Samsung Omnia SCH-i910
What is your idea of a perfect cell phone? Do you visualize it as the one having the most features or something that makes it easier for you to make a style statement? Or is it that you are looking for something that offers the perfect combination of style and substance? If your answer is "yes" for the last question, then you should definitely go for the Samsung Omnia SCH-i910. This high-end cell phone is one of the best camera phones currently available and once you start using it, chances are high that you will rarely feel the need to go back to your Point and Shoot digital camera.
On first glance, you may be tempted to call the Omnia SCH-i910 a replica of the iphone, but when you start using it, you will notice that it is quite different. A Windows Mobile device, the Omnia SCH-i910 has a rectangular outer frame that features a 3.2 inch touchscreen on the front. The screen resolution is 240x400, something that provides for superior clarity when viewing video files and browsing web pages. Just below the touchscreen, you will find the "call" and "end call" buttons along with a small touchpad that acts as the optical mouse for the Omnia SCH-i910. Camera and volume controls are on the sides whereas the camera itself is on the back.
An interesting thing about the Omnia SCH-i910 is that you wouldn't know it is a Windows Mobile device if we had not told you about it. That's because the conventional home screen, as is featured in most Windows Mobile devices has been replaced with a widget-based home screen. This new home screen is highly customizable and depending on your needs, you can add any of your favorite applications to it. Samsung has also replaced the default Internet Explorer with the Opera 9.5 web browser. With the Opera browser in place, you will notice that the pages load a lot faster and there is no signs of crashing or hang-ups.
Entering data on the Omnia SCH-i910 is quite easy and you can choose from available options that include the mini virtual keyboard, the full QWERTY virtual keyboard and handwriting recognition. A stylus is supplied with the phone, but since there is no place to store it on the cell phone, carrying it may pose a challenge. Not a big problem though, since in most of our tests we rarely felt the need to use the stylus. The need for the stylus was felt only with some third-party applications that had very small buttons. The only problem we noticed was the lack of synchronization between the touch screen and the accelerometer.
Voice quality on both the earpiece and the speakerphone was exceptionally good and the microphone did not appear to attract background noises. Pairing with third-party Bluetooth devices went without a hitch and audio files played on the same were adequately loud and crystal clear. Talk time was around 6 hours, which we think is quite reasonable.
We would like to give the Omnia SCH-i910 a 4-star rating, but due to some of its bugs, we have to downgrade to 3 ½. You can have it if you plan to use it mostly for your personal entertainment, multimedia and web browsing needs.