2
Jul
2009
Samsung Omnia 2 i8000. Bigger and better
Bigger is not always better. America has proved that with, well, with just about everything. Its people, its cars, its mortgages… But sometimes the mobile phone world can slip into the misguided belief that bigger is better, that all people want is function after gadget after gizmo after add-on after app. And sometimes they go to far. Long gone are the bricks of the earliest phones of course (don’t you just love when you see old films featuring them?) but some of today’s so-called smart phones are getting distinctly bricky again, despite what you thought we’d learnt.
The Samsung Omnia 2 is one of those phones. At nearly 12cm tall, this is no discreet pocket dweller. But, and it’s a big but, there’s a very good reason for this. It’s because the Samsung Omnia 2 I8000 has the biggest screen you’ve ever, ever, seen. Well, the biggest screen you’ve ever seen on a mobile phone. At 3.7” and 480 x 800 pixels it is an absolute monster of a screen. And where Samsung have come good is that they’ve not just made it big for the sake of bigness, they’ve made it of the highest quality to boot. Made using the AMOLED technology that they have now taken a pioneering lead in bringing to the mobile phone market, this super-high-end phone (with all the GPS, 3.5G, Wifi, 8.1MP camera and everything else you could hope for also included) is only 12mm. That’s 12mm… 1.2 cm… and it has a 3.7” screen! That’s like one of those size zero supermodels who get chased around by the paparazzi these days.
So, big isn’t always better, but something it can be mightily impressive. The Samsung Omnia 2 will be landing with a bang sometime in the next couple of months. In the meantime you can dribble over all the specs in this Samsung Omnia 2 review, or spend a little bit of time watching this video
30
Jun
2009
Samsung Omnia Lite B7300. Light, slight, bright
The Omnia range of phones from Samsung are all about everything. That is, about having the most, the best and then even more crammed into the handsets. The fastest internet connections, the largest memory, the longest talk time etc. Not surprising, really, given that ‘Omnia’ means everything. The Samsung Omnia Lite though is an attempt to take some of what’s best of the Omnia range, and deliver it in a more streamlined package. The cream from the top of the milk, if you like.
So while the Samsung Omnia Lite B7300 might not be delivering the very best of everything, it’s doing a very good job of delivering a lot for what should be – in smartphone terms at least – a reasonable rate. And thanks to the slimming down of some of the less vital features, the phone is also a hell of a lot less bulky than its older Omnia siblings. At only 13mm thick it will in fact be one of the slimmest smartphones on the market.
So what will you be getting for your money? Well, as you should expect, not the top end kind of specs you’d expect if you were paying top whack, but it’s also a not too shoddy line-up either:
- GPRS + EDGE + UMTS (3G) + HSDPA + WiFi data connectivity
- 3.0″ touchscreen with 240 x 400 pixels, 65k colours
- 3 megapixel camera
- TouchWiz 2.0
- 107 x 52 x 13mm
- 103 grams
- Bluetooth 2.0
- 250MB of internal memory, expandable with MicroSD to 32GB
- GPS
- FM radio
- OS: Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
And that Windows Mobile 6.1 will be fully upgradeable to 6.5 if that hasn’t happened already by the time this thing ships. We think the Samsung Omnia Lite B7300 might make a lot of people very happy indeed, especially those who’ve been tempted by the Omnia range, but have shied away from paying the kinds of prices necessary for them. Read a full Samsung Omnia Lite review here for a load more specs and info.
30
Jun
2009
Samsung Omnia Pro B7610. Sneeze and you’ll miss it.
With a 5 megapixel camera, GPS, Bluetooth, wireless, slide-out QWERTY keyboard and not much else to write home about, you’d think the forthcoming Samsung Omnia Pro might get slightly lost in the market even if it was released now, let alone if it actually makes its supposed launch of October. (read a full Samsung Omnia Pro review here for more specs). However, one thing might just save it, and that’s it’s screen. So what’s so good about the touchscreen on this thing? Well, not only is it big, at 3.5”, but it’s also an AMOLED.
That’s right, AMOLED. No, we didn’t just sneeze as we were typing, AMOLED is a new type of screen that’s starting to be fitted to portable devices such as the Samsung Omnia Pro B7610. An acronym for active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (no, again, we didn’t just have a sneezing fit), all you need to worry about is that this will be one of the crispest, brightest displays you’ve ever seen. What about battery life? we hear you hollering. Well, the best thing about these types of screen is that they’re also low on power consumption, meaning you can use the full force of the screen to watch videos, surf the internet and so on without worrying about carrying your charger around with you. In’t technology brilliant?!
Whether this will all still be quite as impressive come the Samsung Omnia Pro B7610’s October launch we’re not quite sure, because brilliant as it is, technology also moves at a fair old pace and we fear that AMOLED might become yesterday’s news even before you’ve managed to remember what it stands for to impressive your mates. One more time: active-matrix organic light-emitting diode…
Check out this not-so-hot video that manages to not quite prove how good the screen is.
