Samsung Omnia Smartphone Unveiled, Targets iPhone

Korean-handset maker Samsung today announced its Omnia (SGH-i900), a business device similar to the Apple iPhone, running on Windows Mobile 6.



The Omnia has a slender 12.5mm profile, platinum-look finish and elegant hairline patterns on the back. The centerpiece is a 3.2-inch WQVGA (240 x 400 px) touch screen from Synaptics. With haptics, vibrations give users feedback when the display is touched. Tap, sweep, drag and drop operations let consumers navigate through the TouchWiz UI.

An accelerometer auto-rotates the display when tilted on the side. A trackpad and on-screen QWERTY keyboard are included as well.

With the stroke of a finger, users can switch between Microsoft Outlook email and applications similar to the look and feel of a PC. Based on Windows Mobile 6.1, consumers can access MS Office documents such as PowerPoint, Excel and Word, send and receive email and manage appointments in Outlook.

The Omnia comes with a built-in 5.0-megapixel CMOS camera with auto-focus, facial and smile detection, auto-panorama shot and image stabilizer. Internal memory configurations of 8 or 16GB are expandable with microSD memory cards.

Internet access is fast with up to 7.2Mbps on HSDPA and Wi-Fi. An FM tuner and GPS reception are standard for navigation and geo-tagging.

"Samsung Omnia demonstrates our vision for the Samsung mobile business, which is to provide premium phones for users who desire functionality, style, usability and entertainment in one innovative device," Geesung Choi, Samsung President said. "The Omnia mobile range will help users to be at the forefront of work and play and at the same time, to stay connected anytime, anywhere."

The Samsung Omnia will be unveiled at CommunicAsia, Singapore from June 17 to 20 and commercially launched in Southeast Asia that same week. European sales start in July.