During CommunicAsia 2009 held this week, Samsung showcased its latest smartphones at – the Omnia II (I8000), OmniaPRO series (OmniaPRO B7610, OmniaPRO B7320) as well as the OmniaLITE (B7300). Featuring cutting-edge technology, these mobile devices will strengthen Samsung’s leadership in the smartphone market.

The new Omnia smartphone line-up follows the success of the very first flagship ‘Omnia’ phone, Samsung’s milestone Open OS model which was launched at CommunicAsia last year. With the introduction of its new Omnia smartphone series, featuring diverse functions for a wide range of user needs, Samsung truly offers a variety of smartphones for everyone – from those seeking entertainment to business users to light users.

All-in-one Redefined: Omnia II (I8000)

The Omnia II is designed for the smartphone user who demands an enhanced and convenient multimedia experience featuring Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional.

Featuring the world’s largest 3.7-inch AMOLED display with crystal-clear WVGA resolution, the Omnia II offers optimized screen clarity, even under the day light.

Complete with larger icons and a simpler structure, Omnia II’s user interface has been deeply customized to provide touch-optimized usability. Also, innovative TouchWiz 2.0 User Interface and 3D effects make enjoying multimedia and multi tasking convenient and fun. Advanced R Touch (Resistive Touch) enables faster, more accurate touch response for a user friendly touch experience.

The much improved display and user interface make it even more pleasurable to enjoy the rich multimedia functions of the Omnia II, including its DVD-like(480p) video recording/playback, smooth Internet browsing as well as interactive 3D games. Users can also access and download content speedily while on the move thanks to the Omnia II’s HSUPA 5.76Mbps, HSDPA 7.2Mbps and Wi-Fi capabilities. Generous memory up to 48GB lets users store more of their favorite content for on-the-go access.

The Work-Life Balance Winner: OmniaPRO B7610

With separate mode for Work and Life, the OmniaPRO B7610 boasts features optimized for both work and play, helping users maintain work-life balance. Matching balanced performance with balanced design, the hybrid Touch/QWERTY form offers users greater versatility and ease of use.

At work, enjoy push e-mail for multiple accounts as the OmniaPRO B7610 supports multiple corporate e-mail solutions, as well as the Microsoft Office Suite so you can view and edit their documents on-the-go.

Users also have access to a PC-like Internet browsing experience with Opera 9.5 and fast data transmission thanks to HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity features.

At play, users can capture their favorite moments with the OmniaPRO B7610′s 5-megapixel camera with smile shot, or enjoy multi-codec supported high quality video with a brilliant AMOLED display. A-GPS with navigation support also ensures that users never get lost while travelling to their next destination.

The Personal Assistant Perfected: OmniaPRO B7320

With its compact design and ergonomic QWERTY keypad, the Samsung OmniaPRO B7320 is a portable messaging center which lets users carry their inbox with them wherever they go, with corporate push e-mail support.

For those who value networking and maintaining relationships, the OmniaPRO B7320 boasts social networking applications like Facebook and MySpace as well as instant messaging support for MSN, Google Talk and Yahoo Chat.

Additionally, features such as a 3-megapixel camera, FM radio with RDS and Wi-Fi also enable users to be entertained wherever they go.

Simple All-rounder: OmniaLITE (B7300)

The OmniaLITE is designed for users who demand an easy smartphone interface with full support of multimedia, internet, and business features. TouchWiz 2.0 User Interface and downloadable online widgets make it highly user-friendly, while its 3D multimedia player interface provides and enhanced entertainment experiences.

OmniaLITE comes packed with a host of powerful business tools and multimedia features. Users have multi-push e-mail access and the Microsoft Office Suite lets users edit and view their office documents on the move. Opera Browser and HSDPA & Wi-Fi connectivity let users access the net with ease and speed.

Additional features like multi-codec supported high-quality video experience, 3MP camera, and A-GPS deliver the complete all-in-one mobile experience.

