Samsung Omnia 2

It’s interesting to watch the scrap currently taking place on the smartphone table at the moment, especially those smartphones further down the table under the Apple iPhone. Some, like the Blackberry, allow their QWERTY-based set up to lead their offerings, but the Samsung Omnia 2 is sticking to its touchscreen guns.

The screen has grown by half an inch, now measuring 3.7 inches, and now uses more power efficient and brighter OLED technology instead of the old Omnia’s TFT technology. Not only is the screen easier to read but the battery should last longer – we weren’t able to test this ourselves but Samsung claims it has an extra two hours talk time, when compared to the old Omnia, when connected to a 3G network, and an extra 90 minutes on a 2G network.

The Omnia 2 comes with Windows Mobile 6.5 which a definite improvement on older versions of Microsoft’s mobile OS. Compatibility with Microsoft Exchange and a powerful version of Microsoft Office brought together in a handset that can connect virtually anywhere – HSDPA, HSUPA, plus EDGE and quad-band GSM and WI-FI – all makes this a neat bundle. The 800MHz processor isn’t as impressive as we would have liked though, meaning it isn’t a particularly fast phone and causes the interface to suffer from frequent lag.

The five megapixel camera with a dual LED flash and adjustable focus is respectable if a little slow to load up. An FM radio, a full web browser and a 3.5mm headphone jack also comes as standard. The Omnia 2’s media capabilities are good and it’s a great device for watching things on. DiVX, H.264 and WMV files are some of the video highlights and its built-in compatibility with Windows is hugely appealing.

The Omnia 2 is as good when it comes to entertaining as it is at working.

We weren’t overly impressed when we discovered a stylus in the Omni 2’s box, especially with the current focus on touchscreens. The screen is resistive rather than capacitive making multi-touch gestures like pinching to zoom and so forth out of the question. We also noticed that the screen suffers from the problem of stepping – this is where a gradient, rather than running smoothly from one colour to another, has noticeable jumps from one tone to the next. Although surprising coming from a phone at the top of Samsung’s offerings, and noticeable now and again, it isn’t a killer flaw.

Our verdict – the occasional delays when launching applications or flipping through menus is frustrating and we weren’t convinced about the build quality either. Having said that though, we loved its media capabilities and compatibility with video codecs. Despite the few issues with the colour accuracy it doesn’t impinge on viewing quality or pleasure. However when compared with the iPhone or HTC Hero it just isn’t as good which is a shame as it does look the part.