Samsung Omnia 7 Windows Phone 7 hands on

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During the Windows Phone 7 launch in The Netherlands, three new phones were announced: HTC showed us the HTC Trophy, LG’s first Windows Phone 7 device is called Optimus 7 and last but not least, Samsung has the Omnia 7, at this moment Samsung’s first Windows Phone 7 with the biggest screen (4 inch) on the Market. MobilityMinded was able to do some hands on with the Omnia 7 and I was pleasantly surprised with this Windows Phone 7 phone.

First, let’s have a look at some of the specifications:

Processor: Qualcomm QSD8250 on 1 Ghz.
Memory: 8 GB (for music, videos and applications)
Display: 4.0” SUPER AMOLED, WVGA (800X480)
Dimensions: 122.4x 64.2 x 10.99 mm
Weight: 138 grams
Network: HSUPA 5.76Mbps /HSDPA 7.2 Mbps (900/1900/2100 MHz) and EDGE/GPRS (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
Connectivity: Bluetooth ® 2.1, USB 2.0, WiFi B/G/N
Camera: 5-megapixel camera with Auto Focus and LED flash
Video: HD Video Recording (720p) @ 25 fps
Encoding: H.264, H.263, MPEG4, WMV
Battery: Li-ion, 1500 mAh
Talk time: 2G/520Min, 3G/370Min Standby time: 2G/390hrs, 3G/330hrs

Design

The first thing you’ll notice on the Omnia7 is the huge screen. This SUPER AMOLED screen offers extremely sharp pictures and also reduces power consumption compared to normal LCD displays. The colors shown on the screen are vivid and lively and extremely sharp. Black is truly black and when watching (HD) content on the big screen, there is no lag. The remainder of the front is taken up by the speaker and the three distinguished Windows Phone 7 buttons: A Back (soft)key , in the middle a Windows key to return to the start menu and the search (soft)key to search for content. At the top right corner you’ll also notice the light sensor and proximity sensor.

On the top of the Omnia 7 there is the 3,5″ headphone jack and the Micro-USB connector for charging and syncing content to your phone. The Micro-USB connector has a latch which can be closed to prevent that dust will settle in the connector. It can easily be opened or closed.

The left side of the device is only occupied by the volume up and down buttons, while the right side features the power on/off button and the hardware camera button.

The bottom only shows a small hole for the microphone. The back of the Omnia 7 will show some more. On the top right corner you’ll see the lanyard connector and three small dots which prevent the camera lens from scratching when the device is on a flat surface. Below these small dots is the speaker which produces a good sound. Rest of the back is taken up by the LED Flash, camera lens and battery cover. In the battery compartment is also a connector for an external antenna connector which could be used in a car holder to amplify the antenna signal. This would require a modified battery cover of course..

Software – Windows Phone 7

Like all the newly introduced phones, the Omnia 7 runs Windows Phone 7. Windows Phone 7 is a completely new designed Operating System by Microsoft, which cannot be compared to it’s predecessors in any way.

Windows Phone features a new user interface, based upon Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 design system, codenamed Metro.The home screen, called the “Start screen”, is made up of “Tiles”. Tiles are links to applications, features, functions and individual items (such as contacts, web pages, applications or media items). Users can add, rearrange, or remove Tiles. Tiles are dynamic and update in real time – for example, the tile for an email account would display the number of unread messages or a Tile could display a live update of the weather.

Several features of Windows Phone 7 are organized into “hubs”, which combine local and online content via Windows Phone 7′s integration with popular social networks such as Facebook and Windows Live.For example, the Pictures hub shows photos captured with the device’s camera and the user’s Facebook photo albums, and the People hub shows contacts aggregated from multiple sources including Windows Live, Facebook, and Gmail. From the Hub, users can directly comment and ‘like’ on social network updates. The other built-in hubs are Music and Video (which integrates with Zune), Games (which integrates with Xbox LIVE), Windows Phone Marketplace, and Microsoft Office.

Windows Phone 7 will use multi-touch technology. The default Windows Phone 7 user interface has a dark theme that prolongs battery life on OLED screens screens as fully black pixels don’t emit light.The user may choose a light theme instead, and can also choose from several accent colors.User interface elements such as tiles are shown in the user’s chosen accent color. Third-party applications can be automatically themed with these colors.

Minimum requirements for Windows Phone 7 devices

Manufacturers can choose their own design or colors for the phone but every Windows Phone 7 device needs to meet at least the requirements below.

Capacitive, 4-point multitouch screen with WVGA (800×480) resolution
1 GHz ARM v7 “Cortex/Scorpion” or better processor
DirectX9 rendering-capable GPU
256MB of RAM with at least 8GB of Flash memory
Accelerometer with compass, ambient light sensor, proximity sensor and Assisted GPS
5-megapixel camera with flash
FM radio tuner
6 dedicated hardware buttons – back, Start, search, camera, power/sleep and Volume Up and Down.

Samsung’s Omnia 7 obviously meets all these requirements. Samsung even placed a 4 inch display in the Omnia 7 where other manufacturers use 3,7 inch or 3,8 inch displays. Above mentioned requirements make the Omnia 7 a super fast and lively device. It reacts instantly and how many hubs you’ll be opening, it stays fast.

Samsung applications and Now Hub.

Apart from all the basic applications and hubs that every Windows Phone 7 device features when it comes out of the box, Samsung added a few extra’s to the Omnia 7 which are fun to use and easy to understand.
Samsung’s NOW Hub consists of three parts: Weather, News and Stock information.
Weather shows you the weather for a chosen location. On the weather page it shows the current conditions with temperatures and a short forecast for 3 days. When you touch the current weather it opens a new screen with more detailed information and even a 6 day forecast. This weather program is powered by Accuweather.

The News page gives you the Reuters news, where you can choose from all kinds of news. In this picture, the Internet News is used, but you can choose from Global News, Business News, Market Report and so on. You can choose from four countries: Canada, India, UK and US.
The last page gives you stock information. In the Settings page you can add stocks or Indices.

This hands on with the Samsung Omnia is just a short overview to show you what the Operating System and the device are capable of. In the upcoming weeks we will show you more about Windows Phone 7 and also try to review the popular applications for Windows Phone 7. As of today, Seesmic, Foursquare and the dutch application “Buienradar” (rainradar) are available in the Marketplace.