You saw the the unboxing of Samsung Omnia W, the first Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) device in India. Here is the Full review of the device. It has 3.7-inch WVGA (800 x 480 pixels) Super AMOLED display and is powered by 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.
Hardware
The first thing you’ll notice about the device is how compact it is. It has 3.7-inch (800 x 480 pixels) Super AMOLED display and is easy to hold in your hand. The Super AMOLED display offers vibrant colors while viewing images and videos. This has PenTile Matrix like the Nokia Lumia 800 but it is hardly noticeable. The screen is glossy and is prone to smudges and dust,better use the pouch that is provided in the box.
The ear piece grill is on the top along with a Secondary camera. The Samsung branding is below that.
The Windows key is in the middle at below the display along with back and search capacitive touch buttons on either side. These touch buttons illuminates and also offers haptic feedback when pressed. You can press and hold the back button to multitask between apps.
The Volume rocker is on the left.
The power button is on the right.
The dedicated camera button is on the right bottom.
The 3.5mm audio jack is on the top
The 5MP auto focus camera with LED flash is at the back. The speaker grill is next to that. The Center part of the back is metal with Samsung and Windows Phone branding and has matte finish.
The Micro USB port is at the bottom
When you open the case you can see the 1500 mAh removable battery. The SIM card slot is on the top.
The phone is sleek which is 10.9mm thick.
Camera
The 5MP shooter takes good shots. You can change the Auto focus modes between Macro and Normal. Other camera settings include, White balance, Image effect, Contrast, Saturation, Sharpness, EV, ISO, Meteringm Photo Quality and Photo Resolution. You can switch to front facing camera easily. It also has touch focus that immediately captures the image witch a particular point in focus. The camera is quick, which captures the image in seconds when the camera button is pressed. The macro shots were also pretty good but the night shots with the flash were average.
Here are some camera samples.
The phone has 0.3MP front facing camera that enables you to make video calls. The free Tango app in the Windows Phone Market lets you call other Tango users over 3G / WiFi. You can also use the new Skype (Beta) to make calls over Wi-Fi/3G.
You can switch to Video mode that offers similar settings as the camera. The default video resolution is VGA but you can change it to 720p HD mode that offers HD video recording at 30 fps.
Here is the 720p HD video sample.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eSfPKa84r8
Software
The Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) has new Metro UI with Live Tiles and Hubs that offers integrated experience by offering related content such as images, games, office etc. into a single view. You can know more about the features of the Windows Phone Mango here. The phone is fast with the 1.4GHz processor.
Connectivity
The batter saver option in the settings turns off some push services so that they won’t run in the background to save battery life.
There is no option to switch between 2G and 3G in the mobile network settings. If you have enabled 3G then it would automatically turn on 3G, if not it would remain in 2G. However, you can switch off 3G and go to 2G only mode by dialing ##3282# -> settings (thanks to @raghupro for the tip).
The Bluetooth with A2DP enables you to connect it to Bluetooth headset but you can’t send files to other phones. You can share your mobile data connection over WiFi up to 5 devices using Internet Sharing.
Music Player and FM Radio
The Music Player lets you play MP3,AMR, AAC, AAC+, e-AAC+, WMA and WAV audio formats but the is no equalizer. The speakers were pretty loud and the in-ear headphones provided in the box were also good. You can control the Music Player from the lock screen. There is FM Radio with RDS. The Video player lets you play different video formats. The Zune software automatically converts all the supported formats into WMV when you transfer it to the phone.
Browser
The Internet explorer 9 doesn’t support flash or silverlight. There are tabs and support for cookies.
The Internet explorer 9 managed to get 141 in the HTML5 test.
Apps
There are some default Samsung Apps Now, RSS Times, Photo Studio to edit image, FunShot to make fun with images, MiniDiary that lets you keep records of text, images and voice.
There are more customized apps for Samsung in Samsung Zone in the Windows Marketplace. Tango App for Samsung enables you make video calls over WiFi or 3G. There are also some games such as Rubik’s Cube and Instagram like app called Photogram that could be downloaded from the Samsung Zone.
The inbuilt Maps app lets you view map of your location and offers you directions but it doesn’t offer you turn by turn directions while travelling.
Other apps includes, Microsoft Office to open, edit and delete one note, word, excel docs and also share them to Skydrive to access in PC. You can press and hold the Windows key to use the Microsoft Tellme app that enables you to call, find a place and more with voice commands. The Xbox Live zone some great collection of games that you can try and buy.
Conclusion
The phone has good build quality with metal back, and the front facing camera along with the Super AMOLED display is great for the price. The battery life is not great that lasts a day on 3G with few calls, Audio playback and FM Radio. The phone gets heated when you use 3G for long time. It take more than 1 or 1.5 hours to charge to full from 5% or below that, which is annoying sometimes when you forget to charge the phone before heading out. The lack of expandable memory and the limited 8GB is a bit disappointing. You can see how this phone stacks up against the Nokia Lumia 710 in the specs comparison or read our Lumia 710 review. If you are looking to get a mid-range Windows Phone, the Omnia W is the one you need.
Pros
- Good build quality
- Super AMOLED display
- Secondary video calling camera
Cons
- No expandable storage