Samsung Omnia 7

The Samsung Omnia 7 was one of the initial devices at the time of the Windows Phone 7 launch. The device runs the WP7 OS and its apps beautifully thanks to its superb hardware capabilities. With a 122 x 64 x 11 mm dimensions it's one of the slimmest phone in the WP7 series and at 139 g also one of the lightest available.

The S-AMOLED screen with Gorilla Glass sits flush with the bezel — giving the 4” screen an even large and cooler look. It also supports a 4-point multi-touch system — more than most other phones out there from other platforms.

The device I got had 512 MB RAM, 1 GB ROM and 8 GB internal storage — there are however editions of this device with larger capacities — especially in the internal storage area. The CPU and DirectX 9-capable GPU (which might be better than what you have in your laptop/desktop at work) in the device make it a solid performer — apps, music, games and videos perform without a single stutter. On heavy usage (watching movies, using 3G, Wifi on, reading books, making calls etc.) my battery lasts about 1.5 days. With moderate usage it goes up to about 2 days.

Windows Phone 7 has a very specific chassis definition — to standardize what every device hardware works like. So the front of the screen contains the 3 buttons — Back, Windows & Search. The first and last buttons are implemented as capacitive touch buttons and the middle one as an actual hard button. You also have the standard volume buttons, a power button and the camera buttons on the side. The device accepts a 3.5mm audio jack as well as a micro-USB charger/sync cable.

The camera on the Omnia 7 is quite excellent. It's a 5 MP camera that shoots stills as well as VGA and 720p videos. Both stills and videos come out very well and a huge plethora of customizations options exist for both sets. These options seem to be actually a Samsung addition to the default options since the Dell Venue Pro (written about in the previous month) does not have these options. Samsung also has another exclusive feature — a Samsung Zone area in the application marketplace. This shows a number of either Samsung only WP7 apps (like Now) or other 3rd party apps available for free (which are usually priced in the open market). There are tons of apps in the Zone that you can simply install for free. The speakers on the phone are OK for speakerphone calls but are not too great for listening to music — but the 3.5 mm jack allows you to connect any audio device to it and it then takes over as an excellent portable music player. The Zune software allows you to sync the device contents with your machine — PC or Mac. You can copy images, videos, music to and from your device and also find and install apps, updates, music and videos from the Zune marketplace.

Bottomline: Cool looks, great performance and tons of great apps make Omnia 7 great phone. The “NoDo” update has enabled the app marketplace search and the much vaunted copy-paste feature is also now available on the phone.