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Will Samsung's Omnia rival Apple's 3G iPhone?

By Jacqueline Emigh, BetaNews

June 9, 2008, 3:57 PM

As some see it, Samsung's forthcoming Windows Mobile 6.1-based Omnia smartphone will act as a retort of sorts to Apple's new 3G iPhone. Although the Omnia isn't slated for full rollout until June 17, Samsung prereleased some details today.

Samsung's new Ommia will indeed offer new features not available on Samsung's existing Instinct smartphone. Both the Omnia and Instinct provide digital video and audio recording, along with 3G wireless, an FM radio, and GPS. Unlike the Instinct, though, the Omnia will offer Wi-Fi. Moreover, Samsung has boosted smartphone camera capabilities to 5 megapixels from the 2 megapixel camera in the Instinct.

The Omnia will also be the first smartphone to include Samsung's TouchWiz, a touch user interface for personalizing windows with widgets.

Samsung will preload Microsoft Windows Mobile Professional 6.1, Word, Excel, and Powerpoint onto the smartphone. Opera 9.5 will serve as its Web browser. Other features will include Bluetooth wireless; USB 2.0 MS Office Document Viewer, advanced PIM applications, push e-mail, auto rotation, and TV out.

Measuring 112 x 56.9 x 12.5 millimeters, the platinum-finished, ultra-slim phone will incorporate 8 GB/16 GB flash; an external memory slot; and microSDHC.

Capabilities of the new 5 megapixel camera will include face detection, smile detection, auto focus, image stabilizer, geo-tagging, auto-panorama shot, and wide dynamic range (WDR). It will support video recording in DivX, Xvid, H.263, H.264, WMV, and MP4 formats. Video editing capabilities will include trim video, audio dubbing, live dubbing, add subtitle, and image capture.

Meanwhile, Samsung and Sprint have been demoing the DVR capabilities in the Instinct. "It looks like Samsung and Sprint are going after some of the iPhone market share as they show off their video recording capability on the Samsung Instinct," asked Cory Bohon, on TUAW.COM, The Unofficial Apple Weblog.

"As Apple's competitors are slowly catching up, is it time for Apple to release video recording capabilities for the iPhone? I'm sure that most iPhone users would like to see video recording on the next iteration of the device."

Set for official launch during the CommunicAsia trade show in Singapore on June 17, the Omnia is expected to be available in Southeast Asia that same week, and in Europe starting in July.

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By pcgreen

edited Aug 25, 2008 - 7:46 PM

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Processor Qualcomm® MSM7201A™ 528 MHz
Operating System Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional
Memory ROM: 512 MB
RAM: 288MB
Dimensions 102 mm (L) X 51 mm (W) X 18.05 mm (T)
Weight 165 g (with battery)
Display 2.8-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with VGA resolution
Network HSDPA/WCDMA:

Europe/Asia: 900/2100 MHz

Up to 384 kbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds

Tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE:

Europe/Asia: 900/1800/1900 MHz

(Band frequency and data speed are operator dependent.)
Device Control TouchFLO™ 3D
Touch-sensitive navigation control
Keyboard Slide-out 5-row QWERTY keyboard
GPS GPS and A-GPS ready
Connectivity Bluetooth® 2.0 with EDR
Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g
HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0, audio jack, and TV Out* in one)
Camera

Main camera: 3.2 megapixel color camera with auto focus and flash light
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Audio Built-in microphone, speaker and FM radio with RDS
Ring tone supported formats:

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40 polyphonic and standard MIDI format 0 and 1 (SMF)/SP MIDI

Battery Rechargeable Lithium-ion or Lithium-ion polymer battery
Capacity: 1340 mAh

Talk time:

Up to 397 minutes for WCDMA

Up to 485 minutes for GSM

Standby time:

Up to 503 hours for WCDMA
Up to 406 hours for GSM

Video call time: Up to 201 minutes for WCDMA
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Expansion Slot microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
AC Adapter Voltage range/frequency: 100 ~ 240V AC, 50/60 Hz
DC output: 5V and 1A

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Dimensions 110 x 53 x 16.7 mm
Display Type TFT touchscreen, 65K colors
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
Camera 3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels
Size 800 x 480 pixels, 3 inches
WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
- Full QWERTY keyboard
- Optical joystick navigation
Card slot microSD (TransFlash)
- 400 MB internal memory
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Score: 0

By mrwolvie

edited Jul 9, 2008 - 4:16 AM

My friend just bought his Omnia and has problems customising the widgets and changing the interface and the manual provided does not seem to help much. The website www.samsung-resource.blogspot.com is very useful and in fact i have recommended it in other phone forum. If you want to download the manual, you can do so at www.lostmymanual.org =)

Score: 0

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Score: 0

By MDTurner77

edited Jul 1, 2008 - 1:10 PM

Wow... match THIS to the Sprint data plan (a mere $15 a month for unlimited).....

I want one. Bad.

Score: 0

By Aires

edited Jun 10, 2008 - 9:28 AM

I've been looking at the specs and reviews of this phone elsewhere this morning, and as long as it come in within the same price region as the iPhone, I can definitely see this phone getting my pounds, shillings & pence. This is THE best alternative to the iPhone I've seen so far and I do like it, in fact I like it in preference to the iPhone for many reasons. Let's see what price it comes in at.

Score: 0

By preinterpost

posted Jun 10, 2008 - 8:53 AM

This is the technology the iPhone2 should have been. Instead Apple went cheap. Not a bad thing either I suppose but I hope the Omnia will make it to the US.

Score: 0

By pitdingo2

posted Jun 10, 2008 - 8:02 AM

**yawn**

Another day, another iPhone clone. They should have to pay Apple a licensing fee for such a blatant rip off.

Score: 0

By lileoj

posted Jun 10, 2008 - 9:49 AM

Last I check Windows Mobile has been around LONG BEFORE the Iphone. So whos ripping who off?

Score: 0

By Spodee

edited Jul 5, 2008 - 10:31 PM

Well. we're speaking of the appearance moreso than the specs :\

Score: 0

By seier

posted Jun 10, 2008 - 4:38 AM

Why does the US so often get screwed as a test market for cell phones? I suppose I should be happy that someone else will get to be the guinea pigs. What they should really do is add skype support to their Wifi functionality, but then no cellular carriers would want to carry the phone. The flip side would be that everyone would want to buy it and it would generate a lot of publicity.

Score: 0

By wolfcat

posted Jun 9, 2008 - 8:44 PM

hmm.. 3mg better camera that the Iphone, external memory, changeable battery, divx. Now this sounds like a phone that I would be interested in.

Score: 0

By seier

posted Jun 10, 2008 - 4:32 AM

Unless you have some special needs, you should be recording in H.264 which this phone also supports, it's a substantially better codec.

Score: 0

By Tenoq

posted Jun 10, 2008 - 1:48 AM

Me too, for the same price. But I get this funny feeling that it will be a fair whack more expensive... and/or not available locally until well after the iPhone.

It's a bit like all the iPhone killers people talk about - none of them seem to be on the same schedule as the iPhone, or pricing themselves in the same bracket. :/

Score: 0

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