HTC Touch Diamond vs. Samsung i900 Omnia: Head-to-Head

02 July 2008
It’s PocketPC playoffs and HTC are giving Samsung a match at the GSM Arena. With two of the stars of the season arriving in our office all at once, we thought it’s a heck of an opportunity for some Diamond-Omnia-Diamond-Omnia-Diamond-Omnia game-set-match. We got two aces up to the challenge, so sit back and stretch out. Ah well, get that six-pack too and join us for the kick-off...

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  • Y
  • Yinn Cher
  • ib6
  • 15 Aug 2008

hey guys.. i'v decided 2 buy an Omnia and was plannin to get the 16gb version. however the retail person at a Samsung Official store told me that the 16gb version is less stable than the 8gb version. is there any truth to that at all?

    • o
    • omniauser
    • in$
    • 14 Aug 2008

    I have been using the Samsung Omnia for about 3 weeks now and it's really really good. Its battery life lasts about 2 days if I hardly make calls or play with it.
    I bought mine in Singapore and realised Australia has not brought Omnia in yet. So many of my friends have been commenting on how sleek this phone is. A great buy!

      • S
      • Serge
      • p$a
      • 13 Aug 2008

      Who knows whether Omnia supports the other European languages? Thanks

        • V
        • Vegita
        • nH7
        • 12 Aug 2008

        and BTW, iPhone is worst phone ever. Apple knows what marketing is, but that's all. iTunes loves to freeze, quicktime loves to freeze, and you need both on your computer coz you don'T even have a mass storage in your iPhone. Windows mobile 6.0 added near the STABLE activesync the mem card mass storage mode (e.g. HP IPAQ Voice messenger),but iPhone 3g mass storage? nope, INSTABLE iTunes and quicktime instead. Because of a bug, I had to uninstall my quick time recently, coz I couldn't get a SINGLE MP3 from a link in mozilla, and couldn't tell quicktime, that he's not an online player. (But I'm not a fish at computers) And do you remember your first (and last) iPod? You had a single mp3 player before with mass storage, and only 512MB, but you could change data any time any place with totalcommander, and could use it in a mass storage car audio player. But when you got happy coz of the iPod you realised, that it's a write only device! Once you fill with 4gb can't delete, coz there will be an "other" category instead. Apple proudly told us that now we can use formatting to solve this. Mmm, great. And there were lots of preloaded EQ settings in your iPod none is for Headphones (bass and treble + and middle - would required at least one) And have you ever seen a NORMAL smartphone with unremovable battery? How can people belive that a third party application won't make me to use the screwdriver? Even a PC which is improving from decades can't be safe without unpowering facilities. But a 1 year old smartphone? And you know Apple mobile is a 1 year old thing, but windows mobie is since 2002 (moto mpx200 was still stable) And windows is not like the computer windows, they're now not in the monopoly case, they must improve against symbian, linux, and MacMobile, (and maybe AndroidOS which one I can'T understand also [Then who can???]) that's why windows mobile is more trustable then any earlier and later Microsoft PC products.
        Back to the iPhone, I still didn't mention its strangely working bluetooth, and which shows Apple's good marketing is telling 3g as a big upgrade. The new iPhone only knows more with 3g than the previous, which are in the half of the phones in the last 4-5 years. They made bigger words for it then words for the first color displayed phones.
        And for final words, don't even forget Apple has been making phones not for long ago. As all could tell Moto's head off using the same menu in all non-smartphones for 5 years, note that it became a stable menu for nowadays with no bugs and misses. As LG and Nokia and Samsung and SE tries to renew their menues always comes out with missings, and new came bugs. Iphone is a much harder case, coz smartphone can do much more stupid things and a nowaday's phone needs too much function for a new system. That's why some brands couldn't come up, and that's why HTC could come up with being the first only Windows Mobile smartphone manufacturer, as they saw, that people won't belive, that they did the best working phone in that short period of time, and as you can see, Eten, Gigabyte, Toshiba Asus and HP followed their right way.

          • V
          • Vegita
          • nH7
          • 12 Aug 2008

          I was a motofan until it got "disincorporated" by the 3 leading manufacturer brands. I could only accept HTC instead of my motos. Samsung phones are ugly, including Omnia. Megapixel is not a required sumthin over 2. Can you show me a display running larger then 1600x1200? or sheet of paper I can see the loss coz I used an only 3mp camera instead of a 10mp one? And PDA smartphones are not for phototakers, it's for people who love to play solitaire and similar games on the bus or watching South Park on the plane. HTC and Eten woke up: VGA display!!! cheers! I love HTC! Samsung should really learn what design is, they use those 2 ugly colours and designs on 90% of their phones since the d500 which is a 3 or 4 year old phone.

