The Samsung i8910 Omnia HD smartphone has won the ‘European Camera Phone 2009-2010’ award from EISA (European Imaging and Sound Association). Apart from the camera, EISA also has awards for best music phone, business phone, smartphone and Personal Media Player.

As one of the first mobile handsets to offer HD video recording, it’s perhaps no surprise to see the i8910 winning. Especially when combined with its 8MP camera that offers a number of scene modes (including the fantastic panoramic option). However, given its capabilities as a multimedia device, you could give a sound argument for the i8910 HD winning PMP of the year too!

We only recently upgraded our i8910 Omnia HD to the newer IG2 firmware. We didn’t upgrade as soon as we got the handset as we wanted to find out about the limitations of the current firmware before moving on. One of these limitations was AMR audio when recording video. The newer IG2 firmware upgrades this to AAC audio with a higher sampling rate.

To determine what the real-world difference might be, we shot a couple of videos using near-enough identical shooting conditions. We used one of my child’s toys, the singing lobster, to try and show off any improvements using IG2. You can check out both 30-second videos below , to hear the difference. Read the rest of this entry »

As an Omnia HD Ambassador, we have been tasked with a couple of missions to showcase various aspects of the handset. The first mission was entitled “A kaleidoscope of colours”. As you can probably guess, this particular task involved creating a video that contrasts the “colours in ordinary life and looks at the significance of colour”.

The criteria was quite open, which left me a bit stumped as to what idea to choose. I ruled out parks/beaches early on as I felt that most people would be thinking along the same lines. As a father of two young kids, my inspiration hit me pretty quickly.

I decided to use some of my kids toys. Most of them have quite bright and bold colours, which I thought would be perfect for a short video. I also submitted another video that simply follows a bright, colourful parrot wondering around its cage. You can see both of these attempts after the break. It’s by no means perfect, but hopefully gets the message across.

We should highlight that the videos were recorded in high-definition (1280 x 720) using I8910XXIF7 firmware. This is the firmware that shipped with the handset and uses AMR audio. As you can probably tell it doesn’t sound great at all. We will be upgrading to the newer ‘IG2’ shortly, but wanted to find out the limitations of the older firmware first! You’ll also probably notice dropped frames in the video, most noticeable when panning. Hopefully, this is something Samsung will be able to iron out in future firmware releases. Read the rest of this entry »

This is the firmware fix that everyone’s been waiting for. Samsung Italy has announced that a new firmware update has been released that enables AAC audio when video recording. The I8910XXIG2 update promises to replace the poor quality AMR audio with AAC when video recording at 720p HD resolutions. Whilst the AAC-fix is only included for HD video recording, hopefully the lower resolutions (D1, VGA) will get the same fix in future firmware updates. The update also adds a couple of games (Poker and Brain Challenge).

Before you all rush off to update your firmware, it’s worth noting that you will need Italian firmware on your phone before attempting the update. You will also need PC Studio 7 and you need to make sure that the sim-card is inside the phone when attempting the upgrade.

We haven’t seen an official changelog yet, but will keep you updated as soon as we do. There’s no news when other regions will get the update, but hopefully it can’t be too far away. There are already a number of YouTube videos from Italian users who are giving examples of the new audio fix. Check out one such example after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

For those of you, who may be wondering how the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD’s camera compares against other high-profile handsets on the market, What Mobile has conducted a group camera test shoot-out.

It has taken photos from a number of handsets including the LG Viewty Smart, Sony Ericsson W995 and the Nokia N97. All of these phones are 8MP cameras apart from the N97, which has a 5MP sensor. The pictures look reasonably close, although the i8910 HD definitely excels over the others in low-light. You can check out the photo gallery test here.

Following on from our last post regarding Centrinos super pictures of the i8910 Omnia HD handset, he has some super macro shots taken by the phone to share.

These pictures really show what the i8910 HD’s camera is capable of. There’s no doubt that Centrinos knows a thing or two about photography, but even still I’m impressed in the quality of the pictures. Click through for some macro photos samples after the break. Read the rest of this entry »

The AMR audio issue when video recording is one of the biggest criticisms the smartphone faces. Whilst it appears that AAC audio will not be an option (for HD video at least) in future updates, the question then becomes, just how bad is the audio?

The video (attached after the jump) shows a user trying to give us an idea. He uses the TV as a source and moves to and fro while keeping the TV volume constant. Judging by the video, whilst it sounds worse than my Nokia N82, it certainly doesn’t seem terrible.

I can understand the reasons why Samsung has used the AMR-NB codec for HD video recording, especially considering the amount of data the OMAP3 chip has to process. However, I really can’t understand why AAC audio for VGA video isn’t a possibility. Let’s hope Samsung listens to its customers on this one. 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 »

The Samsung i8910 Omnia HD’s 8MP camera has largely been overshadowed by the HD video recording. It uses the same sensor found in the Samsung i8510, regarded by some as one of the best camera phones on the market. As with other Samsung camera-phones, there are a whole range of camera application settings and features. This includes manual camera controls and being able to adjust ISO settings.

