This time I headed towards the market in search of Samsung Omnia W I8350. This phone attracted a lot of audience in the global market. In the Indian streets it’s fighting with the Nokia’s trendy Windows Phone i.e. Nokia Lumia 710. And it’s really giving some hard time to Nokia Lumia 710. After all Samsung is not in a mood to lose the reputation level they earned last year in the Indian markets by beating Nokia.
So I grabbed my Samsung Omnia W from the local store and played with it for some quite amount of time. So here’s a detailed review of the Phone from my side.
Build Quality of Samsung Omnia W:
The Samsung Omnia W has got a simple look. Yet it looks a classy windows phone. It isn’t that big in size and fits into the pockets nicely. It fits perfect in the hands and you will feel really good about it. The quality of the product used for the shell of the phone is pretty good. The phone has got a glossy effect which won’t fade out any time soon.
On the front there’s a secondary camera just above the 3.7” screen. There’s a hardware button for Home having a Windows logo on it. There are two touch sensitive buttons on the each side of the Home Button. One for return and the other one is a Bing search.
The power button and the Camera button are placed on the right side of the phone whereas you will find the volume rocker on the left of the phone. The 3.5mm audio jack is placed on the top face of the phone.
Turn it back you will find the primary camera of the phone right on the top with a flash. The loudspeaker of the phones resides just beside the camera.
Features of Samsung Omnia W:
The Phone comes with Windows Phone 7 OS. The mango update comes pre-bundled with the phone. So you don’t need to download any kind of updates (till the next update arrives). The User Interface looks nice and clean.
Talking about the hardware, the Omnia W is powered by a single core Scorpion processor generating clock speeds of 1.4 GHz. It also comes with an Adreno 205 GPU. The 512 MB of RAM sounds less but is enough for a Windows Phone. The 3.7” Super AMOLED Display is of 480x800 resolutions. The Phone has got internal storage of 8 GB. It can’t be extended by any SD card.
The phone has a primary camera of 5 MP with an LED flash which can take still photos as well as can record HD Videos @720p. Not to forget about the secondary camera of the phone. The phone sports a secondary camera of 0.3 Megapixels which will help you for your video conversations.
Performance of Samsung Omnia W:
Now this is something really good. The Windows Phone 7 has broken all the shackles and is all set to compete with Android. The OS is very smooth. I didn’t face any kind of problem while browsing the phone. Multi tasking didn’t raise any sorts of problem. I thought that amount of RAM used in the phone is less and it might create some issues with the performance of the Phone but I was proved totally wrong.
I played Angry Birds for testing the performance of the phone. The game didn’t lag anywhere.
The Super AMOLED touch was awesome. I experienced the same kind of touch in the Samsung Galaxy S. The responsiveness of the touch was quick and it didn’t create any sorts of problems.
The sound quality of the phone is decent. The call clarity was really good. I didn’t experience any sorts of problem while talking on the phone when I was migrating in the Low signal area. The bundled headphones are pretty good. The clarity of the sound on the headphones is pretty good.
The Camera of the phone allows you to take decent pictures outside as well as indoors. In the dark conditions the photos weren’t that good but I didn’t noticed any kind of noise levels in the photograph. The Video recording on the phone was good. The videos were clear and nice. Overall, it’s a good camera for a street photographer which also allows you to record HD videos.
The Secondary camera worked pretty well while having a conversation on Skype.
The Phone offers 2G and 3G connectivity. The Internet browsing experience on the phone was good. The phone has also got the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and microUSB connectivity.
The Phone has got a standard Lithium Ion battery of 1500 mAh. It lasted for 2 days with Facebook usage, SMS chatting, one Skype call, around 10 phone calls, good amount of music dose and 5 still shots with the camera. This was really good. I didn’t expect this much from a 1500 mAh battery. All credits to Windows Phone 7. It really takes very low space on the processor which has boasted the battery life of the phone.
Price Tag of Samsung Omnia W:
In the Indian markets the Phone was launched with a price tag of Rs.19, 990 but the recent price cut has taken the price of the phone straight to Rs.15, 200. At Rs.15, 200 it’s a real steal.
Conclusion on Samsung Omnia W:
The Omnia W is good phone to have. Windows Phone 7 has really enhanced the performance of the phone in all the aspects. It is competing with Nokia Lumia 710 at the moment. Nokia Lumia 710 is having better looks when compared to this one and almost the same spec sheet. So it really becomes tough to choose one out of the two.
The market of the Windows Phone has started to grow now. In the near future we will see some more Smartphone arriving in the market. And because of the competition the Windows Phones will be available at a cheaper cost.
Ratings of Samsung Omnia W
- Build - 7.0
- Features - 7.0
- Performance - 7.5
- Price Tag - 7.0
