Goodbye Omnia & ROMS - thanks for the experience...

[Guest le.bouch]

Wow. This is by far the most civil Omnia vs iPhone thread I've seen on this board. Well done le.bouch ;)

Thanks, but I can't take all the credit - looks like I'm not the only one here who enjoys a mature debate. On a forum. Gasp <_<

I suppose it was inevitable that it would end up being a little Omnia v iPhone but that wasn't the intention - more really to connect to people like me who were becoming more disheartened every day with the Omnia but who had been fervently anti-iPhone.

Well, I handled an iPhone for the first time last week. I definitely liked the speed and accuracy with which it reacted to my fingers over the Omnia, but that's the capacitive over resistive screen at work...apples & oranges.

However, I don't really like the main screen of the iPhone, and SBP3 does it for me. I've not flashed my ROM, but...

Apples and Oranges indeed but you're saying that the iPhone screen reacts with speed and accuracy and the Omnia's... doesn't? That was certainly my experience of the Omnia. I would say, as far as the screen goes (which I realised, in the end, was really important to me) it's a great big basket of fresh tropical fruit against a warm, plastic tray of 'fruit flavoured produce' (may not contain actual fruit) ;)

SBP3 does deffo improve the Omnia's UI but you must be more discplined than me; as soon as I found out there were other skins, ROMS, etc that might improve the Omnia's undoubted flaws I just had to try them, leading to the meltdown I described in my original post :)

[Guest endursa]

i have been thinking very similar to the thread creator, but i never really considered an iphone cause i know a few people that have one and therefor i have been using it a few times. it's not a bad phone but nothing for me.

But i own an omnia II since today and i have to say, wow, it's so much better than the omnia I in terms of display sens and screen just impressive, but we will see how good it performs in daily use :)

[Guest GodsGift]

But i own an omnia II since today and i have to say, wow, it's so much better than the omnia I in terms of display sens and screen just impressive, but we will see how good it performs in daily use :)

hey endursa, make sure you keep us updated with how you get on with it ....

I am up for an upgrade and not sure between about 5 phones.

GG

[Guest necosino]

iPhone is coming to Verizon by the end of the year..

[Guest Quang05BlkBoxsterS n Omnia]

/rant on

I too am becoming increasingly frustrated with my Omnia.

Texting is a joke... I've tried every available soft keyboard out there and it's next to impossible for me to text quickly and reliably without using the stylus. And when I *do* use the stylus, it's clunky, slow, and I still end up with tons of typos. Utterly frustrating! The other day I threw my Omnia across the room in frustration because it took me several minutes to send one freaking text message that should have only taken seconds. Grrr!!!

I'm almost at my wits end... I want to dump Verizon and go with the iPhone. But, I'm intrigued by the new Palm Pre and Verizon should have that phone early next year.

One last quip with the Omnia. One of the main reasons I purchased it was because of its built in GPS. I had visions of never getting lost again, the flick of a finger and having a full featured GPS at my fingertips. I purchased and installed Garmin's Mobile XT and discovered the GPS locked by Verizon. I waited 8 months, installed the beta ROM (and now the official ROM) and now have to wait seemingly forever for a satellite lock. Once I ended up driving all the way to my destination before it ever locked. Leaving the GPS turned on (GPS Toggle) drains my battery. So, no GPS for me.

I'm sick and tired of buggy software, fat-fingering everything -- using the phone without the crazy dangling stylus is next to impossible.

Just as the original poster said, when I bought this phone I REALLY wanted to love it. Now, almost a year later, I want to drive over it with my car. My love for Omnia has turned to hatred. Countless hours wasted trying to make the phone do what it's supposed to do. Countless nights being woken up by that insane "charging complete" notification that can't be turned off.

/rant off

You should have gone with the unlocked SP version i900. Btw yours still works after that frustrated throw proving that the Omnia is indeed very reliable than iphone. KEEP IT!

Btw you can see me in Omnia 2 thread now because I plan on getting it AFTER all major and minor bugs are fixed in a few months (and the price drop, lol)

Edited July 29, 2009 by Quang05BlkBoxsterS n Omnia

[Guest Quang05BlkBoxsterS n Omnia]

i dont think any phone will EVER fulfil all our needs..Not in this have-it-all, do-it-all world we now live in.