January 7, 2009

iPhone Competitor On the Rise
By Luis Anthony G. Oliveros
Published in the November 2008 print edition of PC World Philippines

Samsung SGH-i900 Omnia
8GB- P33,000 • 16GB- P38,000
www.samsung.com

You have to admit that Apple was practically daring for competition when the iPhone came out. And true enough, competitors have scrambled to get their best designers and developers on the job and were shipping their touchscreen smartphones out their factory doors by the time 2.0 arrived. And after months of these smartphones dominating the mobile phone scene both as a communication tool and as a status symbol, Samsung comes out among those leading the race; first with the Instinct and now withthe Omnia.

We first saw the Samsung Omnia (aka the Samsung SGH-i900) as one of the mobile phones touted as an iPhone killer that headlined the CommunicAsia exposition in Singapore earlier this year. We had the chance to fiddle with one, and it immediately caught our attention with its design and intuitive interface. Now that it has reached our shores (and the PC World test labs), we finally get more face time with it as we took it for a test drive.

A large screen is one of the ultimate necessities in touchscreen smartphones so they logically occupy practically the entire faceplate, not leaving much leg room for designers to play around with. And in the Omnia’s case, Samsung made use of what little space there is to make a cleanly laid-out model; small spaces vertically sandwich the touchscreen with an earpiece and VGA camera for videocalls, CALL and END CALL buttons, and an optical touchpad below. Meanwhile, the power button is at the very top with the proprietary AC/headphone port, volume rocker, the camera shutter and Main Menu shortcut button shunted to the side panels.

What came in as a slight disappointment upon closer inspection was that the back was actually plastic instead of brushed metal the pre-release photos appeared to have. Another thing we didn’t quite agree with was the decision to bypass a stylus slot and instead have the stylus dangling from a lanyard, which could get a little annoying at times. Despite this, the Omnia simply looks classy and well constructed with a 112x56x12.5mm form factor. Yes, a little thicker than most models out there but it gives a solid grip and is nevertheless comfortable
to use.

The Omnia comes in 8- and 16GB flavors which can be expanded with a microSDHC of up to 16GB of storage. However, unlike in most models nowadays where the SD slots are readily available along the exterior, the one here is found within the battery enclave so SD hot swapping is out of the question.

There isn’t really much to complain about the 3.2-inch WQVGA touchscreen that, despite being significantly smaller than the Instinct’s 4.25-inch screen or the iPhone’s 3.5-incher, is decidedly sufficient for carrying on most of the tasks though manageably cramped when viewing Web pages. It has a 240×400 resolution which displays clear and vivid images and good black-white contrast. It’s pretty responsive for the most part but could get a wee bit spotty at times especially for slender buttons and options and when using the scroll bar for navigating through long pages. It gives out haptic feedback in the form of slight vibrations to let you know that it recognizes your inputs. An accelerometer is also built into the phone so the screen orientation shifts from portrait to landscape when you turn the phone to its side.

Not everyone is impressed with the Windows Mobile user interface, even tagging it to be “buggy,” “slow” and not at all userfriendly, which is why the TouchWiz auxiliary user interface Samsung fitted into the Omnia is such a welcome inclusion. It offers a personalized Home screen and makes usage ingeniously intuitive by emulating the basic Windows desktop look and  feel where you can drag and drop icons or widgets from a tray on the left side of the screen for easier access. And then there’s also the Main Menu page which is basically like the grid view in most mobile phones in that it carries the icons for the phone’s features and settings lined up in rows. From here, you can access the Shortcuts page which also lines up all the essential applications in grid view.

This Quad-band phone churned out clear audio during our test calls with good call quality. There was some amount of crackling and echoing in the background, though they weren’t really audible enough to be distracting. No
dropped calls either.

Data entry primarily comes in the form of the Windows Mobile standard virtual QWERTY keyboard, which we didn’t quite enjoy using because of the tiny keys. However, the Omnia also offers various other data entry options including the Samsung Keyboard, the Samsung Keypad and the Samsung Phonepad. All these occupy more than half of the screen, this makes composing a document or an e-mail/SMS message a little challenging. Though you can zoom out to view a majority of the document, you’d have to compromise having to view it with smaller fonts. Good thing it also comes with the Block and Letter Recognizer systems as well as the Transcriber which recognizes and translates stylus handwriting in cursive, print and mixed styles.

