In June 2008, Samsung Mobile Corporation announced the Samsung Omnia (SGH-i900) in Singapore and th rest of Asia in July 2008. Later, in August it was launched in Europe and in December 2008 it was released in United Stets. Here are the specifications of this first generation of Omnia series.
Design and Display
In term of form factor, Samsung Omnia has the slate style. The phone measures 112 mm in height, 56.9 mm in width, and 12.5 mm in depth. It is also a light-weight phone since it only weighs about 127 grams. The screen size is 3.2-inch TFT LCD with resistive touch screen and the resolution of 240x400 pixels (the screen is able to rotate). The phone uses the Samsung’s user interface named TouchWiz UI. The device already supports for accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate, optical track pad, and handwriting recognition feature.
Performance
The device is equipped with a 624 MHz Marvell PXA312 processor and 128 MB of RAM. The phone has also the memory of 256 MB ROM and built-in storage of 8GB or 16GB. The storage can be expanded with an external micro SD Trans Flash with up to 16 GB. The Samsung Omnia uses the operating system from Microsoft namely Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional.
Camera
This Smartphone has been packed with a 5 megapixels rear-camera with auto-focus, flash, geo-tagging, image stabilization, face and smile detection, and wide dynamic range. The camera is also capable of video recording at 30 frames per second. In addition, the device features the front-facing camera for 3G video calls.
Connectivity
The Samsung Omnia is compatible with Quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, GSM (850,900,1800,1900) and HSDPA (3.5G) networks. For wireless connection, the device supports for Wi-Fi b/g and for local connection or data transfer it supports for Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and USB 2.0 version.
Battery
The battery of Lithium Ion with 1440 mAh has been added to Samsung Omnia for power support. The battery can last for up to 500 hours on 2G network or 450 hours on 3G network in term of standby time. In term of talk time, the battery can last for up to 5 hours and 50 minutes on 2G network or 6 hours and 30 minutes on 3G network.
Other features included are the Pocket Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, PDF viewer), TV-out, Voice memo, Voice Call, MMS, Email, IM (Instant Messanging), WAP 2.0/xHTML, RSS reader, Stereo FM radio with RDS, A-GPS support, Java MIDP 2.0, Video Player (WMV, MP4, DivX, XviD), and Music Player (MP3, WMA, AAC, OGG, AMR).
Overall, Samsung Omnia is a good choice with a competitive price for those looking for a multimedia phone. The phone has an attractive design, it is light-weight and it has a good battery life. However, the manufacturer needs to improve the interface’s utility and consistency. Moreover, the application is still limited, there is no stylus slot, there is no hot swapping and it has a poor readability under direct sunlight. [IS]
