Choosing between Omnia II and IPhone

[Guest Pemaanso]

Hello, I am trying to decide between the Omnia II and the IPhone, and heavily leaning towards the Omnia II.

Can anyone please tell me if the Omnia II can go on a docking station and if it is easy to download music files in a similar manner to the IPhone?

Also, can anyone tell me how the Omnia copes with viewing photos/videos. My current phone, the LG Viewty, always takes forever to load my photos for viewing, you could go off and make a cup of tea, while you are waiting! I would hate to have that problem again, and I'm pretty sure that the IPhone is very quick with that, but then, it is only a 3megapixel, and the Omnia II is a 5 mp, like my Viewty.

[Guest DLCI]

Hello, I am trying to decide between the Omnia II and the IPhone, and heavily leaning towards the Omnia II.

Well, at this time better do not buy any smartphone at all. All are already outdated and newer versions/platforms are expected in the next 2 months.

[Guest Pemaanso]

Well, at this time better do not buy any smartphone at all. All are already outdated and newer versions/platforms are expected in the next 2 months.

Thanks for that advice, but the new ones will probably be too expensive for me :-( The problem with mobile phones is that, no sooner to you get one, and it is superseeded by a better one!

[Guest redzone321]

but the old ones will be cheaper!

my wife has a 3GS and honesty i wish i had it. the omnia 2 is very nice but just causes many headaches. plus the apps for the iphone truely do set it apart. every day i see an app that i wish i could get to work on my phone. (say justin.tv!) im not an apple fan and i do think the interface is so boring but you can do alot with them jailbroken.

Thanks for that advice, but the new ones will probably be too expensive for me :-( The problem with mobile phones is that, no sooner to you get one, and it is superseeded by a better one!

[Guest jebise]

music can be synced with any app unlike iphone that require itunes, i just use WMP. The omnia has it's flaws, like low RAM and it is kida slow even after a lite ROM. But then again i still believe i made a better choice then choosing the iphone. I was in the same boat as you between the 2 phones, the detail breaker for me was the AMOLED screen 800MHz processor and 16GB internal + SD slot and the 5MP camera with LED flash.

When you buy the outdated iphone you will get a device that works out of the box, when you buy a omnia you have to tweak it to your liking and you can customize it a lot more then the iphone. tweaking it makes this phone function great. As for loading images its actually quite fast just gerenrate a library the first time and after that it's smooth.

Edited May 5, 2010 by jebise

[Guest Tomas Janovsky]

Hello, I am trying to decide between the Omnia II and the IPhone, and heavily leaning towards the Omnia II.

Can anyone please tell me if the Omnia II can go on a docking station and if it is easy to download music files in a similar manner to the IPhone?

Also, can anyone tell me how the Omnia copes with viewing photos/videos. My current phone, the LG Viewty, always takes forever to load my photos for viewing, you could go off and make a cup of tea, while you are waiting! I would hate to have that problem again, and I'm pretty sure that the IPhone is very quick with that, but then, it is only a 3megapixel, and the Omnia II is a 5 mp, like my Viewty.

Chose HTC,

I have bought i8000 - it was not good chose. Slow CPU, missing Open GL, USB plug on the top of the phone.

So now I would wait for another device.

[Guest redzone321]

yes it has a 800 mhz proc but due to crappy drivers and low ram you cannot run a nice UI like the HTC phones that run on 650 mhz procs!

Dont get me wrong the phone runs well(for the most part), has an awsome screen and excelent music/video capabilities. multitasking is nice (if you use a light wieght UI)

but when it comes to programs the iphone 3GS (or a newer android phone) has a better selection of programs and a much more more brighter future. WinMo 6.5.x is bascily a dead OS that will have no future support beyond 1 or 2 years.

I just have trouble recomending it due to the lack of WinMo apps. Theres no nice sport apps like tsn's app( sure the browser works but its not the same). The Justin TV app is a big one too that winmo lacks ( and dont tell me to use Skyfire, who wants to watch a slideshow?)

[Guest Pemaanso]

Thank you so much for the advice everyone, much appreciated. :P

Can I please just check though, can I use a docking station and/or speakers with the Omnia II?

[Guest vlgligor]

Thank you so much for the advice everyone, much appreciated. :P

Can I please just check though, can I use a docking station and/or speakers with the Omnia II?

Maybe you are looking for something like this. As for the speakers, you may connect any kind of speakers that have a 3.5" jack (same as for your computer speakers).

And as of the suggestion of buying, I was in your position last December, too. But I don't like being locked with an iPhone (no battery changing, no standard usb). As for the hardware, as mentioned before, is superb. My opinion is that the software is buggy, but with tweaking you'll get a more than decent phone to play with. And watch out for Android on our phones: it will come soon.