Aside from the touchscreen, you can also utilize the optical touchpad, which we’ve previously seen in the i780 and i8510 smartphones. You can use it to navigate or scroll through list-type menus or enable it to match a mouse pointer for complete navigation, although we found ourselves rarely using it because the touchscreen was obviously easier to use.

The Omnia comes brimming with preloaded apps and features. A list of standard Windows Mobile apps are onboard including the Microsoft Office Mobile Suite for making, viewing and editing Powerpoint, Word and Excel documents, OneNote for making quick notes, and the Calculator and Calendar which you can easily update and sync with your desktop Outlook via ActiveSync. For easy management, you can toggle between apps with the Task Switcher which you can access by either giving the Main Menu shortcut button a longpress or giving the
screen a slight upward swipe.

Internet connectivity is pretty straightforward since it automatically scans for Wi-Fi signals and gives you all the available networks within range. In the absence of local hotspots, it shifts to the provider’s data network, letting you utilize an array of connectivity options, from GPRS and EDGE to 3G and HSDPA. You have a choice of either Internet Explorer or Opera Mobile for browsing while there are also icons to take you directly to the Google homepage, Windows Live and its accompanying Windows Live Messenger.

Multimedia consumption is further bolstered by the RSS Reader which provides access to RSS feeds and the Podcasts feature, quite self-explanatory, lets you subscribe and download podcasts to your phone. There’s even an integration with ShoZu, a one-stop Web communityfor sharing videos and photos to YouTube, Blogger, Flickr, Facebook, and Picasa among others. In addition, this smartphone also comes with a TV-out functionality via the proprietary RCA cable you can purchase separately.

Furthermore, it has a built-in GPS receiver that supports Assisted GPS which triangulates location with the use of cell site towers. This makes it a good in-vehicle guiding system, however locally we found it a little erratic because we couldn’t lock onto a reliable signal. Plus Google Maps (the preinstalled navigation app in the phone) hasn’t completely mapped the entire Philippines so it wouldn’t offer much help during local out-of-town trips. In spite of this, it’s good to note that the technology is there and is ready to go when you need it.

As far as music is concerned, the Omnia does offer good audio quality with squeaky clean high tones, decent midtones and booming bass levels. Other than playing your music (in MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, OGG and AMR file formats) on the Windows Media Player, Samsung also included the Touch Player which, aside from playing the tracks, presents them ala standalone MP3 player complete with album art and lets you organize and tag by album, artist and genre. The included earbuds have soft rubber nubs that make them very comfortable to use, though
you can also use other headphones since the pack comes with an adapter for a standard 3.5 audio jack.

The five-megapixel camera fitted into this phone comes with LED flash, macro and autofocus, image stabilizer, face recognition and 14 predefined presets. It shoots with a landscape screen orientation and offers proper settings flexibility with white balance and ISO settings.Various shooting modes are available, adding both fun and a touch of creativity to your shots. The Continuous Mode lets you shoot nine sequential photos by holding the shutter, while the Mosaic Mode shoots only a quadrant of the photo at a time. The Panorama Mode, meanwhile, utilizes a photo stitching system that displays frames on the screen to guide you as to where to aim and then stitches them together. On the other hand, the Smile Mode works in unison with the face detection feature, recognizes a smile and automatically shoots.

To sum it up, the Samsung Omnia does make some missteps, but nothing really distracting enough to sway you from its feature-rich direction. But does it live up to all the “iPhone killer” hype? As far as specs and features are concerned, it does have a competent laundry list of its own which makes it a fair competitor if you’re into Windows-based mobiles. However, when it comes to the value-added after sales goodies, it just isn’t as robust or as extensive as those aggregated by the Apple App Store since you’d have to shop around first to find third-party apps. But give the Omnia a year or so where Samsung has either come out with an Omnia 2.0 or a firmware update to remedy the hitches or Windows has finally pushed out their much rumored Skymarket mobile apps store, and it can potentially give the iPhone a run for its money. This is a good scenario since healthy competitive market propagates both innovative technologies and lowered prices. But right now, given those minimal missteps, it still comes out as a high-quality all-in-one device with a refined mix of productivity and entertainment features streamlined for usability and it’s only been four months since its launch.