Samsung Omnia HD Review Part-4: Camera

The Samsung Omnia HD has had a lot of things said about it. But the biggest USP of this product is the camera. This baby rocks an 8 megapixel camera that does recording in HD (1280 x 720) at 24fps.

Let’s see in detail how the Omnia HD performs in this critical section, since this is the strongest point on it.

Samsung, today makes some of the highest megapixel count camera-phones in the world today. At 8MP, which is the current standard for high end phones, this camera is good. The Omnia HD has a lot of options and presets to help you get the most out of it. The interface on the Omnia HD’s camera is better than the Nokia solution on it’s touchscreen devices too. The only part where it loses out is the inclusion of a single LED flash. Without adequate flash, this phone cannot be used to capture anything in a dark area, as the results will be anything but acceptable.

The huge screen helps the Omnia HD to a great extent when it comes to taking a photograph. With a larger screen one has a good idea of what is coming into the frame easily. Though, at times, due to the size, the phone becomes quite a handful when trying to get a shot. I struggled at times, to find a sweet spot in terms holding the phone while taking a picture.

In daylight, the Omnia HD shoots some amazing photos, the 8MP at times is a big boon and on the screen at least, one will be amazed at the amount of detail that can be viewed. There are several presets on this device when it comes to the camera, as I mentioned earlier. Some of them are not available within even Espoo based Nokia’s phones. Smile shot feature, fireworks, candle light, dawn/dusk, sunset, are some of the ones I can recall. These settings sadly are not present in some of Nokia’s best offerings. Samsung though, has been providing them for long now.

I must say that the quality of the photos that turned out were rather good, better than even the N97 and I don’t mean by resolution alone. Samsung have a winner on their hands when it comes to camera. The only things that I did feel letdown with, may be because I am sub consciously comparing it with a regular point and shoot digital camera, is the macro. the macro for some reason is not as good as I would have liked it to be. It seemed to be lacking that little bit extra.

In terms of taking the pictures I would give it a 8/10. A good camera lacking dual LED flash or a xenon and a poor macro stop it from becoming a camera-phone to die for. Everything else makes it an excellent performer.

With the still photography part over, let’s take a good look at the video recording aspect. Video recording on the Omnia HD is as easy as it is taking a photo. What’s more is that there are a plethora of options in the form of settings, something which is sorely missing on many other phones. The biggest USP of this phone is it’s ability to take HD videos (1280x720). This USP also means that if you intend to shoot a long video, you had better have some extra batteries and lots of memory available.

So how good is the ‘HD’ recording? you ask, well it is good, capturing detail and colour brilliantly. I don’t think there is anything lacking in the video taking ability of this phone. I cannot find any noticeable flaw here. The phone allows for videos to be taken at a fast speed or a low speed. Interesting modes to have when you want to film that slow turtle race at the zoo or when you got to film that fast cheetah running toward its prey during that African safari of yours! These modes have setting for them too, so you can choose the speed at which you want to record the video. One must also know that you cannot record sound in these modes, which is a good thing. I don’t know things would sound otherwise. Also the modes are not HD quality modes, expect QVGA quality videos in the ‘slow-mo’ and fast forward modes.

As I mentioned earlier in my post, recording in HD means that a 30 second file would be approx. 36MB, so you better have a 16GB card in that phone of yours. Battery packs also needed!

Down below is a huge gallery of images from the Omnia HD and some sample videos too!

Samsung Corby Review

Samsung had organized an event way back in September, a blogger meet to explore this form of reaching out to it’s potential market. We at Fonearena were invited for it too. It was a great event and we got to understand a lot more about Samsung and their strategies.What was completely surprising was when they launched the Corby. This ‘cheap’ touch screen phone was completely unexpected and it did cause a stir in the market.With our readers clamoring for a review of this device, we got one from Samsung for a review.

Let’s have a look at some specs for this phone.

2000 contacts memory

500 SMS memory

2MP camera

Capacitive touch – 2.8″ screen and QVGA resolution

Bright colours

Social Networking sites support

These are the highlights of this device. Priced at approximately INR 8000. The Corby has become a successful product for Samsung. So much so that it has spawned an entire line.

The Corby we received was a black and yellow phone. This combination is perhaps the best one for the Corby as the yellow is bright and really brightens up the day. being glossy in finish, the grip of the phone comes from the red coloured rings at the are raised on the back (yellow portion), giving this device a youthful look without compromising on utility.

Over the course of a few weeks we had the chance to examine this device from almost every angle.

On the design front, this is a rather wonderfully crafted device. The shape is intriguing and pretty good, sufficient to differentiate you and itself from the crowd. The Star 3G which would be a similarly sized device does not look as great as this.

