Review: Samsung Omnia II from Verizon

Quietly, amid the multiple HTC Touch Pro 2 releases, Samsung refreshed its Omnia line with a slew of new Windows Mobile devices. The Samsung Omnia II is a blackness-slab, touchscreen device hone that sports a 5-megapixel camera and a hefty 8 gigabytes of storage retentiveness. Verizon picked it up tardily last year.

Our initial impression has been positive. Our main business was the customization that Samsung has installed on the Omnia II. Not only does the Omnia II have Samsung'south TouchWiz user interface, Samsung also besides tweaked the interior Windows Mobile screens and menus.

Follow the interruption to see if this customization makes or breaks the Omnia 2.

Blueprint

Straight out of the box, the first impressions of the Omnia Ii was that it felt practiced in the hand and that the glossy finish was sure to attract fingerprints from across the room.  Measuring 4.69 inches by two.38 inches by 0.52 inches and weighing iv.76 ounces, the Omnia 2 is very similar in size to the HTC Imagio.

The Omnia II is a touch taller than the Touch Pro ii and is a smidgen thinner. Compared to the original Omnia, the Omnia 2 is a piddling beefier, but not enough to exist annoying.

The layout of the Omnia II has the iii.5mm headphone jack, volume keys, and "ok" push button on the left side of the telephone. On the correct side of the phone you volition find the microUSB port, "lock" push and camera shutter push. A collapsible stylus is stored on the correct side as well.

The Omnia II has a microSD expansion slot underneath the battery cover. A v-megapixel photographic camera with wink is on the rear.

The front-facing button row is simple with an answer, end and a center button that takes you to the custom Commencement Carte du jour. There is no directional pad on the Omnia Ii. The cease button doubles as your power/wake-up button.

The "lock" push turns off the Omnia II's screen. You tin can fix the phone to wake up straight in pressing the cease key or go to a "tap to unlock" screen.

I did similar the red diamond pattern on the bombardment cover, but I didn't similar the sleeky end. A textured, matte stop would be more practical and require less maintenance.

Under the hood

It was hard to pin down what exactly is driving the Samsung Omnia II.  Based on the Settings Menu it has a ARM1176 processor running at 667MHz. But other reports take it with a Samsung S3C6410 processor at 800MHz. Regardless, this Omnia Two moved along a little on the sluggish side. Really sluggish if the processor is supposed to be a 800 MHz engine. Applications loaded slowly and transitions within applications inched forth also. Oddly enough, Opera 9.5 moved forth nicely (due to Verizon's larger map?) with no unusual delays in folio and epitome load times.

Information technology does have 256MB  of RAM and 8GB of storage and is powered by a 1500mAh bombardment, rated at six hours of talk time and xvi days of standby fourth dimension. But in reality, the battery will concluding the day with moderate use.

I'm not a large fan of the battery door. The Omnia Two'due south battery door pries off via a pocket-size divot/recess (using a money or sturdy fingernail) at the lesser of the Windows phone. I just meet this area wearing with repeated use and would have preferred a sliding battery encompass.

Screen

The Omnia II has a iii.7-inch, 480x800, Active Matrix Organic Light Emitted Diode (say that ten times fast) screen. AMOLED for short, the Omnia II'due south screen has nice colors, sharp to the view but noticeably difficult to view in brilliant sunlight. AMOLED also is easier on the bombardment than a traditional LED screen.

The resistive touchscreen was marginally responsive and had a stiff feel to it. There were the typical difficult spots along the edges, but fifty-fifty the middle of the screen could be stubborn at times to the touch.

The Omnia II relies on an on-screen keyboard. I liked the Samsung keyboard and typing was "achievable," simply the strong screen presented the challenges more than than the keyboard layout. Along with the block and letter recognizer, you also have the traditional Windows Mobile keyboard (with the teeny-tiny keys), a Samsung Keyboard (with larger keys), and Samsung as well included Swype as a keyboard choice.

Software

The Omnia II is a Windows phone running Windows Mobile six.5. If it wasn't for the Start Menu in the upper left corner of the screen, you might overlook that fact.

Samsung has customized the Omnia II rather extensively. From the TouchWiz user interface to customizing sub-menus and screens, Samsung has strayed from the traditional Windows Mobile advent, and done so at a deep level. That in and of itself isn't a bad thing, but ...

Touchwiz/WidgetPlus

TouchWiz is Samsung'south user interface, and Widgets Plus is Samsung's Today Screen customization.

WidgetPlus uses a series of widgets and reminds me a little of SPB Mobile Shell. The layout is elementary. To the left you have a vertically scrollable widget bar. The bar can be complanate to give way to the full screen and you can tap/drag the widgets from the bar to the main screen area/page. You tin make full up to 3 pages of widgets that are horizontally scrollable.

