Samsung Omnia 7

The new Omnia 7 is Korean manufacturer Samsung's first mobile to run Windows Phone 7, although it looks suspiciously like a Galaxy S.  Like its rivals, the handset has had to meet a strict set of hardware criteria before being allowed to run Microsoft's new OS. 

What sets this one apart is a 4'' AMOLED screen and some apps which are exclusive to Samsung.  We'll talk you through the rest ...



First of all, as we've already mentioned, phones running WP7 have to meet minimum hardware requirements set out by Microsoft.  That means the first new phones we'e seen are all pretty similar, and users will end up choosing based on the look, the size of the screen and the price, rather than features, although all of these are fairly comparable for the time being.  At least the developer's demanding approach should help it to avoid some of the problems that Google has had with its Android OS, which manufacturers have made to run on just about any phone.

The other piece of good news is that the manufacturers are, of course, free to go above and beyond the minimum spec.  That's what LG did by adding support for the DLNA standard and 16 GB of memory (instead of the usual 8 GB) to its Optimus 7, while HTC's Mozart has a 8 Megapixel camera instead of 5 MP.  Samsung has decided to include a large 4'' Super AMOLED screen, and although HTC's HD7 is even bigger at 4.3'', the technology behind the Omnia 7's display usually produces excellent results.


Design

The Omnia 7 has been carefully designed and has a quiet, unfussy look.  Its clean lines might not be especially original, but combined with good quality materials, the overall impression is good.  Using brushed metal for the case is a welcome change from plastic, but be careful, as it's not at all immune from picking up scratches.

The screen itself is imposing.  We were delighted to find the excellent contrast ratio that Samsung's Super AMOLED technology is known for, and the blacks are so deep that its contrast ratio is inifinitely high.  The viewing angles are very wide and the whole thing is very easy on the eye.

Too easy on the eye, in fact, because our tests revealed that it doesn't reproduce colours accurately at all.  We've never seen such a bad results from a display: its deltaE is 26.6; a well-calibrated desktop monitor should come in at below 3.0, while a less impressive display will be closer to 15.  Here, though, the colours are quite simply fluorescent.

It can't manage any shades, light or dark, so you'd better not rely on the Omnia 7 if you're ordering a new jumper online.

The handset is easy to hold, despite its imposing form factor.  Unlike LG, which has remained loyal to physical buttons, Samsung has decided to use touch-sensitive controls to implement the features common to the WP7 phone interface: Search, powered by Bing, and the Back control, which skips through the five previous apps.  We've never been a big fan of touch-sensitive controls underneath the display as they're often too easy to activate by mistake.  With the Omnia 7, we regularly found ourselves accidentally pressing one when we didn't mean too.  The Windows button in the centre takes you back to your homescreen.


Interface and navigation

Like all of the new WP7 handsets, the interace, which Microsoft doesn't allow manufacturers to customise, is modern, bright and easy to get the hang of.  It works well: from personalising the homescreen with your own favourite features through to the way you navigate inside an app, the whole system is a real success.  That's not to say it can't be improved, by adding copy-and-paste, for instance, which is supposed to be coming soon.  The new OS is a real break with the past, which is always good.  Whether you actually like using it or not, though, is a matter of taste.



You can pin different widgets, showing say, one particular contact, your calendar or a favourite webpage onto the different hubs, apps which bring together information from several sources in real time.

In the Contacts hub, for instance, users can see their phonebook.  When they tap on a name, they can choose to call that person, send them an SMS or write an e-mail.  Starting in the same place, scroll one screen over the to the left and you can see that person's social networking activity including tweets, Facebook status updates and shared photos.

The scrolling interface means you're not constantly switching from app to the other and is much better than launching one app to send a text, then closing it to go home and open Facebook and so on.

This handset could teach plenty of others a thing or two about responsiveness and does everything you ask without the slightest hesitation.

Multimdia



A lightweight version of the Office suite is included on all phones with a Microsoft OS, so you get basic versions of Word, Excel and Powerpoint.

We like the interface in the media player, which looks good and works well, but the sound it produces suffers from a constant crackling which comes from a problem with the audio output.  Although it's slightly better than the one on the LG Optimus 7 (to name just one competitor), we suggest you avoid using the external speaker at all costs.  The headphones, meanwhile, are just as you'd expect from a phone like this.

Despite having no 'real' multitasking—once you quit an app, it stops running and you either have to press the back button or re-open it from a menu—you can still listen to your music on the Omnia 7 while performing other tasks.

You need to use Microsoft's equivalent of iTunes, Zune, to manage and transfer your multimedia content.  It's easier to use than Apple's solution, but you can't connect your WP7 phone as a mass storage device, so it's not quite as simple as drag-and-drop.  For £8.99 a month, you can get a Zune pass which allows unlimited streaming as well as ten free downloads you can keep every month.

It doesn't work with Macs or Linux, but you can at least copy music, photos and videos from iTunes by using the Windows Phone 7 Connector app.

Xbox Live is a common platform available on the PC, the Xbox and WP7 phones, and you can load your existing avatar and keep on playing while you're on the move.  Microsoft is hoping that to create a gaming community where you start playing at home and then continue on your mobile phone, so it's now up to the developers to think of some compelling ways to interact with so many devices at once.


There are nowhere near as many apps available in the MarketPlace as there are in the stores provided Microsoft's two big rivals, Apple and Google.  More and more titles are on their way, and the big names are already there with some interesting new interface designs.  The Facebook app, for instance, has a much better design than its Android equivalent.  You can also connect to Windows Live Messenger, and although the interface is visually appealing, the app signed us out several times.


Like LG and HTC, Samsung has reserved a part of the interface where it offers users its own exclusive apps.  In particular, there's a great app for sharing photos which allows you to choose which site to use to publish your photos with integration for Facebook, Flickr and Picasa.

Unfortunately, taking photos isn't the Omnia 7's strong point.  The problem isn't the onscreen interface for the camera, which is clear and easy, nor the extra options, of which there are plenty.  It's the mediocre quality of the photos themselves, which lack sharpness and detail.  If a camera is important to you on a phone, then you can definitely do better elsewhere: LG's first WP7 is a slight improvement, the iPhone 4 is even beter and the Nokia N8, finally, is much better.