When I first took the Samsung Omnia i900 out of its box, I thought for a
moment that I needed to search for the battery it seemed so light. But no,
it really is that light. It’s not as light as the O2
XDA Ignito I reviewed a few weeks back but is a few grammes shy of the Nokia
E63 I had in my hands last week. And it achieves that light weight
despite a heavyweight set of features.
The most obvious is an expansive 3.2 inch touchscreen. This is smaller and has
a lower resolution than Apple’s iPhone but is big enough to see complicated
websites clearly.
There’s also a five megapixel camera and GPS under the bonnet, which haven’t
added significantly to the weight.
The Omnia is classy to look at thanks to a chrome-effect bezel and a dusky
mirrored surround for the screen. The front face features just three
buttons: send (to make a call), end and an optical joystick – essentially a
wobbly button that can tell which way you are pressing it. The brushed black
rear face is interrupted only by the very powerful camera.
The user interface is not just plain old Windows 6.1. Over the top of it sits
Samsung’s Touchwiz user interface. This manifests itself through an arrowed
tab at the left of the screen. A quick touch on the tab brings out a sidebar
ribbon featuring various application widgets. You can drag these widgets
using a finger onto the main area of the screen (the desktop I suppose we
should call it) and drop them wherever you please. A finger tap then
launches the application. You can drag the widget back to the ribbon if you
no longer need it.
What this means is that you can customise your home screen far more than many
of the other touchscreen phones out there, although there is no way to add
new applications to the ribbon. Weather and share price widgets are sadly
lacking.
If you prefer something a little more iPhoney, you can also call up the main
menu of applications - an animated grid of coloured quick launch icons.
The wide screen means that the keys on the soft keyboard seem a little
stretched and hard to poke with a fat finger. Luckily the Omnia comes with a
stylus, which you can anchor to a hook on the top left edge of the handset.
Touchwiz uses single finger rather than multi-touch gestures but they are
fairly intuitive. If you are looking at a picture, you can zoom in or out by
sliding a finger up or down the screen. You can also zoom in and out in the
phone's Opera web browser but you have to double tap rather than slide your
finger to do this. Dragging your finger allows you to pan around a web page.
Business travellers will welcome the inclusion of Microsoft Office Mobile
applications offering excellent support for email attachments. As you would
expect too, the Omnia supports push email using all of the major systems,
including Exchange Server.
The spec
Dimensions: 112 x 56 x 12/5mm, weight: 122g, 3.2 inch TFT (240x400), HSDPA,
Bluetooth 2.0, microSD up to 16GB, 5MP autofocus camera with flash, standby
500 hours, talk time 5.8 hours
The hype
They say: “More than a phone”
The reality
We say: Well yes it is more than a phone. It’s also a good push email handset,
high quality camera and, with those dashing good looks, an object of desire.
The bottom line
Free on a £40 18-month plan with Carphone
Warehouse
The verdict
This Omnia punches above its weight – there feature set is certainly
impressive. There will inevitably be comparisons with the iPhone and, sadly,
the Touchwiz interface is not yet there, although the new Omnia HD will
address some of these concerns.
The roadwarrior rating
8 out of 10
