VZW Omnia II - My take - Full Review

[Guest compnird]

First off I am still new to the scene but I consider myself an expert in technology. I am an Engineer and a phone addict but also a huge fan of Verizon. I travel a lot for work and of all the services I have used VZW has the best coverage of anyone else. You can make whatever comment you want about your particular area but I've been to all but 3 states in the lower 48 and all but the Northern Territories of Canada, VZW (Rogers in Canada) has the best coverage. With that said, I am a gadget nut and since my phone is my life I tend to play with anything new that comes out. I wanted to voice why I am currently on an Omnia II (SCH-I920) versus any other phone out right now, it is a device that I think is being smothered by the Media coverage of Droid and other devices.

As a Media Device;

When you travel as I do you need entertainment, Most phones have the ability to play media files these days but it can be fairly cumbersome to convert video so it will play. Case in point is the Blackberry Storm and Moto Droid which should be great media devices but you have to convert your video for them to work right. Omnia 2 supports DivX out of the box and down-converts high res files without need for transcoding. Example; I put a 720P DivX rip of District 9 that I made on the Omnia2 and it played the file flawlessly, no need to transcode, no dropped frames. I also played a Matroska video file on CorePlayer and it was decent but a little choppy, it was in full HD though... even some laptops can't play that without skipping a beat here and there.

MP3 files play spectacularly with built in WOW HD audio output and navigation through your media collection is on par with many standalone DAPs I've used. Samsung outdid themselves with the Touch Player on this device. The only other device I have used that makes playing media as easy is the iPhone, and that is saying something considering it is the defacto standard in that regard.

Couple all of this with the large and high resolution AMOLED screen and you have yourself a marvelous Media Player that could easily be compared to any standalone device out there right now.

As a Communication Device;

Primary use for a phone is to communicate, duh, so this is pretty easy to evaluate. As a phone it has great reception and amazingly perfect sound. The Voice Recognition makes doing things via Bluetooth easy and painless (once you calibrate it for your voice). You do need the radio update from Verizon as I had spotty reception in a certain Rural area that after the update is perfect.

Text messaging leaves a lot to be desired. I text a lot and this is pretty important to me. The default 'oldest first' when you view a text is annoying. (Samsung, for the love of all that is holy put a setting to show the newest first!!!)

The inline MMS is also annoying and I miss the way the original Omnia handled messaging.

That said, the Swype keyboard along with the smooth tempered glass screen on this device makes for faster texting than any other phone I have ever used. (I mastered Swype on my Omnia with the install) The only thing faster is a full size keyboard where I can type about 90+wpm. I am guessing I can get 25 or so wpm on Swype. I prefer this over a physical keyboard and I've had several QWERTY devices. Touch screen on the i920 completely blows the i910 out of the water. Comparatively, texting on the Droid is difficult considering the almost smooth physical keyboard and lack of multitouch with the onscreen keyboard. Storm and Storm2 have decent predictive text but they are still not nearly as fast as you can get with swype... once you master it. If Sammy/VZW fix the lame messaging interface or a cooked ROM comes out then I think the complaints can be overcome but it's not so great in this regard.

Camera/Video;

In terms of quality, I'd say it's on par with the Omnia i910. Decent pictures in a pinch and video seems to capture well in most lighting conditions. I am a hobbyist photographer and use a Canon DSLR so I much rather take actual photos with that. I think where the i920 shocked me is that it integrates with your Social Networks very well. I tapped on the 'upload' button after taking a picture and there are features to upload photos directly to specific albums and set the comment, convert the size, create a new album and do other changes before uploading. This is huge compared to the primitive e-mailing to your Mobile album I used for Facebook on the i910 or other devices (the FaceBook App is very spotty when uploading photos and video). It's better than even the App on the Droid as it still defaults to the Mobile album, the Android FaceBook app is phenomenal in most other regards. If you upload to multiple destinations (MySpace, FlikR, PhotoBucket... etc) these are all built in and you just have to set up the link to that 'community'. The only other device that does all of this just as well or better is the iPhone.

Interface and Ease of use;

TouchWiz is leaps and bounds better than previous iterations. However, I still prefer Mobile Shell from SPB. I used the device in it's default settings for about a week before stripping it down to the base Titanium Windows default for a few days. I finally went to Mobile Shell 3.5.3 with the MSkip overlay. This device runs all of this with a snap and I have no complaints in regards to any of the interface possibilities on this device, I just prefer SPB MobileShell.

Rants:

The Lock Screen is my #1 complaint. I keep my device in either my front slacks pocket or a suit jacket and the "tap to unlock" is exceedingly easy to accidentally unlock the device. (I am not batman and have no desire for a utility belt holster) Butt dials are inevitable unless you set a password. A 'Slide to unlock' option is REQUIRED on touchscreen devices and that they left this simple function out is unacceptable. I am following closely the threads to overcome this shortcoming.

#2 complaint is messaging. As I mentioned, this leaves much to be desired. Giving options to re-configure the way that messages are handled would be a second step but the primary need is to default to showing the newest message FIRST when you open a previous text.

Navigation is #3 complaint. With the i910 you had the optical mouse/D-pad to control and make a selection. i920 got rid of any hardware navigation and this is impossible to overlook. Example is e-mail... I can't just tab down and then select the menu to Mark as Read or Delete a message, I have to tap on it. I did map the OK key to be the down and Hold is up arrow but this is a SEVERE shortcoming on this phone. The trackball on HTC devices is my favorite but the i910's optical setup was close second. There is no excuse, all devices need some form of a hardware navigation.

#4 is Pandora. With no physical navigation and no Windows Mobile version supporting 100% touch only (that I know of) there is simply no way to get this application to work. I love Pandora and am only getting by right now with MP3s and videos.

Raves:

Battery life is great. I still have to keep a charger at home, on my desk at work, in my car and one in my travel bag. I also keep an extra battery charged up and on the ready for times when I drain it down completely but this is normal for any heavy smartphone user whose life revolves around their device. I get a full day out of the battery with normal usage, heavy days I have to plug it in on my commute home but I have never had it die on me.

Media Playback. This device to me is all about playing media (except Pandora) and this it does exceedingly well.

Social Site integration. As a Facebook junkie the integration with my social networks (communities as Sammy calls them) is a very well thought out setup. I have not seen anything else with the level of flexibility to upload media to my facebook profile. Very well done!

Screen. Why few phones use the beautiful AMOLED technology is beyond me. No other device's screen on the VZW lineup compares to this one. Large, bright and crisp... Doesn't get much better than this.

Standard physical interfaces. The movement to MicroUSB makes life so much easier! Adding a real headphone jack to this and other phones is LONG over-due and very welcome.

Final:

The Omnia II (SCH-i920) is not for everyone, nor are other UberPhones like Droid, Nexus One or the almighty iPhone. With the influx of Android devices, growing popularity of SmartPhones in general and the increasing use of better hardware (Snapdragon, AMOLED... etc.) on other phones, this device and most WinMo phones in general are likely very short for this world. But, for those who, like me, travel and have a need for a smartphone that integrates well with both their business and personal life, this device is very capable and will serve it's purpose for many months to come. Verizon has some great hardware in the pipeline and if this is a preview of the quietly released, back corner devices that VZW is offering then we are in for a real treat in the months to come.

[Guest Steel Reign]

Pandora can be used by assigning a hardware button to the keyboard. Other than that; I pretty much agree.

[Guest compnird]

Pandora can be used by assigning a hardware button to the keyboard. Other than that; I pretty much agree.

Yeah, I was going to do that but the 'OK' key is mapped to Up/Down since I need to use that navigation more then the Left/Right that Pandora needs and the other keys' functions are necessary to their purpose. That makes for one sad panda!

Hardware-wise, the lack of navigation is the only shortcoming.... everything else is software.

[Guest wick220]

QUOTE

The Voice Recognition makes doing things via Bluetooth easy and painless (once you calibrate it for your voice). You do need the radio update from Verizon as I had spotty reception in a certain Rural area that after the update is perfect.

ENDQUOTE

Buh? I have the i8000L and Samsung (or Bell??) have stupidly left Voice recognition out...is VR on all i920's?

I hope samsung corrects some of their mistakes with firmware updates. Anyone that had an original Omnia, did samsung release many firmware updates?

[Guest Omega Ra]

QUOTE

The Voice Recognition makes doing things via Bluetooth easy and painless (once you calibrate it for your voice). You do need the radio update from Verizon as I had spotty reception in a certain Rural area that after the update is perfect.

ENDQUOTE

Buh? I have the i8000L and Samsung (or Bell??) have stupidly left Voice recognition out...is VR on all i920's?

I hope samsung corrects some of their mistakes with firmware updates. Anyone that had an original Omnia, did samsung release many firmware updates?

on the i920 there is a program called nuance, the standard MS voice command is absent (though I added it back in). How do you get nuance to work with bluetooth?

[Guest fireonhigh]

''That said, the Swype keyboard along with the smooth tempered glass screen on this device makes for faster texting than any other phone I have ever used.'' I am using i8000 from singapore and mine is plastic,,you sure you have a glass screen?

[Guest Lancez]

more like a personal opinion, but a good one.

[Guest compnird]

on the i920 there is a program called nuance, the standard MS voice command is absent (though I added it back in). How do you get nuance to work with bluetooth?

I have a Jabra BT530 and a Plantronics Discovery 855. Both just require you to hold the main button down for a second or two, you then get a "Say a command" prompt and you tell your phone what you want "Call Home" or "Open E-mail"... although I still am figuring out how to get it to read the message to me via a voice command, getting it to place a call is easy.

Nuance is actually very configurable, just go into the menu item and tinker... I haven't spent a ton of time investigating the possibilities but it seems like a very good program.

[Guest compnird]

''That said, the Swype keyboard along with the smooth tempered glass screen on this device makes for faster texting than any other phone I have ever used.'' I am using i8000 from singapore and mine is plastic,,you sure you have a glass screen?

Absolutely certain that the USA version of the Omnia II, i920 screen is tempered glass. The i910 was plastic which sucks for touchscreen.

[Guest Omega Ra]

I have a Jabra BT530 and a Plantronics Discovery 855. Both just require you to hold the main button down for a second or two, you then get a "Say a command" prompt and you tell your phone what you want "Call Home" or "Open E-mail"... although I still am figuring out how to get it to read the message to me via a voice command, getting it to place a call is easy.

Nuance is actually very configurable, just go into the menu item and tinker... I haven't spent a ton of time investigating the possibilities but it seems like a very good program.

I have the blue ant z9i or something like that. When I hit the button nuance never came up, so I installed MS voice command.

[Guest 2ksilverbullet]

Yeah, I was going to do that but the 'OK' key is mapped to Up/Down since I need to use that navigation more then the Left/Right that Pandora needs and the other keys' functions are necessary to their purpose. That makes for one sad panda!

Hardware-wise, the lack of navigation is the only shortcoming.... everything else is software.

Do you really need to use the keyboard that much in Pandora though? I mapped the keyboard once to add my login info and have maybe needed to reconfigure it once or twice more in 2 months to add a new station. I'm using a Touch Pro 2 pandora version (found at xda) which has a smaller screen/font but it's definitely manageable.

Edited January 22, 2010 by 2ksilverbullet

[Guest compnird]

I have the blue ant z9i or something like that. When I hit the button nuance never came up, so I installed MS voice command.

Both of mine have Headset, Hands-Free and Wireless Stereo profiles enabled. I know that the last headset I had was only headset profile and, on a different phone, wouldn't do voice recognition even though it was available. A corded headset would do voice recognition on that phone. You may want to play with the profiles and see if you can get Hands'free enabled if it isn't already.

[Guest fireonhigh]

Absolutely certain that the USA version of the Omnia II, i920 screen is tempered glass. The i910 was plastic which sucks for touchscreen.

my plastic screen is nice :) ...is yours resistive or capacitive? i wish they had made all the omnia ll's with a glass screen though

[Guest neosrt]

The Omnia II (SCH-i920) is not for everyone, nor are other UberPhones like Droid, Nexus One or the almighty iPhone. With the influx of Android devices, growing popularity of SmartPhones in general and the increasing use of better hardware (Snapdragon, AMOLED... etc.)

Almighty Iphone ? I hope that was sarcasm :) THE IPHONE HAS SUPERIOR SOFTWARE AND not hardware..but you new that alredy :) when someone either ports Apples OS to another phone then we cant compare hardware by hardware because were really are judging hardware by OS ; the Omnia i920 does have a better 800mhz CPU, superior video decoder even true hd playback is possible,superior cam even though same as i910 which also has a better cam than any iphone version and now with amoled 3.7 screen and dual speakers it stomps the iphone handset to submission,swype alone rocks ,we just need one of our rom cooks to come up with and apple os clone or the real thing? In the meantime we have to judge the phone hardware by phone hardware and phone OS by Phone OS, this keeps things fair,accurate and real..OH YEAH COMNIRD THANX FOR SHARING YOUR DAY TO DAY IN DETAIL I REALLY WANT TO BUY THE OMNIA II NOW :)

oh yea samsung CAPACATIVE touch for everything please, and dont be cheap amoled and 8mp for everything alredy damn memoir had it almost 2 years give us all the goodies man

[Guest Apolousm]

Rants:

The Lock Screen is my #1 complaint. I keep my device in either my front slacks pocket or a suit jacket and the "tap to unlock" is exceedingly easy to accidentally unlock the device. (I am not batman and have no desire for a utility belt holster) Butt dials are inevitable unless you set a password. A 'Slide to unlock' option is REQUIRED on touchscreen devices and that they left this simple function out is unacceptable. I am following closely the threads to overcome this shortcoming.

If your Omnia II is windows mobile 6.5 you shouldn't be facing this kind of issue. If it is not, upgrade as fast as you can jajajajajaajajaja.

Navigation is #3 complaint. With the i910 you had the optical mouse/D-pad to control and make a selection. i920 got rid of any hardware navigation and this is impossible to overlook. Example is e-mail... I can't just tab down and then select the menu to Mark as Read or Delete a message, I have to tap on it. I did map the OK key to be the down and Hold is up arrow but this is a SEVERE shortcoming on this phone. The trackball on HTC devices is my favorite but the i910's optical setup was close second. There is no excuse, all devices need some form of a hardware navigation.

I agree, At least the phone should have some kind of keypad by software to navegate.

Raves:

Battery life is great. I still have to keep a charger at home, on my desk at work, in my car and one in my travel bag. I also keep an extra battery charged up and on the ready for times when I drain it down completely but this is normal for any heavy smartphone user whose life revolves around their device. I get a full day out of the battery with normal usage, heavy days I have to plug it in on my commute home but I have never had it die on me.

Battery life drives me crazy. I have to plug the phone in everywhere (my house, my work, my car, the cninema, the theather, the subway) to keep the battery alive. I use the phone a lot and the batery can be dead at noon.

[Guest compnird]

Almighty Iphone ? I hope that was sarcasm :) THE IPHONE HAS SUPERIOR SOFTWARE AND not hardware..but you new that alredy :)

While I was being sarcastic, iPhone haters shield your eyes; all things aside, the iPhone truly revolutionized the Smartphone market and is in itself an amazing device. I do, however, consider it a smart-dumbphone personally (on par with the Sammy Rogue but without the keyboard) since everything must be approved by the manufacturer. Having to jailbreak a device so you can write your own program or load a 3rd party app that isn't approved is absurd in the true smartphone realm.

I completely agree with you though... iPhone Hardware is primitive but even the software took forever to get SMS, proper MMS and even the most basic of things A2DP Stereo Bluetooth, does it even have that yet? Simple things like FM, Voice Recognition and a decent res on a camera with video ability... iPhone is only just now catching up.

[Guest compnird]

If your Omnia II is windows mobile 6.5 you shouldn't be facing this kind of issue. If it is not, upgrade as fast as you can jajajajajaajajaja.

The Verizon version of the Omnia II was released with WinMo 6.5. As I was told in the lockscreen post here on Modaco, the i920 has a lockdown with the physical lock button which is next to the camera button that prevents us from properly using the windows lockscreen. The camera button can still unlock the device. This is evidently not an issue with the i8000 variant of the Omnia2.

Battery life drives me crazy. I have to plug the phone in everywhere (my house, my work, my car, the cninema, the theather, the subway) to keep the battery alive. I use the phone a lot and the batery can be dead at noon.

I've been using smartphones since the original Handspring Visor with the cell module was released back in 2001ish (was later called the Treo 1). When you get into the 'does a LOT' realm of PDA-phones you have to sacrifice. It's getting better, a LOT better. The Droid kicks butt with battery life by lasting almost a full day with heavy use and this i920 has been doing almost as well but you have to keep tabs on the running applications and what radios are enabled. I remember my Treo600 would give me about an hour of talktime and then die and that didn't have swapable batteries so you had better have a charger ON YOU.

[Guest jharbin]

The camera button can still unlock the device. This is evidently not an issue with the i8000 variant of the Omnia2.

When I lock my Verizon i920 with the lock button the camera button will not unlock the phone.

I have mine set under General Settings - Buttons - Wake up to "Lock or Power" but you could set it to "Lock only"

[Guest compnird]

When I lock my Verizon i920 with the lock button the camera button will not unlock the phone.

I have mine set under General Settings - Buttons - Wake up to "Lock or Power" but you could set it to "Lock only"

Are you using the default Lockscene or the hacked in Windows default lock? Take a look here to see what I am talking about: http://www.modaco.com/index.php?s=&sho...t&p=1164870

The standard Samsung lock screen works correctly and I use that currently. It just unlocks itself sometimes in my pocket because a touch is easy to accomplish while a slide is more difficult. I did overcome the number of accidental unlocks by setting it to Lock button only... however, butt dials still happen.

Edited January 22, 2010 by compnird

[Guest jharbin]

Are you using the default Lockscene or the hacked in Windows default lock? Take a look here to see what I am talking about: http://www.modaco.com/index.php?sho...t&p=1164870

The standard Samsung lock screen works correctly and I use that currently. It just unlocks itself sometimes in my pocket because a touch is easy to accomplish while a slide is more difficult. I did overcome the number of accidental unlocks by setting it to Lock button only... however, butt dials still happen.

I'm just using the standard samsung lockscreen

[Guest BetterNot]

Great review!

I must agree with almost all points. Few other comments.

I've found the battery to be much better than what I had with my i910.

The camera is essentially the same with slightly better performance in lower light than the i910.

I'm happy with the default UI and have even gotten used to the widgets. Since performance is better than the i910, I'm finding the Sammy interface livable and will probably stay with it.

Once I got used to the lock button, organized the main menu added a couple tweaks and setup the widgets I actually use, I have no complaints about the user interface.

Rants:

I was hoping to use this during runs. I was able to use the i910 with the headphone converter, but I just can't seem to easily use the i920 as a running music player. I'll just keep my shuffle around until I can find a player cab with a more runners finger friendly interface.

The only Built in extra-appa I think are useful on the rom is the media player and swype.

VZW doesn't carry screen protectors in my area so I've been using the original screen protector the phone shipped with. More of a nuisance than a rant.

