[bberry360]

hi!

I just browsed the net and found a great match for BlackBerry - Samsung's Iphone Killer - Omnia i900. It boasts a 3.2 inch touchscreen design with a sleek black gloss 12.5mm thick finish. It also has Windows for its OS with the Opera Mobile 9.5 web browser. It also has (get this noted) 5MP camera, WIFI ready, a built in radio and up to 16GB internal memory.
Now compared to the iPhone 3G and a single 2MP camera at the back, the Omnia has also a camera above the screen for video calling and taking pictures.

In comparison to the release of the BlackBerry Storm, which is touted to be another iPhone killer with its touchscreen navigation technology, 3.2 MP camera, 1GB internal memory, a Roxio Media Manager and 3G capabilities; I guess the Omnia is a pretty a tough competitor in the Mobile/PDA market.

So what's your take on this battle of the iPhone killers?

[daseff]

I've looked into the Omnia too, and from what I've seen I think I actually prefer it to the Storm. In all honesty, I don't think any touch screen phone can compare to the iPhone. I purchased the LG Dare the day it came out and was very disappointed. But, back to the mentioned phones, I'll have to actually use the phones to make a decision - the Storm's "button screen" doesn't sound very appealing to me.

[fiffer]

I think the Omnia is one of the best and upcoming touchscreen phones that could greatly be an iPhone killer. With the Omnia's glossy and sexy black color, a bigger screen than the iPhone, a better camera than the iPhone and even has Wifi capabilities. I'll choose the Omnia over Storm.

[StuartV]

Is there anybody that can post here that has used an Omnia and a BB (preferably a Storm) and give us a real-world comparo?

I have had my Pearl for about 9 months and love it. I was really looking forward to upgarding to the Storm. But, the initial release has some well-document problems. My brother mentioned to me today to check out the Omnia and, after reading several reviews, it is starting to look nicer than the Storm.

If you're like me and have been keeping up on the Storm, but don't really know about the Omnia, here are some key points about the Omnia (in my opinion):

- runs Windows Mobile 6.1
- WM6.1 means it has the best phone integration with Outlook/Exchange, Word, and Excel.
- It's roughly 0.2 inches shorter, 0.2 inches narrower, and a teeny, tiny bit thinner than the Storm.
- It's over a full ounce lighter than the Storm.
- It has WiFi built in.
- 5 MP camera, w/auto-focus, image stabilization, LED flash, and face recognition (and will record video).
- built-in accelerometer and has auto-screen rotation (which can be switched off).
- Bluetooth (including Stereo support)
- built-in FM radio.
- built-in 8GB of storage (they make a 16GB version, too).
- EVDO Rev A
- MicroSD slot with 16GB support.
- touch screen includes QWERTY, SureType, and MultiTap support. I think you can even use QWERTY in Portrait mode.
- Comes with Internet Explorer and Opera Mini installed. Flash Lite 2.1 is supported and you can get 3rd party apps to support Flash Lite 3. IOW, you may have to use 3rd party software, but you CAN watch full-on YouTube videos.
- Has an optical "mouse", which lets you swipe your finger/thumb around on it to control the on-screen cursor. (after playing with a Storm, I was *seriously* wishing it had a trackball like my Pearl)
- built-in GPS with A-GPS support
- camera supports geotagging of pictures.
- as all WM devices, it supports Push email.

In other words, I can't find anything about the Storm that the Omnia doesn't seem to equal or better. What am I missing?

[StuartV]

ps. I read a Washington Post review of the Omnia that would lead you to believe that there is no option to use regular headphones with the Omnia for listening to music. Well, that is completely wrong. The headphone jack is proprietary, but it is there and the Omnia comes with the cable/adapter/remote that you would need to use regular headphones with it.

[wild satchmo]

Originally Posted by StuartV

In other words, I can't find anything about the Storm that the Omnia doesn't seem to equal or better. What am I missing?

In my opinion I see the windows mobile OS as a negative. It just looks old, and does not feel as nice as a polished 'built for touchscreen' OS like android or the iphone OS. Yes compatibility with mobile apps is more developed in WINMO than BB OS 4.7 , but that is just because the new BB os is so new to the market.

I do admit that the new BB OS needs a little work before it is considered 'polished' but so far it is shaping up to be better than windows mobile IMHO.

Omnia + Android would kick so much @ss.

Also the server / admin side is so well done with Blackberry Enterprise Server. I am an IT Administrator and have worked with both extensively. I find there to be a lot more flexibility for true enterprise solutions without as much of a headache. Obviously this is not a factor for every user.

Aside from that, the Omnia is a brilliant device and is going to make winmo look pretty good. Samsung has been doing their thing lately.

[mastdog]

I was looking at the Storm today to upgrade from my Curve and the attendant showed me this phone. I mean WOW. The windows os is a negative to me, but not on this phone. It is fast, sleek and come on, a 5 mp camera! Holy Cow!

I love my BB, but when this phone comes out it may have me really looking at it. I just have no idea on the phone quality. I know BB and that is why the Storm is doing so well, but I bet more than a few people used their 30 days to swap it out for this phone.

It is a sweet phone.

[nomoreq]

I would really check out the phone. Samsung makes a great phone. I had an i760 awseome phone . The problem is Windows Mobile. Windows Mobile is great as far as 3rd party software and such but it is buggy as hell and seems worst with added phone features. Dont get me wrong I used and enjoyed windows mobile but, it was not uncommon to do 2-3 battery pulls a day. Blackberry just seems to have a much more stable platform...Just my2cents

[StuartV]

Thanks for the comments. Question for all 3 of you, wild satchmo, mastdog, and nomoreq. All 3 of you knocked on WM. I've heard other people knock it. The question is:

Are you basing that on experience with WM6.1? Or some earlier version?

I'm not saying WM6.1 is any better. But, it seems like it could be. Just like everybody is saying that the Storm OS is really buggy right now, but will get better, wouldn't you expect WM to get better?

Heck, I have to do a battery pull about once a week on my Pearl - if for no other reason than to deal with the memory leak that everybody seems to have known about forever, yet RIM has never fixed.

[StuartV]

Originally Posted by wild satchmo

... does not feel as nice as a polished 'built for touchscreen' OS like android or the iphone OS.

Okay, granted. But, there are other reasons why I definitely do not want an iPhone. And I don't think I want an Android phone, either. I could be wrong, but my perception is that Android is not as well-integrated into an Exchange mailbox as a BB or a WM phone, and that is critical to me.

Between the Omnia and the Storm, they both seem to be somewhat handicapped by shoehorning an older OS into a touch screen phone. I count them somewhat equal there. The Storm could really use a trackball. But, the Omnia apparently has some areas, if you go deep enough into application settings and so forth, where you need to use a stylus, because the only (virtual) keyboard available is the built-in WM one, which has the letters so small and close together that you really can't use it with your fingertip.

[0100010]

One of my co-workers is asking me today if she should keep her Storm or her Omnia. I've sat and played with them both this morning - I gotta say I prefer the Omnia myself. The clickable screen on the Storm just seems so counter intuitive to the point of a touch screen, and I prefer WM.

[WMedley]

For personal use i would probably say the Omnia, but as a messaging engineer I have to say the storm. yes you can connect the omnia to exchange which is fine, but what about connecting it to a domino or even a groupwise environment, let alone have any real control over the device. I think that the storm is a long way from being an iphone killer, but it will take a big chunk of the corporate users away from apple.

[StuartV]

My brother kept the Omnia for 1 day, then returned it and ordered a Storm.

I only got to play with his Omnia for a few minutes, but I wasn't impressed. The Omnia rules, on paper, but my brief usage of it left me with these negatives:

- typing using the SureType-style kb sucks, compared to SureType on a BB. It takes 3 screen presses to type a period (or any other punctuation) and be back in text typing mode.

