So, I got a new phone. My old Moto Q9m served me well, but in the last couple months, had to be replaced twice from lockups and was getting glitchy again. I briefly considered a touch phone last time, but either lack of features I wanted or abundance of huge price tags took care of that. This time I decided on the Samsung Omnia (SCH=I910) from Verizon. This phone is the follow-up of the Samsung Instinct touch phone.
Upon firing it up, the first impression was the clarity and sharpness of the screen, There’s the typical Windows Mobile task bar at the top and a very Vista-esque column of widgets along the left. Widgets are dragged off the column and used, then dragged back when done or left in place. The Widget column can be parked off-screen with a small tab available for restoration. The accelerometer is very accurate and quickly changes from standard to landscape and you move the device around. I found upside-down was easier when you have a USB or other cable attached.
Navigation can be done 3 basic ways. Touch, stylus, or the Samsung “optical mouse”. The mouse is a very small square at the center bottom of the phone that responds to your finger sliding up down, left, or right. Also, like a touch pad, tapping will click whatever you’re hovered over. Optionally, the optical mouse can either tab from clickable point to point, or act like a true mouse with a fully mobile curser. I’ve found the tab to be more efficient in most cases. I find casual smartphone use generally works well with the touch screen, but the stylus makes long emails or text messages quicker. Copy and paste is mind-numbingly simple, too.
For the odd people who still use these things to make phone calls, the sound quality is excellent through the earpiece or when used as a speakerphone. Reports say the phone sounds good to people I’ve called, too. The phonebook can be accessed several different ways, but normally, a tap to the home screen and a press of a soft button on the lower left of the screen is the easiest. Data can be added, edited and accessed simply. Unlike the Moto Q, the ringer is very loud and can be heard above a surprising amount of noise. Silencing or setting to vibrate is as simple as holding down the dedicated volume buttons on the side.
Speaking of the buttons, you have the optical mouse, the standard Send/End buttons on the face, and on the outside edge, the volume up & down, main menu, camera, and power keys. So far, I haven’t taken it out of my pocket to find some mistaken application running, or call made. But there is a simple lock/unlock feature with or without a password.
The Verizon version of the Omnia comes with 256mb main storage along with 8gb internal flash memory. Up to 16gb can be added through the microSD card slot. Unfortunately, the card slot is a little buried. While my Moto Q had a side slot you could swap on the fly, the Omnia requires removing the battery. So, you power down, slide off the back cover, pop out the battery, slide in the card, and reassemble.
The camera is decent for a phone at 5.0 megapixels. I took 2 quick shots, one out back and the other a close-up. Not too bad. There’s a lot of settings, so fine tuning can definitely make it better.
Internet access can be done with either Opera or IE. Maybe I was doing it wrong, but Opera just seemed terrible. Pages were fuzzy, navigation difficult, etc. IE seemed flawless. Flipping back and forth between landscape and portrait really aided when going from home pages to news articles. Again, the stylus really streamlines things. Also, nice is being able to zoom in and out of pages.
As far as media players go, again, you have 2 choices. WMP and Touch Player. Each have their strengths. I set up a few play lists and gave it a try. Video was crisp and the audio was very good through headphones. Also, there’s a built-in FM radio (only with headphones, though). Another nice touch is the ability to output to a TV screen for video, slideshows, etc.
So, all in all, I’m very happy with the Omnia. There’s still a whole lot I have to learn on this, and I haven’t tried out the video camera yet, but so far so awesome.
The phone does have a built-in GPS, and apparently VZNavigator is included in my plan. It's a full-function GPS program that can guide you to pretty much whatever you're looking for, and gives good turn by turn voice directions.
I made a quick video before dusk. The video camera can go up to 640x480, which is 4x what my old phone. Video at bottom of post.
Features
* Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional
* Rev. A Capable
* Microsoft® Office Word Mobile, Excel® Mobile, and PowerPoint® Mobile; Adobe® Reader® LE PDF viewer
* View, edit, create Word and Excel files; view only PowerPoint and PDF files; view, extract, create ZIP files
* Opera™ Mobile browser
* Wi–Fi Capable
* Windows Media® Player Mobile
* Memory: 256MB Flash/128MB RAM
(+ 8GB of additional internal memory)
* Bluetooth® Wireless Technology (v2.0) including A2DP for Stereo
* 3.2" Display: 240x400 pixel; 64K color TFT
* Optical Mouse Navigation
* Advanced touch screen with customizable Widgets
* 5.0 megapixel camera w/auto–focus, zoom and video capture
* microSD™ memory support (up to 16GB)
* Voice command capable
* Speakerphone
* Business Card Reader
* Security locking features
* Text, Picture and Video messaging (MMS)
* Wireless Sync capable
* ActiveSync® (v4.5) and Windows Mobile Device Center®
* Mobile Broadband Connect capable
Specifications
* Dimensions: 4.4" (H) x 2.24" (W) x 0.52" (D)
* Weight: 4.34 oz
* Processor: MSM6800A
* Standard Battery – 1440 mAh
* Usage: Up to 346 minutes OR
* Standby: Up to 464 hours
* SAR information: Head: 1.31 W/kg; Body: 1.11 W/kg
* Hearing Aid Compatibility = M4
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