Samsung Omnia (SGH-i900)
Discontinued 10th June 2008
Announced on the very same day as the
Apple
iPhone 3G, the Samsung Omnia (also known
as the Samsung SGH-i900) is a broadly similar device
that competes head-on with the new Apple handset.
The "Omnia" in the SGH-i900's
name indicates that this handset really does have everything..
except the kitchen sink. (Omnia extra culina amula?
Something like that). The Omnia is certainly one of
the most feature rich handsets that we have ever seen.
As we said, the Omnia and iPhone 3G
will compete directly with each other, so we will compare
the two side-by-side using our patented Fudge-O-Meter
scoring system to see which is best.
Operating System: don't yawn
- this is really important. The Samsung Omnia has Windows
Mobile 6.1 Professional with Samsung's custom TouchWiz
interface on top. This is a much improved operating
system, enhanced for finger use (rather than a stylus).
Windows Mobile has a large amount of third party software
available for it, plus pocket versions of Microsoft
Office. On the other hand, the iPhone 3G runs on the
new iPhone 2.0 platform which is much slicker than anything
Microsoft can muster, Apple promise more third party
applications and the overall capabilities of the new
iPhone combined with Apple's MobileMe
service are hard to beat. The two platforms are very
capable, but we must give the iPhone more because it
is so polished. Apple: 9/10, Samsung
7/10.
Display:
The Samsung Omnia comes with a large 3.2" 240 x
400 pixel touchscreen display with haptic feedback,
the iPhone comes with a larger 3.5" 320 x 480 pixel
display but it lacks haptics. Bear in mind that some
of the competition manage 480 x 640 pixels or higher,
and the Omnia and iPhone 3G don't quite look so good.
Apple: 7/10, Samsung 7/10.
Camera: you can't always tell
how good a camera is from raw technical data, but it's
clear that the Samsung Omnia's camera is significantly
better than the iPhone 3G. The Omnia has a 5 megapixel
camera with autofocus, flash, an image stabiliser, face
recognition and geotagging. The SGH-i900 Omnia has a
secondary video calling camera too. On the other hand,
the iPhone 3G comes in at just 2 megapixels, lacks video
calling and doesn't have autofocus or a flash. It does
support geotagging, but the camera is certainly a weak
point for the Apple device. Apple: 4/10, Samsung:
9/10.
GPS: Both devices have GPS, Apple
state clearly that the iPhone 3G supports A-GPS and
comes with basic mapping, Samsung are not clear on this.
Also, we don't know what applications are bundled with
the Samsung Omnia, so we must mark Samsung down for
being unclear as to the i900's specifications. Apple:
8/10, Samsung: 7/10.
Multimedia:
the Samsung Omnia's multimedia player supports MP3,
AAC and WMA audio types, also MPEG4, DivX, H.263, H.264
and WMV movies plus many other types of multimedia file.
The iPhone 3G doesn't have quite the same support, but
really it is just as impressive. The Omnia scores more
because it also has an FM radio, TV output and
supports stereo Bluetooth, where the iPhone 3G does
not.. on the other hand, good iTunes integration and
an easy-to-use interface help out the iPhone 3G. Apple:
8/10, Samsung: 9/10.
Connectivity: Both phones have
WiFi, 3G support plus HSDPA high-speed data and quad-band
GSM, GPRS and EDGE. As far as we can tell, the Samsung
Omnia only supports UMTS 2100, which is fine for Europe..
not so good for the US. The Apple iPhone has tri-band
UMTS, so gets a slight mark-up. Both handsets have Bluetooth
2.0 and USB 2.0. There's no HSUPA support on either
device, although this is still very rare. Apple:
9/10, Samsung: 8/10.
Memory:
Both phones have lots of memory and
are available in 8GB or 16GB configurations. The Samsung
Omnia also supports microSD and SDHC cards, although
it's less important on a device with this much memory.
Apple: 8/10, Samsung: 9/10.
Looks: the problem with large
touchscreen phones is that they tend to look alike,
although Apple have tried hard to style the iPhone 3G
so that it looks a little different. The Samsung Omnia
could be just about any touchscreen phone at all, and
it lacks the necessary "wow factor". Apple:
10/10, Samsung: 7/10.
There are some other things about the
Samsung that we just don't know, such as cost, battery
life and weight. These are quite important, but there's
no point trying to compare the unknown with the known.
So, which phone is the winner? Well
annoyingly, both the Samsung and Apple score 63/80
in our not very scientific comparison. Our gut feeling
is that we'd prefer the Samsung Omnia over the Apple
iPhone 3G, but it really is just a matter of taste.
Samsung say that the Omnia SGH-i900
will be available in Asia-Pacific in June this year,
with certain European countries following in July onwards.
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Samsung
Omnia (SGH-i900) at a glance
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Available:
|
Q3
2008
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Network:
|
GSM
850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
+ UMTS 2100
|
Data:
|
GPRS
+ EDGE + UMTS (3G) + HSDPA
+ WiFi
|
Screen:
|
240
x 400 pixels
|
Camera:
|
5
megapixels (main)
|
Size:
|
PDA-style
device 112 x 57 x 12.5mm
|
Bluetooth:
|
Yes
|
Memory
card:
|
microSD
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Infra-red:
|
No
|
Polyphonic:
|
Yes
|
Java:
|
Limited
|
GPS:
|
Yes
|
Battery
life:
|
Not
specified
|
OS:
|
Windows
Mobile 6.1 Professional
|
|
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