The Samsung Omnia has made it to India, and the company sent me a brand new piece for review. Here's my first impression of the handset before I put it through its paces and give you a full review.

Design
The large 3.2 inch display in all its 240 x 400 pixel glory makes the screen come alive. The optical mouse pad situated at the bottom under the display is a handy navigational tool. Easy access keys for the camera, and the volume and shortcut key etc. are well-placed, but this isn't too different from what you see in other handsets.

A proprietary port for the earphones, USB and charger is located on the side. Thankfully, Samsung has used an adapter for the handsfree with a 3.5mm earphone socket and a separate volume dial as well. This way if the earphones are bit uncomfortable (which they are), you can use your own.

Here’s what I didn’t like. Firstly the Omnia does NOT have a hot-swap slot for the microSD card. The handset I got had 8GB of internal storage, which is great. But the 1GB card (bundled) had the Maps and Route 66 application on board, so for the sake of argument if I had to remove that card and use another, I’d have to shut the handset down, pop open the rear panel, and remove the battery to swap cards. It’s a slim phone, I get that, but why not include a hot swap?

Another issue is with the stylus. It looks like a slim lipstick or eyeliner, similar to the LG Viewty’s. Most Windows Mobile handsets have a slot for it on the phone, but in the Omnia you have to dangle it from the side. This proves to be a hindrance as it’s quite large. Except for these two problems with the design, I like the Omnia’s form factor overall.

Interface
The Omnia runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional. Personally I’ve never liked the Windows interface as it’s a bit complicated and the necessary use of the stylus always made it a pain to use, especially while traveling. On the other hand, companies like HTC and now Samsung are tweaking the interface to make it very user-friendly, more than ever before.

The Omnia has a setting that increases the size of the visuals, so it becomes a little easier to use without the stylus. The accelerometer is smooth but a little too sensitive. The good thing is there are ways to tone it down. The widgets, as in the F480, are a funky and handy way to access shortcuts. I was upset, however, that I couldn’t add any applications to the set.

When it comes to typing the Omnia offers plenty of options, from handwriting recognition to the standard WinMob QWERTY keypad and three of Samsung’s specially designed keypads. The full QWERTY version is a bit too slim to use in portrait mode, but a pleasure in landscape, when you have your hands free for that.