What we can just do is get the best WE think is best. Everyones got different opinion, and my opinion is something that has annoyed me for years (lots of years)..

I know the answer to my annoyance, but i may as well share it..Why dont Manufacturers of Phones/Devices/Tech make one device that is one supreme being??

I know its about demographics and spreading the cost & income etc etc...

But i think they would make more money if they concentrated on one or two handsets....maybe 3. Not a full range of 10-30 phones..

Omnia is very good, i am proud of it and rarely have issues with it. If i do, i cook something else ;) It has opened my eyes to PPC's, this is my first and will not be the last :)

iPhone is great, but for me is too basic, the build and quality of it is second to none, if i could just transplant my Omnia inside it... ;)

There is so much to come from mobile devices in the near future.

I agree. Before getting the i900 I did lots of research and comparison from June to Aug last year until I got an unlocked SP ver on Labor day, and I thought it would be the very first all touch PDA phone for me for at least a couple of years. But I WAS wrong partially because of blah blah...same old complaints like yours...And if ranked statiscally, UI smoothness and responsive is probably the most disappointed feature (again capacitive is better but more prone to accidental touch). But then its specs and performance otherwise outweighted the sluggish response. So again it is up to individual phone feature usage. I still love its sleek small form factor everytime removing the silicon skin from it. Hopefully the Omnia 2 will serve me well over a couple of years, well what features (not specs) that is missing from it? All I need for a few years or forever is what the i900 has now plus the improvements from Omnia 2, which HOPEFULLY (shh, old clumsy bulky wm6.1) is a FAST and STABLE UI with lots of individual customisation RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX (NOT ROM update every month or so). I think the engineers at phone makes are not that creative nor eager to listen to the actual users who in turn help them pay their bills, lol.

Edited July 29, 2009 by Quang05BlkBoxsterS n Omnia

[Guest Slappa]

Apples and Oranges indeed but you're saying that the iPhone screen reacts with speed and accuracy and the Omnia's... doesn't?

Yep, but there's the trade-off....The iPhone is more accurate & speedy, but can only be used with fingers. There's a fair few things (games included) which I use the stylus for, which AFAIK won't work on a capacative screen.

[Guest scoiattolo]

I am no Apple fan.

...

- but I wanted a touch screen phone and after much research bought an Omnia.

....

I persevered with my Omnia for 6 months. I really, really wanted to like it. Out of the box (originally on branded, Vodafone firmware) it was awful.

...

Then I found this brilliant forum and was introduced to ROMS. If I only knew what I had let myself in for..

...

I've lost count of the number of ROMS I've downloaded and installed, always quietly terrified that I would brick the phone - although I never did. I ended up running one of the WinMo 6.5 variants. But somehow, it never, ever felt quite.. right. Bugs remained.

The screen scratched just by looking at it.

Then I tried the iPhone 3GS. What a total revelation, albeit with a struggle to put aside my life-long aversion to anything Apple.

For me though, the iPhone is miles ahead - and ultimately my 6 months with the Omnia was wasted. YMMV..

Fantastic post!! Congratulations.

The biits I quoted from your post are exactly matching my own experience and feelings since last september when I got my Omnia. Just after two weks after buying it I wanted to get rid of my Omnia , very frustated :) ... what made me change my mind was discovering this forum and all the fantastic people here.

I think I flashed over 30 Roms, tweaking every single bit to get the best from WinMo and Omnia...

.. but ...

I am now at the end of the line. Time to move on.

Bored of flashing without really achieving a real improvement, hunting for the Holy Grail without ever reaching it.

I think the same feeling is shared by our remaing best cooks (Sector, Khuanchai, etc..). Some already left (Passoa, Qbus, etc..)

The somewhat bad experience ruled out for my next mobile WinMo (WinMo 6.5 is too little an improvement) and Samsung (they rushed the Omnia on the market and too soon abandoned it - only Secany 's leaked roms gave new life to it).

I want a phone that works well out of the box, has a lot of programs and above all, that is a PLEASURE to use. Iphone has all this, in particular the PLEASURE factor is IMHO where is wastly superior to the competition.