At the bottom of the screen y'all will have your communications icons showing whatsoever unread email, sms, phonation mail or missed calls. TouchWiz takes some getting used to and isn't for everyone. Should you end up not liking WidgetPlus, the traditional Windows Mobile Titanium layout is available.

TouchWiz

From the advent of the Start Menu to how the Settings Menu is laid out, you would exist hard pressed to recognize the Omnia Two equally running Windows Mobile. TouchWiz's Kickoff Menu resembles more of an iPhone than a Windows phone. You lot accept icons spread out among a five folio, horizontally scrollable layout. The icons tin be deleted and re-arranged betwixt the pages.

The Settings Carte is a vertically scrolling listing of options that are tabbed between bones and avant-garde settings. Even the individual settings screens are unique.

Again, I don't error Samsung for customizing the Omnia II to allow the phone to stand up out.  Notwithstanding, at that place needs to be a level of consistency in how Windows Mobile is presented, especially with regards to the settings menus.  Samsung has washed a nice task making stock applications such equally the calendar or the file browser stand up out merely they really needed to keep uniformity with the settings menus.

You can plow the TouchWiz interface on and off and return to the traditional Windows Mobile Offset menu, but the sub-menus yet keep their uniqueness.  This is where Samsung's customization places the Omnia II into a category by itself.

Additional Software Features

Samsung has a Task Switcher which reminds me of the Task Manager on the LG Expo. It offers a screen shot of whatsoever open application and tapping that screen shot sends you into the application. You have the choice of catastrophe singular apps or ending them all.

Along with the Start Carte du jour, you also take the Cube Screen launcher. The Cube Screen sorts your applications into six broad categories. The cube itself can be rotated past touch or y'all can use the navigation icons at the bottom. When y'all tap a category a Rolodex of your apps appear for you lot to browse through.  The Cube Screen seemed a little redundant when information technology's simply as like shooting fish in a barrel to launch an application from the Outset Bill of fare.

The Omnia II has the customary Verizon bloatware including the Five Cast suite, Navigator besides equally Bing, Facebook, Opera Mobile nine.v, the Mobile Office Suite and Marketplace/My Phone.

Samsung has place so much customization on the Omnia 2 that I've probably missing something. I tin can't say that all the changes Samsung has implemented are bad but instead, different than what the traditional Windows Mobile user are accustomed to. Personally, I would accept preferred the TouchWiz home screen interface with the traditional sub-menus. I similar the familiarity and consistency past having everything beyond the Home Screen in the aforementioned ballpark.

Camera

The Omnia 2 is fitted with a variable-focus, 5-megapixel camera that also has video capture adequacy. The camera might be the Omnia 2's strongest characteristic but the software is a fiddling quirky. I'll have a full review on the camera's performance and software shortly.

GPS

GPS functioning was a little on the wearisome side using Bing and GoogleMaps. From a cold start, it took well over a infinitesimal to acquire an accurate position. For the longest, I found myself in Seattle every bit opposed to Birmingham, Ala. The Omnia 2 seemed to like GoogleMaps a little amend and from a warm start, the GPS performed well. It was that initial startup that took an eternity.

The Omnia II comes loaded with Verizon'south Navigator. I'd like to comment on Navigator'south operation but kept getting "Could not process your request" error messages when I tried to connect to the network. I also had trouble accessing V Bandage so it may have been an result with these features not being active or "network" bug in my area.

Phone Operation

With regards to the Omnia II as a phone, information technology performed skilful. Call quality was on par with any other Windows telephone and the speaker telephone was respectable. One oddity with the Omnia II's phone performance is that the screen doesn't turn off while on a telephone call. I expected at least the screen to turn off once a phone call is connected.

Overall Impressions

The Samsung Omnia 2 from Verizon is well-built, comfortable in the hand, and a large-screened Windows Phone. While I liked the form factor, the customizations that Samsung put in place seemed to backbite from the phone. The TouchWiz user interface does grow on you but Samsung needed to stop there. Irresolute the other Windows Mobile screens can be disruptive, especially if you're already used to the traditional layouts.

Phone performance is proficient, battery life respectable simply the touch screen could take been more responsive to the impact. GPS performance is par merely very slow when working from a cold start.  Applications loaded alright simply the overall performance was a flake sluggish.

The Omnia Ii might be a skilful entry-level Windows Telephone. But if you take any exposure to Windows Mobile, the Omnia II volition take a while to get used to. If I were to look for a Windows Phone on the Verizon Wireless network, I would consider the HTC Imagio or the Touch Pro 2 first. Currently, all iii Windows Phones are running $199.99 after contractual discounts.

The Omnia Two'south customization sets it apart, I simply don't know if that'southward a proficient thing.

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/review-samsung-omnia-ii-verizon

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