Samsung Omnia II

Verizon may not have the iPhone 3GS, but the sequel to Samsung’s popular iPhone pretender, the Omnia, will be coming to Verizon later this year, Samsung announced at an event on Monday in Manhattan. As for the exact timing of the Omnia 2’s lauuch, that’s still up in the air, as Samsung reps said that Verizon had a tight leash on what info-and couldn’t release at this time.

But here’s what I know for the Internet, and it looks pretty good:

• 65K WVGA AMOLED Display (3.7-inch, 480 x 800–largest AMOLED display yet in a phone)
• Advanced R-type Touch Screen
• Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional (upgradeable to WM 6.5)
• 5-megapixel CMOS camera with autofocus and face-detection, plus geotagging and a photo editor
• Video recording at 30fps@720×480, plus video editor (trim video, audio dubbing, live dubbing, add subtitle)
• Audio supported: MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, WMDRM, OMA DRM 2.1, plus FM radio
• Video supported: DivX, XviD, H.263, H.264, WMV9, MPEG4
• A-GPS with Navigation (3D Map)/LBS
• TouchWiz 2.0 UI with Mobile Widget/3D Media Gate
• Multitask manager/3D Interactive Games
• Bluetooth Stereo Headset (A2DP)
• WiFi
• 2GB/8GB/16GB of internal memory (3 different models)
• microSDHC expansion slot (up to 32GB)
• Up to 10 hours (3G) talk time
• Up to 430 hours (3G) standby time
• Dimensions: 4.65 x 2.36 x 0.47 inches (HWD)

A lot of these feactures look very much like the Instinct, but functionally superior. It is looks awesome!

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T-Mobile My-Touch 3G

T-Mobile’s big Android launch will draw mixed emotions. If you’ve been waiting for an Android phone whose outer design is as cool as the user interface, the T-Mobile myTouch 3G is certainly a more polished and appealing looking phone than its predecessor, the T-Mobile G1. However, cool looks don’t necessarily mean improvement, and if the exterior could use some tweaking, the onscreen keyboard needs a real overhaul. Ultimately, the T-Mobile myTouch 3G might let down multimedia fans with its poor media software and lack of necessary hardware, like a headphone jack or camera shutter button. Messaging fans will certainly lament the lack of a hardware keyboard. Though Android is still a smart competitor to other touchscreen operating systems, the T-Mobile myTouch 3G lacks the wealth of apps and advanced capabilities of the Apple iPhone 3GS, and it isn’t quite as intelligent or business savvy as the Palm Pre’s WebOS. Digging through the Google Market will reveal some hidden treasures that go a long way to improve the interface and basic features on the phone, but we wish some of these apps were simply bundled on the device, and a few features, like corporate contacts sync or video playback, still have no first-class options for the Android platform. The T-Mobile myTouch 3G is a stylish sign of things to come, but we’re already waiting for what’s next. Release: August 2009. Price: $200.

Pros: Slick design improves upon the square T-Mobile G1. Great Android OS and interface design. Top-notch Web browser. Loads of messaging options, including Exchange for e-mail.

Cons: Lacks calendar and contacts sync options beyond Google (not even Exchange). Hardware design is prettier, but not more usable than G1. Onscreen keyboard needs improvement.

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Samsung Hightlight SGH T749

The Samsung Highlight is an interesting alternative to the Samsung Behold, and I think it will have more appeal for a younger audience looking for a cool phone without the advanced camera features and chunky design of the former phone. The youngers will like the slim, icy blue shell. The phone isn’t great at any one feature, but it is pretty good at almost all of them, with a friendly, capable music player and a Web browser that was better than most basic feature phones. The key for this phone will be if T-Mobile can offer it for a bargain basement price, which isn’t the case at launch. It needs to be affordable for teens and even tweens when it is $50, who will definitely be the target audience for this cool looking, though underpowered, little tablet phone. Release: July 2009. Price: $150.

Pros: Small, cute and colorful touchscreen phone. Screen and interface were touch friendly and very responsive.

Cons: TouchWiz interface seems cluttered. Phone is a jack of all trades, master of none. Web browser and multimedia features are adequate, but not impressive.

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Samsung Solstice

The Samsung Solstice, like the Samsung Highlight on T-mobile, skips out on some advanced smartphone features like Wi-Fi and a high-megapixel camera and tries to keep things simple. In some ways, this works nicely. The phone did a great job making calls, with some cool address book and in-call interface designs. It’s also the first AT&T phone we’ve tried that can use the new AT&T Social Net app, which let us keep tabs on our Facebook, MySpace and Twitter updates all at once, albeit rather slowly. For the most part we liked the hardware. The screen was colorful and bright, and streaming videos from AT&T’s Cellular Video service looked surprisingly good. We were disappointed that so many features were just plain mediocre, like the Web browser, the 2-megapixel camera and the rest of the messaging apps. Regardless, buyers looking for a simpler, smaller device will find a healthy, though not very exciting, feature phone in the Solstice. Release: July 2009. Price: $100.

Pros: Top-notch call management. Great-looking screen, even with streaming vids. Slim and light design.

Cons: TouchWiz is a clunky interface. Besides Social Net, messaging features are way behind the competition. Lacks good multimedia hardware ports and accessories.

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Samsung Comeback

The Samsung Comeback should be called the Samsung Comeback In 10 Minutes. The phone was sluggish in almost every way, from simply opening messages to browsing the Web, belying its 3G Internet connection. It was also confusing to use, thanks to the maze-like interface with its redundant choices and counterintuitive feature placements. Where’s the GPS navigator? Oh right, under “Organizer,” with the voice dialing app. Some aspects frustrated us, and some were downright lousy, like the nearly useless external display and the strange, tic-tac keys on the full-QWERTY keyboard. The Samsung Comeback would have been a decent messaging phone a year ago, but can’t match the competitors’ current offerings in the budget segment. If T-Mobile is your preferred carrier and price doesn’t matter, the Sidekick LX 2009 offers a more compelling messaging experience. Release: July 2009. Price: $130.

Pros: Cool colors. Nice camera. HTML Web browser. Good GPS navigation.

Cons: Sluggish at almost every task, even e-mail. Keyboard tough to use. External screen is very low quality.

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Samsung Jet S8000

At Samsung Mobile headquarters, company reps gave us a hands-on look at their newest flagship feature phone, the Samsung Jet. The Jet is not a smartphone. It runs a proprietary OS instead of Windows Mobile, like the Samsung Omnia2. Still, with its 800 MHz processor and advanced capabilities, this has got to be the smartest ‘dumbphone’ on the market. With companies beefing up their mobile processor offerings, we expect to see a new MHz war open up in the mobile phone world soon.
The Samsung Jet is a bit smaller than the Samsung Omnia 2, thanks mostly to the smaller display. The Omnia 2 uses an AMOLED touchscreen that is 3.7-inches diagonal. The Samsung Jet uses the same AMOLED technology, but the screen comes in more than a half inch smaller, at a still-respectable 3.1-inches. The AMOLED screen on the Jet looks fantastic, and users are going to enjoy the new technology as it trickles down into more and more phones. Colors look bright and fresh, and the phone is capable of much deeper blacks, lending a deeper contrast to the display. Also, the AMOLED technology uses 40% less energy than a comparably sized TFT LCD screen, according to Samsung. In our hands-on time, we took a look at the 180-degree viewing angle, and there was hardly a point where the screen didn’t look crisp and legible.

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