phone in landscape mode and using the Samsung keyboard. This shows a virtual QWERTY keyboard on the screen which is easy to use with your thumbs and also allows for T9 predictive entry. Naturally, it can view HTML messages and send and receive attachments.
The Omnia is currently the only phone available from Verizon with an integrated 5MP Auto-Focus camera and flash. The entire display is used as the view finder and there are icons on the sides for shooting modes, scene selection, resolution, flash, auto-focus and brightness. More advanced options such as ISO and light metering are found under the settings menu.
We are impressed by the quick response of the camera taking only two seconds to focus on images and another two seconds to save. The overall image quality is good but does not stock up to higher in 5MP phones that are available over since.
When used outside, we found that colors were somewhat over saturated and over exposed. When used in low light conditions, the LED flash is remarkably bright and has a large distance of 15 feet but the downside is that if the subject is closer than 5 feet away, they will look washed out. The only work around is to change the auto-focus top macro mode which reduces the intensity of the flash.
Music and videos are played through their new Touch Player. When selecting album, it will show in the cover on the screen, so you can easily see and select which one you wish to listen to.
The player controls are large, meaning that your finger can be used instead of the stylus. The quality of playback is good considering there is only one speaker located on the back but you can also connect your own earbuds using the adapter or wireless stereo Bluetooth headset.
For video playback, we tested it to all 12 files with different formats, resolution, bit rates and frames per second. Out of all of them, the best looking was DivX with 720x306 resolution in 24 frames per second as the video was smooth and did not drop any frames.
The Opera Mobile Browser is one program that truly shines on the device as you can view complex HTML site with ease. Pending around is easily done by moving your finger around on the screen. If there is an area that you wish to zoom in on, you can simply double tap that area. Another double tap will return the standard view. Moving your finger up or down to the right side of the screen, you can control the amount of zoom. As you can see, full screen browsing is automatic. Pressing this small arrow button on the bottom will show the address bar and several icons for back, favorites, tab and home. Unfortunately, the embedded flash in YouTube files and pages are not displayed—directly to the YouTube site and play videos from there.
The device uses a fast ARM processor operating at 642MHz, so there is a little to no delay when opening most programs. The main memory is divided into 88MB for storage, 97MB for programs and there is additional 8GB of internal storage.
Overall, we are quite pleased with our experience with the Omnia. Due to all of its included features, we believe it’s one of the best smartphones currently offered by Verizon even beating out the Blackberry Storm.
Please visit phonearena.com for our full review of the Samsung Omnia, including pictures in 360° rotational views.
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