Samsung Omnia Icon 8GB (3G)

The Samsung Omnia Icon smartphone is the follow-up effort to the original Samsung Omnia i900, which came out back in 2008. Overseas, it’s called the Samsung Omnia i8000, or Samsung Omnia II, but all you need to know is that in Australia the Omnia Icon is the next step forward in Samsung’s assault on the smartphone market. With improvements like a huge AMOLED touch screen, five-megapixel camera and upgrades to the Samsung TouchWIZ interface, the Icon takes the Omnia name to the next level.

This is a very good-looking mobile phone. It has a glossy black body that is streamlined with curved corners, has special over-sized brushed answer and end call buttons, plus a mirrored cube button to make it extra stylish. However, it is made of plastic, which not everyone will be pleased about. The left side of the handset has volume controls, while the right side houses lock, back and camera buttons. The phone is larger than its predecessor, and this isn’t a drawback, but you will probably spend some time wiping smudges and fingerprints off of the screen and case.

As the handset is quite large, Samsung were able to give it a massive 3.7-inch AMOLED touch screen. This touch screen is resistive as opposed to capacitive, so you can still use a stylus on the Icon if that’s your cup of tea, and it’s the best resistive screen on the market so far. One weird point to note is that the included stylus doesn’t fit into the phone handset. It attaches to the phone as a separate accessory that then hangs off of the mobile.

Samsung states the Omnia Icon's AMOLED (active-matrix organic light emitting diode) screen is brighter, has better colours, better clarity and higher definition when compared with normal mobile phone screens. Samsung also takes pride in the knowledge the screen uses less power than its less technologically advanced competitors. This display allows for excellent viewing angles, awesome levels of brightness and very rich colours. It’ll be one of the best smartphone display screens you’ve ever seen.

However, the most exceptional attribute for the Omnia Icon is Samsung's TouchWIZ interface. TouchWIZ has been improved markedly since its first inception when icons were too small, the user interface was inconsistent and at times text was difficult to input.

In reality, TouchWIZ is a skin that covers the standard Windows Mobile 6.1 interface. The original row of Windows widgets remains on the left side of the home screen, then the user drags and drops icons for various programs or functions they desire from the panel into the main area for easy access.

The Omnia Icon comes with three fully customisable home screen pages that can be accessed by swiping your finger across the screen. You can ‘design’ each page anyway you like. You could put all of your social networking widgets like Facebook and YouTube on one screen, stick a calendar, clock and shortcut widgets on another, and put your profile and connectivity settings on the last page.

To tell the truth, nothing in life is totally perfect, and this system does have its flaws. If you add numerous widgets, the screen can become a little bit slower when scrolling, plus the icons aren’t labelled in the sidebar, so it can be hard to decipher what some of them do. Also noteworthy is that the YouTube and Facebook widgets aren’t dedicated applications, they’re merely links to each service’s website. However, this widget system overall does a good job at replacing the default Windows Mobile home screen.

The main menu on the Samsung Omnia Icon is accessed by pressing the start button, or by tapping the cube key, and it contains fours screens. There are pages for the internet, productivity, office and multimedia. Every screen has a 4x3 grid of coloured icons, each labelled with their affiliated function. You’re able to customise the icons and category names in each section, but you can still access other icons elsewhere. The main menu also provides a cube-like menu format that gives access to the default internet browser, plus multimedia like music, video and games. This looks great, but you’ll probably find it quicker to choose these applications in the main menu. One great use for the cube button is the useful task manager that manages running applications when you hold it down.

The first model Omnia smartphone was built for use with a stylus, so people who tried to push the tiny icons with their fingers were left wanting. The new Omnia Icon lives up to its name and conquers this issue by offering an interface with large-sized menus, text and selection boxes. The stylus is no longer necessary as simply using your fingers provides a great user experience. Another positive change comes within many of the Windows applications. For example, when using calendar or clock features, tabbed menus open up at the top of the display offering access to similar functions like a world clock or stopwatch.

The Omnia Icon isn’t the fastest smartphone on the block, but it does a good job when compared with other Windows Mobile phones. Actions are especially slow when the TouchWIZ interface needs to scroll through multimedia files like photos or videos. Editing the lock screen and changing themes or wallpapers also takes longer than you’d like. Overall, TouchWIZ performs solidly, and it will be improved further over time with updates and the advent of Windows Mobile 6.5.

On the flip side of the coin, inputting text on the Icon isn’t quite as good as its predecessor. However, the newer Samsung Omnia Icon's on-screen keyboard does have a good design and responds well to your typing efforts. After a little practice you should be able type at relatively fast speeds. You also have the option of turning the phone onto its side to access a landscape-style QWERTY keyboard via a built-in accelerometer. Don’t try going back and forth through keyboards though, as rotating the display’s orientation does take time. You’ll also miss threaded text messages, which for some reason are not included on the Icon, a feature common on most other Windows Mobile 6.1 phones.

Besides the user interface, the Omnia Icon comes packed full of features on top of the already extensive list of options inherent in the standard Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system. The Samsung Omnia Icon is a 7.2Mbps HSDPA-capable smartphone featuring a 5-megapixel camera with autofocus and a dual-LED flash. You also get a built-in GPS receiver with geotagging capabilities, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and an FM radio. The Omnia Icon supports DivX and XviD file playback, records video at 30 frames per second and has a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, all together satisfying the needs for lovers of mobile multimedia.

Omnia Icon comes in either 8GB or 16GB versions, and both have an internal microSD card slot for extra memory storage. Samsung could have put this slot somewhere else instead of being in such a frustrating position as behind the rear battery cover.

The Samsung Omnia Icon's TouchWIZ user interface may not be the best on the market, but it’s an awesome way to immediately improve a fairly average, often incompetent Windows Mobile UI. The Icon has a top-notch display, great features, and an intuitive interface when combined together make for one the best Windows Mobile smartphones around.

Pros:

- AMOLED display
- 3.5mm headphone jack
- TouchWIZ UI improvements
- HSDPA
- GPS plus Geotagging
- 5-megapixel camera
- 8GB internal memory
- Good, familiar design
- Outstanding multimedia capabilities
- Excellent touch-friendly skin of Windows Mobile
- All popular connectivity options

Cons:

- Resistive touch screen as opposed to capacitive
- Widgets can become slow at times
- On-screen keyboard is a little smaller than you may like
- Lag in some menus or when multitasking
- Interface isn't quite as slick or polished as HTC's TouchFLO 3D