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Samsung i8910 Omnia HD Review

After using the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD for over a month now, I’m still having some mixed feeling about the phone. At one hand, the specs and features are awesome but one the other hand, the S60 platform kind of ruined the experience a bit. Let me share with you my thoughts in this review.

The Samsung Omnia HD looks gorgeous — really large screen, slim and sleek. The capacitive touchscreen itself is pretty good with enough sensitivity  so you don’t often re-tap on icons and widgets. Scrolling is smooth  as well (except when using the browser) and seems pretty close to the responsiveness of the iPhone 3G. See more photos here and complete specs here .

samsung i8910

The 3.7″ 640×360-pixel real estate, one of the largest I’ve seen on a smartphone, makes for watching videos very enjoyable. I loaded up a couple of DivX files and they played smoothly with the display crisp and bright even at an angle.

I bumped into a bug though — some of the DivX videos would not show up on vertical orientation but would play just fine in horizontal (scaling problem, perhaps?).

samsung i8910 samsung i8910 samsung i8910

Samsung used the Symbian S60 platform here but added the TouchWiz UI as well so aside from the familiar interface of the S60, you also get some added navigational menus like the sliding bar at the left where you can pull up widgets. There’s also a floating bar on top which gives you 3 layers of desktop-like display. Checkout the screenshots below.

samsung i8910 interface
The 8-megapixel camera takes great pictures, especially hidef (720p @ 24fps) videos. The built-in flash is bright enough to be able to lit objects within 2 meters from the camera. Close-up shots, like the one below, show some decent depth of field.

omnia hd sample photo


(Click to download the original images; 2.64MB each.)

The i8910 has quite a number of storage, both built-in and external — 58MB NAND Flash, 148MB RAM, 8MB ROM, 8GB internal memory card, up to 32GB external memory card (microSD). With the 16GB model and a 32GB external microSD card, you can rack up to 48GB of storage on this phone.

Web browsing via WiFi or 3G/HSDPA is fairly fast although the built-in browser is a bit cumbersome to use.

The battery is rated at only 1000mAh and would normally last about 2 days  on regular use but it gets easily drained when you play videos/music or browse the net using WiFi or 3G (the commercial units are reported at 1500mAh).

Some nice additions:
Digital Compass – something the G2 and the iPhone 3GS also have. Not really that usefull unless you’re the hiking-type of person.

Smart Card Reader – scan a business/calling card with the camera and it automatically recognizes the information (name, phone, email, webiste, etc.) and stores it on the phone. Pretty accurate at around 80 – 90% character recognition.

LBS Services – Samsung included a number of location-based services in the unit to make good use of the GPS/AGPS features.

The Samsung i8910 has all you’d ever wanted for a multimedia phone and more. However, despite the powerful engine under the hood, it feels like the S60 platform is still somewhat slow and laggy at times, giving you an impression that it’s underpowered. We first saw this S60 5th Edition platform with the Nokia 5800XM but since that one had a slower CPU, smaller screen and uses resistive touchscreen, the Samsung i8910 beats it in almost all aspect.

Since the handset I am using is an engineering/prototype unit, some of the bugs/kinks might have been fixed or improved on the commercial release.

I did a comparative chart of features pitting the Samsung i8910 HD against the iPhone 3GS, Nokia N97, LG Arena and the HTC Magic here earlier and the i8910 got top marks. It’s not cheap though — expect to shell out Php32,000 for the 8GB model and Php36,000 for the 16GB model.

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

51 Responses

  1. Avatar for james james says:

    12,500 na lang to sa seller ko.

  2. Avatar for tin tin says:

    how much ba tong phone na 2 ngaun?? malakas ba speaker ni2??

  3. Avatar for gianina dasalla gianina dasalla says:

    how to use my unli surfing on phone

  4. Avatar for mark infante mark infante says:

    GUYS IM MARK INFANTE I WORK IN AYALAND YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN BUYING AYALALAND PROPERTIES PLEASE DO CONTACT ME IN MY EMAIL alveo_inf****@****.*** or in my mobile 091940***** thanks

  5. Avatar for Jay-R Jay-R says:

    Hi Shyril,

    I wanted to send you a private message but I guess you overlooked placing your email address.

    Anyhoo, I hope Abe does not mind me posting this here.

    I’m selling my two-week old i8910 for Php26,000. Excellent condition. I only used it as test phone to see performance. Brand new units cost 27 to 31,000 depending on where you buy it.

    Email me if interested. Thanks!

