The official Samsung i900 Omnia 'Ask Paul' thread

[Guest chucky.egg]

I've had one for a couple of days and there's lots to get excited about, but as usual, there's some little annoyances :D

Games are virtually impossible to play with the optical joystick :(

A few games I've tried won't run because of the odd screen resolution :(

You HAVE to lock the keypad as the buttons still work even when in standby :P

If you turn off the option to turn on the backlight when a button is pressed you don't need to lock the keypad, but the screen permanently stays on the dimmest setting :P

Signal strength isn't marvelous, and fluctuates a fair bit, often find it showing one or no bars where others show full strength, and even went straight to voicemail last night when showing full wack (I tend to put them to the test!) :D

Volume when listening to music is a fair bit quieter than HTC devices, fine indoors but not sure about in the street or on Manchester trams :(

GPS worked fine at first, but after a hard reset yesterday TomTom can't find a signal at all for some reason :D

The device is pretty finger friendly but once you get down to the usual WM6 stuff you need a stylus, and unfortunately the stylus was obviously an afterthought, and so has no dedicated slot :angry: You need to attach it to the lanyard hole which means it dangles all over the place and is rather annoying !!

Hopefully some of the bad points will get fixed, and in its favour, it's gorgeous, the camera's great, and the flash is very powerful!!

And is anyone still wondering why the iphone gets so much hype, and WM devices get ... well, none really (apart from sites like Modaco of course!)

TBH the Omnia was never the one for me anyway, but I'm begining to think I want an iphone - just for the simplicity and reliability. I want a device that just works, not one which works one day and not the next. Cramming all the features in doesn't make up for flaky hardware/software.

I'm going to wash my mouth out now.

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Just been out on the bike listening to music on the latest build, plenty loud enough!

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[Guest Simon Desser]

Paul, I've just flashed the new ROM after following your instructions about incorrect software version :D

Probably being thick but I still can't find how to disable buttons when in stand by ?

I'll try out music volume later.

Cheers

Simon.

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Start -> Settings -> Buttons -> Wake Up -> Power button only.

:D

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[Guest the-jackal]

Good work guys. I think this will be my next phone and its good to get real peoples opinions. I am a N95 classic user at the moment and I had the Touch Diamond for 7 days but did not get on with it.

Was thinking about the N96 but maybe not now. The iphone is also on my list but I am worried about the volume of it. What's the volume like compared to the iphone?

Cheers again

[Guest Simon Desser]

Start -> Settings -> Buttons -> Wake Up -> Power button only.

:D

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:D Cheers Paul :angry:

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Good work guys. I think this will be my next phone and its good to get real peoples opinions. I am a N95 classic user at the moment and I had the Touch Diamond for 7 days but did not get on with it.

Was thinking about the N96 but maybe not now. The iphone is also on my list but I am worried about the volume of it. What's the volume like compared to the iphone?

Cheers again

What did you not get on with on the Diamond? They are pretty similar...

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[Guest Paul (MVP)]

And is anyone still wondering why the iphone gets so much hype, and WM devices get ... well, none really (apart from sites like Modaco of course!)

TBH the Omnia was never the one for me anyway, but I'm begining to think I want an iphone - just for the simplicity and reliability. I want a device that just works, not one which works one day and not the next. Cramming all the features in doesn't make up for flaky hardware/software.

I'm going to wash my mouth out now.

When you look at the list tho, i'm not sure how many of those are actually issues...

e.g.

Games are virtually impossible to play with the optical joystick

True, no worse equipped than the iPhone in this regard tho. You need touchscreen optimised games...

A few games I've tried won't run because of the odd screen resolution

Hard to blame the device if developers haven't developed resolution independence, but if you ARE a heavy gamer, this could be an issue. Pretty much all the apps i've used work fine tho thus far.

You HAVE to lock the keypad as the buttons still work even when in standby

Not the case...

If you turn off the option to turn on the backlight when a button is pressed you don't need to lock the keypad, but the screen permanently stays on the dimmest setting

Not the case...

Signal strength isn't marvelous, and fluctuates a fair bit, often find it showing one or no bars where others show full strength, and even went straight to voicemail last night when showing full wack (I tend to put them to the test!)

Not had any straight-to-voicemail incidents, but I actually have with my diamond. Testing with the latest ROM, signal strength is FAR better than my diamond!

Volume when listening to music is a fair bit quieter than HTC devices, fine indoors but not sure about in the street or on Manchester trams

Been testing this this morning, with the supplied headphones it's loud, when I plug in my ultimate ears I can tuyrn it up to 'unbearably loud'!!! Granted, the UEs are generally louder than most, but it's really not a problem. Simon, you found the volume wheel on the adaptor right? :D

GPS worked fine at first, but after a hard reset yesterday TomTom can't find a signal at all for some reason

Great GPS reception here, and super fast fix too with the 'Enhanced GPS' option. Several hard resets later (and ROM flashes), no problem.

The device is pretty finger friendly but once you get down to the usual WM6 stuff you need a stylus, and unfortunately the stylus was obviously an afterthought, and so has no dedicated slot!You need to attach it to the lanyard hole which means it dangles all over the place and is rather annoying !!

Yeah, this is plain dumb. Wonder where they got THAT styling cue from? :D It wouldn't be so bad if they had kinetic scrolling implemented everywhere (like on HTC devices), and put haptics across more of the device (crucially the text input panels!)