Well worth the money, if you'll ask me. If you want something better, go for HTC's HD2.

Edited May 6, 2010 by vlgligor

[Guest ray1234]

Thank you so much for the advice everyone, much appreciated. :P

Can I please just check though, can I use a docking station and/or speakers with the Omnia II?

I haven't seen any docking station for i8000, I suppose there is none.

If you need to ask the question of whether to buy a windows mobile phone or iphone, then you'd better buy the iphone, as it shows you know nothing about windows mobile. There's a reason why iphone is so popular - an idiot can play around with it. The same idiot will throw a windows mobile phone into the bin.

In terms of capability, hardware and software, i8000 beats iphone all the way:

1) The camera in i8000 is much better than iphone's camera, both in still photos and videos.

2) The screen resolution is higher (800x480 vs 480x320)

3) i8000's AMOLED color is a lot better than iphone, especially when watching movies

4) i8000 support a lot of video formats, wmv, rmvb, mp4, avi, flv are all supported. A lot of times you don't even need to convert the video format. Can iphone do that?

5) can you play flash content on iphone? nope.... you can do so on i8000, although not smooth, but still can view.... remember some websites are flash only, with iphone you're stuck

6) if you use microsoft word/excel, WM supports that a lot better than iphone

7) windows mobile is around for a long time, you'll find a lot of applications if you know where to look. I'm talking about actual work applications, not games or play around applications, iphone beats WM in that area.

8) if you know where to look, a lot of WM software is free. A lot of iphone software is chargeable, and iphone is difficult to hack.

That said, iphone is selling good not for no reason :

1) the app store is easy to use, microsoft is now trying to do up an app store using market place, but it is nowhere near app store yet as there is only a handful of software on market place

2) iphone is one config only, whereas WM phones has a lot of configs. Very often, you'll find software on WM that doesn't work on your particular phone.

3) WM apps are everywhere on the internet, you really need to find hard. It's hard for a first timer with WM to find software as he won't know where to look, market place is helping a bit now, but not quite there. Iphone's app store is just one centralised location, much easier.

4) due to the charge structure, a lot of developers develope iphone software, especially in gaming. I must admit iphone is a much better gaming phone, as it's got a lot of great games. WM on the other hand has a lot of cracked software, so developers don't get much money and naturally not much incentive.

5) the interface on iphone is easy to use. Although not as customisable as WM, everyone can pick up the use in one minute. The same cannot be said of WM phones.

6) the interface on iphone is smoother than a lot of windows phones, mainly because windows phones have to run a lot of gaggets to make it look nice. For me, I run it the simple way without any widgets/gaggets, I still use SPB Pocket Plus (similar tab screen to iphone), as I found it makes i8000 as responsive as an iphone.

It is funny you mentioned that getting music into iphone is easy. I found it hard! First you have to install itunes, then import your sounds into itune and then sync. For WM, I just copy the MP3 which I downloaded directly to the phone, and that's it! And I can't stand itunes storing all the songs in the computer, wasting my harddisk space! It is also difficult to copy songs from one phone to another.....

For me, WM phones all the way, as I found it a lot closer to using a computer than iphone, but I've been playing around with windows mobile since wm2003, so I know all the registries and stuff. For someone who doesn't want to spend time tweaking and just wanna play around with the phone, get the iphone.

Edited May 6, 2010 by ray1234

[Guest Pemaanso]

Thank you all, so very very much for your valuable advice, you've all given me some very helpful food for thought!

It really is very much appreciated! :P

ps to ray1234,

QUOTE - "If you need to ask the question of whether to buy a windows mobile phone or iphone, then you'd better buy the iphone, as it shows you know nothing about windows mobile. There's a reason why iphone is so popular - an idiot can play around with it. The same idiot will throw a windows mobile phone into the bin."

ray1234, when I first read your comment, I was in quite a hurry, and skimmed over it. Now that I have had a chance to read it properly, it reads as though you consider me - along with any iphone buyers - an idiot! I hope that's not true, as I don't think researching a decision, ever made anyone an idiot. Hopefully, it is just a case of not expressing yourself properly, and either way, I do appreciate your taking the time to make all those worthwhile points. :D

Edited May 6, 2010 by Pemaanso

[Guest Tomas Janovsky]

I have to signed ray1234!!! There are almost all answers in the topic.

But one note about docking station - it is not possible to find some docking station for i8000 because the phone has USB plug on the top.

Another note - in my opinion it will be better to chose HTC/iPhone no i8000. I'm disapointed with i8000. The i8000 is good HW, but drivers are really crappy.

PS: Sorry for my English.

[Guest stylus1828]

Go with iphone, or you can try HTC HD 2 if you really want windows mobile. Do not buy a i8000. I was really dissapointed with that stupid phone. Now I have HD 2 and i can say it's the best :P !

