If there is one point that has been consistently mentioned across i8910 Omnia HD previews and reviews, is how tall the phone is. If you are wondering whether the phone may be too tall for you, then you should head over to Pective.

Pective is a website that displays the actual size of any item right on your monitor. All you have to do is specify your monitor size, and Pective will display the image life-size! The Samsung i8910 Omnia HD has now been added to their database, so click here to find out its true size. I’d be interested to find out whether current owners feel that the Pective measurements are accurate. Sound off in the comments below or in the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD forum.

Whilst we have been focused on the sim-free i8910 Omnia HD release in the UK, it looks like it has already quietly launched in Italy. A few people have already managed to get hold of the 8GB i8910 with pricing around the €499 mark (cheaper than the UK, Play.com has it for £529.99). The phone should be available from a number of Italian retailers including Euronics, Monclick and MediaWorld.

One of the users of the HWUpgrade.it forum has posted some unboxing pictures of the sim-free version. The pictures are not the clearest having been taken on a mobile phone. Interestingly, there seems to be no key-ring stand that is included in the Orange i8910 HD. All of the pictures are attached after the break. If anything, hopefully this news means that the sim-free version should start to appear in other regions very soon. Read the rest of this entry »

Symbian Freak has published a short user preview of the i8910 Omnia HD. They come up with some interesting points that I hadn’t heard before. The user talks about having to double tap to register menu options while a single tap suffices for icon options, which takes some getting used to. There is also apparently an issue with bad EXIF information on photos. The timestamp on the photos are 1 hour behind the phone clock and the GPS information gives wrong readings for the longitude measurement.

On the positive side, the battery cover is found to be more sturdy than previously reported, the video flash support is excellent, the capacitive screen is one of the best seen and nearly as sensitive as the iPod touch and the video recording is also very good (despite the poor audio). He was using an Orange branded handset. Check out the key points after the break. Read the rest of this entry »

For those of you that are contemplating buying the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD smartphone, it is worth checking out the following promo videos. The four videos go through a number of the phones features such as adding widgets, recording video, taking various types of camera shots, blogging apps as well as GPS.

Even for those of you that have just got hold of the phone, it’s probably worth checking out, as you might come across something you weren’t aware of. You can tell that the videos have been professionally made by Samsung and give clear and concise instructions for each tutorial (as well as having accompanying text). Check out the videos after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

A number of people in the UK are now getting hands-on with the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD and posting their impressions. I still haven’t seen an unboxing video from anyone so far, but I’m sure it can’t be too long. However, I have posted a video below which shows some initial impressions of a user with an Orange branded handset. The video is titled ‘Unboxing’ but the video only starts once everything is already out of the box!

It’s not the clearest video out there, it’s shot in low-light with a LG Viewty phone which means it’s not always in focus. However, it gives you a good idea as to what’s in the box (including the little stand). The phone does look pretty big when compared to the LG Viewty, but saying that he seems to be able to navigate the phone reasonably easily. He finds the touchscreen quite responsive although not as sensitive as the iPhone. He also goes through the ports, UI, widgets, compass and camera. Check out the video after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

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.” Read the rest of this entry »

We already reported on phoneArena’s review of the Samsung Omnia HD a few days back. It seems that they have now also put up a video review of the phone. The views of their original text review remain, but this 9 minute video goes through the Omnia HD features in depth.

They take us through the software, cropping photos, scrolling on the internet browser, the camera interface, photo samples, the music player and HD video playback. They also show the phone close up and just how much of a fingerprint magnet that plastic casing really is! Remember, phoneArena has the final production Omnia HD, so what you see in the video is what we’ll see in shops soon. Check out the video after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Italian site, CellulareMagazine.it, has posted a video of their hands-on experience with the Samsung Omnia HD. Watching the phone in action, one thing becomes quite apparent, the UI is very fast. It is speedy both in responsiveness to touch and when flicking through the menu. Given that this is a pre-production model, it can only bode well for the final version.

The different modes of text input were also demonstrated. Whilst the Qwerty keyboard seems perfectly acceptable, I can imagine the handwriting mode to be quite cumbersome given that it is done letter-by-letter. The widgets also seem to be quite intuitive allowing drag-and-drop within the different modes.

One bit of information that certainly piqued my interest was that he claimed the phone will cost just €499 (£440/$650) on its own or €599 (£530/$775) with Route66 bundled in. This seems at the lower end of prices seen so far, but if true, I certainly won’t be complaining. Check out the video after the break. Read the rest of this entry »

All About Symbian has posted the last part of a three part preview on the Omnia HD. In the first preview, AAS discussed the general design and hardware. In the second, they went through all parts related to the imaging (camera and HD video) side. The last part covers the software elements of the phone such as GPS, web, Touchwiz as well as overall conclusions.