And of course you can still tweak and play with it <_< (there are plenty of forums about it).

My new iPhone is coming tomorrow, so it's time for me to say goodbye. Sector's Zeus rom is the last one for me, next would be jailbreaking my iPhone ;) .

Thank you in particular to:

Paul

PassOa

Qbus

Sector

Khuanchai

and to ALL other members.

Thank you guys

;)

[Guest le.bouch]

The iPhone is more accurate & speedy, but can only be used with fingers.. stylus ... won't work on a capacative screen.

Good point. If the Omnia had a built-in stylus I may have not grown to hate it (the screen / dangly stylus) so much, who knows? I know a lot of WinMo enthusiasts are great game players, so a stylus is needed. Not me though - not enough hours in the day :)

[Guest Devin C]

What I find particularly interesting is that the OP seems to decry Winmo for its availability of choice. Almost like saying he is too overwhelmed by choice and wants someone else to restrict it for him. I have never quite understood this attitude. No one is forcing you to try every ROM in sight. Choosing a phone mainly because it doesn't have choices seems counterintuitive to me.

The Omnia 9XX still blows the Iphone away in most categories. In fact, I laugh at the new commercials from Apple touting cut and paste and video....I shout "i've had those for years!" at the TV when they come on.

Interface issues are technically non-existant. There are enough freeware skins and apps out there so that your Winmo can look exactly like an Iphone if you really want it to. So I really cannot imagine interface is an issue. I can get my home screen, contacts, weather, calendar, music player, et.c all to look and work exactly like an iphone...for free.

App Store? I guess....but it doesn't take a lot of effort to go to XDA or a couple good freeware and shareware sites and essentially have the equivalent of an app store, albeit one were YOU get to decide what you want and not Apple.

I fail to see what else. Me? I enjoy having essentially unlimited storage (24 GB and ability to swap sd cards), unlimited battery life (I carry two extra batteries with me and can swamp one in 10 seconds), a much better camera than the iphone, multitasking, an interface that looks and works EXACTLY as I want it to, etc.

I am not an Apple hater. I own an Apple desktop computer. My wife has a Touch and my mom has an iphone so I have farted around with them plenty. But unless you are a complete techno-newb, I could not recommend an iphone to anyone.

[Guest LGDP]

ALL,

I love my Omnia and definitely dont regret buying it and having used it for more than 6 months.

There are only 2 things I hate about it which made me order 3GS :

• I can't see a thing literally on the screen when I am during sunny daylight outside !!!
  
• The Windows Interface which is unusable with the finger (it is with the nail or the precise finger but if you wanna quickly do something without having to make sure you will touch the right millimeter spot then you wont manage it) very good example is the cross button to exit current app.
  
  
  I would never buy Iphone 3G because it lacks so many fucntionalities but 3GS now is like the revelation :
  • intuitive,
    
  • easy to naviguate,
    
  • Push Mail
    
  • Multi task
    
  • Copy and paste
    
  • Longer battery
    
  • Best screen ever (no matter if the phone is facing the sun)
    
  • Touch sensitivity beyond my imagination !
    
  • and much more !
    

[Guest [email protected]]

Hey all just figured Id give some enlightenment to a few people that don't seem to really understand the key differences between WM devices and the iPhone.

Anyone who really doesn't enjoy tweaking and customizing there phone to there liking should stay away from WM. At its core until recently WM has simply been a base for people to start with. A stable and fairly quick OS that gets the basic jobs done, but has much more advanced options if your willing to get dirty.

Microsoft has always had the stance that "here is a OS for your phone, now make it your own." This is not an OS for someone that simply wants a big screen on a pretty looking device. The Omnia is a beautiful phone mind you but it has key design choices that drive me even crazy. Namely the lack of a simple headphone jack. WM is for people who are more "geek" than others.

