In a nutshell: The Samsung Omnia 2 is one of the greatest
mobile devices ever! Running Windows Mobile, this is really a mobile
office with full email and MS Office functionality, as well as a
superb web browser, 5 megapixel camera, DVD-like video recording,
video calling, GPS and motion games. It's got a huge 3.7 inch display
with the highest screen resolution currently available, and it can
connect to just about anything via WiFi, Bluetooth, USB, 3.5mm audio
jack and DLNA. It may be big and it may be expensive, but this is
perhaps the most powerful smartphone so far released. Best buy: *Free* with half-price line rental from Mobiles.co.uk.
Review:
November 2009.
Let's
declare some bias at the start of this review. At Mobile Phones
UK, we're fans of the Windows Mobile operating system, and we generally
like the current generation of Samsung touchscreen phones. That
doesn't mean that they're beyond criticism, but we tend to like
them. Funnily enough, our users do too, which is why our user reviews
consistently rate them at 4 or 5 stars on average. We loved the
first Omnia, and so we're really excited to be reviewing the new
Omnia 2.
The
Omnia 2 has been restyled, and looks almost identical to the Samsung
Jet. It's bigger and heavier than the Jet however. Bigger and
heavier than the original Omnia
too, making it quite bulky in fact. But there's an upside to this
increase in size: the screen has grown from 3.2 inches to a massive
3.7 inches, and the resolution has quadrupled to 480 x 800 pixels.
Samsung have achieved this by replacing the old TFT screen with
a crisp beautiful AMOLED display, which looks better and uses less
power. Only the HTC Touch HD can
rival the Omnia 2 in screen real estate. For power users, web browsers
and mobile photographers, this can only be a bonus.
Apart
from this outward change, the big change inside is the upgrade of
Windows Mobile to version 6.5. Windows Mobile is a very powerful
and robust computer-like platform for running a mobile phone. First-time
users sometimes find it overly complex, but for power users it offers
a very flexible and customisable experience. Version 6.5 brings
some improvements such as My Phone, to sync text messages, photos,
video and contacts to the Web; and Windows® Marketplace for Mobile,
a new marketplace that will provide direct-to-phone mobile applications
and can be accessed from both the phone and the Web. The new Windows
Mobile 6.5 home screen provides a dashboard-like experience to items
such as new emails, texts, missed calls and calendar appointments.
It also includes an improved touchscreen interface, and an updated
version of the Internet Explorer Mobile browser. Samsung have integrated
this nicely with their own TouchWiz user interface, adding widgets
to extend the functionality of the home page and providing quick
links to applications such as facebook. We're not disappointed by
the user interface.
The
Omnia 2 is a fabulous phone for all kinds of media. Whilst the camera
hasn't been upgraded, we can hardly complain. A 5 megapixel camera
with autofocus, face detection, smile detection, auto-panorama and
macro, the only weakness is the lack of a xenon flash. Instead the
camera uses a power LED flash, which makes it trickier to get good
exposure after dark, but otherwise takes excellent shots. The video
camera is excellent too, and is capable of recording in 480p format
at up to 720 x 480 pixels for DVD quality. The phone also supports
video calling, unlike Android phones for example. When it comes
to video playback, the high resolution screen is unbeatable, and
there's full multi-codec support including DivX support, so you
shouldn't have any format compatibility problems. The media player
can also handle most kinds of audio format, and we are impressed
by the audio quality. An FM radio with RDS is included. We also
very much welcome the 3.5mm audio jack, which lets you plug in standard-fit
headphones for the best possible audio experience. Top marks here!
The
Omnia 2 has a superb implementation of the mobile web. With the
highest resolution screen on the market, the latest release of Internet
Explorer Mobile and fast 3G access using HSPA, you really couldn't
ask for a better browsing experience. Features
such as one finger zoom make web browsing quick and intuitive. AGPS
is included, with car and pedestrian maps and features such as geo-tagging
of photos. If
you get bored of all this, you can also try out the various games
embedded in the phone. These make use of the touchscreen and motion
sensor.
When
it comes to office applications, the Omnia 2 has an edge, being
based on Windows Mobile. Whether synching with Outlook or accessing
push email with Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, editing MS Office
documents or running third party apps, you'll find a real wealth
of mobile office functionality here, that makes Windows Mobile 6.5
the best smartphone platform in our opinion.
The
battery life of the phone is quite impressive, especially for such
a powerful device. The use of a powerful 1500mAh battery and the
OLED screen make all the difference here, although the downside
is of course the size and weight of the device. The amount of memory
available is also impressive, and has been increased to 16GB with
an option to expand this to a humongous 48GB with a microSD card.
