Samsung’s Omnia SGH-i900 (from free on contract) is a stylish smartphone looking to take on the Apple iPhone. The front is dominated by a 3.2-inch touchscreen display and, like the iPhone, it’s framed by a silver bezel.
The screen has a resolution of 240 x 400 pixels and, although it’s not the sharpest display we’ve seen, images are bright and vibrant, and video playback stunning.
Multimedia skills. The Omnia makes an impressive media player, with all the video files we transferred working straightaway, without the need to change formats.
Web browsing is a better experience than on many smartphones, with Opera making it easy to view pages.
Zooming is achieved by tapping the screen and scrolling top to bottom. However, we found ourselves inadvertently zooming when trying to scroll around the page.
Cursor control. The Omnia is the first phone we’ve seen to offer a cursor as a way of control. There’s a small, square, touch-sensitive button below the screen that offers full control over the cursor, and it’s surprisingly easy to use. With the large touchscreen above it, most users will probably ignore it, but it’s a useful option for single-handed use.
The onscreen QWERTY keypad, which proved fiddly and frustratingly difficult to use, got easier over time. It’s no match for a traditional hardware keypad, but it does remember what words you use, and the predictive text offers an auto-correct feature which we found improved with use.
In a similar vein to HTC’s Touchflow, you’ll find a custom menu built over the top of the Windows Mobile 6.1 OS. The menu looks great and it largely negates the need to use a stylus.
Samsung Widgets. The Samsung user interface offers a feature called Samsung Widgets. It lets you drag and drop applications on to the desktop – similar in style to those found on Windows Vista.
We would like to see more Widgets available – such as the ability to highlight upcoming appointments, but it’s a useful start. Connectivity is suitably impressive, with 3G/HSDPA, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi all present.
Powerful camera. The Omnia is packed with other features, with the 5-megapixel camera a particular highlight. We found image quality above average, with face recognition and an LED flash included as standard. A GPS chip is also built in, along with a GPS for quicker start-up times, and Google Maps are provided to help you find your way around.
The Samsung Omnia i900 is a good smartphone, and for those seeking a direct iPhone rival it’s worth a second look. It can’t match the iPhone’s ease of use, but the better camera and impressive features list may make it worth a look.
Here’s some of the other stuff that happened in the wide world of mobile for Thursday, July 16th, 2009:
