Comparing Samsung Omnia and HTC Touch Pro

[Guest sztupy]

Hi!

I've recently got a HTC Touch Pro so I thought I could compare these two phones in a lot of terms. I'll update this post whenever I discover something new in either one.

Unboxing

I liked unboxing both. Omnia was my first WinMo phone, and TP simply had a nice box :) But I liked the contents of the TP package more. It had a phone-case, and a screen-protector foil, which I both really missed from the Omnia.

Speed

This is something you usually know. Omnia has a WQVGA screen, and a 600Mhz CPU, and not much ROM/RAM, while Touch Pro has a VGA screen, 500Mhz CPU and more ROM/RAM.

According to the specs Omnia is faster, but TP has larger memory. This might even out, but that is not nescessary true. Because of the larger resolution Touch Pro needs around 4x as much memory to store the graphics as Omnia does, and blitting these larger graphics is a bit slower too (on a slower CPU). Testing the two phones side by side (both with stock ROM's) I had to see the spinning "hourglass" less times in Omnia as in TP, so in this section Omnia is the winner.

Graphics

Omnia has WQVGA and a larger screen, TP has VGA with a smaller screen. In terms of readability TP is clearly the winner: more pixels, more fun. Of course the larger screen means more viewable area, but QVGA resolution is unfortunately still too low. But don't forget that the higher resolution means slower PDA too!

Input

Touch Pro has a hardware keyboard, which is really usable, so in terms oy keyboards TP is the winner (this is one of the things why I bought a TP). But the other thing missing from the Omnia is good harware keys. Okay, you have an optical mouse, but imho that's useless, and if you want to use the mouse as a d-pad, you get a lot of compatibility problems, because you can't "long press" any of the directional buttons. Too bad. TP has a very nice d-pad, with lots of features (like the spinner). Yes, it takes away a lot of space, that could be used as a touchscreen, but I just like hardware buttons...

Multimedia

This is something where TP loses a LOT. The camera is crap, no slow-motion videos, the headsets you get are useless (and putting them in your ear HURTS!), and you can't replace them with a normal 3,5'' jack headphone. Omnia is the ultimate winner in this section.

Stock applications

Well... this is the section where it really turns out that Samsung is still a "newcomer" in the touch-friendly WinMo scene. Samsung wanted to create a touch-friendly phone, but it still lacks a lot of touch-friendly AND usable functions. I know that Samsung tries hard (just think about the new features in HL2, like the new volume changer GUI or the favorite settings application), but samsung's apps still have a lot of bugs, and they still lack "something". I'm hoping that Samsung will put new things into the omnia (just as they did with HL2), and eventually both phones will be in an equal level.

Stock firmware

Omnia has a page where the user can download the latest firmware upgrades. There are still no official firmware upgrades for the TP. Omnia has a WinCE 20270 while TP is still in the 19xxx. Both contain a lot of serious bugs (TP has something similar to the black standby of death too), but while in omnia they were more-or-less fixed, there are NO upgrades to the Touch Pro yet.

Others

There are some things which I missed from the TP after using the omnia, like the etiquette mode, or the auto-screen rotation. I even don't like that long pressing the end key, to lock the phone will result in getting back to Manila3D, which I don't like (if I'm listening to the radio, then why get back to M3D?). And TouchFlo3D is useless(!) compared to TouchFlo2D. The latter is more usable and faster! I also hate that TP has a very large power button, which I always press by chance. Yuck!

Conclusion (for now)

Well... it's hard to say anything. Omnia is a great and fast phone, which I really like, but it lacks the keyboard, which I really miss. TP is a great phone, although a bit slower and heavier, with lots of nice features, but it too has a lot of glitches, and such. I know that everyone would love an Omnia with a keyboard (and still the same size and weight), a 480*800 screen resolution and more RAM/ROM, but we all know this is only a dream.

In the next episode I'll try to update the ROM of the TP to see what has improved and what not.

[Guest herctrap]

not a dream

wait for t omnia

or touch pro 2

[Guest Ingvarr]

I am aiming for touch pro 2 as my next phone. Don't think anything else better will be released before summer anyway...

[Guest whatledog]

I've got both the Fuze and the Omnia, w/o 3G, on ATT. I like both, but I can say that each has its strong/bad points.

KeyBoard? I didn't need, or use it much, but it was good to have when I used it. The soft KB serves my purpose. My daughter texts all the time, so she uses the hard KB a lot. The Tilt's, umm, "tilt" of the screen had the "Wow!" factor that the new TPro2 will surely have, also.(Actually LOOKS like a mini laptop, plus it's nice to have the phone sitting on a desk and look at the screen w/o holding on to it.) (May be worth going for that alone B) )

VGA? You can tell the difference, but the Fuze screen is too small, after I got used to the larger Omnia screen, even with it being QVGA. Movies I would put as even, one, better resolution, one, larger screen.

Rotation? I put gyrator on the fuze and liked alot, but my daughter doesn't like the screen to rotate as much, so I took it off. Omnia has a great rotation. Oh, I added touch response to both.

Games? Oh, definately the Fuze is better because the hard controls let you play more games. I never could play a Frogger game properly because the optical thingy just doesn't cut it for me. But I just love Psycho, which does great on the Omnia, but not too good on the Fuze. The Fuze's scrolling feature is just that much easier and faster to use.

Bluetooth? I use BT with a mono headset all the time (for MODaCo's podcast, of course!), and now that it's FINALLY working for the Omnia! Always seemed to have it with the Wizard, Hermes, etc., Fuze.

TV-out? Back-breaker... I use this all the time. The reason I don't have a TouchHD.

TF3D? Don't like it. Have always changed to a clean ROM and put HTC Home on the devices. I am currently using ifonz and it serves my needs with all my apps on one screen.

Size/Weight? The Fuze is almost too small, and I've got small hands. I never put it in my pocket, use a hip pouch exclusively, so the weight is not a factor.

Performance, memory, RAM, etc.? I guess I am not a power user, because I have no complaints about either one.

Just my 2 cents worth (1 cent, with the recession!), but I would not buy either one, now. I'd wait for the new stuff...

BTW... My daughter has the Fuze-- her geeky friends love playing with it at UNC-CH. :(