Samsung B7300 OmniaLITE review: The light side of life

Samsung B7300 OmniaLITE 360-degree spin

Standing at 107 x 51.8 x 12.9 mm, the OmniaLITE is just about what you'd expect in a full-touch handset with a screen that size. The 12.9mm thick OmniaLITE doesn't impress with girth but the handhold is fine. It will slip comfortably in most pockets too, just don't expect anything near a Nokia E52 feel.

Design and construction

Design is where OmniaLITE departs considerably from the original Omnia. The original was an exquisite device, as suited its high-end (in its time) standing. The low-profile OmniaLITE on the other hand looks more easy-going perhaps and somewhat juvenile with the strange mix of design elements it offers.

The OmniaLITE does come out a little basic next to some other touchscreens

Shiny silver plastic, glossy black panels - patterned at the back - and the red top and bottom maybe don't go together all that well. The design mix is perhaps too bold - there are edges, ovals (and hexagon patterns at the rear). We're either much older than the intended target or it's the original Omnia that still holds strong, but we're not impressed. The cheapish looking plastic doesn't help much either.

You have all the right to disagree of course and be madly in love with the OmniaLITE. And feel free to think whatever you like about our aesthetic judgment. Just take note that we don't encourage emails informing us of our poor taste...

Anyways, at the top, right next to the earpiece we find the secondary video-call camera of the 3G-enabled Samsung B7300 OmniaLITE.

The video-call camera and earpiece at the top

What follows is mostly the 3" touchscreen, with the platform's usual 65K-color support. It's the resolution though - WQVGA (240 x 400 pixels) - that tells the OmniaLITE's midrange position. We were starting to get used to WVGA (480 x 800 pixels) on recent PocketPCs and we hate to say it but the picture quality on the OmniaLITE isn't up to scratch. Then again, we are talking a much cheaper handset here and WQVGA is quite standard for the class.

The 3" WQVGA touchscreen makes sense in a budget PocketPC

In fact, the brightness of the display is quite good. It's the pretty poor contrast that sets it apart from its high-end relatives. Well that and sunlight legibility. But frankly, we didn't expect too much here anyway. It's really hard to see anything on the display outdoors on a sunny day, and finding a proper angle for working with the phone is a real challenge.

It's not like we aren't used to seeing less than perfect screens from PocketPCs so we are almost willing to let that go. It's no worse than the original Omnia anyway and that didn't stop it from becoming a great success.

The last thing to note at the front is the Back/Close key squeezed in-between the Call keys.

Three hardware keys below the display

The left side of Samsung B7300 OmniaLITE sports the volume rocker, the menu key and the reset pinhole. The buttons on this side are pleasingly tactile and responsive.

Volume rocker, menu key and a reset pinhole on the left

On the right side of the OmniaLITE we come upon the microSD card slot, surrounded by the lock key and the dedicated shutter key. The really bad part about the camera key is that it only has one press. No half-press-to- focus-full-press-to-shoot routine with the OmniaLITE resulting in dramatically worse shooting experience.

The microSD card slot is between the screen lock key and the dedicated camera key on the right

All there is at the bottom of Samsung B7300 OmniaLITE is the mouthpiece. There's no stylus slot on the OmniaLITE so if you like poking your phone's display with a short stick of plastic you better look elsewhere. It's not that we miss it too much but some parts of the Windows OS are still not finger-friendly enough on a 3" screen and that in turn causes issues with the usability.

Red top and bottom make little sense

The top hosts the standard microUSB port and the lanyard eyelet. The connectivity port is covered by a plastic lid to keep dust away.

A small plastic lid covers the microUSB port

The OmniaLITE rear hosts the 3 megapixel camera lens and the loudspeaker grill. There is no flash of any kind here so one can easily tell that photography is not the Samsung B7300 element.

The lens of the downgraded camera and the loudspeaker at the back

Removing the back panel reveals the huge 1500-mAh Li-ion battery that powers the OmniaLITE. The generous capacity, combined with the economic WQVGA screen, give the Samsung B7300 great battery life. The manufacturer quotes it at up to 650h of standby time and up to 9h of talk time.

This is quite impressive no matter how you look at it and our real-life experience came to affirm it. The handset easily lasted more than 4 days of moderate use (20 minutes of talk time and 1 hour of using the other phone features a day).

Impressive battery on the OmniaLITE

As a whole, we are quite pleased with the construction quality of the Samsung B7300 OmniaLITE. The materials look sturdy and it's that cheapish look only that bothers us. On the positive side, we heard no creaks or other disturbing sounds for the time of our review and we guess the OmniaLITE will hold up against wear and tear. Again, the LITE has nothing of the impressive appearance of the original Omnia and that's more or less implied by the price tag of 270-300 euro. We're not too impressed with the design mix but the handset will perhaps connect with the younger, less conservative audience.

The Samsung B7300 OmniaLITE is nice to hold and easy to operate