Agreed about sms/mms interface.

The phone is a bit bigger than I'd like but heck, that screen is worth it.

I lost the little stylus on day 2.

The Built in racing game is a tease. It's fun but I'd love to see a few more iphone like games, I just haven't found em.

Raves:

Don't really need the stylus.

Can't say enough about the screen, visually stunning and the touch interface just works. Google maps - wow.

Love the big font's. I don't need my cheater to read the phone.

I was shocked at the video playing capability. The built in media player handled whatever I've thrown at it. I've retired my PSP as my default travel movie player and I can get a few movies worth of battery on a long flight, again, shocked.

Call quality and connectivity on the unit I have is better than the i910 I had. I know is is different from device to device so I just feel lucky here.

Overall, the i920 for me is a major upgrade from the i910 and it's probably the best pda phone I've ever owned.

I can't wait to see what the O3 looks like.

Edited January 23, 2010 by BetterNot

[Guest compnird]

@'BetterNot': You are right, I have barely used the stylus. I do bust it out when I am making a new calendar entry or doing long messages but the screen sensitivity is much better than the old Omnia.

As for Media playing while jogging, There are quite a few skins out there for the Windows Media Player that work great for jogging. I am not a huge fan of WMP but you can make it work for you. Here is one I found that looks pretty finger friendly but not sure if it is VGA; http://www.pdagold.com/themes/detail.asp?t=7981

You should also check out the skins for Nitrogen player, it works really well on the Omnia 2 and even plays .ogg and .flac.

Personally I use my Plantronics Discovery 855 and there is a hard button that I can use to skip to the next song and pause and whatnot.

BTW; Thanks for adding your 2 cents. I like to get as much information out there as I can to help people decide based on people who actually USE the devices an avoid making a decision based on commercials and Media endorsements only. I have had several friends buy and subsequently return the Moto Droid, Blackberry Storm (and Storm2) because they don't need all the bells that a Smartphone provides.

[Guest BetterNot]

Great idea on the skins, I'll give it a try. I've never used BT headsets for music. I'm a big fan of canal earphones for running and I see the 855s are just that. Looks like the price is right too. Another great tip. Do you have issues about where the phone needs to be in order for the headset to work properly?

[Guest compnird]

Great idea on the skins, I'll give it a try. I've never used BT headsets for music. I'm a big fan of canal earphones for running and I see the 855s are just that. Looks like the price is right too. Another great tip. Do you have issues about where the phone needs to be in order for the headset to work properly?

When I use the 855 usually I have my phone in my backpack (Tamrac SLR + Laptop bag) then I just toss my headset into the tray with my laptop. For music I have not had any issues with it as long as it is anywhere within about 30 ft. I can have the phone on my desk and pace around my office and don't get any static.

One note is that the 855 has DSP and if you have a softspoken voice as I have sometimes it cuts you out if you are in a noisy environment. But otherwise it's a decent headset as well. I use the Jabra BT530 as my handsfree because it has superior audio both in and out for phone calls but it's mono when you play music.

[Guest BetterNot]

When I use the 855 usually I have my phone in my backpack (Tamrac SLR + Laptop bag) then I just toss my headset into the tray with my laptop. For music I have not had any issues with it as long as it is anywhere within about 30 ft. I can have the phone on my desk and pace around my office and don't get any static.

One note is that the 855 has DSP and if you have a softspoken voice as I have sometimes it cuts you out if you are in a noisy environment. But otherwise it's a decent headset as well. I use the Jabra BT530 as my handsfree because it has superior audio both in and out for phone calls but it's mono when you play music.

Thanks, 30 feet aught to be just fine :>/ . I've already placed the order. The ultimate goal of a runner is to carry a phone that plays a good playlist, is easy to carry, can answer a call without breaking stride and doesn't weigh too much. The O2 is a brick but if the BT headset works I can pack it in my bottle belt and not worry about it.