For those of you who are passionate about the latest advances in mobile phones and would like to get one, here's another new option for you - Samsung SGH-i900 Omnia 16GB.
It was launched at the same time as the Apple iphone 3G, which, because it is so good appears to be the general benchmark for all things good. The Omnia is yet another phone in a series of many which is set to directly compete against the iphone 3G and so it is necessary do distinguish the differences.
The iphone 3G and the omnia both come with upto 16G memory and have a vast array of features which is what we are all looking for. They are both very 'smart', smart phones, too.
The major difference is the operating system. The ominia runs on the windows operating system with Samsung's touchwiz interface added and as it runs on the windows platform, there is no shortage of third party software. The real great thing about it is that you get a mini version of windows office - something that we are all familiar with and which we put to use every day. However having said this, the iPhone 3G runs on the iPhone 2.0 platform which in my opinion is actually superior and Apple too has a wide choice of third party software with Apple's own promise to add more. Truly speaking although the iPhone is more polished, it is not a really great deal and it's really a matter of opinion whether you like the windows or apple operating systems. My own view is that I can't thank Gates enough for windows else I don't think I would be able to use the computer.
There's really not a great deal of difference between the two phones, but Samsung has added features in the Omnia which are absent in the iphone and which I think we would all like to see in a lot more phones starting from now.
Although both the Omnia and the iPhone are way behind in display when compared with some other phones, many of which are even cheaper, Samsung has something which I like very much. The 3.2" 240x400 pixels may be smaller than the iPhone's 3.5" 320 x 480 pixel display, but the Samsung has haptics whereas the iPhone does not. For those of you who are not familiar with Haptics and are beginning to get confused, in simple terms haptics is a sensation you get when you touch something. So if you are using a touch screen you actually can feel that you have clicked something, which is really great because after all touch is our greatest sense. Regardless of this fact, no one can deny that both the iphone and the omnia look really great.
But it is not only in the area of display that iphone lags behind. The 5.0 megapixel camera of the Omnia is considerably better than the iPhone's somehwat ancient 2.0 mega pixels. What is more, the camera comes built in with a flash, autofocus, image stabilizer, face recognition and geotagging. What is geotagging might you ask? Well I am not a camera expert (or a phone expert), but I am passionate about both.
What I understand about geotagging is that in addition to the time when your photograph was taken, the camera also adds the place. A geotag describes the geographic context for an object: the latitude, longitude, altitude, road name etc. Apple didn't add geotagging to their iPhone 3G camera and it probably doesn't seem like much, but when you think that you cannot find your photos after you have taken them and that they remain hidden or lost in your hard drive or cyber space, you begin to realise that geotagging is an advancement that we all need and that we should not have to go without.
Anyway, Apple does not simply lose out ot the Omnia with regards to geotagging - No siree - because they have a secondary video calling camera too, which the iphone does not have. Come on I say, we are advancing, so why hold us back? We want it all and everything you can deliver and how about a phone that would teleport us to our workplace or to our favorite holiday destination, instantly? I'll have that, too, PLEASE.. Although both phones don't everything including a handy teleporter, unfortunately the phone I've always liked - the iPhone - falls way behind.
The iPhone also lags behind in terms of multimedia. The Omnia's multimedia seems to support everything under the sun and that includes MP3, AAC and WMA audio types, also MPEG4, DivX, H.263, H.264, WMV movies and a host of other audio and video types that all of us do not probably use so much. It comes with FM radio, TV output and supports stereo bluetooth which the iPhone does not have. Nevertheless anyone will tell you that the iphone is certainly impressive and besides the iTunes is a consideration factor in itself.
Nevertheless all is not lost for the iphone. In terms of connectivity, the Omnia supports supports UMTS 2100 whereas Apple supports tri-band UMTS. If you are unsure of the difference, well let me tell you that tri band works on three different frequencies so that it is compatible when roaming to different continents whereas UMTS 2100 is presently more popular in Europe, although it too is basically designed for the same thing. In terms of technology, UTMS 2100 might be better (Don't take my word for it because I have a limited understanding), but if your in the USA, you might think Apple wins this round. Good, too, because so far the iPhone falls behind in many features.
I don't know what you will think in the end, but the multimedia and camera features are quite convincing to me that the Omnia is really taking us forward. Being a future freak, I think that's what I want, but you might disagree. I leave it with you to decide.