The layout of the call, end and return buttons is pretty good, though my only grouse is with the latest design Samsung has adopted of not backlighting the physical keys. It’s a completely poorly thought design decision.

The layout of the lock key is pretty good, though it could have been raised a little bit for easy access and usage. The camera key is perhaps placed in the worst possible place, being next to the lock key, there were many moments I pressed the lock key instead of the camera button. Additionally the camera key is also placed unergonomically. I had many issues in holding the device without touching the screen and clicking a picture. This is one area where Samsung has definitely not thought through and it reflects in the placement of keys.

The volume keys are pretty good and no complaints there. Though I don’t think zooming a picture is possible while clicking because of the placement.

The screen is one area where Samsung has not disappointed. It has a QVGA screen and a big one at that. Even though in this date it’s pretty poor resolution, I think at the above price it’s a great deal. Capacitive touch, a feature reserved only for high end touch devices, makes its entry into the entry level touchscreen phone market. Kudos to Samsung for doing this. Even though it’s not as great as the iPhone, the Corby does really well to take on established touchscreen devices from the entire spectrum and make them taste dirt. I found the touch to be responsive mot of the times, the rest of the times it was a bit too sensitive. maybe because I was treating it like a resistive screen. The colours were bright and the did not seem washed out or dull on the screen.

From the screen let me jump to the to the camera. The camera on this baby is a simple 2MP affair. It has various settings any good 2MP camera would have. Video quality is pretty ok too for this device. A point to take note is that the camera takes really good pictures. I was mighty impressed with it. For a 2MP camera, it’s quite good.

Here is a shot from the Camera

corby camera

Music wise, this phone is a beast. I must say that even though this phone has a mono speaker, it’s way louder than most phones. I was actually speechless at the kind of output this device had. It was louder than even the 5800 XM. Music wise, the Corby is a very strong contender. Nothing comes close to this phone in terms of music output.

Internet experience on this phone was pretty ok. The browser on the Samsung Corby is a pretty average browser, no fireworks here. But it does it’s job well and that’s what matters.

Some of the interesting features which deserve a mention are the dictionary, PDF reader and the widgets. Widgets on this phone actually make things a lot easier to accomplish. All the social networking sites can be accessed from this device and even photography sites. Uploading pictures is a piece of cake. In terms of usage, this device is simple to use and that’s a good thing.

There were some things which I found rather unpleasant on this device. Firstly, the screen would automatically at times act as if someone is trying to unlock it and beep, this when it was absolutely lying still and nobody touching it at all. Secondly, the absence of a sensor. When talking on the phone, due to an absence of a proximity sensor, there were times when I accidentally pressed a button on the screen.

The most important factors in a phone are call quality and battery, let me tell you about it as I conclude my brief review of the Samsung Corby. Call quality on this device was very good, I did not have any problems making or taking calls, conversations were loud and clear without any sort of interference. Battery life on this phone is pretty good, easily lasting a couple of days with moderate usage.

Overall the Corby is a great buy for the college teenager out there and for the girls. It’s a great touchscreen phone with a lot of funk. Makes the Star look old in terms of looks.

And with the WiFi and 3.2MP camera coming to the Corby, it’s only set to get better.

Blackberry Tour Review

Blackberry Tour 9630 specs called as Blackberry BOLD for the CDMA network is a perfectly blended with style and features. Though it almost shares its looks with the Blackberry curve, tour has better QWERTY keyboard and design. We’ll talk about the design later on in this review.

Tour leaves us with a charming first impression. Though, slightly higher in weight compared to other Blackberry devices it didn’t take me much of a time to get used to it. Its wider dimensions has made it possible for RIM to have a well placed QWERTY keyboard.

The rubber finish on the backside of the device made me hold the device even when I went to sleep, it’s really really smooth and satisfying to hold. My only concern is the silver lining on the device might wear out just like other devices.

Talking about the keys, I felt that the slightly tiled moulds on the keys surprisingly makes it easier to type. RIM has hit a bulls-eye with this keyboard design. Typing long emails was never so easier. The only grudge I would hold is the noise the keys made- but that maybe the problem only with my review unit.

The tour sports a decent 3.2 Mega Pixel camera along with flash for clicking photos and shooting video. Of course, this is just an add-on to click funny pictures of your colleagues in office.Photos are decent but not spectacular.

Though surprisingly, at night the flash did wonders:

When I initially received the device, I first Wiped the phone to restore it to factory settings. The major problem that I experienced was the trackball on default settings. The trackball wasn’t responsive enough to scroll horizontally. I had to change the sensitivity of the trackball to 90 for smooth scrolling.The screen resolution of 480 x 360 with 65536 colors gives an amazing viewing experience.

The best part about tour is that though a CDMA device, it sports a SIM card slot, allowing you to double it as a GSM device when roaming. So you need not buy/rent other phone when you are on international tour. I tried inserting SIM card in that slot and boy, it takes quite a bit of effort to remove the SIM card from the slot. I had to use the stencil from my 5800 to push it out risking the stencil to break, but it worked.

I have no idea why RIM did not pack WiFi with this device. Kind of puts the device to shame.There was no problem in transferring data over Bluetooth both ways- BB to other device and other device to BB. RIM has packed the same set of software with the tour. The device I received already has Blackberry app world installed- but if you buy a new piece, you will have to download it. What shocked me was that you cannot install applications on your memory card. You will have to fit everything within your phone’s 256MB storage capacity, which is a poor decision by RIM.

The browser on tour just like other Blackberry phones is not a great piece of software that they would be proud of. But of course, you have an option of installing Opera for blackberry, which does a good job.

Messaging / Emailing

SMS/Email works wonders. Being an ardent Nokia user, the threaded Conversation in SMS and Email was a welcome change. Setting up email account on the device didn’t take me more than 5 minutes.

RIM has now bundled the device with almost all IM clients- yahoo, Gtalk, AIM. Though, for some reason Gtalk didn’t seem to work on the device. So, I had to rely on Nimbuzz which I downloaded from Blackberry app world for free. For my social networking needs I used the Facebook app and Ubertwitter to access Twitter.

With extensive email, twittering, facebooking, browsing and calling the battery lasted for almost half a day. Quite impressive as I really abused the battery. If you are a normal user than you can expect the phone to last a day or day and a half.The only thing that concerns me is, the device refuses to receive network when the last 4% of battery life is still remaining.

Conclusion:

Blackberry Tour does a splendid job in all aspects from style to features to performance- if you are ready to let go that it does not support WiFi.

Blackberry Bold2 9700 Review

So here we have the Blackberry 9700, also popularly known as the Bold 2. (RIM went as far as etching “Bold” on the back of the phone as well – something not present on the original Blackberry 9000, the Bold). The original Bold was the first of it’s kind. The massive 2.5” screen with HVGA resolution, and the first 3G Blackberry, giving a clear impression RIM wanted to change the “boring” look of traditional blackberries (started by the introduction of Blackberry 8100). The Bold 2 has built upon several of the predecessor’s in Blackberries’ lineup over the last year or so. The exact specs can be found here

(This could be highlights I guess) But to give you a feel of the device, the size feels identical to the current Blackbery Tour (on CDMA networks) and Blackberry Curve 8900 (on GSM networks). The keypad is a slightly reduced keypad lifted off the original Bold. The display is the same high-resolution 480x360 with a 2.44” screen. The most notable upgrade on this device however is the new optical trackpad (which IMHO is a pleasure to use and now I cannot use the trackball present on the Blackberry 9000 at all!). The sensitivity of the response can be modified from the settings itself, but at 70% sensitivity it still seems to be extremely responsive! Physically the new chrome bezel is more attractive than current Blackberry offerings and this phone down – right looks gorgeous. The phone launched across major North. American carriers in the first week of November, and the phone used in this review is from Rogers, Canada.

Competition: As of right now the only competition the phone faces in the currently released phone market is the iPhone 3GS (reviewed for Fone Arena as well). However Nokia’s E72 will go head on with the Blackberry 9700 when it hit’s the worldwide market. (Nokia should really have sped up the launch for the E72). Palm Pixi, based on WebOS is another phone but due to it’s CDMA limitations wont really be competing against the 9700, which has essentially become the handset to have simultaneously launched across most of the world.

Package contents

- Blackberry 9700 handset
- 1500mah battery (identical to the one used in the original Bold)
- Micro USB cable
- Charger
- Leather holster
- 3.5mm headphones with microphone built-in
- Manuals/CD

Device Tour

Top: Lock key, mute/standby key
Bottom: Connectors for charging dock
Left: 3.5mm headphone jack, charging port/micro USB port, convenience key
Right: Volume keys, convenience key
Back: LED Flash and 3.2mp camera

The memory card slot is underneath the battery cover, and RIM took a step down from the 9000 and decided to make it inaccessible for hot-swap. The device will have to be powered down for you to take the SIM and microSDHC card in/out. The Rogers 9700 comes pre-loaded with a 2GB microSDHC.

For the purpose of the review I will compare this phone to it’ predecessor the Blackberry 9000

Keypad - The keypad feels cramped, compared to the bigger, more spacious 9000 keypad. This is because of the reduced size of the device itself, but the keys are still wide and flat. After using the keypad extensively for over two weeks, I have no issues typing out emails/messages and stories on this phone.

