Samsung i8910 Omnia HD – Sexy Multimedia Baby

Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

Great display, AMOLED screen, 8 MP camera capable of recording HD.

Thumbs Down:

Expensive, bad call quality.

Inside the Trunk:

Technology: GSM
Band: GSM 850/900/1800/1900
Phone design: Candy bar
Caller ID: Yes
Other features: Camera, music player, AMOLED touch screen, proximity sensor, accelerometer.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Omnia HD has a 3.7 inch AMOLED screen, which gives a 360X640 resolution with support for 16 million colors. The display is a scratch resistant surface. The phone also has accelerometer and proximity sensor. The phone has virtual QWERTY keyboard but numeric keyboard in portrait mode. The phone comes in 16 and 8 GB version and you can further expand it to 32 GB.

The 8 MP camera at the back is also capable of recording HD video. Camera options include six modes for shooting, fourteen scene settings, blink detection, ISO and eight resolutions. The maximum resolution is 3264×2448 pixels and it has flash
For video recording you get resolutions of HD 720p at 24 frames per second (fps) and 720×480 pixels at 30 fps. The phone comes bundled with Symbian OS v9.4 Series 60 rel. 5. 1440mAh lithium ion battery gives a talk time of ten hours and ten days of standby time.

Razzle Dazzle:

Samsung i8910 Omnia HD is absolutely gorgeous phone and the huge AMOLED display is the reason behind the sexy looks. But the bigger screen makes the phone a bit bulky and tall as well, so don’t expect this handset to sit comfortably in your hands like most phones do. Keeping it in the pocket will also be a bit difficult. The phone is 2.3 inches wide, 4.8 inches tall, 0.5 inch thick and weighs about 5.4 ounces.

Inside Dope:

Omnia HD is one of the phones which has those out of the box looks and makes heads turn. But the phone is unlocked which means it will be a bit costly and will burn a hole in your pocket. But if you have the money or you are a gadget enthusiast this purchase will not make your regret. To give a brief preview, the phone has HD video playback and recording, 8 MP camera, a revamped TouchWiz interface and lots of storage space. The phone has the same features of Nokia’s N97 and it will lock horn when it comes to market sales.

The display of the Omnia HD is 3.7 inch big AMOLED display which has capacitive touch screen interface and you get 360X640 resolutions with 16 million colors. AMOLED is better than LCD since it consumes low power, the video/image quality is better and you get better viewing angles. The screen can also be clearly seen in bright sunlight, something which overwhelms the LCD screen. Capacitive touch screen is better than standard resistive touch screen that smart phones are known to have because the former can be used without a stylus and with the resistive screen you have to press the screen a bit harder.

We just couldn’t stop staring at the gorgeous display not to mention the hours of HD video playback that we enjoyed at our test centers.

The Omnia HD has built in accelerometer which changes the picture from portrait to landscape mode when you tilt the phone. The accelerometer will work for all applications something that you don’t get to see too often. There is also a proximity sensor which locks the phone from accidental touches when you place it too close to your ear.

The phone has Samsung’s TouchWiz user interface, which has been revamped to make it more user friendly. You can put different widgets on home screen. This bar provides short cuts to applications that you use the most on the phone so you don’t have to go digging in every time in the menu.

There is a full size QWERTY keyboard in landscape mode but the portrait mode only has the numeric keypad. We are not complaining much because a QWERTY keypad would be very difficult to use in portrait mode. The huge screen gives you spacious keyboard to type your messages.

There are three buttons below the display like the menu button and call/call end keys. The call end key is also the power button for the phone. The phone is extremely music friendly with the presence of 3.5 mm phone jack or expansion card slot on the sides which lets you change cards without removing the battery cover. (Usually the card slot is located behind the battery or the battery cover)

The phone has an eight MP camera at the back which gives amazing photo quality and can record HD video. Camera options include six modes for shooting, fourteen scene settings, blink detection, ISO and eight resolutions.

For video there are four resolutions and four modes. The video recorder and photo shooter share some similar features like anti-shake, wide dynamic range and white balance.

Picture quality was the best on the Omnia HD and we think this device can replace your digital camera. You can shoot videos at HD resolution with 1,280×720-pixel resolution. Both video and sound quality is really good and we had nothing to complain about them.

The Omnia HD has MediaBrowser which give new ways to browse and search through your photographs. You can swipe through the finger, use the on screen arrows or tilt the phone left or right but we felt that the latter was more of a gimmick that a use full feature.

Music playback, just like the screen is one of the strong points of the phone and presence of 3.5 mm phone jack sweetens the deal. The player supports AAC+, MP3, AAC, XMF, MIDI and Enhanced AAC+. We were blown away by the 5.1 channel sound feature on the phone. Music player has a friendly user interface and if you are familiar with iPod, you won’t need much time to understand everything in music player here. There is no shortage when it comes to storage of tracks, the phone comes with a choice of eight or 16 GB and with the expansion slots on board, cards up to 32 GB are accepted.

For business users, the phone has Quickoffice that lets you view Excel, PowerPoint and Word documents but like most phones you only get to open and edit these documents. You will have to pay a fee and buy full version if you want to create new files. There is POP3 support also but there is no wizard that puts all the server information for you.

There is no limit for storing your contacts and the shortage of memory is the only thing that will hold you back. The Omnia HD supports photo caller ID, grouping of contacts and assign unique ring tones to your buddies.

We tested the Omnia HD for call quality and were happy with the call quality but we had a few dropped calls. We also couldn’t hear them properly and asked our friends to repeat themselves.

But our friends said there were no call problems and they could hear our voice quite clearly. Speaker phone calls came along with echo and there was also a bit of hollowness. Bluetooth calls were just fine. We were a bit disappointed with the call quality on this otherwise high end handset.

1440mAh lithium ion battery gives a talk time of ten hours and ten days of standby time.

Nitty Gritty:

Samsung i8910 Omnia HD is one of the best smart phones we have seen and barring the call quality we didn’t think there was anything that will keep you away from buying the phone. Remember that the phone comes unlocked so if you have the money look no further and buy this multi media monster.