This would let you store around 16,000 music tracks or 46 DVD-quality
movies! The range of connectivity options covers all the bases:
WiFi, Bluetooth, USB, 3.5mm jack, TV-Out and DLNA support. With
256MB of SDRAM memory and 512MB of Nand memory available for running
apps, you'll find that you can use the phone without any go-slow
or crashes resulting from low memory, and the super-fast 800MHz
processor packs enough punch to power the device without any noticeable
lag.
Overall
we're just as impressed by the Omnia 2 as we were hoping to be.
Samsung have made the device more powerful, yet easier to use at
the same time. They've made the screen enormous, increased the memory,
added a 3.5mm audio jack and updated the OS. The only issue is the
size of the device. But it's about the same as the iPhone
3GS, so we'd guess that isn't going to be too much of a problem.
No doubt about this one ... 5 stars all the way!
Features
of the Samsung Omnia II include:
5 megapixel camera with face detection autofocus,
smile detector, auto-panorama, 4x digital zoom and power LED flash
Video camera: 720 x 480 pixels, 30 frames per
second / 3G video calling
Talktime: up to 12 hours (2.5G) up to 8 hours
(3G)
Battery standby: up to 430 hours
Samsung Omnia
2 Consumer Reviews
Love
your mobile? Hate it? Please share your experiences to help other
people choose the phone that's best for them. Please do not review
this phone if you have not used it. This is a review site, not a
forum, so please don't just ask questions. Please do not use swear
words or offensive language, and please, no advertising!
Average
rating from 33 reviews:
Reviewed by drcarlos from UK on
20th Jul 2010
Had this handset about 7 months now, would I recommend it? Yes,
but only if you like Windows mobile and are prepared to put in the
time to update to the latest 6.5.3 firmware and customise the handset
to your needs. Believe me for this you will need a bit of time and
some skills in Windows mobile. Once complete is it a very good and
responsive ahndset with very few problems. The Music player is excellent
and easy to use, browser is good and reliable the 6.5.3 UI is excellent
and a great swansong for classic Winmo. The camera is a great occasional
snapper (when you don't have your DSLR to hand) with some nice features
and good daylight images, low light is OK but hey this is a phone.
The phone really the main part of this handset is good and reliable
with zero dropped calls so far and a good ability to hold on to
a signal in low signal areas. The touch responsiveness of the screen
is a big step up from earlier incarnations of resitive screens,
it obviously can't match capactive screens but I can use this phone
with gloves on if I want to and don't need multitouch, it you don't
need it don't worry and a double tap to zoom in the browser works
just as well. Also with 6.5.3 you do not need the stylus at all
as every icon or button is now large enough to work with a finger.
Battery life is otustanding for a smartphone with an easy 3 days
of standby being achieved with this handset (60 minute email sync
and bluettoth on) on T-Mobile. Do I have any issues with it? One
or two yes. The GPS can be a bit slow to lock on but this is no
big deal usually. The screen is difficult to read in bright sunlight
but most colour LCD's are. The 5 star rating is dependant on a flash
to Windows Mobile 6.5.3 on the supplied 6.5.0 it still rates well
but only a 4 as the improved interface and speed of 6.5.3 makes
a fair difference. Rating:
Reviewed by Andrew from Saudi on
14th Jul 2010
The reviews I read below are really confusing someone who would
want to buy this phone. Kevin from Australia and Debbie from Wirral
say that the reception is so poor on this phone, but at the same
time Joe from England sayd the signal reception is so good for him
compared to his Blackberry. If you rely on user reviews you should
look for reviews from your country / region as the behaviour and
performance of the phones vary according to that. In Middle East
we are not buying the phone with an Operator's plan, and therefore
they are unlocked and expensive (pretty same but paying full amount
at the time of purchasing). Frankly, I do not think that such a
high end and one of the best in the companies lineup phone could
have reception problems. It could rather be the operator's problem
or perhaps the problems with the particular handsets and its OS.