            • d
            • darkboy
            • F4p
            • 11 Aug 2008

            ohoo ya, i think a lot of you ppl dunno tt actually megapixel of the camera is tt really impt when it comes into printout photo, cos anything above 2 megapixel is consider a HD photo, megapixel is only for the veiwing of photo on ur screen tt's it :) so both camera are actually gd quilty printout :) but if u using omnia, the camera respone quite slow :)

              • d
              • darkboy
              • F4p
              • 11 Aug 2008

              hmm, y omnia need a memory card slot? when they already haf a internal 16gb?? cos it wil start to hang when ur memory used up to around 9gb. diamond will stil be a better choice, although bat life might be short, but since is a pda, u always need a extra batt to standby, and dun think batt wil cos u go bankrupt right??

                • l
                • lei
                • Ui$
                • 11 Aug 2008

                arvil, 06 Aug 2008d 1st pack i00 omnia package comes wif original pouch n sty... moredon act like a pro when you're not. samsung is using marvell while htc is using quadcomm. and marvell sucks. whats the use of reading chinese when you cant even write in chinese. luckily, htc gives away free chinese software. =D

                  • O
                  • OMNIA Sucks!
                  • PFM
                  • 10 Aug 2008

                  HTC diamond's touch screen response is slow but much better in design and interface. Samsung's touch interface is one generation behind that of HTC. In fact, Samsung has much to learn about human engineering.

                  Samsung OMNIA Sucks! and Made international Roaming calls on its own!!!

                  I am sharing my utter dissapointment and disgust at my Samsung Omnia. I have been using OMNIA for 3 weeks. I have found out that my Omnia had gone bonkers and made at least 15 roaming calls on its own when I was away in another country. My phone keys were locked and display was put in sleep mode. These unintended calls were due to the sheer stupidity of the enginnering design which allow my phone to make calls even though it was put in sleep mode and keys locked.

                  I am also extremely pissed off with samsung customer service. I have written many emails to samsung regarding my earlier predicaments with OMNIA and there were many delivery failure messages indicating my emails bounced back. Samsung customer service is really lousy and unprofessional.

                  Some of the other problems with my OMNIA:

                  2. GPS couldn't get a fix and it had hanged many times!

                  3. The phone had hanged many times. Sometimes I also could not open the camera function as it stated that phone memory was not enough (eventhough I had ended all the other tasks and only had 2 pictures in memory!)

                  Finally after many emails, I was given a 1 for 1 exchange. However, the so-called "new" phone also sucks!

                  Among the problems:

                  1. First of all, my main complaint that my previous OMNIA made calls when kept in my pocket with the keys locked and power turned off persisted in the "new" phone. In fact I CAN'T even lock the keys. I have made sure that the End key setting: Lock Device was selected in the Settings for Buttons. However, I am unable to lock the keys! Any accidental pressure on the call button can cause it to start dialling. I am really very disappointed beyond words. I have also yet to get an answer to the charges for the many calls made automatically by my phone while I was overseas previously. Who is gonna settle the bills for all these roaming calls?!!!

                  2. Phone's speaker also has a crackling sound when at high pitch.

                  3. The touchscreen is not sensitive and accurate.

                  4. phone also has no vibration feedback on the touch screen even though I have selected Max vibration feedback!

                  5. phone's camera still has the same bug of "Unable to launch camera due not enough memory". It was my first use of the camera and not even a picture was taken yet!

                  Unless Samsung improves their reliability and customer service, I guess it is better to stick with a reliable brand such as Nokia, Sony Ericsson, O2, etc!

                    • a
                    • arvil
                    • TC}
                    • 06 Aug 2008

                    windmall, 26 Jul 2008**HTC Diamond comes with stylus slot whereas Omnia doesn't.... mored 1st pack i00 omnia package comes wif original pouch n stylus lo.. .its bettr than diamond a lot a lot...
                    another things is,d processor is higher than diamond ah...omnia:624MHz,diamond:528MHz only lo...
                    if really wanna compare, d omnia win a lot

                      • ?
                      • Anonymous
                      • 4A4
                      • 01 Aug 2008

                      http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=115482򽖙

                      i found it people are saying that omnia is using qualcomm gps chipset but don't know if is really a confirmation or not. Still i was really looking forward the omnia using sirf star III gps chipset. If it does use sirf star III, sales would probably increase and out sell iphone and htc diamond.

