Samsung Omnia 7 Review

Click here for all our latest reviews

Samsung Omnia 7 Review

To say that Microsoft took a gamble with Windows Phone 7 would be selling short, WP7 is the most drastic step away from legacy I can think of, an almost complete U turn. Samsung, along with other hardware manufacturers have stepped up to the plate and have attempted to bring their own flare to to the very strict hardware requirements of WP7. I’ve had my hands on the Samsung Omnia 7 for a few weeks now, read on to find out how I feel about the experience of both hardware and software.

Hardware:

Frankly, the Omnia 7 is the finest piece of phone hardware Samsung have ever produced. The entire back is made out of a solid sheet of metal with a battery door compartment, a speaker and camera with xenon flash. Along the left side a single (slightly easy to press) volume rocker resides and on the right we have the power on/off button and a 2 stage camera button. Along the top there’s a standard 3.5 ml headphone jack and a micro usb port.

Of course, the real star here is the 4 inch SAMOLED screen Samsung have taken from their Galaxy S line of phones and transplanted directly onto the Omnia. It’s eye searingly bright but not exactly the crispest screen I’ve ever laid eyes on and some zooming in on web pages is probably going to be needed, other than that the face of the screen is relitively sparse, only broken by a speaker grill at the top and a indented windows button in the center.

In the hand it’s slightly cold to the touch and as ergonomic as you can imagine. The tapered edges of the phone let it sit comfortably in the palm of your hand and you’ll never have trouble reaching any point on the 4 inch screen unless you have abnormally small hands. The camera also stands out as a high point, the 5mp camera behaved admirably during our testing and even low light shots came out with a reasonable level of quality. It’s hardly going to replace your point and shoot but it’s always nice to have such a capable camera at your disposal. As a phone it wasn’t bad, not great but hardly poor and more than usable and the battery lasts around a day with reasonably heavy use.

The major annoyance I had with the hardware was that the touch buttons at the bottom of the phone (back and search) have unusually large areas of sensitivity, often I would be scrolling across an app and accidentally hit the back button, pulling me away from whatever I was doing. Perhaps it was the review model I was sent but it made the first few days of  a real pain. Compare this to my Motorola Milestone which where you have to actually touch the icons for them to work, and it really drives you up the wall.

Software:

These days the phone hardware is only half of it, software is now so important in our data fuelled, app powered mobile world that the success or failure can hinge entirely on how well implemented the software is with the hardware. Firstly, it’s important to note that Microsoft has imposed strict hardware requirements for it’s new operating system so that largely the experience remains buttery smooth no matter which device you pick up.

So how about on the Omnia 7? Well, it’s fast. Really fast. Panes fly in and out of the screen with little hesitation and scrolling is about as perfect as you’d care to imagine. WP7′s design approach is one of flat, 2d future retro perfection. All bold, bright colours and easy to hit icons (seriously, if you’ve ever used a WinMo 6.x device you’ll cry with joy here). Microsoft calls it “metro ui” and the large part of its inspiration is from the glorious Zune HD, large text flows off the side of the screen, willing you to slide to the left or right to see more content.

It’s a frankly genius idea and it’s implemented fantastically through both third and first party applications on the Omnia. WP7 is frankly a joy to use, the attention to detail paid (from the indentation of tiles when you press them in all the way to the rotation of icons when you turn the screen) is a shock to see from MRSFT and here’s hoping that all their future launches get this kind of design love.

It’s nice to see some attention paid to the notification system, it lies somewhere inbetween the iPhone’s pop up system and Androids shade system. When a notification is received it appears on the top of the phone, not stopping anything you’re doing but making you aware that you have a notification. Speaking of which, Microsoft has been key to stress their “live tile” idea, I’ll explain it to you. They’re a combination of widgets and short cuts. On the home screen each live tile will tell you what’s going on in each app without having you enter it to check it out, it’s pretty neat but not all app makers have taken advantage of the idea yet.

Now, for the bad things. WP7′s software is 90% done, it sometimes exhibits unusual behaviour and the web browser is so poor you’ll be tearing your face off within minutes of actually using it (it scores a 2/100 on the acid3 test). There’s no Copy & Paste (although that is coming in a couple of months) and as of yet there’s no 3rd party multitasking (although the hardware back button is a godsend of usability, letting you go back to whatever you were just doing with one press) and customization is limited to the lock screen wallpaper, UI colour and layout of the tile home. Then again, you can see why when the software designers have agonised so much over the look and feel of the UI that they didn’t feel like letting people completely muck it up just yet.

Ease of use wise, WP7 has a very small learning curve. I handed the phone to my phone hating father who instantly found himself panning around, bringing up the dailer and remarking on just how gorgeous the whole package was. In fact, he said that when his contract ends he intends to pick a WP7 device up based purely on his 5 minute play with the Omnia. It would seem that to play with the Omnia is to love it, and I didn’t stop lusting after it even after a few weeks of solid use.

Conclusion:

As your day to day phone, the Omnia 7 is hard not to love. The hardware is almost faultless and the software feels like it landed straight from some kind of utopian design future where nothing is ugly, despite being only 90% done (when I purchased the G1 Android was only 40%) it’s an operating system that deserves real respect in the ballooning smart phone market. It’s 1ghz processor and 4 inch SAMOLED screen are glorious to see in tandem and I really would recommend the Omnia 7 to anybody, it’s pretty spectacular.

Official TB Verdict: 7.5/10 (and an extra 0.5 when the stock web browser gets updated).

Thank you to three for shipping us out the Omnia 7, check out the three blog at:

http://blog.three.co.uk/2010/10/21/samsung-omnia-7-available-on-three/