You get all the cutting edge features on WM, that's not the case for the iPhone. The downfall to this is that they are sometimes buggy and don't always work right. My very good friend has an iPhone and I find myself even sometimes amazed at what apps he has on it. The sad part for me is knowing I had those same apps on my WM phone first but they didn't look any wheres near as nice. I find that most of the apps for the iPhone are really dumb. I mean that they really have no point and tend to be 99 cent throw aways that you show off to your friends but in the end never actually end up using on a regular basis. A good example is that stupid compass. What on earth do you need that for when you have GPS? Then there's dumb apps like iBeer, iFart and any other stupid thing you can stick an "i" in front of. If you want iPhones interface then download iFonz or Wisbar advance desktop. The list of crummy iPhone ripoff interfaces go on forever.

I'm running a WM 6.5 rom by Bgill55 that is sick! and Ive pimped the hell out of it. And you know whats nice? When a new ROM comes out that I feel has enough feature to warrant a flash, I run a quick SPB Backup, flash my ROM, then restore. Works like a charm every time.

I could go on forever and everyone has there own opinion. Either you like customizing and flashing ROMS to have the latest cutting edge tech, or you like a dumb down locked system like apple and want to be like everyone else. To me there's a certain "TRUE" geek factor to running WM, and I don't mean the now cliche "Tech Savy " that has become the iPhone drones.

The important thing is to get what you want in a phone. I'm sick of people trying to compare the iPhone with any WM device. The iPhone is its own. It runs its own OS that no other phone has, so therefore every app is tailor made for that phones hardware, unlike WM devices. People just need to do research first about the phones they are buying. That's why they like iPhones, its easy and doesn't require any effort. Stick to Macs too if you can.

[Guest le.bouch]

What I find particularly interesting is that the OP seems to decry Winmo for its availability of choice. Almost like saying he is too overwhelmed by choice and wants someone else to restrict it for him. I have never quite understood this attitude. No one is forcing you to try every ROM in sight. Choosing a phone mainly because it doesn't have choices seems counterintuitive to me.

What actually frustrated me was the availability of choice which I found ultimately led nowhere. Very true, no-one forced me to try every ROM but if the original is rubbish and each subsequent one only a slight improvement I felt almost obliged to try them, having invested so much time (and money) thus far.

I did say that my findings probably spoke more about me than the Omnia. But.... however limited the iPhone feature set is, it does what it does well. Which is more than I can say about my Omnia, whatever flavour of Winmo I shove in it.

I laugh at the new commercials from Apple touting cut and paste and video....I shout "i've had those for years!" at the TV when they come on.

Every one who digs Winmo constantly seems to bang on about the Copy Paste thing. We all know that Apple were years behind with that one but having used Copy and Paste on the Winmo interface I would much rather do it on the iPhone. Elegant simplicity. Not farting about with your finger nail or stylus.

Interface issues are technically non-existant. There are enough freeware skins and apps out there so that your Winmo can look exactly like an Iphone if you really want it to. So I really cannot imagine interface is an issue.

That's not the point. I didn't want my screen to look like an iPhone - I wanted it to respond like one.

App Store? I guess....but it doesn't take a lot of effort to go to XDA or a couple good freeware and shareware sites...

Very true. I found it too time-intensive to wade through that though. I'm fully aware of the Apple locked-in attitued to the App Store and I think that sucks. But from an end-user point of view it does work really well.

I fail to see what else.. unlimited storage... unlimited battery life .... a much better camera than the iphone... multitasking...

I'm with you on all of that apart from the camera. I haven't found much end difference between the two - I much prefer the interface on the iPhone. I do miss the panorama feature on the Omnia though...

But unless you are a complete techno-newb, I could not recommend an iphone to anyone.

That's interesting. I'm in no way a techo-newb and I've found the iPhone a breath of fresh air. I drew a simile with music technology in my OP and stand by that. Sometimes it's nice to move away from a pile of impressive electronic specs and turn to something that only does a few things but does them really well.

I can't argue that on paper the Omnia and WinMo kick the iPhone's arse but it's how that technology is delivered that's important. Ultimately I was left feeling that the Omnia and especially Winmo is a bit of a mess.

[Guest le.bouch]

Hey all just figured Id give some enlightenment to a few people that don't seem to really understand the key differences between WM devices and the iPhone.

