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TechJunkeez Gear | August 2009
The Samsung I8000 is the successor of the not so great first Omnia
released. I wasn’t a fan of the first release so I started reviewing the Omnia
II with a lot of hesitation in my mind. Comparing it with the first Omnia is a
waste of time since the spec sheet for this phone is monstrous compared to its
predecessor.
Inside the box you have a microUSB cable, charger, an oversized
stylus, a soft pouch for the phone, manuals and a CD containing programs for
easier phone-PC synchronization.
Let’s start with the screen. The Omnia II features a 3.7” AMOLED
screen which is breathtaking to look at, but the only down point is that it
offers 65K colours instead of the 16 million offered by similarly priced sets.
Its sunlight legibility is subpar but I guess AMOLED and it’s huge size make up
for that. The screen uses resistive touchscreen technology instead of the
expected capacitive screen which everyone seems to prefer. But don’t let that
throw you off, the screen is very responsive and sensitive, almost as good as
it’s capacitive rivals.
It
certainly has the looks to pull it off
Build quality is very impressive. Top notch materials are used for
the back panel and the front panel is made of black glass. Buttons offer nice
feedback, the cube below the screen adds a touch of beauty to the phone, which
would have appeared very basic and simple without.
The front panel is mostly taken by the screen. Under it you have
three buttons which are the cube, answer and end buttons. Above the screen you
have a proximity sensor and an ambient light sensor as well as a video call
camera. On the left side of the phone you have the volume controls, on the right
side you have the shutter key with the back key combo and a little higher you’ll
find the lock key. On top you have your 3.5 headphone jack and next to it a
microUSB jack covered by piece of plastic. On the back you have the 5 megapixel
camera which is unfortunately unprotected and a single loudspeaker which seems
like a missed opportunity for a great stereo speaker phone. Under the back cover
you have a 1500mAH battery which offers 10 hours of talk time and 430 hours of
standby. There is also a microSD slot slightly above the battery if you want to
expand your phone’s memory.
The Omnia II has a very strong CPU and HW graphics accelerator.
The CPU’s clock speed is 667mhz which leaves great possibilities for the
operating system to shine. Current Omnia II sets come with Windows Mobile 6.1
with a free upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.5 when it’s released near the end of
September. Samsung has done great work incorporating TouchWiz with Windows
Mobile, I’ll talk more about the hybrid operating system in the following
sections.
Widgets are now more practical since you have 3
screens of them, notice the three horizontal bars at the top of the screen
The first feature of TouchWiz you notice is the widgets, but
unlike previous TouchWiz sets, the Omnia II gives you 3 homescreens to add
different widgets on instead of having one screen crowded with widgets. You move
between the homescreens with a simple directional swipe to the left or right.
The phone is packed with widgets out of the box but you can always download more
widgets for it from the internet.
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