I have been a fan of smartphones and I used to beleive that NOKIA
is the only relaible one. I have used a number of Symbian smartphones
and out of them only Nokia N80 disappointed me badly and the best
one I had was Nokia N95-8GB (no review in this Site). [Editor's
comment: Nokia N95 review here.] I think
Samsung had become one of the leading mobile phone makers these
days and I think Omnia II is one of their best in the line up. I
personally like it very much and I think it is one of the best in
the market now. Always take time to purchase a new phone as you
could hate it within minutes. So always be ready to accept it faults
by knwoing about it before purchasing. Read reviews ask users... Rating:
Reviewed by amir from iran on
19th Jun 2010
all in all, this is the greatest smartphone i've ever had. i got
really impressed by the screen quality. there is nothing wrone with
this awsome phone. i really love it. Rating:
Reviewed by Marc from Aruba on
17th Jun 2010
My intitial enthousiasm about this phone started changing after
2 days. Living on Aruba and having a phone with a display on which
you absolutely see nothing in sunlight is just terrible! Touching
with the finger hardly ever works with one tap, it usually causes
me to frustrating banging on the TXT icon, until I desperately decide
to search for the stylus, since it is not on the phone itself. Multitasking
is nice but for some programs I have no clue how to end them except
for going to the multi-task screen and end it there. Try to write
a txt message with 2 or 3 apps running in the back ground and you'll
be back in the MS windows horror era, windows just not popping up
or simply not reacting. I have to switch the phone on and off at
least 3 times a day, just to keep it running smoothly. Never, never,
should have left Nokia for looks. Rating:
Reviewed by Low from Singapore on
16th Jun 2010
I had the phone for about three weeks. Issues with the phone is
that it hangs at least once a day - twice a day is not unexpected.
The XT9 mode allowing choice of words is sometime functional. One
has to literally bang on the screen on icons if one is to activate
desired programs while the lightest touch on other icons activate
programs that one does not wish to presently activate. The operating
system crawls rather than runs. Placing the CUP on high operating
helps somewhat but battery drains quickly. I seem to have to charge
the battery once a day. As with Kevin from Australia, reception
can be scratchy at times - I use another handset (a 5-year old Nokia
that has taken dives into the cess pool several times) in tandem,
as did Kevin, as control. Additional issues have already been hightlighted
by Debbie from Wirral, UK and Ivan from Malta. I am making a laundry
list of issues before I seek to exercise my warranty. Rating:
Reviewed by SKP from England on
15th Jun 2010
Wouldn't recommend, after having it 5months it runs very slow and
i do have to keep resetting it, i do not like the fact you can only
use qwerty text. Great camera and wifi perfect for the businessmen.
Rating:
Reviewed by CHCH from Mexico Queretaro
on 29th May 2010
I've bought 3 i8000... AMAZING CELLPHONE!! YEAH! Rating:
Reviewed by Kevin from Australia on
22nd May 2010
I loved the look & feel of this handset from the moment I picked
it up. The interface is so crisp & clear. Unfortunately, its reception
is absolutely unacceptable. I've found even in strong signal areas
(I use other handsets in tandem, so I know), calls just drop out.
I met a girl on the bus with the same handset and quizzed her about
her Omnia 2. She said she "hates it with a passion". She has the
same issues with it as I do. And to top it off, the screen is now
faulty - showing horizontal interference bars across it. DO NOT
BUY THIS handset. You will be sorry!!! I can't even claim on any
warranty as I bought it on a dodgy website (cellswholesale - don't
use them.) Rating:
Reviewed by Ivan from Malta on
21st May 2010
Well i had this phone for a month at first glimpse its menu is rather
hard to get use too, scrolling slider on the menus are glitchy.
I needed to reset the phone constantly. Annoying volume level buttons
which you easily hit and activates while handling the phone. Sound
quality is poor on the speaker phone. Battery drains fast even on
the lowest screen brightness and you need to charged it every overnight
and charging is slow. Can’t have a ringtone for a specified
group like family, business etc... i had use help from SPB shell
apps to have useful features and have easier menus. Touch pen has
no internal storage i had to keep it hanging on the outside very
impractical. People call me and say did you call me? I said no “Ah”
maybe the phone made automatic calls on its own! Impossible to dial
a number in direct sunlight. Rather Big for the jeans pocket and
car keys. microphone broke down after a month i went back
to my very reliable Nokia 6300. the end result i thrown in the bin
end of story. Rating:
Reviewed by Debbie from Wirral UK on
5th Apr 2010
Hate it ! Im about to take it back for the 3rd time ! It would be
good if it did what its says it can! I've had so many probs with
