MWC 2009: The top 7 things we wish we took home

Big round of applause, fade-out to happy ending: the MWC 2009 is now history. We were there and lived to tell the story. And well, there was a lot to tell. Now, we're not cutting the long story short here. We just sat down and went over the things that had us holding our geeky breath. And well, here's what it all boils down to.

We are happy to offer you our Magnificent Seven (no, none of us is that old) or otherwise the Top 7 of mobile phone features and novelties presented at the MWC 2009.

Now, it's not as simple as saying these are the seven best phones of this year's MWC. It's more like the things to remember and look out to, the innovation that moves the industry forward.

This article reflects our personal view as seasoned practitioners in the field. As you may guess, in a fast-paced industry like this one, the wow-factor is as important as it is hard to get right. We like to be wowed and here come the devices that did that.

And before we start, a word of warning is due. Those of you who have been following our MWC 2009 coverage are likely to already know the stuff we are going to focus on in this article.

Samsung Omnia HD video recording

First of, it's the Samsung Omnia HD. The Symbian-powered smartphone walks and talks multimedia and the 720p HD video recording is one of the most impressive features we saw at the MWC 2009.

The Samsung Omnia HD runs on a customized Symbian S60 Touch UI

If you happened to miss it, we even took the baby out for a spin and snapped a handful of sample photos and videos with it. While the video is still jerky at times, the bitrate and the detail is impressive. We hope everything will be fixed by the time the Samsung Omnia HD heads for the stores.

The Samsung Omnia HD camera samples

Here are two video samples for you to check out.

Video 1
Video 2

But you've got to remember that the Omnia HD is not all about imaging and video. This monster of a handset comes with a 3.7" OLED capacitive touchscreen with 16 million colors and resolution of 640 x 360 pixels.

On the connectivity side, the device is just as well equipped, offering Wi-Fi with DLNA, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, a standard microUSB port, 3.5mm audio jack and TV-out. A GPS receiver with A-GPS is aboard, along with the optional Samsung Mobile Navigator by Route66.

The Omnia HD comes in two flavors: with 8 or 16GB of integrated memory, each with a hot-swappable microSD card slot providing up to 16GB of extra storage. The other notable features include DivX/XviD support, accelerometer for screen auto rotate, proximity sensor for auto screen turn-off and FM radio.

Samsung i8910 Omnia HD

Related stuff:

Samsung Omnia HD preview at our office
Samsung Omnia hands-on at MWC 2009