                        • ?
                        • Anonymous
                        • 4A4
                        • 01 Aug 2008

                        people are saying that samsung i900 omnia is using Qualcomm GPS chipset instead of the Sirf Star III chipset http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=115482򽖙
                        can gsmarena or other people confirm this is true ??

                          • ?
                          • Anonymous
                          • xXU
                          • 30 Jul 2008

                          I think the reason its taking so long to release it in America is that apple is blocking AT&T from releasing it so it wont cut into Iphone sales.

                            • J
                            • John
                            • MKK
                            • 30 Jul 2008

                            Omnia is the winner!!!

                              • n
                              • nacho
                              • LEv
                              • 29 Jul 2008

                              i think that conclusion is wrong...
                              both are better than iphone

                                • T
                                • Terry
                                • w77
                                • 28 Jul 2008

                                I purchased Samsung Omnia three days ago while in Singapore.When I arrived home in Indonesia very excited to try the phone out.I took the phone out of its box and inserted my sim card,to my shock I could only recieve normal gsm no 3g when I tried connecting to the internet I only get a very slow edge connection appox 10KL.At present I also have a Nokia E51 Which at the same location gives me a bandwidth of between 300kilobyts and 1megabytes.If I take my omnia into the city centre it picks up a 3G signal and works with no problems

                                  • ?
                                  • Anonymous
                                  • 4UY
                                  • 27 Jul 2008

                                  Anonymous, 23 Jul 2008Dear All, a friend of mine has the Omnia and i have taken a... moreAny idea about video-calling with the Omnia in the US? What are the options? I believe Skype or Gizmo are not feasible options, is that right? Please let me know.

                                    • D
                                    • Dave
                                    • 2CQ
                                    • 26 Jul 2008

                                    The new rom for the HTC Diamond released yesterday gives it quad band capability plus the performance of the flow interface has been greatly improved. I have been using the Diamond for the last month and its a great internet device.

                                      • w
                                      • windmall
                                      • TxT
                                      • 26 Jul 2008

                                      **HTC Diamond comes with stylus slot whereas Omnia doesn't.
                                      If u need a PDA phone, get Diamond.
                                      If u need a multimedia phone, get Omnia.
                                      You can find cheap HTC Daimond accessories in China's ebay.
                                      Flip Leather pouch (US$15), extra battery & batt charger (US$10), car charger (USD$5) all for less than USD$30!
                                      No regrets getting this phone!

                                      Diamond over Omnia:
                                      VGA display (2.8-inch, 480 x 640 pixels)
                                      TouchFLO 3D Home screen (better than Omnia's Touchwiz UI)
                                      Nicer design
                                      More compact body
                                      Lighter weight
                                      Active magnetic stylus (Omnia has no stylus slot)
                                      Touch-sensitive scroll wheel (better than Omnia's optical joystick)
                                      Better sunlight legibility (by a small margin)
                                      Standard miniUSB slot (as opposed to Samsung's proprietary custom plus)
                                      Dedicated graphics chip with 64MB memory
                                      Comes with the amusing Teeter game (uses the accelerometer)
                                      Has pre-installed YouTube client and MP3 Trimmer application for ringtones
                                      Better video playback performance

                                      Omnia over Diamond:
                                      Bigger, though lower-res display (3.2", 240 x 400 pixels)
                                      Has a better, more solid build and finish
                                      Almost double battery life
                                      Better CPU performance (by a nice margin according to software benchmarks)
                                      Quad-band GSM support (Diamond has two versions to cover all the four bands)
                                      microSD card slot (Diamond has none)
                                      8 or 16 GB of storage memory (Diamond has 4GB)
                                      Much better 5 megapixel camera (better processing, higher resolution, face and smile detection, geotagging)
                                      TV-out (Diamond lacks that)
                                      Landscape QWERTY keyboard (Diamond has one but only in browser)
                                      Auto screen rotation is available in all applications and can be switched off
                                      Comes with DivX video support (Diamond has none, but DivX players can be installed)
                                      Has pre-installed a custom Alarms app, a Video editor and a unit converter

                                        • m
                                        • marq
                                        • m27
                                        • 24 Jul 2008

                                        can someone from gsmarena answer my question?. will qvga screen software install and work in the omnia?