Samsung SGH-i900 Omnia at ebay
It was launched at the same time as the Apple iphone 3G, which, because it is so good appears to be the general benchmark for all things good. The Omnia is yet another phone in a series of many which is set to directly compete against the iphone 3G and so it is necessary do distinguish the differences.
The iphone 3G and the omnia both come with upto 16G memory and have a vast array of features which is what we are all looking for. They are both very 'smart', smart phones, too.
The major difference is the operating system. The ominia runs on the windows operating system with Samsung's touchwiz interface added and as it runs on the windows platform, there is no shortage of third party software. The real great thing about it is that you get a mini version of windows office - something that we are all familiar with and which we put to use every day. However having said this, the iPhone 3G runs on the iPhone 2.0 platform which in my opinion is actually superior and Apple too has a wide choice of third party software with Apple's own promise to add more. Truly speaking although the iPhone is more polished, it is not a really great deal and it's really a matter of opinion whether you like the windows or apple operating systems. My own view is that I can't thank Gates enough for windows else I don't think I would be able to use the computer.
There's really not a great deal of difference between the two phones, but Samsung has added features in the Omnia which are absent in the iphone and which I think we would all like to see in a lot more phones starting from now.
Although both the Omnia and the iPhone are way behind in display when compared with some other phones, many of which are even cheaper, Samsung has something which I like very much. The 3.2" 240x400 pixels may be smaller than the iPhone's 3.5" 320 x 480 pixel display, but the Samsung has haptics whereas the iPhone does not. For those of you who are not familiar with Haptics and are beginning to get confused, in simple terms haptics is a sensation you get when you touch something. So if you are using a touch screen you actually can feel that you have clicked something, which is really great because after all touch is our greatest sense. Regardless of this fact, no one can deny that both the iphone and the omnia look really great.
But it is not only in the area of display that iphone lags behind. The 5.0 megapixel camera of the Omnia is considerably better than the iPhone's somehwat ancient 2.0 mega pixels. What is more, the camera comes built in with a flash, autofocus, image stabilizer, face recognition and geotagging. What is geotagging might you ask? Well I am not a camera expert (or a phone expert), but I am passionate about both.
What I understand about geotagging is that in addition to the time when your photograph was taken, the camera also adds the place. A geotag describes the geographic context for an object: the latitude, longitude, altitude, road name etc. Apple didn't add geotagging to their iPhone 3G camera and it probably doesn't seem like much, but when you think that you cannot find your photos after you have taken them and that they remain hidden or lost in your hard drive or cyber space, you begin to realise that geotagging is an advancement that we all need and that we should not have to go without.
Anyway, Apple does not simply lose out ot the Omnia with regards to geotagging - No siree - because they have a secondary video calling camera too, which the iphone does not have. Come on I say, we are advancing, so why hold us back? We want it all and everything you can deliver and how about a phone that would teleport us to our workplace or to our favorite holiday destination, instantly? I'll have that, too, PLEASE.. Although both phones don't everything including a handy teleporter, unfortunately the phone I've always liked - the iPhone - falls way behind.
The iPhone also lags behind in terms of multimedia. The Omnia's multimedia seems to support everything under the sun and that includes MP3, AAC and WMA audio types, also MPEG4, DivX, H.263, H.264, WMV movies and a host of other audio and video types that all of us do not probably use so much. It comes with FM radio, TV output and supports stereo bluetooth which the iPhone does not have. Nevertheless anyone will tell you that the iphone is certainly impressive and besides the iTunes is a consideration factor in itself.
Nevertheless all is not lost for the iphone. In terms of connectivity, the Omnia supports supports UMTS 2100 whereas Apple supports tri-band UMTS. If you are unsure of the difference, well let me tell you that tri band works on three different frequencies so that it is compatible when roaming to different continents whereas UMTS 2100 is presently more popular in Europe, although it too is basically designed for the same thing. In terms of technology, UTMS 2100 might be better (Don't take my word for it because I have a limited understanding), but if your in the USA, you might think Apple wins this round. Good, too, because so far the iPhone falls behind in many features.
I don't know what you will think in the end, but the multimedia and camera features are quite convincing to me that the Omnia is really taking us forward. Being a future freak, I think that's what I want, but you might disagree. I leave it with you to decide.
Samsung SGH-i900 Omnia at ebay
Samsung SGH-i900 Omnia at Amazon