this pnone ie, takes 5 seconds to turn on from stand by ! not recognising
no's i've saved, loses messages, keyboard dissappears when txtin,
doesn't recognise memory card, low memory so i deleted all photos
1 week later they reappeared ! searches and downloads new files
that aren't there, phone signal very poor and crackles so you cant
hear the other person speaking...The list goes on thats before i
go on internet ... Its been repaired took 2 weeks got it back its
saying my memory is critically low i've only put 4 cd's on it and
69 photo's ... I've tried downloading updates etc it doesnt work
plus the activesync samsung recommend i download isn't commpatable
with my windows vista pc ! Surely i shouln't have to upgrade a brand
new phone ! I'm at my wits end with this phone. Im paying a contract
i'm not using. i'm told i cant terminate the contract !Its been
faulty since i bought it but because i percivered thinking it was
my fault i'm being penalised ! Nightmare phone dont buy unless you
wanna spend hours on tinternet trying to solve probs or going back
and forward to the shop getting it repaired ! Rating:
Reviewed by Glen from UK on 23rd
Mar 2010
Fantastic phone, but it is not supported by Vodafone, so if you
do get one on their network and, like me, it runs into problems
your in a fix. Rating:
Reviewed by MobileSpoon from England
on 20th Mar 2010
In my humble opinion – the second Omnia misses the charm that
the first version had. True, the specs are much better, and especially
the screen, but the D-Pad is horrible, the plastic cover feels cheap,
much of the customized applications are not as usable as in the
first version, and the keyboard is not even close to the iPhone
or Android virtual keyboards. I used to be a big fan of the first
Samsung Omnia very much, but I don’t see myself upgrade to
the new version. You can read my entire review in my blog: The Mobile
Spoon Rating:
Reviewed by Geo from UK on 29th
Jan 2010
An amazing phone for lovers of Windows Mobile. Have owned a number
of Winmo phones inc. Touch HD and Xperia and this is by far the
best I've had. It has excellent battery life lasting 3-4 days with
average usage (far beyond anything I experienced on other Winmo
phones), an excellent camera with duel LED flash, lovely 3.7" screen
that looks amazing and is fast and responsive This is an excellent
media player for both video and music...the sound from a decent
pair of headphones is out of this world and can easily replace your
mp3 players...oh yes, and it's a great phone to use as a phone.
Windows Mobile newbies beware as this may not be the phone for you
but for those familiar with Winmo you'd be hard pressed to find
a better phone Rating:
Reviewed by Andrew from UK on
14th Jan 2010
It is an outstanding phone. It has a lot of features that are useful
and is quite fast. The only vad bit was the price Rating:
Reviewed by Yas from UK on 12th
Jan 2010
bought this phone 2 weeks ago and have had it replaced twice already!
has excellent features but is so slow and freezes constantly. total
waste of time Rating:
Reviewed by Kris from Thailand on
29th Dec 2009
I dont think both the Omnia i900 and Omnia 2 are sticks. Both of
thess phones are great, but it's only for people who want something
useful and ready to learn and tweak. Not just a call/receive phone.
Anyway, I think everyone would agree with me on this, "We dont buy
a plane to drive on the road, and again we dont use a Jaguar to
do construction." These two omnias are like plane compare to simple
nokia, and it's like a huge truck compare to i-phone. Each phone
serves different purposes. Rating:
Reviewed by nellie from UK on
19th Dec 2009
nice look and feel, but the interface is ridiculously complicated
so the phone has gone back. gonna get myself a Nokia X6 instead. Rating:
Reviewed by Matt from Slovenia on
19th Dec 2009
This is the worst telephone ever. Very unreliable OS, it's very
slow, non-responsive, writing SMS is a nightmare,forget about fast
typing, because the keyboard is very slow to respond. I regret switching
from Nokia! Do not buy the phone! Rating:
Reviewed by Owen from China on
12th Dec 2009
Phone is beautiful very slick and better feel than the Iphone. It
has all the features anyone could ever want. It made sense for me
to buy a smart phone that uses Windows since I am already familiar
with Windows and was hoping that it would be easier to understand
and use and my computer also is a MS Windows XP OS. The Win Mo is
a little confusing hope after a few days of serious playing I can
make sense of it. Updating was not with out its problems and I hope
that 6.5 makes win mo easier to use but the jury is still out on
that. Camera flash seems to be a problem as it’s not in sync
with the shutter. If anyone has a fix for this please let me know.
The Flash fires and then 1/2 second later the shutter opens and
closes. I am not sure if it’s just the shutter “sound”
that’s a ½ second late or if it’s the actual
shutter but I have tried to get it to solve back lighting conditions
and it always fails because the shutter and flash don’t operate
at the same time. Any help with this problem would be appreciated.
