Samsung Omnia 7 review

Samsung’s Omnia 7 is a first-generation Windows Phone 7 handset, and although the 7.5 “Mango” update is ready, it hasn’t yet passed the network operator certification process. Thanks to Microsoft’s early announcement, we know what to expect from Mango, so it’s not hard to imagine what the Omnia 7 will be like with the update.

Windows Phone 7 is an attractive touch-based OS with a lot of potential. Mango looks to fix many of the problems with the initial release, adding cut-and-paste, multi-tasking and deeper social aggregation – pulling email from multiple accounts into one inbox and grouping contacts to aggregate their updates.

We still have some issues with the OS. Only “partners” will be able to deeply integrate their apps into the operating system, so only the largest social networks and services will be featured. Despite growing to 30,000 apps, Microsoft’s Marketplace is still way behind the competition. There are a number of high-profile apps such as Evernote, Last.fm and Twitter, but still no official Facebook app. The majority of apps are amateur efforts, with plenty of unofficial apps for popular services that turn out simply to be links to the service’s web page.

Windows Phone’s live tiles are an interesting concept, but we find Android’s more customisable, multiple home screens, where you can place interactive widgets, shortcuts or bookmarks, far more flexible. As it’s sold, the Omnia 7 comes with a fairly decent selection of apps, with Office Mobile being the star of the show. However it’s undermined by the fact that you can’t browse the phone’s contents directly, and the Zune desktop syncing software is focused entirely on multimedia, so it’s impossible to drop files from your PC onto the phone to edit them. Even if you open a file via another app, the Office app doesn’t keep a copy. The only way seems to be via a Microsoft Sharepoint server, which home users are unlikely to have.

If you’re more interested in music and videos, you still have to process everything through Zune, in the same way that Apple users are tied to iTunes. This walled garden approach makes it easy to organise your files but gives you little control, and if you decide later to switch devices, you’ll have problems getting at any files stored on your old phone.

Windows Phone’s Live Tiles really stand out on the AMOLED screen, which is amazingly bright and colourful. The 480×800 resolution may not be the highest, but it’s more than enough to fill the 4in screen and make images and text look sharp. The phone’s metal casing makes it quite hefty for its size, but this adds to the impression of good build quality. We liked the inclusion of a camera shutter button and a cover for the USB port.

Photos snapped with the Omnia 7’s 5-megapixel camera are crisp and lack the noise in dark areas that plague most other cameraphones, but colours are muted. An LED flash helps illuminate dark shots, but videos, which can be recorded at 720p, are dull and noisy.

Current Windows Phone 7 handsets will receive free updates to Mango once it’s finally released to the public and, once new handsets are launched, you may find the Omnia 7 at bargain-basement prices. However, we much prefer Android’s open Market and customisable home screens to Windows Phone 7’s limited apps and rigid homescreen, however pretty and smooth it is to use. The Motorola Defy has similar features, better battery life and costs less.