- calling people from the address book sucks (compared to a BB). Particularly if you have a lot of contacts. I have over 1200 contacts in my address book and the WinMo way of working would be a big handicap compared to a BB. Example: the finest WinMo granularity for finding a contact is to scroll to a specific letter. So, if I want to call Joe Smith, I can scroll to the S's, then I have to scroll individual entries to find the one I want. If I have 50 contacts with a last name that starts with S, it could take me a while to find the one I want. Example 2: if I want to call somebody, but I can only remember their first name. On my BB, I can just type their first name into the dialer and it will show me all matching contacts. On WinMo, I'm not sure how you could do that. I suppose there may be a Search function you could invoke. But, it would definitely not be as easy as just starting to type their name. Example 3: on the BB, I can type part of the first name and part of the last name, and the list will quickly filter to all Contacts that match. Very handy, especially if you can't remember exactly how their name is spelled. I don't think there's a way to do this in WinMo.

- If you're typing on the Omnia and you rotate the screen, the kb disappears and you have to tap the icon at the bottom to bring it back up.

- it *appears* that you can't have it automatically use SureType in Portrait mode and QWERTY in Landscape. That is how the Storm works and seems preferable. The Omnia QWERTY kb is too small in Portrait, so I'd rather use SureType if I'm in Portrait. But the Landscape QWERTY is big enough so I'd rather have that, then. Of course, as I already pointed out, the SureType kb on the Omnia is seriously flawed, so I probably would not want to use it at all. Which means typing on the Omnia, for me, is really only effective in Landscape mode - which I would not like.

- the Omnia GPS is locked (and the Storm GPS is not).

- the Omnia WiFi really only adds a marginal improvement over Verizon's EVDO service.

- I did not like the Omnia's haptic feedback. It "clicked" every time I touched the screen - even if I was just doing a touch-and-drag operation.

- the low screen res on the Omnia. It appears that there are things in map data and in the browser that would be legible at the same size on a Storm, that aren't legible on the Omnia. That is really lame.

- the Omnia optical mouse was pretty cool, but it lacked some pretty obvious (to me) functionality. Like, if it's in mouse mode, and you're in the browser, and you scroll the mouse to the bottom of the screen and try to keep going down, it ought to scroll the browser page up, but it doesn't. And, since I learned about how you can touch, hold and then move the cursor on the Storm screen, the Omnia mouse is no longer really an advantage. Call 'em equal on that score.

- I read somewhere, but didn't get to verify, that on the Omnia, you can't make text (SMS) messages and email show in different mailboxes. I definitely would not want my text msgs and emails all showing in one combined list.

- The Omnia has no Back button. There were several places where I got to and thought it really need one. Maybe I was just missing something here.

- The Omnia could not play the streaming Internet radio station that I normally listen to. I paid $20 for BerryTunes for my BB and it streams my favorite Internet radio station perfectly. Windows Media Player on the Omnia always returned "Parameter incorrect" or something like that, and wouldn't play it.

[StuartV]

Oh, and, though the Omnia comes with the adapter for using standard headphones, that's still not nearly as nice as any BB's standard headphone jack. I use my BB headphone jack to be able to play music in my car and in my office (via powered speakers). Having to carry the Omnia adapter cable around (or have 2 or more) to be able to listen to music in my accustomed ways is, well, not nearly as nice as what the BB brings to the table.

[innovator1]

My two cents -- Just saw the Omnia in my local Verizon store today for the first time. Never heard of it before today. The sales rep wasn't too knowledgeable about it, but as someone here said earlier, on paper it looks like a Storm-killer. I tried using it and frankly couldn't figure it out -- hard to move through screens, VERY poor response times on the accelerometer (horiz. vs. vert flipping), etc. Plus, I have been practicing on the Storm demo unit (while waiting for mine to come in) and found the SurePress screen to be a great way to confirm what I was typing. Granted, I wasn't able to type 50 WPM, but then again I can't do that on an iPhone nor the Omnia. My company doesn't support BES and doesn't care if I own a BB or not, so one of my questions is, what pro's/con's are there to WM and Wi-Fi vs non-WM and 3G? Thanks in advance for any responses, plus thanks for having this forum and this site, it looks great!

[nomoreq]

Originally Posted by StuartV

Thanks for the comments. Question for all 3 of you, wild satchmo, mastdog, and nomoreq. All 3 of you knocked on WM. I've heard other people knock it. The question is:

Are you basing that on experience with WM6.1? Or some earlier version?

I'm not saying WM6.1 is any better. But, it seems like it could be. Just like everybody is saying that the Storm OS is really buggy right now, but will get better, wouldn't you expect WM to get better?

Heck, I have to do a battery pull about once a week on my Pearl - if for no other reason than to deal with the memory leak that everybody seems to have known about forever, yet RIM has never fixed.

My expieriences were with OS prior to 6.1. Dont get me wrong WM has many features and benifits. I think you have to prioritize your needs. WM is very hackable and custimizeable, just buggy in my experience. I use my phone for work and I just love the stability of my Blackberry.There are a lot of good WM forums. Look around and you can find a ton of usefull info.

[buckleyv]

Originally Posted by StuartV

My brother kept the Omnia for 1 day, then returned it and ordered a Storm.

I did keep it for only a day (Stu, sorry I didn't let you play with is more) and am back to a K1m until the Storm I ordered is delivered on Monday (Dec. 15)... but there is a looming question I still have regarding the Storm that may make me order (and keep) an Omnia.

I called VZW today to ask about the GPS on the Storm... is it truly unlocked, or is it only available for BB Maps and VZNav? Specifically, can I run Google Maps on the Storm and get accurate position data from the GPS. HIs response, "we are a for-profit company and if it is locked that is on purpose... and we do not support any third party apps that did not come installed on the phone; so I cannot tell you if Google Maps will work."

If it ends up that the only ways to get to the GPS is thru the BBMaps or VZNav then I will likely not be keeping the Storm for very long.

If nothing else, the higher internal memory and Wifi on the Omnia my send me back.

[jresdios]

can someone simplify the locked and unlocked GPS for me? essentially, the Omnia can use GPS without the VZNavigator? sorry, i am sort of a newbie with the higher end phones. all i have is the K1m and hate it. thank you! and this thread has been very informative to me so far, so keep it going!

[Tori]

Great thread! Thank you for the excellent points!
I am a complete newbie and have to buy today. No experience with either! Thought I had settled on Omnia but after reading your comments I am now swaying to Storm. My use is mainly on the road business email. Besides bells and whistles, WM was appeal. Seems it's not easy to access addresses, etc.
What are the downsides to using BB and the Storm?

[redstar65]

Hey!
I've had the opportunity to check out both of the phones. My friend has the BB storm and is very happy with it. I have the 8830 and couldn't be happier, even though it doesn't have a damn camera. I love the whole BB system, but the Omnia looks hot! It's a sexy, slender, little phone. Some of the Verizon stores have them, but you have to ask to see them because they don't have the demos out.
The only draw backs that I've have come up with, since playing with the Omnia, were: smaller screen, no place for a needed stylus, and a lack of in coming emails (like the BBs have). I love getting my emails as soon as they come in. Some of the problems with the storm: they are already having to update the system (I was watching the VZW worker upgrade one while I was in the store), slow on adapting the picture when you turn the phone, and the whole screen is a button.
It's a tough call. And I have yet to decide between the two. I think I'm going to get myself the Storm and get my boyfriend the Omnia, so that I can decide which one I like the best. Remember Verizon users, you have 30 days to make up your mind if you like it or not.

Originally Posted by bberry360

hi!

I just browsed the net and found a great match for BlackBerry - Samsung's Iphone Killer - Omnia i900. It boasts a 3.2 inch touchscreen design with a sleek black gloss 12.5mm thick finish. It also has Windows for its OS with the Opera Mobile 9.5 web browser. It also has (get this noted) 5MP camera, WIFI ready, a built in radio and up to 16GB internal memory.
Now compared to the iPhone 3G and a single 2MP camera at the back, the Omnia has also a camera above the screen for video calling and taking pictures.

In comparison to the release of the BlackBerry Storm, which is touted to be another iPhone killer with its touchscreen navigation technology, 3.2 MP camera, 1GB internal memory, a Roxio Media Manager and 3G capabilities; I guess the Omnia is a pretty a tough competitor in the Mobile/PDA market.

So what's your take on this battle of the iPhone killers?