Blimey. This better be good ;)

Anyone who really doesn't enjoy tweaking and customizing there phone to there liking should stay away from WM... A stable and fairly quick OS..... Microsoft has always had the stance that "here is a OS for your phone, now make it your own." ....

I've never seen that in a MS ad. Or "here is an unfinished OS. Please finish it"

You get all the cutting edge features on WM, that's not the case for the iPhone. The downfall to this is that they are sometimes buggy and don't always work right.

Not worth the time or heart-ache then..

...that stupid compass. What on earth do you need that for when you have GPS? ... dumb apps like iBeer, iFart .... If you want iPhones interface then download iFonz or.....

The compass is brilliant with Google Maps. It rotates the map automatically to the way you're facing. True, sat nav apps do this too. But what if you can't get GPS reception on the Omnia. Search this forum for plenty who can't... ;)

Re the interface, as I've said before, it's not about looking like an iPhone, it's about functionality and response.

I'm sick of people trying to compare the iPhone with any WM device.... they like iPhones, its easy and doesn't require any effort. Stick to Macs too if you can.

My OP wasn't really to compare the two phones so hopefully I didn't make you sick :)

You're right, the iPhone is easy but I'm happy to put any amount of effort in if the results are worth it. For example, I have a high config PC that I've spent a lot of time and money getting just right for music recording applications. I'm happy to do that because it now performs superbly and does the job I need it for. There's nothing I could buy off the shelf that's any better. Get my drift?

[Guest snap156]

Hi All,

I too have spend lots and lots of time mucking around trying to make my omnia work the way i want it...and i can say im over it now... I have installed Ifonz on my Omnia and it does look like the iphone, but dont perferm like the iphone...

I have tweaked the settings and now the touch screen to run much better together with (Sectors 6.5 Rom)... but no amount of tickering with it , gives me the same experience as using my friends iphone...

Yes there are lots of Winmo apps, ive tried lots of them , as its been mentioned some are good and some are crap, the itunes store is a great idea, cause the develpers are required to meet a certian standard before being allowed up on the site for download... Winmo dont do this , maybe the new microsoft market place will ??

mostly the winmo needs lots of work to make it anywhere as good as iphones UI... and me too am leaning towards the dark side.

Just my 2 cents worth...

Snap

[Guest bpivk]

I love my Omnia. Ok the screen could be more responsive but that's because I have a lot of apps on my phone and that slows it down a little.

I hate the fact that I can't use a storage card on Iphone and that you can't customize it. It's ok for people that have the phone in their language because they can use tx9 to write messages on the touchscreen without any problems but the only way we can have tx9 is to tweak our phones and that's where Iphone fails in my book. It's just not customizable enough.

So in the end I love my Omnia and I won't trade it for some time (because my wife to be doesn't allow it :) ) and because it's customizable. But we all have our prefrences and wishes so there really isn't a point in iphone vs. omnia discussions. Besides.... Nokia 3310 rocks. ;)

[Guest Lord-Y]

I've waited nearly two months to write this. Let me start by saying I am no Apple fan. I hate their locked-in paranoia and take-it-or-leave-it attitude. I hate iTunes. I hated the iPhone (no MMS, rubbish Bluetooth, crap camera -what a joke!) - but I wanted a touch screen phone and after much research bought an Omnia.

I persevered with my Omnia for 6 months. I really, really wanted to like it. Out of the box (originally on branded, Vodafone firmware) it was awful. The Samsung veneer over Windows Mobile was clunky and Windows Mobile itself was buggy and fiddly. The touch screen was inconsistent and too dim in daylight. The camera was only worth having in daylight.

Then I found this brilliant forum and was introduced to ROMS. If I only knew what I had let myself in for..

I think it's fantastic that so many obviously talented people choose to spend hours if not days making ROMS for the Omnia. They have without doubt taken it leaps and bounds further than Samsung did.

I've lost count of the number of ROMS I've downloaded and installed, always quietly terrified that I would brick the phone - although I never did. I ended up running one of the WinMo 6.5 variants. But somehow, it never, ever felt quite.. right. Bugs remained. Sometimes Bluetooth would work, sometimes not. Sometimes the WLAN connection would disappear. Many of the apps I couldn't work well without the stylus. Oh that bloody, dangly stylus!

The screen scratched just by looking at it. I could never fix that maddening increasing volume ring-tone. By the time I'd heard the phone ring the call had gone to Voicemail! The volumes for incoming and outgoing sounds were all over the place - even after fiddling with the app that fixes it.

Whenever I found problems with it I thought 'maybe I should try a different ROM?' - I'd download another and then the problems would start all over again, some old ones fixed - some not. But yet another learning curve, having to suss out the new 'issues'. I definitely got 'new version' addiction. Even when the Omnia was working well I'd feel I was missing out if I didn't try the latest ROM - 'maybe this one is the Holy Grail?'

I know that some find the whole ROM part exciting and interesting - in the end I found it exhausting and slightly depressing. Too much time spent in front of the computer, essentially achieving nothing.

Then I tried the iPhone 3GS. What a total revelation, albeit with a struggle to put aside my life-long aversion to anything Apple. The touch screen works perfectly, every time. It's beautifully bright and clear - but dims when it needs to - automatically.

It's simplicity and form blow me away - even after having had it for two months now. I now know exactly what people mean by 'tyranny of choice'. Even something as daft a ring-tones - on the Omnia I wasted hours downloading, experimenting, choosing. On the iPhone you choose from a dozen or whatever, and that's it. Done.

I know it sounds like I'm a luddite and I'm promoting limited choice. But actually I'm not. I'm a musician and I think you can draw parallells. Sometimes I can get more done with a mono synth and a drum machine than I can with a room full of synths, computers and effects. Tyranny of choice...

With the iPhone, all the things that I need to do with a phone are intuitive and work brilliantly. Email, internet, camera (no flash but the Omnia was useless in anything but daylight anyway) and... oh yeah, phone calls! Having spent time with it, the Apps Store is excellent and I'm even warming to iTunes!

I'm still a PC - definitely not a Mac. I wrote this for anyone interested in jumping ship from the Omnia, or maybe anyone who's only tried the original iPhone. You may recognise yourself in some of what I've described.. I'm NOT slagging the Omnia or ROM chefs or anyone who loves all that stuff. I'm probably saying more about me and my limitations than the Omnia's.

For me though, the iPhone is miles ahead - and ultimately my 6 months with the Omnia was wasted. YMMV..

You have to buy an omnia II man :)

[Guest Mothamoz]

You have to buy an omnia II man :)

+1 ;)

[Guest poor_student]

I'm in the same position as the original poster.

I've had an Omnia since August last year, one of the first in the UK, but I hated the fact I was constantly updating it with the latest ROM, to make it feel more responsive and to iron out all the bugs. The camera on the phone was also especially disappointing, 5MP but the photos always came out terrible.

The things which are most important to me are:

1) Usability and iterface

2) internet browsing

3) GPS and Sat Nav

4) Camera and video recording

5) Good list of apps (preferbably free :))

6) Radio

I was really looking forward to the Omnia 2, spec looks great. Top notch screen, good camera, fast cpu. But then I tried my younger brothers Iphone 3GS. OMG what a revelation! The interface is so slick, so easy to use. The camera, which I thought was going to awful as it has no flash and is only 3MP was amazing, far better than the Omnia. Also, video recording was so smooth! Now I've found out tomtom is coming out, I'm leaning more towards it...

The video reviews I've seen of the Omnia 2 look uninspiring. The browser comparison on Pocket Now showed the iphone was considerably faster, the UI looks sluggish and the video recoding does not look upto the 3GS let alone dvd quality.

Guys, its down to you to convince me to go for the Omnia 2, it is cheaper than the iphone and has a radio, but apart from that, I'm struggling.

One final point, the screens I've seen for windows mobile 7 look better and it supports multi tocuh. Can the Omnia 2 be upgraded to winmo 7???

[Guest laughingcrow]

Ive been a WM user since 2003 and I hate hate hate apple's iphone. I hate the fact thats its locked down, I hate the fact that it uses hardware available in 2003 and somehow convinces fan boys that its bleeding edge tecnology.

