Updated 11 Feb, 2012, 4:06 pm IST

REVIEWS / MOBILE PHONES / SAMSUNG

Samsung Omnia HD i8910

14 Sep, 2009, 3:00 pm IST | Shayne Rana | Mobile phones

The i8910 popularly know as the Omnia HD is Samsung’s second handset from the same series to grace our shelves. The previous model, the i900 Omnia, didn’t fare too well in our tests when it released in September of last year. How did the upgrade do? Take a look for yourself.

Form Factor
First off, the Omnia HD is way sexier than the i900 especially with its large 3.7-inch AMOLED display and slim lines. Black and silver is always a great combo. I’m not a fan of the AMOLED color resolution as it seems like the orange hues are always standing out as compared to the rest. Nevertheless it’s clear and very easy on the eyes in general. The capacitive touchscreen is very receptive so navigation and control is a cinch. A 3.5m handsfree socket is located on the top. On one of its slim sides are the volume/zoom keys followed by the microSD card slot. On the other side is a camera key for the 8MP shooter strapped to the back (single LED flash), a micro USB port for the charger and PC connectivity and finally, a screen lock button.

Incidentally the HD is available in a 16GB capacity with support for another 16GB of pace via microSD cards. The display’s screen is scratch resistant (it really is). It also has a Proximity sensor that works well with Samsung’s Etiquette settings for switching to silent by flipping it over or switching on the speakerphone when you lay it down on its back while on a call.

It’s a solid handset with a good grip considering its size, and it’s not all that heavy so it’s easy to tote around.

Features and Performance
Interface
The Omnia HD runs on a Symbian OS (v9.4) with a Series 60 UI. Samsung has also thrown in a little of their own TouchWiz UI with its widgets systems for the desktop. It also uses an ARM Cortex A8 600 MHz processor with PowerVR SGX graphics which makes it quite seamless in functionality and operation. If you’ve been a Nokia user and are thinking of switching you’ll have no problem. Sadly I do wish the display’s accelerometer would function for all the menus, but Symbian doesn’t always allow for that unless there’s a keypad that slides out for horizontal use. What I really missed and am quite disappointed to do without, is Samsung’s Gesture control for activating specific functions from the lock screen.

__STARTQUOTE__It’s a solid handset, that's lightweight with a good grip considering its size. It’s easy to carry around.__ENDQUOTE__The onscreen QWERTY keypad is huge but make sure you calibrate the screen properly before attempting to use it. Trust me you’ll WANT to do that. The HD also supports handwriting recognition which I don’t recommend using. Both the keypads will work out fine. Too bad it doesn’t switch to QWERTY automatically when in landscape. No issues though.

Tags: Touchscreen , Series 60 , 8 Megapixel

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