Samsung's omnipotent Omnia i900

Samsung dubs it the “One for All” multimedia phone. To you and me, it’s the groundbreaking new Samsung Omnia i900 mobile phone; it’s also the phone that’s billed as the iPhone killer.

Lofty billing? Not really, especially if you look at the Omnia i900’s specs. First off, it’s very similar to the iPhone 3G, with its slim, candybar form factor, a large screen dominating the front panel and minimalist controls.

Place the phones side by side and you’ll find that dimensions are remarkably similar, too, with the Omnia being a little slimmer, narrower and shorter than the iPhone 3G, at 12.5 x 112 x 56.9 mm versus 12.3 x 115.5 x 62 mm.

It also bristles with a full touch-based user interface with Haptical touch feature which gives easy access to the device’s many applications such as today screen, Launcher, Call log, Camera and Touch player.

Samsung wisely replaced much of Microsoft’s unwieldy smartphone UI and it replaced it with its own that is clearly inspired by the iPhone’s touch interface.

I particularly like the solid build quality — a hallmark of Samsung phones — and the slick finish. You really feel like you’re handling a finely crafted handset.

Audio quality is likewise superb, as is the battery life, which can stretch to two days’ use — impressive considering the large, bright screen and the many apps that usually guzzle a lot of juice.

The quad-band Omnia packs a 5-MP camera with auto-focus and LED flash; a surprisingly quick 624MHz processor with 128MB of RAM; a truly serious Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional OS; multiple and high-speed data connectivity via Bluetooth, USB, HSDPA (up to 7.2Mbps) and Wi-Fi; an FM radio; GPS-aided navigation; and a whopping 8GB or 16GB of data storage that’s expandable via MicroSD slot.

Downsides? Its 65k-color screen, at 3.2 inches, isn’t quite as expansive as the iPhone’s and its 400 x 280 resolution is also inferior. There is no 3.5-mm headphone socket, although an adaptor is included in the box.

There is also no stylus slot which means the stylus needs to be hanging to the phone like a lanyard if you need it close by.

The camera, however, is clearly an area of strength. Its 5-MP resolution is the highest we’ve seen in a Windows Mobile device, but it also has image stabilization, which means you don’t have to rely on the less-than-ideal LED flash in difficult lighting.

The results are impressive, even if the pinhole lens shots are a little noisy in low light and focus a touch soft, but they’re more than acceptable. You can use the Omnia for proper shots — not just thumbnail images on your Facebook.

Like a proper camera, it has various shooting modes and even has face and smile detection and geotagging.

Other stuff we liked are the optical joystick with virtual mouse functionality, the built-in accelerometer for auto screen rotation and call muting, a TV-out jack, an excellent thumb-optimized software package, a thumb-operated virtual QWERTY keyboard with optional landscape mode, TouchWiz UI, and DivX video support right out of the box.

On the navigation side, the Omnia i900 features GPS and Enhanced GPS to map out the best routes, point out the landmarks and guide you back on path when you make a wrong turn.

All things considered, Samsung has scored a hit with its groundbreaking new Omnia i900. It has aimed at the ultra-popular iPhone 3G and has scored some major hits.

It makes most of the other touch-screen handsets seem nothing more than iPhone wannabes. Or should I say, Omnia wannabes. It’s one of the best touch-screen phones on the market. Heck, one of the best phones on the market. Period.