One other problem I am having is that it is hard to get the phone
to stop trying to use the GPRS to get online rather than using the
wifi/wlan. I think this problem will be easier to solve but since
I am new to win mo and the Samsung UI it is just going to take some
time to figure it out. I also feel it would be much better if the
folks at Samsung with just put the Win Mo 6.5 at the factory. I
am in China and it makes it even harder to update since I had to
deal with the Chinese version of Win Mo 6.1 and I don’t read
Chinese (nightmare) and finding people here that both speak English
and understand Win Mo in English is not an easy task. Rating:
Reviewed by John from UK on 3rd
Dec 2009
This phone is amazing. Nice speed. Rating:
Reviewed by Joe from England on
29th Nov 2009
I got this phone on the o2 network, and the signal is amazing! on
my old blackberry, the signal was ALWAYS poor at the best of times
in my hosue, but on this it is amazing. the gadgets are also great,
wiht the internet access being second to non and the camera being
a 5 megapixel beast. i reccomend this to everyone who needs a phone
that works well, and does it all very, very fast. one of the best
handheld devices ever! Rating:
Reviewed by Amy from UK on 24th
Nov 2009
This is my first windows phone and I must admit it is not a complicated
as people originally made it out to be, the phone has a beautiful
screen, which is regularly commented on and I love the fact that
to turn the snooze on the alarm I roll the phone over(simple things:)).
This is much better than other phones on the market, and I am constantly
finding new features, the only extra feature that Samsung could
have added is the ability for the phone to make me a cup of tea
and cook me dinner when I get in from work!!! Rating:
Reviewed by Dave from England on
20th Nov 2009
Had this phone a week now and have to say its fantastic. It does
everything you could ever wish for in a phone. 10 out of 10 Rating:
Reviewed by savannah from england on
15th Nov 2009
this phone rings people when you dont want to. Rating:
Reviewed by Jane Taylor from UK on
9th Nov 2009
Returning my user-unfriendly and hugely disappointing Sony Ericsson
Satio for this. Only comment is that I thought it only came with
2GB Internal memory in the UK version and no microSD card in the
box? www.mobiles.co.uk says only 2gb internal memory... I wanted
a great camrea which is why I started with the Satio but would rather
have a great phone and 5mp camera rather than a 12mp camera but
terrible nightmare of a phone (the Satio). Rating:
Reviewed by Jeff Christopher from Glamorgan
Business School on 3rd Nov 2009
Yo what up homies, this phone is the shizz! Rating:
Reviewed by vernon from New York on
2nd Nov 2009
this is absolutely amazing phone...had omnia hd for quite some time
and got this as the gift from my uncle; believe me the os is much
intuitive and easy to use then the symbian one on omnia hd. As far
as the camera performance goes, honestly the hd video resolution
didn't really convinced me since the video were quite jerky and
the video size would ballon to several hundred MBs even for few
minutes recording... the music quality is amazing and it seems quite
much more pocketable then the ommia hd. Battery lasts quite better
then the hd. So far i am utterly pleased with every aspect of this
phone. Much better then nokia n97 for sure... Rating:
Reviewed by shaid from uk on
1st Nov 2009
excellent phone, responsive compared to all touch screen phones.
Video quality is excellent. Beware of one downfall, if you use your
headset often do not get this phone. Volume on headset is so low
you can barely hear it. Have checked with suppliers and tried different
phones and headsets they are all the same. but do not let this deter
you from what i think is the best phone i have ever had Rating:
Reviewed by hmmm from englan on
1st Nov 2009
jus lov dis fone.......... win mobile 6.5 is the best thing in the
world right now for sure...with symbian getting old and android
catching up you r sure not to miss anything else with this platform...
thankyou samsung , this is the best foneeee Rating:
Reviewed by Fred from Luxembourg on
29th Oct 2009
Brilliant phone, works exactly the way you always wanted a phone
to work. Crystal clear screen, all the buttons in the right place.
Fits into an iPhone leather pouch. Customise how you want it to
look and operate. Loved it from the moment it was switched on. Battery
lasts for ages - low SAR. Set up and Sync'd with Exchange Server
2008 in less than 10 minutes wired or over the air. Great !!! Rating:
Reviewed by malc from UK on 28th
Oct 2009
Fantastic phone. No problems at all, no freezing, crashing or anything
negative. Screen is amazingly clear and phone is amazingly fast.
youtube etc is no problem at all viewed on this phone. All in all
i am very happy with the phone and would recommend to anyone. Also
looks amazingly cool too. Rating:
Reviewed by Jo from oz on 19th
Oct 2009
WICKEDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD Rating:
Reviewed by andy pull from uk on
9th Oct 2009
This phone is awsome ive had a omina i900 before and upgraded to
this baby its bigger faster.the screen is so clear compared to old
omina a 5mp camara and auto focus.the screen is much easier to use
than the i900 as sometimes the scree was delayed might have been
the windows 6.1.this has 6.5 and is way better.it also recors in
vers slow mode or in hd video format which is very good indeed.ive
dowloaded about 20 apps already most of them free it has an apps
store hope ive helped you out :) Rating:
