The Samsung Omnia II i8000

Further enhancing the reputation of Samsung as a manufacturer of high quality, top featured mobile phones, we find ourselves gazing in awe and admiration at the Samsung i8000 Omnia II. Mobile users can be easily slotted into distinct user groups, and here at Right Mobile Phone we are firmly camped in the power house smartphone appreciation society. And right now, we think we have found the next handset that is destined to help us part with our hard earned money, the Samsung i8000 Omnia II. Looking through the spec list for the device is like reading the dream wish list for all smart phone users; it is hard to see how Samsung could ever manage to top this handset.

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Samsung i8000 Omnia 2 reviews

With so many top end features, it is hard to know where to start. So, in time honoured tradition, we are going to work our way through the aesthetic look and design and then work our way through the impressive features, step by step. The overall look of the Omnia II is reminiscent of many recent Touch enabled products from Samsung. A huge, gorgeous looking AMOLED screen dominates the front of the phone, with a send/end key at the bottom, either side of the cube styled menu key. Measuring 118 x 59.6 x 11.9mm, the Omnia II weighs in at a very acceptable 117g.

The main display is full touchscreen, an Advanced Resistive screen with a resolution of 480 x 800, supporting up to 65,000 colours and measuring 3.7 inches across. An accelerometer is included on the phone for auto screen rotation, and being a resistive touchscreen means it will work with a stylus, and so you can use handwriting recognition for data entry, too. The operating system on the handset is Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, which can be upgraded to the newer Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional when it becomes available. The user interface on the device is the highly intuitive TouchWiz 2.0, taking away all the pain and labour usually associated with Windows Mobile devices.

The Omnia II includes a high quality 5.0 Megapixel camera, with autofocus and Dual Power LED flash. As we have now come to expect on top end imaging devices, the Omnia II camera includes many options for improving the quality of captured images, including smile and face detection, allowing you to get the very best out of your portrait snaps. Thanks to the built in GPS receiver, you can Geotag images with location information, which you can choose to share with friends and family when you upload the pics online. The camera isn’t just a high quality imaging device, as it can also record quality video at a resolution of up to 720 x 480, at 30 fps.

Connecting to the web is a breeze with the Omnia II. On board support is included for all popular connection options. 3.5G HSDPA is available, up to 7.2 Mbps, as is HSUPA for uploads, at up to 5.76 Mbps. WiFi is included, and it is all backed up with GPRS class 10, EDGE class 10 and HSCSD. Quad Band GSM allows for seamless international roaming, and there is also Bluetooth 2.0, for wireless file transfers and stereo audio streaming. The web browser on the handset is the excellent Opera for Mobile 9.5, which renders most websites clearly and precisely on the large screen.

Messaging is ably dealt with. The Omnia II can support multiple email accounts, and allows you to access instant messaging. SMS is presented in a threaded view, making it easier to follow text conversations.

But the Omnia is about more than just work, with a fully featured media player also included. The multiple files supported read like a who’s who of the digital files world. On the music side we find the ever present MP3, with AAC, eAAC+, WMA and also support for DRM protected WMA files. On the video player the phone can easily support DivX, XviD, MPEG4 and WMV. Video playback particularly looks great on the crisp AMOLED screen.

With so much media support, memory space is at a premium. After all, with all that media power you would want to store videos and music on the phone. There is no need to worry with the Omnia II, though, as the device will ship in three variants, with either 2GB, 8GB or 16GB of internal memory available, with the option to expand this by another 16GB with a MicroSD memory card, potentially offering up to 32GB of storage space.

The i8000 Omnia II is not just any old phone; if any handset can make a claim to being king of the multimedia smartphones, then the Omnia II sits right at the top of the pack. It is hard to see any weaknesses in this device, with quality just oozing out of every feature. If there is ever one part that lets down a high powered smartphone, then it would be the battery. Yet, even here the Omnia II steps up to the plate, with the inclusion of a high powered 1500 mAh Lithium Ion battery.

Samsung, it seems, have thought of everything on the i8000 Omnia II, no official date or price details from Samsung as yet, watch this space.