Samsung i900 Omnia review: The whole nine yards
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- Anonymous
- p1M
- 01 Aug 2008
Don, 01 Aug 2008mine works fine in the sunlight. when initially turned on a... moreThanks, thats what i wanna hear ;)
- D
- Don
- k6K
- 01 Aug 2008
kölner, 01 Aug 2008an what is about the display in sunlight. Is it doesn`t wor... moremine works fine in the sunlight. when initially turned on and you have to unlock the phone twice, in different places on the screen, the screen is dim, after unlockingit successful the display brightens up. I have had no problem reading it when on.
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- kölner
- p1M
- 01 Aug 2008
Don, 01 Aug 2008I got the phone from David at (http://www.dechowireless.com... morean what is about the display in sunlight. Is it doesn`t working???
Please help us?
- D
- Don
- k6K
- 01 Aug 2008
jess, 29 Jul 2008LOVING this phone!!!!! but... where can i get this phone i... moreI got the phone from David at (http://www.dechowireless.com/store/product-info.php?SAMSUNG_i900_16GB-pid320.html). The price has gone down 100 since I bought mine. It is now 850. They are very nice and i received mine within 16 hrs with special delivery on Sat. Does work with ATT. I have the special data codes for it. See my blog response. Did get the contacts and notes to sync beautifully after 4 days of playing with it. Very organized into categories, names and info. The WiFi works great, seen no 3G as of yet. heading to Boston in a few weeks and I hear 3G is in an abundance there. I will see if it works. It is the coolest phone I have ever played with. It continues to surprise me with all the apps. Have fun.
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- Anonymous
- PnY
- 31 Jul 2008
where can I find a good winMobile forum?
- j
- jack
- ibb
- 31 Jul 2008
Hello GSMArena,
Can you please review what "popeye" posted in the "User Review" section. He says that the unit hangs VERY OFTEN, can you please see how true this is, or rather he had a bad release of firmware? TIA!
Omnia Woes (4th weeks in):…Can't deny the Omnia's specs is best of the lot, but in real-world useability for power users/apps users - it's No, No, No..
1. To text while out for lunch, catching the sun, or afternoon driving, relocate yourself into a building, and start. At night on bed, dSpoil your loved one, not your Eyes.
~ Screen is not readable in daylight, at full setting. Backlight is too bright at night at zero setting.
2. To work faster, you shouldn't ... Take Life easy, De-stress, Train your patience, Work is not Everything...which is what Bill Gates is doing now with himself and propagating the idea in Windows Mobile.
~ Windows Mobile is never Finger or UI-Friendly. All samsung apps/UI/keyboard input not efficient enough, compared to third parties' & freewares. DivX player/Touch player cannot play 50% of video files (unsupported format!!!). I have better solutions with other apps. No way to remove included built-in apps, plug-ins and ROM-programs.
3. To try new apps/interface/games, be prepared to hard-reset/format phone & data. ~ ~ Not suitable for Power Users and Apps Explorers, its sensor, GPS, bluetooth,even backlight nd background services, are not compatible/ proprietary/ conflicts in some ways with common 3rd party programs. Worse than a Vista-XP compatibility problems. (Most s/w written for HTC series)., Anything thrown at Diamond & Touch works fine..
4. With a Apps-loaded phone, be very embarassed, to be seen whacking your phone like a GameBoy, or asking your friends to wait for a Reboot..and that ugly green splash screen again!.
~ The touch loses its sensitivity. It hangs/locks up the phone very frequently, every 1 hour when it goes to sleep mode, and never wakes up. Sometimes power off by itself. The ROM programs seems to take precedence. Cleaning its registry doesn't help.I'm seen forcing my fingers' corners, hammering my stylus on the screen, pressing the buttons with hands (to unlock/wake), more often than talking on the phone. How uncool...or issit so lame!
5. Driving to a new 'ulu' address? Flip your Street Directory or use Google Maps on phone to study the turns at the destination before starting. Turn on your GPS & Navigaition s/w, and the only thing you hear is 'You have reached your destination' when you arrive.
~ GPS takes abt 10 minutes to have GPS fix
(I reach my destination by then), Don't use it anymore. I uninstalled my NAvfone.
Only thing you can do with GPS, is turn on your GPS, leave it with your friend, buy yourselves drinks, waiting at the bar counter, excuse yourself to the toilet, and when you return tell your friend, 'Hey, see.. we are at E107'N2.1'...big deal yah?
