Product Listing

Samsung Omnia 7 - The Super AMOLED Way

By Wong Casandra - 3 Dec 2010
Launch SRP: S$998

Performance

Super AMOLED it!

Like all the WP7 handsets before, the Omnia 7 performs exceedingly well in terms of navigation speed and messaging. Of course, this is achieved with a capable 1GHz Snapdragon processor. Likewise, we noted no lags with screen transitions, as well as apps operating quite smoothly with no slowdowns whatsoever. Messaging is a fluid affair too, not only in terms of agility but also thanks to the decently sized 4.0-inch screen, which gave us ample space for our fingers to maneuver. Microsoft's text prediction algorithm and auto-correction functionality further improved our messaging experience.

Since we're making references to the screen, don't forget that the main draw is its Super AMOLED screen. As usual, the Super AMOLED screen outsells itself and can only be seen to believe - compared to its other S-LCD equipped comrades, it performs better in color representation and contrast. The viewing angle is better under sunlight and works extremely well tilted horizontally or vertically. This greatly enhances multimedia viewing, be it videos or photos, with richer colors and sharper details to boast of. Complementing its excellent screen is a relatively decent audio playback, which can generally termed average in sound quality.

You can't really see the difference here, but the Super AMOLED screen on the Omnia 7 showed stronger contrast and had better viewing angles compared to the HTC HD7 and the LG Optimus 7.

Next, we scrutinized its imaging quality. As mentioned earlier, the phone comes with a standard 5-megapixel camera with LED flash. The Omnia 7's autofocus speed and image processing speed are slow compared to the LG Optimus 7, but roughly on par with HTC's HD7. Like both phones, colors weren't exactly well-balanced on the Omnia 7, inclining towards a more white-washed image. However, compared to the other phones, it exhibited better detail levels and less noise in its photos.

The camera does boast of an above average resolution, but with slightly weaker color reproduction.

Detail levels are above average, with the details of the fur more prominently seen.

As per normal, we compare the Omnia 7's battery performance with a selected group of devices chosen based on their similarities across battery capacities, display sizes, resolution and processing power. We have adopted the same complusory video looping test that we use on other platforms, but like the Optimus 7 and the HD7, the Omnia 7 does not support multitasking as it's a limitation of the Windows Phone 7 OS currently. As such, do take the battery results as a rough gauge of its battery mileage against the other multitasking-capable mobile phones. To reiterate, our standard battery test consists of looping a 240 x 320 pixels resolution video clip at 100% volume and screen brightness, with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth switched on. For this phone, we compared it against the LG Optimus 7, HTC HD7, and the Apple iPhone 4.

The Samsung Omnia 7 fared significantly better than its WP7 peers, lasting an average of almost 2 hours more than its immediate competition. This is perhaps mostly attributed to its AMOLED screen, which is said to conserve up to 20% more battery life compared to phones with conventional screens. Our portability test also showcased better results,  due to the fact that at 138g, the phone is much lighter than the rest of the WP7 devices. Despite its better standing, the Omnia 7 still trails behind the Apple iPhone 4 in both portability and battery life but shares relatively close results in terms of power consumption.

In addition to this strict lab test and comparisons, we've also used the Omnia 7 as our main phone to test out how its battery would fare on an average day-to-day usage scenario. This included 3G connectivity while partaking in heavy mobile usage throughout the day (e.g. occasional browsing on the web, internet messaging, and taking photos). On a single charge, the phone managed to last about nine hours. Pretty impressive, considering the HTC HD7 and LG Optimus 7 held on for about five to six hours.

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8.5
  • Design 9
  • Features 8
  • User-Friendliness 8.5
  • Performance 8.5
  • Value 8
The Good
4.0-inch AMOLED screen
Lightweight body
Better battery mileage than competition
Better imaging quality with more details and less noise
The Bad
Finicky front touch controls
Lack of exclusive content
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