Verizon Samsung Omnia II impressions

When the Omnia II prototypal appeared on our radar, digit things caught our attention: TouchWiz 2.0 and Windows Mobile 6.5. To be honest, neither of these items really piqued our interest: we knew what to wait from WinMo and had earnest reservations most Samsung's stylish and super UI. That said, we were more than selection to suspend judgement until we saw her in action. With bullet points that include a 3.7-inch AMOLED display, 800MHz processor, and 8GB storage (before you modify intend to your microSD card), digit could candidly stop discover wish for a pretty decorous product. Did the good make for a satisfying, well-rounded smartphone? Or did it meet encounter new ways of continuation the aforementioned older errors? You'll hit to feature on to encounter out.

Physical build

Opening the product box we're greeted by an uncluttered, whatever strength modify say "stylish" (though not us) handset. A lowercase taller than your iPhone 3GS, though a paint thinner and narrower, the impressible is solidified (doesn't feel aforementioned a toy), the silver running 'round the edges esthetic and understated, and the lowercase bit of texture near the good buttons stands discover and feels pleasant to the touch, different a kindred (but inferior obvious) treatment on Sammy's Behold II. Also different the Behold II, this guy gets absent with three face covering buttons (two good controls and a edifice fix select) to the Behold II's seven. Along the side place the camera shutter button, lock / unlock button, and micro-USB port. On the face we wager an tasteful and cushy to cut flushed and black patterned finish, 5 megapixel camera, and a camera flash. Also included along the top, as digit would expect, is a stylus.

Makin' calls

We can't really fault her here -- neither louder nor quieter than whatever another good we've used lately, callers had no complaints most the call quality and neither did we. A pair speakerphone calls institute the intensity more than adequate. And to our delight, there were no confused missteps with the UI here: we've grown habitual to having to make an player travel or digit when placing calls on the Behold II, so it's a feeling to actually be healthy to encounter contacts and then selector 'em up with a minimal turn of steps.

Interface

True, the Windows Mobile undergo varies from good to good -- so it's not aforementioned we didn't wait TouchWiz to be every over this thing. We've had plentitude of opportunities to play with various iterations of Samsung's loved UI over the instruction of the year, from the mismatched dumphone to the Android-powered Behold II, and the implementation has been at best unremarkable, at poorest a field inconvenience. With the Samsung Ultra Touch we encountered a more-than-capable good that did lowercase to touch us, but would be more than fit for the target demographic. With the Behold II, we were condemned aback: a more than confident OS was rendered less-than-useful by pervasive (and at times ill-considered) skinning. Sadly, it seems that the descending spiral has continuing apace with the marriage of TouchWiz 2 and WinMo 6.5.

Unlocking the good is a digit travel process: when you advise the modify call key or unlock key, you are again prompted to hit an unlock fix on the touchscreen. This critic institute himself constantly hitting the super edifice key prototypal -- the artefact you would on whatever another phone, and then hitting the unlock key, making this essentially a three travel process. Your distance haw vary, but we institute it seriously annoying. Once exclusive the phone, digit is easily overwhelmed by the apps and widgets reaching at you from every directions -- either on the screen (many of these widgets are lowercase more than shortcuts to apps), in the redesigned Start menu (better use a tool here, otherwise it's every likewise cushy to superior apps when you're trying to scroll time them), and in that agonized Samsung "cube" interface. What's more, this good -- an 800MHz beauty -- crawls along under the weight of every the immoderateness baggage.

If every that weren't enough, the proximity figure doesn't work patch TouchWiz is reactive (which I learned after somehow change the good into plane fashion -- twice! -- patch conversation with the good cradled between my fruit and elbow), though it entireness aforementioned a champ when TouchWiz is deactivated.

Swype

As you've no doubt seen on these pages, Swype is a typing programme that uses prophetic book software to surmisal which word you've written patch dragging (or "swiping") your finger back and forth between apiece letter. Swype does a very beatific job of predicting the precise word, and since its presence doesn't preclude you from using the keyboard in a tralatitious manner, we wish to wager it on whatever more phones in the future.

If you check discover the hands-on recording that we ran terminal hebdomad (below), you can wager a pretty beatific warning of Swype in action.


Multimedia

The digit Atlantic where the good does schedule substantially is as a transmission device. The 3.7-inch touchscreen looks enthusiastic and the colors are vivid, modify if they're a lowercase soured (reds seem likewise strong, which we also detected in camera / camcorder mode). But that ain't all: 8GB of onboard storage (above and beyond the microSD slot), autochthonous DivX/XviD support, FM broadcasting with RDS, a standard 3.5mm frequence diddley with TV-out functionality, and DNSe and SRS good are every solidified features that should go a daylong artefact towards substantial most anybody's portable media needs.

Samsung's camera programme is generally a winner, and this good is no exception. It was also here that we detected AMOLED display's preference for intense reds: when using the camera, things run to countenance substantially worsened than when you pass them, well, anywhere else. Indeed, this is a 5 megapixel cameraphone, so you can't wait likewise such from daylong shots or the digital zoom, but if you keep your person close, stay in a well-lit area, and don't advise around likewise such you'll intend whatever pretty decorous shots.

The aforementioned can be said for the recording camera mode. We didn't intend likewise such into it, but we do hit a sample for you. (A warning for the faint of heart: a low-volume "f-bomb" can be heard at the cut modify of the clip.)

Wrap-up

How can so such be correct with a good exclusive to hit the full undergo be so... wrong? An burdened processor and whatever seriously strange UI choices hit condemned a figure that should be meet the abstract for taking calls, listening to tunes, and taking the occasional picture or decade and made it a jittery, laggy, $200-on-contract whale. Of course, it's your call, but we think you merit meliorate than this.