Samsung OMNIA

The Samsung OMNIA (SGH-i900) is an extremely powerful touch screen-enabled device that has better specs, features, and functionality than the iPhone. Samsung launched the OMNIA in Singapore in June of 2008, and I was lucky enough to be on a business trip there and was able to pick one up from a local electronics retailer. The main features that set the OMNIA apart are the 16 GB flash drive, 5 megapixel camera, 3.2-inch 240 x 400 WQVGA display, and unique navigation pad.

Multimedia wizard

More than any other Windows Mobile device I have used, the Samsung OMNIA is focused on multimedia. The included Samsung utilities let you subscribe to and download podcasts wirelessly, play video in various formats (including DiVX), listen to the FM radio, output the display to an external monitor, and even edit video right on the device itself.

While traveling, I found that my PSP memory stick was corrupted, so as a trial I loaded up the MPEG-formatted videos onto the OMNIA and they played flawlessly without any conversion to WMV required. The included Touch Player supports video from a few formats and plays in portrait or landscape mode.

The ArcSoft Mobile Video Editor program lets you edit videos in several formats (including 3GP, MP4, WMV, and ASF) right on the device. You can make a photo movie from photos stored on your device, with the ability to change the photo type (black & white, negative, etc.), set effects and duration, and more. You can also create a Storyboard with movies and photos stored on the device.

As for memory, not only does Samsung provide you with 8 GB and 16 GB flash drive options, you also get a microSD card slot that supports microSDHC (currently up to 32 GB) cards for virtually unlimited memory expansion capabilities.

5 megapixel camera

Samsung included a 5 megapixel auto-focus camera with flash on the OMNIA that lets you capture excellent still and video images. Shooting modes include single, continuous, mosaic, panorama, and smile. With smile mode the camera is designed to wait to capture the image until a smile appears in the face detection area. There are also 14 scene modes to make your photos even better. Image stabilization is also a feature of the OMNIA's advanced camera. It records VGA video (640 x 480) at 15 fps and QVGA video (320 x 240) at 30 fps. Geo-tagging is also supported with the included GPS receiver.

Touch navigation

When you first turn on the OMNIA you are presented with a unique Today screen that supports dragging and dropping Samsung widgets to let you customize your device. The non-changeable Main Menu screen gives you quick, large-button access to main utilities and programs without going into the Windows Mobile interface. The Shortcuts screen lets you customize 11 one-button shortcuts to your favorite applications. Every once in a while you will get down into the Windows Mobile interface, but you could spend most of the time outside of this. Samsung even includes custom interfaces for the Phone Book and Clock.

The TouchWiz user interface is optimized for touch navigation. The hefty stylus is an external model that may be connected via a lanyard to the device, since there is no stylus silo. The OMNIA has a unique touch sensitive directional pad that supports two modes: 4-way navigation and mouse. In 4-way navigation mode, you simply slide your finger left, right, up, and down over the center pad to navigate. In mouse mode, a mouse cursor actually appears on the display and you can move it around like a trackpad on a notebook. Pressing in on the center of the pad acts as an action button in both modes.

Haptic feedback is also supported so that when you tap the display or tap on the Samsung keyboard text entry methods, you feel a physical vibration that confirms your tap of the device.