All About Symbian has posted the second part of a three part preview on the Omnia HD. In the first preview, AAS discussed the general design and hardware. This time round, AAS is taking us through all parts related to the imaging (camera and HD video) and multimedia side. The last part of the preview, published shortly, will cover the other software elements of the phone.

Overall, they found that it was one of the best camera phones on the market. Whilst the HD video recording provides the wow factor for the phone, there still seems to be some issues with audio sync and frame rate dropping. Hopefully, these will be fixed in time for the retail release. The Sharepix service application sounds like it could be a killer app for the phone. It allows videos to be directly uploaded to YouTube straight from the phone as well as other web services. All of this combined with a versatile music and audio software package, makes it one of the best multimedia devices on a Samsung S60 phone.

If you are interested in the phone then we recommend you have a read for yourself. It is a very thorough piece and also includes some sample photos and videos. We have posted the key points of this second preview after the break for the time constrained amongst you.

Key points from AAS Preview Part Two:

• Omnia HD’s sensor is the same as in the Samsung i8510. The Omnia HD is one of best cameraphones on the market.
• The single LED flash felt disappointing and weak compared to some dual LED solutions on market. We would have liked the model to support a xenon flash but that would not have suited the video recording. Why it couldn’t have a dual LED/xenon flash like the Sony Ericsson K850i I don’t know.
• The camera application has been reworked for S60 5th Edition and is optimised for finger touch use. It is intuitive with a clear icon-based layout. The results are impressive.
• The HD 720p video recording definitely gives the phone its wow factor. The tech is a is a massive step up from current mobile phone video capture technology.
• There is some lag after capturing the video, not surprising given the amount of data and processing involved. Whilst the captured video plays back perfectly on the phone, there is audio lag when played back in Quicktime/Windows. It does however play fine in VLC.
• Video playback on the Omnia HD is equally impressive. The large physical size of the screen makes things much easier on the eyes than a typical mobile phone. It handled a variety of test video. All of this video looked and sounded very good indeed, and the device was able to play it back in full screen (or letterbox mode).
• SharePix service application allows you to upload images and video to the web. SharePix’s supported services include Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa, MySpace, Friendster and YouTube.
• Omnia HD screen makes for a fantastic image viewer. The MediaBrowser allows you to move between the images either by tilting the device to the left or right or flicking your finger across the screen.
• APod is a rebranded version of the Podcasting application from Nokia. Aside from the name, it appears to be identical to the version of Podcasting which comes with the Nokia 5800 and N97.
• For music playback, there’s a Samsung ’skinned’ version of the standard S60 music player.
• It also comes with a FM radio (with RDS support), you will need to plug in a set of headphones to act as an aerial.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 at 3:35 PM and is filed under Hands On, Imaging, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.