Review: Samsung i8910 HD (Omnia HD)

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It has been a long, long, rocky path, but the Samsung i8910 HD is finally in mass markets - well, in some countries and for some networks, at least. And armed with II1 firmware, it's high time for me to wrap up this top-end Symbian flagship. Just how good is it and what are its weakpoints? Is it more of a media tablet than a full-on smartphone? Find out in our review (Rafe contributed text - it's a joint effort! And thanks to Stuart Clark as well for helpful feedback)

All of which is the background to a review of what is, in some ways, a stunning smartphone, with specs right at the very top of anybody's range. To recap:

  • 3.7" AMOLED capacitive glass touchscreen 
     
  • 8 megapixel stills, 720p (1280 by 720 pixel frame by 30fps) 'HD' video capture
     
  • Powered by the TI OMAP 3430 chipset, based on the ARM Cortex A8 architecture, with a POWERVR SGX graphics co-processor. In layman's language, this thing kicks butt graphically. In theory, this means that advanced (iPhone-grade) 3D games are possible.
     
  • 256MB of RAM, 150MB free after booting. So you'll never, ever, hit a RAM ceiling and receive an 'out of memory' message.
     
  • 8GB of flash memory built-in, plus microSD (there's also a 16GB version, by the way)
     
  • The usual Wi-Fi, GPS, quad band GSM, tri-band 3G, plus TV-out, UPnP, Bluetooth and Digital Compass

 

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