When we posted some HD video samples from GSM Arena earlier today, we speculated that a review was probably imminent. Well as it turns out, what we have is a second preview of the i8910 Omnia HD from GSM Arena instead. Here they take a newer version of the Omnia HD for a test drive, although to be clear this is still a pre-release unit. This second preview concentrates more on the UI, Touchwiz and has plenty of video and still camera samples.

Overall impressions continue to be positive, with GSM Arena saying that the Omnia HD is a standard setter when it comes to its multimedia skills. It also sees the HD video recording as a major plus point (despite the audio issues). The fact that Samsung has also worked hard on its user interface (UI) is the icing on the cake.

Having read the preview in full, I’m really excited to see the battery life living up to Samsung’s battery claims. During a video loopback test on maximum brightness they managed to squeeze 5 hours and 30 minutes out of the 1500mAh battery. That is frankly incredible. The camera was also found to be one of the best seen on a phone, with colour-rendering spot on and no visible defects of any kind. It’s also good to hear that video recording lived up to their (high) expectations.

However, a few things concern me. When I posted about the HD video samples from earlier today, the audio was distorted. Whilst I was hoping for some kind of explanation for this, it seems that GSM Arena is just as stumped. They did say that this wasn’t a problem in the early prototype and believes Samsung will fix the issue before it hits retail.

Also, the YouTube videos did look quite choppy but this was down to the way YouTube encodes videos. I downloaded the video sample which has not been recompressed and this did not suffer from choppiness. Although, annoyingly, my media player of choice, VLC, reminded me that SAMR audio is not supported.

GSM Arena is also claiming that their unit had 128MB of RAM, however the earlier versions of the phone came with 256MB. I really hope that we get the full 256MB for the final version as I can imagine it will make a big difference to the overall user experience as well as speedier menus. Check out the key preview points after the break.

Update: The 128MB RAM was a mis-print: “The new Samsung i8910 Omnia HD unit we received actually has 256MB of RAM. It was only the first unit we tested that came with 128MB, which is probably the cause for this misprint.”

Key points from GSM Arena’s Second Preview:

• The display offers amazing picture quality. The resolution of 360 x 640 pixels is not top of the line but the AMOLED technology does make a difference. However, legibility drops dramatically under direct sunlight.
• The keys look almost the same as on the very first unit we had but this time feel better and offer a more solid press.
• The memory card is now hot-swappable (previously it was under the battery). A full 16GB microSD card was tested with no problems. The read/write speed and initialization of a full microSD card was very fast.
• The phone charges off the microUSB port so you can transfer data and charge your battery simultaneously.
• Omnia HD rear is now all glossy plastic, which is a fingerprint magnet, there’s also no camera lens protection. The back cover doesn’t fit firmly in place and will occasionally pop open at the slightest pressure.
• Really good 1500 mAh battery. Got 5 h and 30 min of constant video playback with the screen set at maximum brightness.
• The i8910 is among the largest handsets on the market, even though it’s reasonably slim. Try-before-you-buy is advisable.
• In terms of UI, there is lag at some points but the overall performance is remarkable. The 600 MHz ARM Cortex-A8 CPU and the dedicated graphic chip do a fine job. The Samsung i8910 Omnia HD has 128MB of RAM.
• There are three homescreen – Finger use, Samsung Widget and Basic. The names speak clearly enough of what stands behind them. In fact, you can arrange three completely different homescreens full of widgets. Switching between them is handled by the three small cubes in the top right corner of the screen.
• The menu organization is pretty intuitive and logical, most items located exactly where you would expect them to be. The two virtual soft keys make sure making your way around won’t be any different than a regular S60 phone.
• The accelerometer is now available across various menu levels and autorotation is fairly smooth with a fade out effect.
• The 3.7″ display and the widely spaced stereo speakers make the Samsung Omnia HD a serious competitor to the dedicated portable multimedia player.
• GSMA couldn’t get any HD videos to play on the Omnia HD except for the ones taken by its own camera (hopefully this was a bug with their unit). It cannot play video files larger than 2GB.
• The camera key is comfortable enough to work with and the UI has been altered to provide better touch experience. The range of settings offered by the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD is immense.
• The geotagging of images is also enabled, the i8910 records the location of each photo in the EXIF.
• The image quality is as good as we have seen on a mobile phone. The colour rendering is spot-on, contrast and dynamic range are also great. The best part about the camera is there are no visible defects of any kind.
• The quality of the video clips taken with the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD lives up to the high expectations. The videos have splendid resolution and good frame rate and look almost as if taken with a mid-range camcorder.
• Users can choose between fixed and auto focus for the video.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 11th, 2009 at 11:56 PM and is filed under Hands On. 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.