The final retail version of the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD differs from the prototype in that the maximum ISO setting for the camera was reduced from 3200 to 1600. To be honest, I’m not so sure how useful a 3200 ISO setting would have been anyway, given the amount of noise it would exhibit.

Anyway, the first photo samples through the 50-1600 ISO range have appeared courtesy of Raikiri from the OCUK Forums. Looking through the photos, there is distinctly more noise on the ISO 1600 setting compared to ISO 800 (look at the wall on the left-hand side for an idea). It will be interesting to see how these noise levels compare to other camera phones. Check out all of the photos after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Do you remember that cool trick video released a month back, which was shot on the Omnia HD and apparently showed the i8910 Omnia HD disappearing? It was certainly a novel marketing idea from Samsung and got everyone talking. Well, Samsung has now revealed how they went about doing it in another video that we’ve attached after the jump.

Watching it shows the lengths that Samsung went to make it as authentic as possible. Despite this, there were some key giveaways in the video. I won’t spoil it for you if you still haven’t figured it out, but it’s well worth a watch, even if you did work it out. Read the rest of this entry »

In a sign that highlights that its review is imminent, GSM Arena has just released five HD video samples on YouTube. Each 720p video @24fps is very short (less than 20 seconds), but for some reason the sound is muffled in each. Indeed, the description attached to each video says that the “sound is distorted,” but gives no reason why this may be. Whether this is down to the AMR audio codec or something else completely, we can only guess for now, but hopefully it will be fully explained in GSM Arena’s review. I have attached the videos after the break (make sure you click the ‘HD’ button on the YouTube player to watch in high-def). Read the rest of this entry »

There has been much debate as to what audio codec the Omnia HD will use when shooting video footage. In a move that is likely to disappoint some users, Samsung has officially confirmed that the Omnia HD will use the low-quality AMR Narrow Band codec at 8000Hz 16 bit 2 channel 12.8 Kbps bit rate.

It seems that the main reason behind the move is to not stress the ARM CPU too heavily when recording HD video. Given the amount of data to process, it was felt that AMR offers the best quality solution when taking both points into consideration. The AMR codec is also optimised for speech coding, which Samsung claims is a better choice for the human voice.

I wonder whether Samsung may include higher sound quality support in a later firmware update, although judging by the official response, it seems that they have already considered the options, with AMR offering the best trade-off for video performance. Additionally, this is the same codec used in the Samsung i8510 INNOV8 and there’s been no firmware update offering a codec better than AMR so far.

This is disappointing news. What we will now have is HD video married with sub-standard sound quality. I’m reserving judgement until I get my hands on one, but given that audio recording was one of the few negative points seen with the Samsung i8510, I’m surprised that Samsung has taken this route again with the i8910 Omnia HD.

Thanks bec!

The Samsung i8910 Omnia HD brings so many high-end features to the table including HD video recording, AMOLED screen and superb video playback that it’s understandable that other features have been given less attention by the press. Three areas in which I’m looking to find out a lot more about as the phone nears release is the camera side, GPS functionality as well as battery life.

Italian site, HDBlog.it has helped with the first part by taking some photo samples and comparing it to two other Symbian phones, the Nokia N95 as well as the Samsung i8510 (INNOV8). The comparison against the N95 may be a little unfair given that it has a 5MP camera compared to the 8MP sensor found in the Omnia HD. The comparison against the i8510 is an interesting one though as they both use the same sensor. We’ve included a few sample comparisons after the jump but check out the HDBlog.it for the full set (here & here). Read the rest of this entry »

We already know that the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD will support video-out functionality through DNLA, however we have now learned that SD video output will be supported through the phones 3.5mm socket too. The video below demonstrates this functionality in action.

If you skip to the middle of the video, you can clearly see the girl holding the Omnia HD with a TV-out cable coming out from the 3.5mm jack. As the person taking the video pans around, you can see the phones video output on the television screen. The person who uploaded the video has confirmed that the 3.5mm headphone jack was used for TV-out.

Viewing HD video on a TV normally involves using a HDMI cable, however Samsung is promoting the DNLA (Digital Network Living Alliance) standard as a way to stream HD videos over a Wi-Fi connection to compatible televisions. The problem is that DNLA is not commonly used, so unless you have a DNLA-compatible TV then you may have problems. Also the strength of your wireless connection may determine how successful you are in using DNLA, especially given the bandwidth required for HD video.

This is great news for those that may struggle to get DNLA working. It’s worth mentioning though, that whilst you can stream HD videos wirelessly through DNLA, you will only get VGA support through the 3.5mm jack. Check out the video after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »