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Samsung Omnia i900

Author	Jonathan Bray
Published	24th Aug 2008
Manufacturer	Samsung
Supplier	SuperGPS.co.uk
Price	£406.64 (Exc VAT)
as reviewed	£467.64 (Inc VAT)
Latest Price	Click here

Design
Features
Performance
Value
Overall

66 comments

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Samsung's phones are as widespread and popular as Nokias these days and that success has come as a result of consistently producing sleek, good-looking handsets with mass appeal. But Samsung also wants a slice of the iPhone action, it would seem, and has made a big effort to produce one of its very own.

The Omnia, like the HTC Touch Diamond, is based on Windows Mobile Professional 6.1 and like the Diamond it replaces large parts of Microsoft's ugly and fiddly smartphone user interface with one of Samsung's design in an attempt to provide an iPhone-style touch screen experience.

Physically, it's very similar to the iPhone 3G, much more so than the Diamond, complete with slim, candybar form factor, a large screen dominating the front panel and minimalist controls. Compare the phones side by side and you'll find that dimensions are remarkably similar too, though the Omnia is a little slimmer, narrower and shorter than the iPhone 3G, at 12.5 x 112 x 56.9mm compared to 12.3 x 115.5 x 62mm.

So how exactly does it stack up elsewhere? Well, as you'd expect from a modern Windows smartphone, there's a pile of features and many of these appear to match or outstrip the iPhone 3G equivalent. It has a five-megapixel camera on the rear with an LED flash and a VGA video call camera on the front - the iPhone's is three megapixels less and it has no video call feature. It also has HSDPA of up to 7.2Mb/sec, a 624MHz processor, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, a GPS receiver and an FM radio. Plus it comes with a decent helping of storage – either 8GB or 16GB with microSD expansion as well.

Its screen, however, at 3.2 inches isn't quite as luxuriously spacious as the iPhone's and its 400 x 280 resolution is also inferior. There's also no 3.5mm headphone socket and though a conversion dongle is included in the box, we'd sooner not have to carry an adapter around just to listen to music and it seems a needless oversight given the capacious storage on offer.

The camera, however, is the main highlight here. Its resolution is the main headline: five megapixels is the highest resolution I've seen in a Windows Mobile device, but it also has image stabilisation, which means you don't have to rely on the less-than-ideal LED 'flash' in difficult lighting. The results are impressive. Inevitably given the pinhole lens shots are a little noisy in low light and focus a touch soft, but they're more than acceptable. You can use the Omnia for proper snaps - not just contact profile pictures.

Latest 4 of 66 Comments

Have your say: Leave a comment below about this article.

Rob Thompson said on 12th November 2008

OMG what an awfull phone! Got mine on Monday went back on Tuesday. WiFi didn't work Sat nav didn't work phone turned off after 5 mins, remove battery or reset to turn it... more

Alex said on 23rd November 2008

I've been reading this thread and got to Gordon's final (so far) comment, and had to register to reply.. I hope that was your intention, to troll I mean.

"Trusted Reviews?" Are you serious? You are so clearly either being paid by apple, or are spouting lies for some... less lucrative reasoning. I don't know which.

1. There's unlimited data on all iPhone contracts [...] Hours spent reading a 3.5in screen seems rather pointless to me.

Firstly, nothing to do with what the guy said. Secondly, how good is your reception on the London underground? Get decent HSDPA down there?

2. Lyrics are being integrated into tracks as we speak.

Nice feature, seriously. Wish I had.. wait I do.

3. No need to use Quicktime, no need to use iTunes as anything other than a reference library for the handset. If you wish to relegate it into the role of an iPhone sync tool that's all it needs be.

So, no need to use iTunes, apart form if you want to sync your phone, with anything, ever. Since all third party sync tools aren't allowed in the App Store.

4. No phone can load music wirelessly - ouch.

Again. Are you serious? I could have swarn I had \network on my 3 year old Windows Mobile device mounted as a Samba/CIFS share. You're telling me that if I copy/paste music from there over to my 8GBmicrosd, it just wont work for some mystical reason? Or is it just you want to "forget" about copy/paste, since that's not on the iPhone.

5. And the quality of tethered browsing is mind numbingly awful, [...]

Who is your carrier? Because I get ~4Mbps down and sometimes as much as ~900Kbps up when USB-Tethering with my HTC. Usualy I use USB which is slower, bus still VERY usable.

Unbelievably poor review I must say. My HTC is getting a little warn, so I'm looking for something new. It needs to be Windows Mobile 6 and capable of running 7 when it's out.

I Came here looking for a decent review of a Windows Mobile phone. NOT an argument about the CPU speed of the iPhone, it's 400Mhz BTW, not 800Mhz as you stated. I noticed you never replayed to the guy that corrected you.

What I need to know about a phone:
* Does it tether?
* Can it run custom software
* Am I at the mercy of the carrier / manufacture for firmware
* Is the camera decent (Almost covered here, would it kill you to upload a picture Jon?)
* Hows Bluetooth? HID, A2DP, PAN, OBEX?
* Battery life
* Can you read the screen in day light?
* What's the USB connector?
* What does/doesn't come bundled?

Of that lot, your review covered none. C'mon!

Why even mention the iPhone in the review. Do film reviewer mention their faviorte film three times in the open paragraph? Seriously, "Trusted Reviews," are you part of Apple Inc?

Don't expect to see me again, I'll be over at gsmarena reading a review that at least tries to tell people about the phone in question, and not how much the writer loves his iPhone/Apple Stock.

I've been reading this thread and got to Gordon's final (so far) comment, and had to register to reply.. I hope that was your intention, to troll I mean.

... more

Gordon said on 23rd November 2008

@Alex, I would suggest you read this before prejudging my opinion of Apple:
http://www.trustedreviews.com/mobile-devices/review/2008/11/18/Google-Android-vs--Mobile-Mac-OS-X... more

Alex said on 23rd November 2008

Any chance, from this point on, we can make the comments less about the iPhone/Apple and more about the Omnia?

That is after all the phone I'm considering buyin... more

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