Samsung Omnia - an iPhone killer?

Pros: Excellent screen, performance, battery life, bundled accessories, price
Cons: No 3.5mm jack, camera takes mediocre images.
Contact: www.three.com.au
Price: $849
Score: 4 out of 5

The Omnia has a beautiful 3.2  inch 240x400 display that dominates the front of the device. It isn’t quite as high-res as some of its competitors, but it looks great and is extremely responsive. The biggest problem with some of these touch screen handsets is that the display isn’t sensitive enough to a finger press. Fortunately the Omnia passes with flying colours.

In fact, Samsung are so adamant that you won’t need a stylus that there isn’t a slot for one! Some may see this as a nuisance, but in a week of use without it we can safely say that the stylus can stay in the box.

Driving the Omnia is Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 6.1 which has been tweaked by Samsung to provide an improved experience. Like HTC with their “Touch” branded devices, the Omnia forgoes the usual Windows Mobile homescreen in favour of an in-house launcher and information display called TouchWiz. Oddly, a lot of the icons and images look quite dated, which is a shame as this in an area the competition is doing well. To be frank, there are better 3rd-party interfaces available for Windows Mobile, but it does improve ease-of-use straight out of the box.

The Omnia has a built-in GPS receiver and Samsung includes Route 66 on a 1GB microSD card for navigation. It’s not the best navigation software available, but it is included free and doesn’t have subsciption fees. Great value comes to mind, and even a windshield mount and car charger is included in the standard sales package.

It’s a good thing too, since the Omnia uses a proprietary connector for audio, power and data transfer. Samsung has been doing this for years, and unfortunately they haven’t yet embraced common connectors.