Hopefully some of the bad points will get fixed, and in its favour, it's gorgeous, the camera's great, and the flash is very powerful!!

The Camera is AWESOME! Not just on good pic quality, but on the UI and responsiveness.

So far I really like it, not perfect, but pretty nice. A worthy Diamond challenger!

P

[Guest the-jackal]

What did you not get on with on the Diamond? They are pretty similar...

Lots of little things really. I probably would of got on with it if I had more than 7 days to get used to it to be honest. The i900 has always been an option but the HTC was available first so I just went for it. I found the screen a bit small for a touch phone and it just felt to tight, if that makes sense?

I think I have got so used to my N95 that I just want a phone I can set up to behave the same as that. What I mean is I want to be able to set it up so it rings a certain tones for groups as opposed to single people ring tones. Also I never got the group sms app to work and that proved to be a pain, as was forwarding texts.

Don't get me wrong as a bit of kit the diamond was great but it just didn't work for my style of use. I am thinking now though that maybe its time for me to change rather than try and change the phone.

Failing that if i don't get on with the i900 I will be getting the N96.

Edited August 13, 2008 by the-jackal

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

I imagine the same things that frustrated on the Diamond will do so on the i900 tbh...

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[Guest the-jackal]

I imagine the same things that frustrated on the Diamond will do so on the i900 tbh...

P

Well its still worth giving it a try. I really want to get used to touch phones as I am sure its what the future will bring us more of.

Can you set groups up on the i900 and can you forward texts?

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

You can forward texts on the i900 AND the Diamond.

Not seen an option to assign ringtones to groups in the standard OS? You can assign people to 'categories', but don't think you can then assign a ringtone specific to that category (without extra software).

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[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Thanks for the answers Paul

Here are two files to try out http://www.glbenchmark.com/videos/glbhd.wmv and http://www.glbenchmark.com/videos/GLBenchmarkPro_High.wmv. But I suppose Divx should play better. If you do have any DVD rips can you try them out as well? Thanks.

I apologise, not the build quality of the screen, how the overall build quality :D, and are the images clearer on the screen when compared to a TYTn II. Also is the screen hard like the DIamond or soft like the TyTn II? :D

Regards,

Akshay

Neither of these seem to play particularly great! Will find a DivX...

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[Guest Paul (MVP)]

(using WMP that is)

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[Guest jd06]

Paul just wondering does slingplayer make good use of it widescreen? Also is the tv out any good?

Cheers Mate

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

I don't have the TV out cable, haven't tried Slingplayer yet, will try it now :D

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[Guest jd06]

Is the TV OUT cable an add on which you have to buy?

[Guest Syphon Filter]

Paul,

Any shots of the UI etc?

[Guest aksd]

(using WMP that is)

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I believe samsung have inlcuded a player of their own, not sure on that, would these wmv files play on that player, if it exists. Pity they dont work well. I wonder if they've enabled the hardware video playback acceleration on the Omnia. If its not a problem could you test them out on your diamond as well? I apologise for asking you so many questions. But I'm curious to know which one of the two the Diamond or the Omnia has better video playback. Considering the Omnia has'nt launched in India yet, and I cant personally test it out. Thank you once again.

Regards,

Akshay

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

WMV play on Windows Media Player, the Touch Player (Samsung's one) doesn't lay WMA or WMV.

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[Guest Mark_in_VA]

Quite a simple question for you, Paul: Given what there is to read on the upgrade/update to G4, would you recommend doing it, or recommend waiting until the next upgrade/update?

[Guest jajke]

Let me ask you what is one of the most anticipated devices of the year... it features Windows Mobile 6.1, a slick custom UI, it's own internal storage, a stunning design, minimalist buttons, speedy 7.2MB HSDPA, auto adjusting backlight, an orientation sensor, Opera 9.5...

Is it the Diamond I hear you say?

OK, so how about if I add it has a 5 megapixel camera with face recognition, smile recognition and a flash, a wide format screen, 16GB of internal storage AND a microSD slot, a 624MHz processor, a 1400mAh battery and you have probably guessed i'm talk about the other hot Windows Mobile release that's for once NOT coming from the HTC stable...

The Samsung i900 Omnia!

Courtesy of the wonders of eBay and FedEx, a 16GB Samsung i900 Omnia is what I have sitting in front of me now... which means it's your chance to quiz me on anything you'd like to know! Regular readers will know i've been giving the Diamond a thorough workout of late, so I should be ideally placed to compare the two.

Fire away! :D

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Paul,

Before I upgrade from my BlackJack2, does it have (my 3 main complaints): Wi-Fi, headphones jack, micro-USB or other rather than the proprietary Samsung jack to charge/connect the device to the PC/charger?

Cheers,

Jaime

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

I always like to have the latest, but if you're on G2, get ready to lose a bunch of haptics!

Re: the next update, who knows when / if there will be one...

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[Guest Helix]

Paul, always the one to get'a hold of those new handsets! Good job!

But the big question for me is...

How quick is the UI?

Is the video playback smooth?

Is IE scrolling smooth?

Or are the same limiting factors (in terms of UI speed etc) present on many of the other HTC devices in-common with the Omnia?

Does it still lack the video rendering support?

EDIT: Just got off the phone from Orange (retentions), the Omnia is on their coming soon list.

Edited August 13, 2008 by Helix

[Guest mcwarre]

Does TomTom work on it??? (thinking screen size)