This preview seems to be the longest out of all three. It goes through the individual applications to quite some depth. Some (crucial) parts were untested like GPS, but will be covered in the final review. Click through for a summary on the key points. Read the rest of this entry »

We recently posted a video comparison between the Omnia HD against the iPhone and original Omnia. The video was taken indoors and there was no doubt that the Omnia HD was the clear winner in terms of screen. Now following that video, we have come across another, this time comparing the Omnia HD vs. iPhone in direct sunlight.

OLED screens have many advantages over traditional TFT displays. This includes reduced power consumption, better contrast ratio, better viewing angles, greater colours on the screen at one time, as well as a brighter screen for the same amount of power.

However, it does have one disadvantage and that it is poor legibility in direct sunlight. This comes across in the video below, which shows that the iPhone screen can clearly be read much more clearly than the Omnia HD. This may be an issue for example when taking photos out in the sun. Personally, it’s not a deal breaker for me. Apart from the fact that it’s never that sunny here in the UK, I would still prefer the longer battery life offered by the OLED screen as well as the brilliant colours & contrast when used in indirect sunlight/outdoors. Read the rest of this entry »

I have just come across this interesting hands-on video comparing the Omnia HD against the original Omnia and the iPhone 3G. Seeing all three side-by-side shows just how vibrant the Omnia HD’s screen is compared to the other two. We all know, of course, how nice the iPhone screen is, but even that pales into comparison. The Omnia is a distinct third here, with a weak display compared to the other two.

When playing with the Omnia HD, you can see just how responsive the screen is to touch and I’m not sure I saw one failed touch action. At 2 minutes 35 seconds in the video he switches the Omnia HD on and it takes roughly 32 seconds before we see the Samsung interface screen. For those interested in video playback, check out the video from 6 minutes 34 seconds. It really does seem a highlight of the phone with some very smooth playback.

The benefits of the OLED screen can be seen when showing just how extreme the viewing angles. Even when the phone is nearly perpendicular to the camera you can still make out the action on the screen. Truly fantastic stuff. The Touchwiz widget interface can also be seen from 9 minutes. There is no commentary on the video but is quite clear to follow. Check it out after the break. Read the rest of this entry »

Yippee! Finally, we have someone else who has had a look at the OmniaHD. We were posting so many impressions on the Omnia HD from All About Symbian (AAS) that some have mistakenly thought we were an affiliate site! Anyway, phoneArena have managed to get hands-on with a prototype unit and came away impressed. They believe the device may raise the ball-game for phones at this level and could put some of its rivals in hot water.

From reading their preview, there were a few things that stick out. Firstly, it seems that the unit they played with did not have a camera lens cover (I have attached a large picture after the break that puts this beyond doubt). Now I know that AAS said that the final retail unit will not feature a lens cover, but I’m still secretly hoping Samsung change their minds. For such a high-end imaging device and for the cost involved, I would not want to see dust getting into the lens.

Secondly, it looks like that back of the phone will be glossy plastic. So unfortunately it will probably be a fingerprint magnet. Like AAS, phoneArena were very impressed with the video playback (especially on that 3.7-inch screen) with it playing a number of plays smoothly and without problems. This is one area of the phone that has me very excited. I detest converting my video files so to play these files natively on the Omnia HD would be ideal.

On the video recording side they found that it did skip and stutter when recording in HD. The same thing happened with AAS, so I’m hoping this will be fixed in the final release. The software for the 8MP camera was found to be fast and easy to use. The preview also has some sample videos and photos (including 360 degree flash) of the device which are worth checking out. I have attached the summary points from the preview after the break (including their thoughts on the software side). Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

Once again, All About Symbian seems to be one of the few sites actually giving us any updates on the Omnia HD. This time round they have the first of a three part preview on the phone discussing the general design and hardware. Some of the points we found most interesting is a quoted battery time of 4.3 hours when watching HD video, easily enough time to watch a whole film. Also, AAS are talking about a late-April release, whereas I thought it would be a late May release. It is quite lengthy preview and we’ve posted some of the key points after the break. Read the rest of this entry »

We have already posted about All About Symbian’s play with final hardware. I thought that I would give you a quick heads-up regarding a video that AAS have posted from the same hands on. We get to see the phone and UI in action and is well worth the six-minute runtime. Check out the video after the break. Read the rest of this entry »