  6. Avatar for shyril shyril says:

    how much is the i8910 omnia hd phone? my plan me kc bili eh… mas ok ata ito kysa iphone, correct me if im wrong..hehehe gs2 me un mga features nia.. ope makabili na ako. pls… email nyo naman price nia..tenx….

  7. Avatar for GSMtayo.(: GSMtayo.(: says:

    Nice SmartPhone. Very Awesome specifications and features. I like to buy this phone as replace for my N5530 XM. Because, I’m a CamWhore and it has only 3.2 MP. Very Sucking and yes, I will study to hard to have this SmartPhone. Nice, uh? (:

  8. Avatar for marco rodriguez marco rodriguez says:

    i guess that is normal. ung akin nga may napapansin akong tatlong white dots.. a very tiny lang though malinis naman ung lens nya…

  9. Avatar for Jay-R Jay-R says:

    hi Roselle,

    How much did you get your phone and where did you buy it?

    Cheers!

  10. Avatar for roselle roselle says:

    hi! ask ko lng sa mga may hd phone, ala b kau napansin n problem s fon during video recording? i already bought the 16gb,when i tried video recording npansin ko na may gray lines na umaalon pataas sa screen. nung na-save ko n yung video at i-play, lumabas rin ung gray lines n nkita ko during recording. normal lng ba yun s hd? pinapalitan ko kc s store n binilihan ko pero sinasabi nila n ganun daw tlga un.
    wait ko mga sagot nyo, thanks

  11. Avatar for Allan Anova Allan Anova says:

    Love this phone. I have it.. i love the features.. it’s truly one of the best multimedia mobile phone out there.. with good 8mp quality images plus the HD recording i’m loving this precious phone :)

  12. Avatar for Tech DraftsMan Tech DraftsMan says:

    I have visited Mega Mall and inquire how much the SAMSUNG’s I8910 HD(8gig, 16gig,32gig). Gush!!! it’s P31,000.

  13. Avatar for Lester Lester says:

    Saw this site please confirm if true

    http://www.cmkcellphones.com/samsunglink.html

    8 Gig P25,800
    16gig P27,400

  14. Avatar for valkyrie valkyrie says:

    Hi! Is this 18910 hd compatible with N wireless router? or 802.11 b/g/n? thanks…

  15. Avatar for South Park South Park says:

    this is an interesting alternative to the 3GS. is it still priced at PhP 31k as posted above in Nov ’09?

  16. Avatar for otrebor otrebor says:

    how do you configure the gprs/mms/internet of i8910 hd for globe users. this mobile phone is not yet on the list of globe

  17. Avatar for ster ster says:

    im getting this phone this month i hope it wont be laggy like my n95. too bad i gave up on buying ps3 just to get this phone

  18. Avatar for gin gin says:

    hey guyz.. im planning to buy this phone.. where can i find one here in davao city?? how much is the price tag here in davao?? if you have info.. pls email me at my e.add. ‘cloudz****@****.***’
    tnx!
    good day/night to all! hehehe

  19. Avatar for amy amy says:

    I’ll still go for the blackberry storm 2.

  20. Avatar for marco marco says:

    the i8910 8 gb sells for 31000 at all samsung dealers and the 16 gb sells for 33290. these phones are on promo and comes with free phones plus free discount coupons concerts and other stuffs. the promo will only run until the end of this month

  21. Avatar for jenevive golandrina jenevive golandrina says:

    hope ul find S3500 mobile phone price and ES17 digital camera plszzz….

  22. Avatar for jenevive golandrina jenevive golandrina says:

    may i know watz the price of that omnia fon plzzzz?

  23. Avatar for DraftsMan914 DraftsMan914 says:

    A. MEGA CELLULAR NETWORK INC.
    Manila Manila, Metro Manila
    email:
    phone: (2) 5231633
    fax:
    B. TOPWIN TELECOMS
    Cash and Carry Southsuperhighway, Makati City Manila, Metro Manila
    email:
    phone: (2) 8190225
    fax:

  24. Avatar for DraftsMan914 DraftsMan914 says:

    Hope this info leads you to the find SAMSUNG’s I8910 HD..=)

    Ponce Bldg., Araneta St., Bacolod City Bacolod City, Negros Occidental
    phone: 4323090

  25. Avatar for DraftsMan914 DraftsMan914 says:

    SAMSUNG’s I8910 HD leaves nothing to be desired. It shoots video in full HD and photos with 8MP. The world’s largest AMOLED display at 3.7″ is your own personal movie screen that auto rotates. That along with high-speed web access, there’s no reason to leave work or play for later on. Add to that up to 16GB of built-in memory and we’re sure you’ll find plenty of ways to use it ─ 35 movies, 12,000 MP3 songs or 18,000 photos.

