The UK Mobile Phone Blog

Samsung Omnia Preview: is there anything it can’t do?

July 22, 2008 at 10:09 am by Dan | In Mobile News, Coming Soon Handsets

Korean electronics conglomerate Samsung has announced some interesting launch related information for their Windows Mobile based touch screen powerhouse; the Samsung Omnia. Firstly the concrete information; Samsung has announced that the Omnia, also known as the i900, will be available in Italy from the 22nd of July. Why is this newsworthy you ask? Well, those generous chaps over at Samsung HQ have decided that everyone in Italy who pre-orders the device will get a free Xbox 360. Free games consoles are offered on various different pay monthly contracts but to offer it on a sim free pre-order is as baffling as it is brilliant!

The second bit of information and the bit that should have the rest of us waiting with baited breath is that the Omnia will be dropping in the rest of Europe by late August. As to why the world cup holders are getting this special treatment (answers anyone???) and if anyone else can expect the same Xbox treatment is unknown and unlikely respectively.

Omnia, the Latin word for everything is just that, managing to cram in more features than you can shake a stick at! Are you ready? Ok, deep breath here goes, let’s start with the camera; the Omnia packs in an amazing 5.0 megapixel camera with auto focus, face detection, smile detection (waiting for all the faces in the shot to smile before capturing!), image stabiliser, flash and QVGA video recording at 30 fps. Reads like the spec list of a standalone digital camera doesn’t it?

And we’re not finished there, oh no! Being a smartphone, the Omnia runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 meaning pocket versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, a built in GPS receiver so wandering around lost will become a thing of the past, HSDPA mobile broadband connectivity, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Handwriting recognition. Apologies if this has turned into a bit of a list of what a mobile could and should do. That’s what it feels like Samsung have done with the Omnia. They weren’t kidding with that “everything” moniker.

Almost done. Now just the small matter of multimedia. Think you’re going be short of things to do on that stunning 3.2″ TFT touchscreen? Well with up to 16GB of onboard memory, expandable memory up to a further 8Gb and support for DivX, Xvid, MP3/4 and AAC plus a whole host of others, think again! Quite simply, if Samsung pull this off the Omnia could be the most complete mobile phone ever!

Look out for our hands on review in the weeks leading up to its late August launch and register your interest here if you want to be emailed once we have more details.

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