Display – reduced size means reduced display size as well. The difference is noticeable but doesn’t hinder the use in any way. The colours and the type of LCD used are identical. No issues here.

Processor/RAM – The processor is the same on both the devices, but the 9700 has double the RAM compared to the 9000. These means running multiple applications in the background with a memory leak issue or any glitch. This annoyed me a lot on the 9000 which often started crawling when too many applications were open, but not an issue with the 9700. The phone comes preloaded with OS 5.0.0.321 which has been optimized to use the extra memory efficiently. After pre-loading the Bold and Bold 2 with OS 5.0 the difference in the performance of both the phones is negligible, but the 9700 will not choke after running say 2-3 memory intensive programs such as Viigo, or Mypoynt.
Camera – the performance is unmatched compared to the 9000. The AF+LED Flash make a HUGE difference in the imaging department. No contest here, the 9700 has the edge.

Battery Life – I don’t know what RIM did but this phone has a stellar battery life. Maybe it’s an OS5.0 thing, or the way the phone is wired, I don’t know but this phone out last’s the 9000 by a few hours. Easily. This was obviously an unscientific observation.

UI/OS

The device comes pre-loaded with the new BB OS 5.0 which offers a whole lot of new features – but no real UI change from older OS.The most obvious change is the threaded SMS – a welcome addition which looks almost identical to the Blackberry Messenger application itself (which may result in sending out several text messages while forgetting that you are infact texting and not on BBM).

Telephony
3G (HSDPA) compatible
UMTS: 2100/1900/850/800 MHz (Bands 1,2,5/6), 2100/1700/900 MHz (Bands 1,4,8)
GSM: 1900/1800/900/850 MHz
Quad-band support: GSM 850; GSM
As you can tell, the phone cannot take advantage of the new HSPA+ networks launched in Canada, or Australia due to support of HSPDA speeds of 3.6mbps only. The E72 however, does support upto 10.2mbps up and HSUPA 2mbps. But keep in mind data coming to the Blackberry connected on BIS/BES is already compressed which is why emails/text/messages don’t seem to lag (except the occasional RIM Outages)
The phone also has GPS with built-in Blackberry maps which work only on a data connection. Not Wifi.

Connectivity
BT 2.1
WiFi B/G
microSDHC slot with support upto 32GB microSDHC

Browsing
The new OS 5.0 has marginally improved browsing speeds, but I’d recommend using Opera right away unless you need to download applications OTA. On that note, BB App world has been getting updates every now and then – and seems to become more and more stable. Applications are added weekly – but still cannot come close to the sheer number of applications on the iPhone/iTouch platform.
Multimedia
The processor can handle large AVI files without a hitch, and the media player supports a whole variety of formats. To be specific it can play -
Video format support: XviD partially supported, H.263, H.264, WMV3, MPEG4, Sorenson Spark & On2 VP6 (Flash support)
Audio format support: .3gp, MP3, WMA9 (.wma/.asf), WMA9 Pro / WMA 10, MIDI, AMR-NB, Professional AAC/AAC+/eAAC+
Messaging
The Blackberries are the golden standard when it comes to messaging and emailing. There’s no contest to the platform on the whole. And this phone just reiterates that. Perhaps Gmail users will be the ones that have the most advantages if you are on BIS due to the partnership of RIM and Google. The recent BIS update now offers contact synchronization as well thru RIM’s special enterprise activation.
Blackberry offers support for hosted exchange as an addon as well to MS Exchange users. If you use Google Apps there’s support for synchronization there as well. If you just want to do email, there’s hardly any competition for the Blackberry. Nokia Messaging has yet to establish itself to prove itself as competition to BIS. Services like SEVEN as well are no match to the stellar performance offered by BIS. If there’s one thing the Blackberries can do right, it’s messaging.
Applications
The downloads folder has an icon now that states “Get new games” which is tied to the carrier’s offerings. Everything else in unchanged and standard to OS 5.0.

Conclusion
The only immediate competition this device faces is the Nokia E72,.The phone offers a higher resolution, and a bigger screen compared to the E72, which to heavy mobile users is a necessity. Email and messaging on the Blackberry is unmatched regardless of the platform you use. If you are new to the market, and have not used Blackberries at all, a better blackberry to start off would be the new Blackberry 8520, Gemini. However, veteran blackberry users will appreciate the new 9700. Coming from the 9000 did require some getting used to – but in matter of days I mastered the keypad. The extra RAM makes a huge difference if you are used to running several applications in the background like I do. The imaging upgrades along with the new OS make the phone feel “new” and not just an incremental upgrade over the 9000. The improved battery life is welcome, but the optical trackpad makes the phone a charm to use. The phone’s “perfect” size makes it tough to put it down.