I also hate hate hate WM. I hate its pathetic interface, its pathetic user experience, its pathetic resistive screens. Most of the apps look like they were deisgned for windows NT. The very idea of designing buttons so small on the screen that you have to use a finger nail is absolutely bloody insane.

Compare the hardware of WM devices and the iphone.... and the WM phone wins hands down. Compare the user experience and the iphone wins hands down.

As for the people who day "I enjoy flashing roms" I do up to a point, but you know what.... it just shouldnt be this hard. If you had to reformat your laptop every month because the OS wasnt up to scratch you'd change OS.

I think microsoft will rapidly start to loose people unless they sort this out. When my contract comes up for renewal in six months time, I will definately be seriously considering leaving WM.

[Guest La Traviata]

Guys, its down to you to convince me to go for the Omnia 2, it is cheaper than the iphone and has a radio, but apart from that, I'm struggling.

I think it all depends on what you want your phone to do. My 2 pence (from another thread):

Unfortunately, some of the things the iPhone can't do are important to me. As I said in another thread, I originally wanted an iPhone; I still do. I love the UI and screen, the music player and the many accessories, but sadly that is secondary if, for example, I can't edit a presentation. I only got my Omnia a couple of months ago, so I won't be getting a new phone until next year, but I'm keeping an eye on Omnia II, Omnia Pro and the iPhone (as well as Toshiba TG01 and whatever HTC come up with next) and see how things develop. From the previews it seems Samsung has addressed a lot of the problems of Omnia I and I'm sure the iPhone will continue to improve as well. However, given that to get an iPhone I would have to change to a SP/network with poorer coverage, sign up for an 18+ month contract on a tariff twice as expensive as my current one (or pay £500+ for the phone on pay as you go), pay for basic functions that I currently get for free, e.g. tethering (£15-£30 @ month extra), not to mention being tied to iTunes, Apple would really have to make it worth my while.

I'm also a bit concerned about the complaints on this forum, especially about battery life (26+ pages) and firmware upgrade problems:

http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1333

Edited August 10, 2009 by La Traviata

[Guest arirang]

I think it all depends on what you want your phone to do. My 2 pence (from another thread):

I'm also a bit concerned about the complaints on this forum, especially about battery life and firmware upgrades:

http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1333

here's another forum [http://pleasefixtheiphone.com/]--many features [both simple and advanced] we take for granted are still missing/buggy/nuisance.

itunes is the only source for ROM revisions/updates/patches. if you go elsewhere, it's a legal breach [http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/07/jailbreak/]. there's even a growing rogue developer community [http://cydia.saurik.com/], but nowhere matches the likes of modaco, xda, etc. show me an iphone-based forum where a cook or uber-geek developer has plucked the best features of other smartphones [HTC, samsung, android, blackberry, palm, etc] and ported it. now search for 'samsung omnia i9x0 rom'--it's a friggin' chameleon! i can make my omnia look and behave like any of the smartphones noted. want it lean? you got it. want it packed? you got it. want it fast? you got it. want a battery-sipper? you got.

Apple considers itself a premium brand yet most of its parts come from bins in china. outside the US, Samsung has a brand cache that is far more global and sought after. moreover, electronic companies like sony and samsung offshore their cheaper models, but typically manufacture their high-end models domestically to ensure quality. the omnia i910 is no slouch nor exception, it feels SOLID in my hand.

finally, i paid ONLY $99. the price-comparable iphone 3G is crippled in comparison--it's a joke, a rip-off, a manufacturer's way of moving deadwood. moreover, the omnia's 1st gen processor is comparable to the next-gen $199 3GS--it actually exceeds it by several 10,000 ticks--and i'm amazed at the bargain i got.

thank you samsung, microsoft, and verizon for throwing in a true multi-tasking OS, easy AND cheap to expand storage, replaceable battery, AND never dropping a call :)

[Guest poor_student]

here's another forum [http://pleasefixtheiphone.com/]--many features [both simple and advanced] we take for granted are still missing/buggy/nuisance.

itunes is the only source for ROM revisions/updates/patches. if you go elsewhere, it's a legal breach [http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/07/jailbreak/]. there's even a growing rogue developer community [http://cydia.saurik.com/], but nowhere matches the likes of modaco, xda, etc. show me an iphone-based forum where a cook or uber-geek developer has plucked the best features of other smartphones [HTC, samsung, android, blackberry, palm, etc] and ported it. now search for 'samsung omnia i9x0 rom'--it's a friggin' chameleon! i can make my omnia look and behave like any of the smartphones noted. want it lean? you got it. want it packed? you got it. want it fast? you got it. want a battery-sipper? you got.

