Samsung i900 Omnia

Features and Performance
Interface
First of all, let me just say that the Omnia’s large display doesn’t work that well in bright, sunlit conditions. You’ll have a minor problem seeing the screen clearly; it’ll require a bit of tilting at angles for optimum viewing. This also means the accelerometer would activate and you’ll have the screen rotating all over the place.

Running on Windows Mobile Professional 6.1, the Omnia is in no way a slow handset. It has 128MB RAM, 256MB ROM, and a 624MHz Marvell PXA312 processor. The accelerometer is smooth and has settings for sensitivity as well as animation. Samsung has incorporated its widget menu on the main screen that can be switched off to return to the normal Windows Mobile desktop.

There are three ways to navigate the handset's menu system: finger touch, stylus, and optical mouse. I'd recommend dumping the stylus and using your finger and the optical mouse pad for selecting the smaller options. I expect the stylus is more of a nostalgic gesture for traditional WinMob users.

Specifically to accommodate for the finger touch method, the Omnia has a size-increase option for the overall display. To try and take it a step further, Samsung has also provided for a more convenient option of a customized main menu that looks like the normal OS of most Samsung handsets including the F480. There's even a secondary media player called 'Touch Player' in addition to Windows Media Player. In this customized menu, Samsung has a real treat with a neat scroll feature for the programs that are listed in alphabetical order.

Another application that's unnecessarily duplicated is image viewing. A 'photo slide' option is available for viewing images. You can swipe your finger across the screen to change pictures in either direction, or view images via thumbnails in a separate section at the bottom on the screen. The second way for viewing images is via the Media Album option. This is more convenient for checking out all media. You can also swipe to change images here, and even set them as the background. The slide show section does not have this feature.

Something I'm a little unsure about is the virtual keyboard for messaging etc. I'm not sure whether I hate it or understand that it's just trying to live out its purpose to the fullest. There are seven different options for messing: three handwriting options (standard in almost all Windows mobiles), and four keypad options (three of which are Samsung-customized). I like the options.

What I didn’t like was the Samsung keypads (being as large as they are) occupying over 30 percent of the display. It not only gives you very little room to move but also tends to block certain fields that you'd need to type in. The keypads pop up automatically if there's a field that requires any sort of typing on a page. The QWERTY keypad is a pain to use in portrait mode most of the time (breathe easy, Apple) but a pleasure to use in landscape. Except if you're used to having the space bar in the center at the bottom, but you'll get over it.