After using the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD for over a month now, I’m still having some mixed feeling about the phone. At one hand, the specs and features are awesome but one the other hand, the S60 platform kind of ruined the experience a bit. Let me share with you my thoughts in this review.
The Samsung Omnia HD looks gorgeous — really large screen, slim and sleek. The capacitive touchscreen itself is pretty good with enough sensitivity so you don’t often re-tap on icons and widgets. Scrolling is smooth as well (except when using the browser) and seems pretty close to the responsiveness of the iPhone 3G. See more photos here and complete specs here.
The 3.7″ 640×360-pixel real estate, one of the largest I’ve seen on a smartphone, makes for watching videos very enjoyable. I loaded up a couple of DivX files and they played smoothly with the display crisp and bright even at an angle.
I bumped into a bug though — some of the DivX videos would not show up on vertical orientation but would play just fine in horizontal (scaling problem, perhaps?).
Samsung used the Symbian S60 platform here but added the TouchWiz UI as well so aside from the familiar interface of the S60, you also get some added navigational menus like the sliding bar at the left where you can pull up widgets. There’s also a floating bar on top which gives you 3 layers of desktop-like display. Checkout the screenshots below.
The 8-megapixel camera takes great pictures, especially hidef (720p @ 24fps) videos. The built-in flash is bright enough to be able to lit objects within 2 meters from the camera. Close-up shots, like the one below, show some decent depth of field.
(Click to download the original images; 2.64MB each.)
The i8910 has quite a number of storage, both built-in and external — 58MB NAND Flash, 148MB RAM, 8MB ROM, 8GB internal memory card, up to 32GB external memory card (microSD). With the 16GB model and a 32GB external microSD card, you can rack up to 48GB of storage on this phone.
Web browsing via WiFi or 3G/HSDPA is fairly fast although the built-in browser is a bit cumbersome to use.
The battery is rated at only 1000mAh and would normally last about 2 days on regular use but it gets easily drained when you play videos/music or browse the net using WiFi or 3G (the commercial units are reported at 1500mAh).
Some nice additions:
Digital Compass – something the G2 and the iPhone 3GS also have. Not really that usefull unless you’re the hiking-type of person.
Smart Card Reader – scan a business/calling card with the camera and it automatically recognizes the information (name, phone, email, webiste, etc.) and stores it on the phone. Pretty accurate at around 80 – 90% character recognition.
LBS Services – Samsung included a number of location-based services in the unit to make good use of the GPS/AGPS features.
The Samsung i8910 has all you’d ever wanted for a multimedia phone and more. However, despite the powerful engine under the hood, it feels like the S60 platform is still somewhat slow and laggy at times, giving you an impression that it’s underpowered. We first saw this S60 5th Edition platform with the Nokia 5800XM but since that one had a slower CPU, smaller screen and uses resistive touchscreen, the Samsung i8910 beats it in almost all aspect.
Since the handset I am using is an engineering/prototype unit, some of the bugs/kinks might have been fixed or improved on the commercial release.
I did a comparative chart of features pitting the Samsung i8910 HD against the iPhone 3GS, Nokia N97, LG Arena and the HTC Magic here earlier and the i8910 got top marks. It’s not cheap though — expect to shell out Php32,000 for the 8GB model and Php36,000 for the 16GB model.
SAMSUNG’s I8910 HD leaves nothing to be desired. It shoots video in full HD and photos with 8MP. The world’s largest AMOLED display at 3.7″ is your own personal movie screen that auto rotates. That along with high-speed web access, there’s no reason to leave work or play for later on. Add to that up to 16GB of built-in memory and we’re sure you’ll find plenty of ways to use it ─ 35 movies, 12,000 MP3 songs or 18,000 photos.
Hope this info leads you to the find SAMSUNG’s I8910 HD..=)
Ponce Bldg., Araneta St., Bacolod City Bacolod City, Negros Occidental
phone: 4323090
A. MEGA CELLULAR NETWORK INC.
Manila Manila, Metro Manila
email:
phone: (2) 5231633
fax:
B. TOPWIN TELECOMS
Cash and Carry Southsuperhighway, Makati City Manila, Metro Manila
email:
phone: (2) 8190225
fax:
may i know watz the price of that omnia fon plzzzz?
hope ul find S3500 mobile phone price and ES17 digital camera plszzz….
the i8910 8 gb sells for 31000 at all samsung dealers and the 16 gb sells for 33290. these phones are on promo and comes with free phones plus free discount coupons concerts and other stuffs. the promo will only run until the end of this month
I’ll still go for the blackberry storm 2.
hey guyz.. im planning to buy this phone.. where can i find one here in davao city?? how much is the price tag here in davao?? if you have info.. pls email me at my e.add. ‘cloudz_str@yahoo.com’
tnx!
good day/night to all! hehehe
im getting this phone this month i hope it wont be laggy like my n95. too bad i gave up on buying ps3 just to get this phone
how do you configure the gprs/mms/internet of i8910 hd for globe users. this mobile phone is not yet on the list of globe
Twitter: south parc
says:
this is an interesting alternative to the 3GS. is it still priced at PhP 31k as posted above in Nov ’09?
Hi! Is this 18910 hd compatible with N wireless router? or 802.11 b/g/n? thanks…
Saw this site please confirm if true
http://www.cmkcellphones.com/samsunglink.html
8 Gig P25,800
16gig P27,400
I have visited Mega Mall and inquire how much the SAMSUNG’s I8910 HD(8gig, 16gig,32gig). Gush!!! it’s P31,000.
Love this phone. I have it.. i love the features.. it’s truly one of the best multimedia mobile phone out there.. with good 8mp quality images plus the HD recording i’m loving this precious phone
hi! ask ko lng sa mga may hd phone, ala b kau napansin n problem s fon during video recording? i already bought the 16gb,when i tried video recording npansin ko na may gray lines na umaalon pataas sa screen. nung na-save ko n yung video at i-play, lumabas rin ung gray lines n nkita ko during recording. normal lng ba yun s hd? pinapalitan ko kc s store n binilihan ko pero sinasabi nila n ganun daw tlga un.
wait ko mga sagot nyo, thanks
hi Roselle,
How much did you get your phone and where did you buy it?
Cheers!
i guess that is normal. ung akin nga may napapansin akong tatlong white dots.. a very tiny lang though malinis naman ung lens nya…
Nice SmartPhone. Very Awesome specifications and features. I like to buy this phone as replace for my N5530 XM. Because, I’m a CamWhore and it has only 3.2 MP. Very Sucking and yes, I will study to hard to have this SmartPhone. Nice, uh? (:
how much is the i8910 omnia hd phone? my plan me kc bili eh… mas ok ata ito kysa iphone, correct me if im wrong..hehehe gs2 me un mga features nia.. ope makabili na ako. pls… email nyo naman price nia..tenx….
Hi Shyril,
I wanted to send you a private message but I guess you overlooked placing your email address.
Anyhoo, I hope Abe does not mind me posting this here.
I’m selling my two-week old i8910 for Php26,000. Excellent condition. I only used it as test phone to see performance. Brand new units cost 27 to 31,000 depending on where you buy it.
Email me if interested. Thanks!
GUYS IM MARK INFANTE I WORK IN AYALAND YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN BUYING AYALALAND PROPERTIES PLEASE DO CONTACT ME IN MY EMAIL alveo_infante@yahoo.com or in my mobile 09194068710 thanks
how to use my unli surfing on phone
[...] The last handset made by Samsung that runs on Symbian was way back in February of 2009 and the only time I saw one was with the Omnia HD i8910. [...]
how much ba tong phone na 2 ngaun?? malakas ba speaker ni2??