Samsung Omnia i900 review

Average user rating

6.7

good

Average user rating from 6 users

See all user reviews

Agree? Disagree? Write your own review of the Samsung Omnia i900

Rate this product

Samsung Omnia i900 user reviews

November 23, 2008

Posted by: Professor Pluto

"Almost, but not quite"

What I like:

A jack of all trades

What I don't like:

A master of none

Review:

This device appears to be what we've all been waiting for...
ie: one 'do-it-all' device to carry, rather than 3 or 4
(a phone, text machine, wed tablet, 5mp camera, sat/nav, internet tablet, mp3 player, personal organiser, mini-computer... maybe even a tv, if it accepts the Slingshot software?).

I'll start with the biggest deal-breaker: MP3 audio quality.
It's awful !!!
I invested in the 16gb version (upgradeable by another 32gb, when Sandisk release that card in Jan09). Now all that amazing storage will be used for our music collection, won't it? But what's the point, when the quality is so bad it's unlistenable???
I'm not just talking about the throw-away-quality bundled headphones (which are not even designed to fit human ears, let alone play music)... even swapping for Senheisser CX300 fails to deliver any acceptable qualty audio.
It's so bad, it's a real deal breaker (trust me).

Otherwise, you could live with this gadget.
The camera is a little soft, but it's improvable once you transfer your piccies to a pc (and the flash is better than I expected for an LED flash, but still a Xenon would be better).

The keyboard for texting is very unresponsive, and (trust me) it covers almost the entire screen, when used horizontally... leaving almost no room to read the message you're typing!
Please test this before you buy... It's beyond belief.

A pocket PC phone cannot cope with a screen so small, and a device so thin & flimsy (though well built). It needs to be more substantial object, that incorporates a stylus!!!)

As for it being a sat/nav... it only accepts '''ONE''' sat/nav package, Route 66 (I'm not sure they should be allowed to advertise it the way they do, under these circumstances).
Once Route 66 is added, you've a money-grabbing package that wants to charge you extra for all the things that should have been included with the original package (like speed camera detection).
They should also offer the option to purchase 'Sattelite Detection' as an extra, because this little thing does not like finding sattelites!!!
You'll be a your destination via your scribbled notes long before it decides it's realised where you are.
And why this software is the one that's compatible, when the text is only readable under a microscope, is beyond me (it's almost laughable).

The Samsung extras, to make Windows Mobile more user friendly, was a very good attempt... but the rolling-scrolling screens (ala-iPhone) are just frustrating, as the processor cannot cope with them fluidly.
They're more jarring-freezing, than rolling scrolling.

If the music was acceptable, I could live with everything else, but as I said at the start... it's (sadly) a real deal-breaker.

(ps: I've so far been unable to get the Slingbox Mobile software to run on this device either)