Edited May 6, 2010 by stylus1828

[Guest nikwid]

I thought I'd point out some great features of the I8000 regarding video playback, which is something I find myself enjoying the most, and I usually think that it outweigh the other bad stuff with the phone. I'll also give you an alternative besides the iPhone, namely the HTC Desire.

I8000 video playback specs

1. Screen: Resistive touch, 3,7" AMOLED at WVGA resolution (800x480) is awesome for videos (and pictures). It does have 65k color limitation which can be seen here and there, but it's not as annoying as I thought it would be.

2. Codecs: DivX/XviD/MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV It plays almost all video formats, except HD. However, I don't see the point of viewing HD on a screen that has no HD resolution in the first place, except maybe for those who doesn't want to convert.

3. Battery: 1500mAh. The battery time is really great, I can watch several hours of video (I usually watch a bunch of TV series episodes in bed before going to sleep). Suffice to say, I never experience battery time as a problem.

4. Storage: 16GB internal + up to 32GB SD card is more than enough for a few seasons of your favorite TV series.

Right now, I don't think there is any other smartphone available that can match this combination of specs, and definitely not the iPhone. However, there are some other specs that are important to consider, besides the video playback, and here the I8000 is not so good.

Other important I8000 specs

5. OS: WinMo = not very finger friendly, pretty ugly and not something for the future. It is very hackable though, which can be fun for a while, but also just as annoying and tedious.

6. UI: I dislike the touchwiz 2.0, and especially how it jumps between touchwiz and WinMo interface while going though settings and menus. It's very inconsistent, and poorly optimized which results in lags here and there.

7. RAM: Very low which means that multitasking is somewhat limited, especially if you don't hack and customize your phone to free some precious MB.

8. CPU: 800MHz, sadly not enough to run the UI smoothly with such bad optimization.

9. Camera: Very good actually, if you consider that there is no Xenon flash (it has two strong LEDs). From what I gather from reviews, it's a great 5MP (smartphone) camera. Records 720x480 video @ 30fps.

(source)

-----------------------------------------

HTC Desire video playback specs

1. Screen: Capacitive multitouch, AMOLED at the same size and resolution, but with 16M colors instead.

2. Codecs: Right now it only plays MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV9 but is said to be getting DivX/XviD later in an update.

3. Battery: 1400mAh, which is still very good.

4. Storage: No extra internal storage, only SD card up to 32GB

Other important Desire specs

5. OS: Android = finger friendly, good looking and rapid development, and rapidly growing app store.

6. UI: HTC Sense. I would personally prefer plain Android, but the Sense does get really high praises in reviews. Definitely better than TouchWiz 2.0.

7. RAM: A lot more than the I8000.

8. CPU: 1GHz Snapdragon. Currently top-of-the-line in smartphones.

9. Camera: 5MP too with LED flash, but according to reviews, slightly less quality in photos and has fewer camera settings. Is said to get 720p video recording in an update, but right now it is only 800x480 @ the low 15FPS.

(source)

Right now the Desire and the I8000 have about the same price tag here in Sweden, although I can't speak for other countries. Once the HTC Desire gets it's update to DivX and HD playback, I think it will own the I8000 and I'll probably get one myself unless something else has come out by then.

Edited May 6, 2010 by nikwid

[Guest DLCI]

I thought I'd point out some great features of the I8000 regarding video playback, which is something I find myself enjoying the most, and I usually think that it outweigh the other bad stuff with the phone. I'll also give you an alternative besides the iPhone, namely the HTC Desire.

8. CPU: 1GHz Snapdragon. Currently top-of-the-line in smartphones.

Right now the Desire and the I8000 have about the same price tag here in Sweden, although I can't speak for other countries. Once the HTC Desire gets it's update to DivX and HD playback, I think it will own the I8000 and I'll probably get one myself unless something else has come out by then.

Just a "small" thing about the playback - there's hardly something worse than a Qualcomm CPU, when it comes to video playback & multimedia in general. Both Desire & HD2 have massive issues with video playback and so far both android and windows mobile OSes are affected (250ms delay between audio&video; dropping frames, lack of codecs, etc.). On top Android framework is still a big mess in that area so it feels like win mobile 4 years ago.

Just check the xda-devs forums if you need more details as aparently all HTCs are suffering in the area of multimedia in one or another way and the problem seems to be the CPU. My opinion is if you plan to watch movies on your phone avoid qualcomm-based devices at ALL costs! And I mean really all.

