Samsung Omnia 2 Review

Samsung Omnia 2 Hardware

Samsung Omnia 2 looks attractive, with a large 3.7″ AMOLED display that makes images look bright and come alive, while consuming lesser power. However, the plastic feel on the display is a disappointment. Overall, the look is simple with Send, End and Cube keys at the bottom of the screen. While the left side of the Samsung Omnia 2 houses the volume rocker, the right contains a lock option, OK key and camera button. The top of the Samsung Omnia 2 holds the 3.5mm headset jack and microUSB port. This device has a front facing camera and a 5MP camera lens at the back of the phone.

Haptic feedback is offered by the Samsung Omnia 2 which fits easily in the hand and slides well in the pocket.

Samsung Omnia 2 Specifications

The Samsung Omnia 2 comes with an 800MHz processor and has 8GB internal storage, with provision for expanding the memory further.

Samsung Omnia 2 Software: Windows Mobile and TouchWiz 2.0

This device has a smooth TouchWiz 2.0 interface, making users feel as though they are not dealing with a Windows Mobile phone. This revamped version of TouchWiz is updated, with more features for users. The three homescreens look quite different, with pages that can be customized. A notification bar is present at the bottom of the screen to make users aware of any new messages on the device or missed calls. New widgets have been added, such as the one for Facebook and users can download widgets from Samsung’s Widget Store. However, widgets often get stuck on the phone and transitions may be clumsy or slow. Windows Mobile 6.5 on the Samsung Omnia 2 also comes with some new features for users. For example, ‘My Phone’ provides a backup for data.

Samsung Omnia 2 Keyboard

Samsung Omnia 2 offers a QWERY keyboard using Swype technology. Often the keyboard is good at deciphering what word is being typed, making it faster. Email and messaging options on this device are at par with those found on smartphones.

Samsung Omnia 2 Features

The cube key of the device helps in multimedia functions. It brings up the four-section menu that helps users navigate. The TaskSwitcher can be used to end functions and start on new ones. The Samsung Omnia 2 also supports 3G. Connectivity options provided by this mobile phone include Bluetooth, WiFi and GPS.

Samsung Omnia 2 Camera

The Samsung Omnia 2 comes has a 5MP camera lens at the back of the phone. Image quality is decent but suffers under low light conditions. Face detection, panorama mode and geo-tagging are offered on this device.

Samsung Omnia 2 Battery

The Samsung Omnia 2 has a talktime of upto 6 hours and a standby time of 375 hours. AMOLED helps in saving power, with the device running for about a day for heavy users, before it needs to be charged.

Unfortunately, despite some good features, the Samsung Omnia 2 feels heavy in the hand. Also, the 65K colour display on the touchscreen does limit the colours presented. Samsung ought to have really looked into this. The absence of a camera lens cover and xenon flash might also be a disappointment for some.

However, Adam Greenfield, former Nokia’s head of design direction recently made very strong comments about the way things function at Nokia in his blogpost. Greenfield’s detailed description logically outlines the reasons for Nokia’s declining popularity. He refers to operational delays due to the large size of the organization, outmoded ways of thinking, Nokia’s stress on bulk production of highly popular models at the lowest prices which often leaves little room for innovation and greater stress on engineering than design, often leading to a clumsy finish.

In order to explain himself better, Greenfield refers to a technology called NFC or “near field communication” that was developed at Nokia with great effort and money, to allow signals to pass through relatively close placed objects. However, the necessity of replying to a text message to confirm the transaction on this software made the whole thing seem quite inept to Greenfield. Nokia ought to have left engineering and interface design separate, he felt so that the final product would look sophisticated and cater to user-needs.

Greenfield said: “there’s nobody with any taste in the decision-making echelons at Nokia. And this is especially unfortunate and ironic, given that elegant, simple Finnish design has tutored generations in what taste means.”

Again, Microsoft too has been facing some of these problems. There is the flipside to working in a bureaucracy and products have to have blockbuster potential before they are developed, just as in Nokia. However, Microsoft has made waves in recent times, with products such as Kinect and Windows Phone 7. Again, though Windows Phone 7 is being touted as Nokia’s high-end smartphone, it is believed that the original success it owes has more to do with advertising and less with the phone’s OS app platform.

Nokia’s chief executive, Stephen Elop, a former Microsoft executive described how Nokia should take this leap to move from strength to strength. However, both Nokia and Microsoft stocks went down after this announcement. Meanwhile there is the feeling that no matter what Microsoft-Nokia can bring to the fore, they will never be able to match up to Apple’s standards or challenge Google’s Android platform.

For those Android users who were perennially grumbling about when the Opera for Android would be releasing will not have to worry anymore because it is finally out for good. The company has recently announced the fact that Mini 5 is here for users of the Google phone, and  in beta.

Opera had released its versions for Windows Mobile as well as the Blackberry. Now it is available for download for the users of the Android phone as well.

There are several advantages which include the fast speed of Opera which compresses most of the content. On Mini 5 there is speed dial, tabs and bookmarks. Opera has released its Android version before its version for the iPhone. The iPhone version has not shown its face despite the fact that it was verbally released at the Mobile World Congress this year.

There is going to be significant change coming over to the market with this. The plan spans PC, Web as well as the phone. This deal is a significant process of improving the different categories it is expected to respond to.

The software maker has hit the jackpot with their new version of Office that is both browser-friendly as well as productive in Word, Power Point and One Note. These programs will function well on Safari as well as Firefox along with standard Internet Explorer. This is also going to run on Linux based machines.

The phone is going to bring the Office 2010 which is a display of varieties of mobile phones as well as phones with native versions being released. The phones running on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile software is going to be really adaptable.

There are going to be Office franchise launched to maintain the look and strength of Microsoft Office that is relevant to the market in this sort of use. The fiscal health of Microsoft is also dependant on the new launch.

Source: news.cnet