6. Travelling/Driving abroad...Buy/Rent an Encylopedic Map, or a dedicated GPS.
~ Agis, the navfone s/w provider, is Singapore-based, only has Singapore/Malaysia maps, not compatible with maps from Mapking and Tomtom (Do locals need navigation? Isn't navigation more important for tourists in foreign land?). Cheap license fee.
7. Boasting the Auto-rotate,..you will, all the time.
~ It is too sensitive, even at zero setting, irritatingly self-rotate, and refuse to rotate back when jerking it, ended up switching off. The iPhone demo of auto-rotate & finger zooming really caught everyone. Has anyone realised it is not practical. Do you always appreciate a picture, (btw way usually a long string of pics) zooming in and out? Unless you r checking out panties. You could just rotate with a flip on most viewers, or keep your pictures in unrotated format to fill screen all times.. sadly still no viewer s/w that can Autodetect rotated picture, auto-rotate them to fill screen.
8. Shooting Porn, Timelapse effect, or Ghost Movies?..Excellent phone, auto-mosaic censorship, auto-bluring, Free ghosts.. leaves that mysterious teasing feel.
~ Video: UI's good, pause/zoom while recording is thoughtful, but video is ghostly and blurred, at 10fps, fixed focus and digital zoom is in 3-5 jerky steps. forget taking moving objects/people, walk to zoom.
9. To watch phonevideos on TV, pivot yr head horizontally, or rotate your TV vertically
~ TV-Out: Only for viewing stills photos. Full-screen movies, video rotates on TV, but does not fill screen, nor fit horizontally, fit its width with height of TV, 90% orientation, 30% TV space. To watch video/movies, sit 3 ft(90cm) from TV, with head on pillow, rested sideways, or rotate head 90 degrees.
10. Upgrade the Firmware (if you ever know there is an update); Go queue u at the service centers. No promises things will improve. ...You can't do it on Samsung Website (global/local), becasue...????.
On the second day, after loading and apps-stressing it first night, I send the phone for unlocking and queries on its stability. Service Centre told me they will do a firmware upgrade, which is not available online, not announced, and that Samsung's policies never made such updates, self managed by end-users. Then which was 1 week after official launch in Singapore/1st in the World. Was that a need for such a urried launch?
By the way, it was to improve its screen sensitivity. About the un-updated i900s out there?...'They are voluntarily invited to visit service centre' was the answer. After the upgrade, I didn't feel things have improved in any way.
For simple user, who sticks to default UI, and its supplied s/w, not realising that things can be done much faster and intelligently, or wondering how to use your 16GB storage, do what the coffeeeshop Ah Peks, (who carries a N95, and don;t know how to reply to SMS) says,: Live Life Simple, Be Simple-Minded. The phone's fine and great, Then again, you wouldn't need such specs, other than to flaunt it (but sadly only to WM users). The others still wonder while you are squirting your eyes, have to stop walking and nimble with those fat fingers on a mini unknown device.
For Flaunters, go for the iPhone 3G.
For Apps Explorer, enjoy your HTCs, Diamond or Touch, (problem-free with any 3rd arties/freewares/torrents).
For Typists/Callers/SMSers, stick to your qwerty TyncII, Imate or new E-series.
For Video Buffs, hang on to your N95.( still not great though, jazzy edges on zoom-in clips)
For Already Owners, dun stinch, go with a data plan to fully exploit its power/space on Youtube and other tubes, Internet, Torrent, VOIP, with the right apps, that do not hang up the device. Enjoy the still flash AF camera, radio with quality recording.
For All-of-the-Above, wait to see what EXperia re-specs can do?
For Me, I'll wait. Meanwhile it is my expensive hot-key torchlight, and a private 16:9 longish screen for movies on bed without having the TV disturb my partner. Initially thought, who will watch a movie on such small screen. (though still as narrow as 2.8" screens, even for smart-fit browsing).
Or maybe I'll wait till, Samsung, Sony, Apple, if they still exists, incorporates one with built in DVB-T TVMobile tuner, FM Transmitter, E-wallet, Laser Pointer, Replacement Mouse, Mini-LCD projector, and also serves as a security 15,000 volts Zappper, Siren Alarm, Wii-remote, Bluetooth remote control, Face/FingerPrint Recogniser, Pill dispenser, Emotion Sensor, personal massager, electric shaver, and emergency shower head.
