Samsung Omnia HD: Upping the Ante

The first Omnia touch-screen phone didn't leave much of an impression on users. Despite having some cutting-edge hardware early on in the game, the phone suffered from a lousy integration with Windows Mobile 6.1, sluggish performance, and that general "wow" factor.

So it was a little bit of a surprise that Samsung not only designed a sequel to the original Omnia, but an entire line of smartphones. The first is the i8910 Omnia HD, an action-packed touch-screen handset that features a gigantic 3.7" AMOLED display. We should also add that the touch-screen is capacitive, and not resistive - as most iPhone clones are wont to do.

Windows Mobile 6.1 no longer graces this phone, and instead the Omnia HD uses the Nokia-approved Symbian S60 operating system, fifth edition. This of course brings up a completely different set of GUI bugs, interface flaws, and other problems, but it's still a huge improvement over WiMo.

So why is it called the Omnia HD? Not because of the extra-large screen, but because of the potential to record video in 720p HD glory (@ 24 fps). That alone is impressive, and the camera - an 8 megapixel shooter with features competitive to consumer digital cameras - simply blows us away.

We could go on and on about the CPU (now a 600 megahertz monster, complete with a 3D graphics accelerator chip), battery life (10 hours on GSM, 6.5 on 3G), audio (3.5mm audio jack included, and virtual 5.1 Dolby surround sound), or any of the multitude of features that come standard on the Omnia HD, but let's just say: this phone does everything. Now provided that Samsung hasn't screwed up the user experience, we think they've got a winner.

Find the lowest prices on the Samsung Omnia HD phone.