  26. Avatar for Dionne Leslie Roble Dionne Leslie Roble says:

    Please email me the Phililppine Price of Samsung Omnia with 8GB. Thanks

  27. Avatar for hyprmanic hyprmanic says:

    just got my i8910 around a week ago, and it runs like a dream ^^,

    tried out the wifi in sm bicutan with my phone, and pages load pretty fast ^^ took some pics too, and they really are uber clear.

    the thing about the vids though really have to do with how the vids are encoded. i was able to experiment with a free vid converter (the i8910 runs divx, mpeg4 and wmv files… sadly it can’t run avi files, but converters abound ^^), and i was able to convert an 1hr and a half long movie into a 600+MB file (conversion took around 15mins)… not bad ^^,

    i lover the picture contacts where you can get a picture and assign or link an area of the picture to a contact, and then you can call or message the person from the picture contacts mode ^^

    i’m hoping i can visit a samsung store soon since i wanted to get the latest firmware update from europe where they integrated the new 3D task manager.

    cons… well… there are a couple…

    there seems to be a prob with newly downloaded widgets. tried to download the clickthecity widget to my phone, but it won’t show.

    apparently with the symbian set-up, the camera/vid function can’t save settings. you have to set them up every time you launch the application.

    apart from that… i’m happy that i got this phone ^^,

  28. Avatar for shin shin says:

    im selling my omnia hd (8gb) with Full Body Invisible Shield

    Interested Buyer
    email me
    shin_s****@****.***

  29. Avatar for shane shane says:

    ganun po ba 8gb palang lumabas la pa 16gb eh hay cant wait na hehehe

  30. Avatar for MARCO MARCO says:

    magkano mo xa nabili?? ano mga freebies? jeje

  31. Avatar for dude dude says:

    mga dude, out n s memoxpress un samsung i8910 hd. i already got 1. bt 1st compare nyo din sa omnia II.

  32. Avatar for marco marco says:

    this october na xa release according to samsung philippines.. hopefully

    8 gig is 33000 daw

    16 gig is 37000 daw

  33. Avatar for shane shane says:

    hi when po ba talaga release date nito philippines???any idea po

  34. Avatar for littlemakz littlemakz says:

    any idea of its price mga tol :)

  35. Avatar for Mike Mike says:

    Hi Abe, yes, we would appreciate a review of the Samsung Jet.

  36. Avatar for Jose Farrugia Jose Farrugia says:

    Check out my review on the Samsung Jet S8003 –

    http://www.mangochico.com/samsung-jet-s8003-review/

  37. Avatar for ampanet ampanet says:

    pls abe,

    any release date info?

  38. Avatar for Nil A. Nil A. says:

    Great camera on the Omnia HD. Nice!

    But, this went to stores a little too late. I got myself a HTC Touch Pro2 instead.

  39. Avatar for goosebumps goosebumps says:

    they should have stick to WM..because of symbian OS now i have doubts on upgrading my Omnia i900..

  40. Avatar for gAMS gAMS says:

    It won the European Award as the best camera phone.

  41. Avatar for jdGONEMAD jdGONEMAD says:

    arbor na yan master yuga!

  42. Avatar for regsh regsh says:

    great specs thou a bit pricy!
    sir yuga can you post some reviews on Samsung S8000 Jet…thanks.

  43. Avatar for bouie bouie says:

    omg! you’re watching the legend of the seeker too! love it! ;-D

    btw, yeah, the phone is mahal.

  44. Avatar for kwhengce kwhengce says:

    great phone but for that money i rather have a netbook and a decent midrange phone. :-)

  45. Avatar for kwhengce kwhengce says:

    great phone but for that money i rather have a netbook and a decent midrange phone.:-)

  46. Avatar for william william says:

    Mag HD tv na lang lol

  47. Avatar for MP MP says:

    Looks great. but the Price? hmm..

  48. Avatar for oliver oliver says:

    i want bumblebee :-)

  49. Avatar for Reel Advice Reel Advice says:

    pretty hefty price but considering how much the iphone costs as well, this might be a good alternative already.

  50. Avatar for ampanet ampanet says:

    hi

    do yo have info on a ph release date?

    i’ve been holding off on replacing my aging phone, till the i8910hd’s release.lol

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