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- pep
- iIr
- 31 Jul 2008
Striker, 31 Jul 2008@Pep Thanks for the info. Was it the resolution that ... moreIt was rather the memory issue,iGO8 does not allow any installation other than from SDCARD, l had to rewite completely the sys file in other to divert it into 16 giga My Storage memory, it was tough but i did it, and now runs like an angel
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- Striker
- Sia
- 31 Jul 2008
pep, 31 Jul 2008l'm very happy with my omnia, l just managed installing iGO... more@Pep
Thanks for the info.
Was it the resolution that cause the issues? How did you get around it??
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- pep
- iIr
- 31 Jul 2008
Striker, 30 Jul 2008Makes you wonder why they didn't didn't include FL3 support... morel'm very happy with my omnia, l just managed installing iGO8 in to the internal memory, it took me three days
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- Anton
- na2
- 31 Jul 2008
Guys, who knows the price for this device on the Asian market??? I really need to know.
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- Don
- jjq
- 31 Jul 2008
Jason, 28 Jul 2008Based on the latest review (The whole nine yards), I don't ... moreYes it is plastic. I thought I read metal in the reviews. The back is solid.
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- Don
- jjq
- 31 Jul 2008
I received my i900 in TN on Sat 07-26-08. Awesome device. Has been frustrating. ATT, although before i bought said no problem for connecting and working. As soon as I bought it and activated it, they offered no support since they did not supply the phone. Required 2 yr contract, not seen 3G work yet, but Edge does. Finally got tech support to give input data for using it. WiFi works great. Could not register the phone since not US approved yet. Came with Singapore voltage chord with US adapter. Works though. Does not work with MAC, but does with MS. Back cover is plastic, although I read it was metal. Does have a solid feel to it. Mine has a burned out pixel on a black screen. Annoying. Does have tremendous applications attached to it. Looking forward to playing with it. Any questions I will try to help anyone interested. Big price variance I noticed.
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- Anonymous
- P4F
- 30 Jul 2008
Yours Truly, 29 Jul 2008You are right. The back is entirely plastic, they seem to h... moreohhh crap !! =(
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- Striker
- 0pY
- 30 Jul 2008
Anonymous, 30 Jul 2008this is a matter of time... N95 didnt got FL3 support since... moreMakes you wonder why they didn't didn't include FL3 support in the first version though. Seems like a very unwise move.
And does anyone know how much of an issue the irregular resolution causes when installing 3rd party apps? (Particularly Navigation software).
The review said the GSMArena team had "issues" but they also go on to review the GPS function and say its good so I'm assuming they got around it somehow. Can anyone else share their experience??????????
- ?
- Anonymous
- PnY
- 30 Jul 2008
YTS, 30 Jul 2008ok now the Youtube problem is solved ! what about the flash... morethis is a matter of time... N95 didnt got FL3 support since March 2008.
The next firmware update probably includes FL3 in omnia.
FL 2.1 doesnt mean NO FLASH at all. You can see some stuff in flash.
- Y
- YTS
- pRJ
- 30 Jul 2008
ok now the Youtube problem is solved ! what about the flash support in the browsing ! still very big issue and we can't stand it from such a high end POCKET PC !
- j
- jess
- RwP
- 29 Jul 2008
LOVING this phone!!!!! but...
where can i get this phone in the US? only online? does it have to be unlocked? what is the price range? and can AT&T work with this phone?
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- Coennos
- mKD
- 29 Jul 2008
Anonymous, 29 Jul 2008The review seems to be updated again with a working solutio... moreoke thx 4 the tip!
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- Anonymous
- 0Bi
- 29 Jul 2008
The review seems to be updated again with a working solution for watching YouTube videos on the Omnia. Obviously you guys raving about YouTube playback has made a point to the reviewers.
Here is it, down at the bottom of the page:
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_i900_omnia-review-267p6.php
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- theefman
- Bec
- 29 Jul 2008
So many apparently making decisions based on the ability or otherwise to play grainy internet videos from youtube??!! I seriously doubt that anyone whose primary concern is playing youtube videos is going to be capable of using this phone to its full potential.
BTW youtube videos play fine, they are played in the ArcSoft Streaming player and work well over EDGE which I am using on T-Mobile US.