[Guest Pemaanso]

Thanks again everyone, and especially nikwid, for that lengthy and informative information. :P Boy oh boy, I certainly have some good food for thought here, by all means, keep it coming, this is great! :D

Edited May 7, 2010 by Pemaanso

[Guest ray1234]

ray1234, when I first read your comment, I was in quite a hurry, and skimmed over it. Now that I have had a chance to read it properly, it reads as though you consider me - along with any iphone buyers - an idiot! I hope that's not true, as I don't think researching a decision, ever made anyone an idiot. Hopefully, it is just a case of not expressing yourself properly, and either way, I do appreciate your taking the time to make all those worthwhile points. :P

Pemannso, pls don't get me wrong :D , my wordings are just implying that iphone is so easy to use that anyone can use it, even someone without any prior knowledge of the operating system. The same cannot be said of windows mobile.

[Guest babyjosef17]

Better wait for the samsung wave instead. After release, it will still be cheaper than the iphone 3gs even when iphone 4g is out that is for sure.

Plus, on paper, the wave will be the better choice if your in a budget. UI is very fast and snappy like iphone. Screen is great. Camera is great. and since it is fast, in general the phone will be great to use.

Don't buy this if you want to download apps a lot. BADA OS will not have that many apps, especially free apps to begin with.

Do not buy Omnia II anymore. Omnia II was the best phone to buy mid last year. Make your choice after june or july once all the new phones have come out and test yourself.

[Guest Pemaanso]

Pemannso, pls don't get me wrong :D , my wordings are just implying that iphone is so easy to use that anyone can use it, even someone without any prior knowledge of the operating system. The same cannot be said of windows mobile.

That's fair enough. :P It certainly does seem to be a common opinion, not just here, but amongst others as well. Thanks again for your help. :P

[Guest Pemaanso]

Thanks babyjosef17, I will look into the Wave and iphone 4g as well. Quite a few people, both here and in general, have suggested I wait and see what the new series of phones brings about, so I am starting to think seriously about doing just that. :D

Thanks again everyone. :P

[Guest Azraal]

If you like to install apps or music, I would also recommend htc. The iphone is not bad (don't make me say what I don't mean) but it's too closed you can only get what has been aproved by apple. So I'm not even sure (correct me if I'm wrong) that you can add music from other sources. And you know how jailbreaking can be dangerous...

Then, between android and winMo well it's a question of choice I think...

[Guest babyjosef17]

If you like to install apps or music, I would also recommend htc. The iphone is not bad (don't make me say what I don't mean) but it's too closed you can only get what has been aproved by apple. So I'm not even sure (correct me if I'm wrong) that you can add music from other sources. And you know how jailbreaking can be dangerous...

Then, between android and winMo well it's a question of choice I think...

To my surprise, even mp3 and videos purchased (or not purchased) outside of itunes can be played on the iphone. But unlike rou winmo. You need to use itunes to transfer. Let itunes scan all the media available in your PC first. Then make a playlist, then sync the iphone with the itunes.

So with that multimedia is not a problem with the iphone. Although I still wonder the reason why I still don't see that much people watching videos on their iphones.

[Guest Asgardi]

Come on guys... I8000 performance is not that bad! iPhone has good screen performance but really, look at the UI. It has nothing. Just a screen with shortcuts and that's it. If you are lucky you can see a number somewhere over some icon that you got a new message. iPhone UI is just a piece of s***. I would put the iPhone aside from the start and try to decide between HD2 and Omnia II.

HD2 is faster and has 3D support. HD2 has more app memory and bigger screen. Screen is capasitive but you don't actually need that in WM phone yet. HD2 has Sense 2.5 UI that is the best UI for phone you can get.

Omnia II has AMOLED screen and the picture quality (especially colors) are superb. Omnia II has great multimedia support and better camera (and front camera if you need one). Battery life in Omnia II is almost double compared to HD2. You can get Sense 2.5 UI to Omnia II if you like. You can also use SPB mobile shell (new version coming soon btw...) that is a great UI too and has superb performance. Omnia II has 16GB memory out of the box.

Because I know how to flash the phone I would choose Omnia II. It is just 300 euros compared to HD that is almost 500 euros. iPhone 3GS is the worst phone of these and costs over 600 euros. LOL.

[Guest Asgardi]

*HD2

Edited May 7, 2010 by Asgardi

[Guest ray1234]

Battery life in Omnia II is almost double compared to HD2.

Yes, battery life is something that must be mentioned. I cannot see why someone would create a phone without the ability to change battery. For one, I was in a trip overseas last week and realised how important is the ability to change battery. While overseas, I used my i8000 to check emails and surf web on wifi and 3G all the time (and also used google map), and as good a battery life as i8000, the battery can only last for about 8 hrs with such heavy usage. No worries, my i8000 comes with 2 batteries and with that I can last a whole day. With an iphone, I'll be stuck with half a day without phone unless I buy 2 iphones .....