Apple considers itself a premium brand yet most of its parts come from bins in china. outside the US, Samsung has a brand cache that is far more global and sought after. moreover, electronic companies like sony and samsung offshore their cheaper models, but typically manufacture their high-end models domestically to ensure quality. the omnia i910 is no slouch nor exception, it feels SOLID in my hand.

finally, i paid ONLY $99. the price-comparable iphone 3G is crippled in comparison--it's a joke, a rip-off, a manufacturer's way of moving deadwood. moreover, the omnia's 1st gen processor is comparable to the next-gen $199 3GS--it actually exceeds it by several 10,000 ticks--and i'm amazed at the bargain i got.

thank you samsung, microsoft, and verizon for throwing in a true multi-tasking OS, easy AND cheap to expand storage, replaceable battery, AND never dropping a call :)

I'd never seen concerns about the battery, etc. so thanks for letting me know. Still confused as to what to get next...

The parts may come from bins in china, but they all seem to work well...e.g. the camera on the 3gs is only 3mp but the pictures are better than my omnia and the video recording looks even better than the omnia 2. I just wish the omnia 2 could live upto its spec list. Its 800mhz processor sounds like it should be great, but video reviews i've seen still show the UI to be sluggish and web page rendering to be slow. This is what really disappoints me. I don't know if things will improve when the windows 6.5 update comes out, but I hate buying something in the hope I can rely on some cook to make the device work the way i'd expect. I didn't buy new tv in the hope that one day i can get a clear picture...

[Guest Saluki HHI]

I run the SPB MS3 and I feel like i have found the Holy Grail for the I910 omnia it runs everything flawlessly, and the only ROM upgrade I have done is the leaked ROM, hated it b4 Mobile Shell 3 but now even my wife can get things done on the phone, which is no small feat. I am interested in trying 6.5 Rom but now looking at the omnia 2 vids the UI looks suspiciously like SPB MS3. I cannot stand Apple products, and will continue to enjoy my omnia for the next 1 1/2 years untill I can upgrade for free.

[Guest cooleydan5]

I run the SPB MS3 and I feel like i have found the Holy Grail for the I910 omnia it runs everything flawlessly, and the only ROM upgrade I have done is the leaked ROM, hated it b4 Mobile Shell 3 but now even my wife can get things done on the phone, which is no small feat. I am interested in trying 6.5 Rom but now looking at the omnia 2 vids the UI looks suspiciously like SPB MS3. I cannot stand Apple products, and will continue to enjoy my omnia for the next 1 1/2 years untill I can upgrade for free.

i agree completely. The omnia is a very CAPABALE phone. the iphone has so many restrictions. apple doesnt give us the freedom we want to achieve many fun and interesting things. i do have to say the one thing i like about the iphone is its crazy app store that basically everything is free. if the omnia had a app store like apple, then i would never change phones again lol. as far as screen sensativity. i had an iphone for about 3 months and the touch screen is really nice but after a few reg tweaks and other apps i find my omnia just as responsive. my iphone 3g weas jailbroken and i still didnt feel like it had too much potential. especially the fact that i had to either spend a bagilion dollars for MMS or do a bunch of other crap just to send a picture. i mean come on? ya it has fun apps but i cant even send a picture?the internet was significantly slower as well as some of the apps. once i got the omnia and updated the ROM to several different ROMS i found the one for me. i compared many apps like youtube and just regular interenet browsing against the 3g and the 3gs and neither were as fast as my omnia. i opened and played a youtube video before i could even get the youtube app to open on th iphone. anyway i think ppl have certain phones for there liking. i have chosen the OMNIA. :D ,oh and 5mega pixels compareed to 3? come on... :angry:

-CANT WAIT TO TEST ANDROMNIA!