The Samsung Omnia HD Preview - Part 2 - Camera and Multimedia

[slitchfield]

Rafe continues his in depth preview of the OLED-screened, touch-driven, S60 5th Edition-powered Samsung Omnia HD. In this, part 2, he looks at the multimedia capabilities of the phone. In part 1, he covered the general design and hardware. Part 3, coming soon, will cover the other software elements of the phone.

Read on in the full article.

[fernando20]

Hmm, SharePix indeed sounds interesting... Also yeah, marillion!

Nice read, I'm really looking forward to being able to just copy divx etc onto the phone and (for the most part) be able to watch it. Its been something I've craved for some time, and to get it with a gorgeous 3.7 OLED screen is just so much the sweeter... Roll on the release date!

But not until they shrink it to the size and weight of the Nokia 5800 (or slimmer)

[Super Chimp]

I wish Samsung would license the Multimedia Transfer software from Nokia that allows you to move your itunes library from your Mac to your Nokia phone. Speaking as a Mac owner Samsung don't have a clue when it comes to providing Mac compatible software to support their S60 devices.

[Jaggz]

Excellent work guys! The Omnia HD sure is one amazing beast.

And what about sound's quality of videos ? will they inprove it ?
Is there a slow motion capture mode ? what resolution ?
What is WDR fonction ?
If someone know
Thanks !

[Waynester]

Will the Audio Quality using headphones
(i use Ultimate Ears, cost me £115!)
sound better than my existing Nokia N91 8GB?
i havent found ANY Mobile that touches it for sheer audio quality listening to MP3`s

is there a vague release date? im due for an Upgrade in June this year on the 02 Network

Hi!
What did you mean by, "Playing back video recorded on the Omnia HD on an HD TV (directly not via DLNA)."? You mean there's an alternative to DLNA? is it also wireless?

[Super Chimp]

Originally Posted by Waynester

Will the Audio Quality using headphones
(i use Ultimate Ears, cost me £115!)
sound better than my existing Nokia N91 8GB?
i havent found ANY Mobile that touches it for sheer audio quality listening to MP3`s

is there a vague release date? im due for an Upgrade in June this year on the 02 Network

Now available for pre-order on Play with a release date of the 25/05/09.

Link.

[srw985]

Watching the sample 720p video you got on there, the lipsync isnt just bad. Its miles out!!

Is this Quicktimes fault or similar to the lipsync bug on the i8510, just much worse?

Originally Posted by Waynester

Will the Audio Quality using headphones
(i use Ultimate Ears, cost me £115!)
sound better than my existing Nokia N91 8GB?
i havent found ANY Mobile that touches it for sheer audio quality listening to MP3`s

Some of the Samsung's have very good audio performance. I have a G810 now, that I've used with studio grade Sony's, and I'm very impressed by it. I have some Nokia WH-700's that I use for day-to-day and it still sounds damn good with those.

[mCrem]

I was so dead set on getting the N97, but thanks to you Steve, rafe and these articles, I am official confused. One day I'm set on the nokia, the other day, an article like this pops out on the internet and I cant decide between the two. Nokia has the fantasic homescreen widgets, while sammy's homescreen is not anything to write about, but the rest of the GUI, sammy seems to have the upperhand.

Part of the reason I'm somewhat sceptical about this, apart from the lack of qwerty and the 16gb ( I'm an audiophile, music library is huuuge, and lets not forget that I also have to spare space for pics - I'm very snap happy for that matter, I usually come home from a day out with a couple of pics, sometimes with a 3 digit number, and then there's apps, and of course tons of vids I'm sure I'll load the sammy with) is the fact that I've never had anyone with a samsung in my family.

:edit: and the single LED annoys me a bit. on the one hand, the camera is clearly superior, but then I'll be taking the phone to trips with me to the clubs/gigs and take photos of my friends. In that case the Dual LED might help. Taking a stand alone camera is not an option since It's way too thick ( an oldish 5mp cybershot ). I mean I want to just carry a phone thats good enough to snap a pic in low-light conditions,while still feeling comfortable. having a wallet, a phone, keys and a bulky camera to a gig makes me look like there's something else in my pants...

[jonnybruha]

Quicktime seems to be the only format that doesn't like to sync up the audio and video. VLC and WMP12 sync just fine.

Even with the relatively short time period between the two, there were noticeable software and performance improvements and we would expect this to continue up to the late April release date.

That was the date mentioned at MWC, but I think you could probably put that back to May for the first real availability with wider spread availability in June.

Which is it? Late April? Early May? June?

Seeing as how we're still waiting for a pass from the FCC, I'd say later rather than sooner, but still probably sooner than the N97.

I was lead to believe that the audio playback sync issue was within the phone, but it's not. The playback is with external software players which isn't as relevant as a phone hardware issue!

Quicktime has been known to have MP4 playback issues for some time from many phone manufacturers (Nokia included) and for the uninitated, Windows Media player DOESN'T SUPPORT MP4 playback natively! Microsoft has never committed to support MP4 (or any variation) and they even have this disclaimer on their website.

As long as VLC, DIVx and other media players are supported there is at least a method to playback HD footage from the phone.

The audio playback sync issue that has gone on since the Innov8 isn't hardware related, but external software related, glad I understand that now.

Thanks for the review, unfortunately it doesn't seem like we'll be getting a US 3G variant anytime soon, but I'll knuckle up for one of these regardless and live with Edge as a consolation for the other excellent features this phone offers.

Troy