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11th October 2010
Running the new Windows Phone 7 operating system, the Samsung
Omnia 7 is a powerful smartphone with a large 4" display
that should provide effective competition for other high-end smartphones.
Featuring a radically different user interface and experience
from earlier versions of Windows - and indeed pretty much any other
smartphone - the new Windows Phone 7 platform is as yet untested
in a consumer environment. Applications for older versions of Windows
won't run on Windows Phone 7, so Microsoft need to encourage developers
to write for it.. the problem being that developers will be reluctant
to write for a platform if very few people are buying it, and customers
may be put off the phone if there are no applications available.
We are either witnessing the start of something very big here,
or a complete and utter disaster. But the fact that the Omnia 7
is a very desirable piece of hardware is a very positive start.
 The
4" screen is a Super AMOLED panel with a 480 x 800 pixel resolution.
Inside is a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and 512MB of RAM,
coupled with 8GB of internal memory. On the back is a 5 megapixel
camera with LED flash, autofocus and HD video recording, and the
Samsung Omnia 7 also has a multimedia player capable of supporting
all major formats plus an FM radio.
The is a 3.5G device with a maximum download speed of up to 7.2Mbps
and uploads of up to 5.76Mbps, the Omnia 7 also supports WiFi and
there is also Bluetooth 2.1 and USB 2.0 connectivity. The Omnia
7 has GPS built in, although we're not sure what navigation options
are available at this time.
A large 1500 mAh battery is quoted as giving up to 6 hours talktime
and 13 days standby time on 3G. Overall, the Omnia 7 weighs 138
grams and measures 122 x 60 x 11mm.
To a large extent, all Windows Phone 7 handsets are going to
be very similar as Microsoft have set the minimum hardware specification
to be very high-end, and they are also retaining tight control of
their operating system which means that manufacturers will not be
able to customise it in the ways that they did before.
The Samsung Omnia 7 shares a very similar specification to the
Android-based Galaxy S, and we assume that it will cost roughly
the same amount, perhaps around €500 in retail outlets. We don't
know exactly when the Omnia 7 will be available in the shops, but
we expect to see it before the end of the year.
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