One of the many awaited smart phones of this season, the Samsung i8910 or the Omnia HD, has quietly joined the ranks on Orange in the United Kingdom. The Omnia HD really has a lot of great features. It's able to shoot 720p videos at 24fps and the OLED screen is just amazing. And with the dual speakers and 5.1 surround sound, it's like having a tiny HDTV at your Palm.
The Samsung's amazing new i8910 HD, formally know as the Omnia HD, mobile phone, it's just one impressive feature after another – in fact, just the sheer amount of technology Samsung have installed in the i8910 HD makes it something special! To prove we're not exaggerating, here's a quick look at the what we love about the i8910:
Samsung i8910 Omnia HD Offers
A massive 3.7” OLED screen with a resolution of 360x640!
An 8 megapixel camera with 720p HD video shooting!
It's 3G with 7.2mbps HSDPA support and Wi-Fi.
Assisted GPS.
8GB or 16GB internal memory and a MicroSD card slot for another 16GB!
Obviously, the first thing you'll notice about the Samsung i8910 HD is the stunning screen. It's a capacitive touchscreen – the same technology found on the Apple iPhone – so there's no need to press down on the screen to select a function, a simple light touch will do, however unlike the iPhone, Samsung chose to use OLED technology to improve contrast, brightness and battery life. Using the phone reveals a fast and responsive action and thanks to built-in graphics acceleration, the i8910 HD has one of the best and most fluid mobile user interfaces available. Underneath the pretty Samsung TouchWIZ UI you'll find a Symbian operating system, S60 5th Edition to be precise.
You'd be forgiven for thinking the HD moniker is in reference to the glorious screen, but while it may be a passing reference, it's not the only reason. Turning our attention to the camera provides a far better reason for the i8910's HD tag, as the lens shoots video at a true HD resolution! The selectable resolutions move from QVGA and VGA (640x480) through WVGA to full 1280x720, which is also known as 720p, the first time such as resolution has been achieved on a mobile phone camera! At 8 megapixels and with autofocus, an LED flash, blink/face/smile recognition and geo-tagging, the lens is no slouch for stills either.
It would be a crime to waste such a massive display on just the operating system and Samusng have rightfully included plenty of video support options out of the box for us! It will be the XviD and DivX codecs which get the most use, however it's nice to see the WMV and MP4 options available too. Samsung's MP3 player takes care of the musical side and with a widget available as part of TouchWIZ, it's quick and easy to start listening to your music. On the top of the handset you'll be pleased to find a 3.5mm jack plug for using your own headphones.
To squeeze all the above plus a digital compass, FM RDS radio, an FM transmitter, stereo speakers with a brilliant sound, A2DP Bluetooth video calling, Samsung's DNSe sound enhancement technology, an accelerometer plus all the usual document readers and organiser functions is bordering on the remarkable. Of course, it means the i8910 HD is on the large side at 144 grams in weight and 123x55mm in length and width, but the thickness has been kept to a very reasonable 12.9mm.
For a phone to be considered 'upgrade' material, it should be doing something over and above what your current mobile does – a tall order in a time when every phone seems to have a monster megapixel camera and a flashy interface or touchscreen. However, with the Samsung i8910 HD, you can purchase it knowing you'll have the biggest and certainly best looking screen on any phone, with the latest OLED technology, plus a camera which shoots HD video – something nobody else offers. The i8910's screen sets it apart from its rivals, with only the HTC Touch HD able to approach its resolution and size, and with the steadily improving S60 5th Edition OS – also seen on the Nokia 5800 – making it very pleasurable to use, it's difficult to recommend anything over the OmniaHD at this end of the market.
