Verizon's Samsung Omnia Rated 3.5 out of 5 by Wireless and Mobile News Review of Reviews
The Verizon Samsung Omnia is a full haptic touchscreen Windows Mobile Professional smartphone with lots of features including 3G access, push email, GPS, Microsoft document editing, multimedia player, 5 megapixel camera, video recorder and Wi-Fi.
Reviews were mixed over the addition of the Samsung TouchWiz widget on top of the Windows Mobile interface on the Samsung Omnia. Because it is a touchscreen smartphone, the user has to adapt to the interface. You can use a stylus for functions, but there is no holder to keep the stylus in the Samsung Omnia.
Two reviewers noted the outstanding quality of the camera and concluded that the Samsung Omnia was a tad faster and better choice than the BlackBerry Storm smartphone. While the Samsung Omnia screen is not as brilliant than the BlackBerry Storm screen.
All reviewers thought the call quality was excellent with one commenting it was close to landline-quality. The Samsung Omnia comes with 8 gigabytes of storage and you can add a 16 gigabyte microSD card.
This smartphone has been very popular and Samsung announced at Mobile World Congress that they will be making a Samsung Omnia HD which may be why Verizon dropped the price of the Samsung Omnia to $99 when you use the Wireless Mobile News' direct coupon-link Instant Phone Rebate Only Available with Online Purchase. That's a lot of phone for a little money. Wirefly has also lowered its price for the Samsung Omnia which costs $99 for new customers with a contract and free FedEx shipping. Don't forget, Wirefly also offers on all cell phone purchases or upgrades a free Bluetooth headset phone purchase or upgrade. Use coupon WIREFLYBT23 at checkout, offer expires March 31.
Bonnie Cha at CNET rated the Samsung Omnia 3.5 out of 5 for its spacious touchscreen with haptic feedback, accelerometer, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, and 5 megapixel camera. She thought the onscreen keyboard was cramped, and the processor was sluggish. She found it faster and more satisfying than the BlackBerry Storm. The 3.2 inch display is eye-catching but not as sharp as the BlackBerry Storm. The TouchWiz interface allows for a customized home screen. You are limited to the Samsung Omnia widgets only. It comes with a stylus. Wi-Fi access is faster than the EV-DO Rev A. Photo quality was excellent. Call quality was good while ths speaker phone did not work well.
In December 2008,Sascha Segan at PCMag rated the Samsung Omnia 3.5 out 5 and called it Verizon’s best camera phone and a of solid touchscreen smartphone. It does not use a standard headphone jack but comes with an adapter. He foudn the TouchWiz interace easy-to-use and more powerfu. The Opera mini broswer had more fidelity than IE. Tapping and screen touching was unreliable. It has touchscreen and acclerometer issues. The camera’s LED flash is not that strong but photos were sitll good and video was jaggy. Call quality was unusually good and it has voice dialing. There’s an FM radio and music player. He concludes it is the “best Verizon phone for photos, video recording and web browsing.
Steware Wolpin rated the Samsung Omnia 4 out 5 although he liked the camera, GPS, Wi-Fi, push e-mail, multimedia player, 8GB of built-in storage, he thought the TouchWiz ruined Windows Mobile Professional. Since there is no holder for the stylus it is easy to loose. He found the touchscreen and acclerometer responsive. The browser was speedy for 3G and Wi-Fi. You can edit MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents. He thought the photos were dull. Call quality was close to landline quality.He found the Samsung Omnia to be marginally better than the BlackBerry Storm.