Samsung Omnia 7

Samsung is no stranger to Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS, with the Windows Mobile 6.1-operating Samsung SGH-i900 (Omnia I) and the Windows Mobile 6.5-running Samsung Omnia Pro B7330 forming part of its Redmond-powered Omnia range.

The Omnia 7, however, is the Korean tech giant’s first Windows Phone 7 OS-powered device (hence the 7 in the name), making it a lot less complicated and fussy to use than its predecessors.     

Sports a business suit

Complimenting the new smartphone OS running on the Omnia 7, is a more business-focused design. Measuring in at 118 x 59.6 x 12.3 mm and weighing 123 g, the smartphone feels very comfortable both in hand and pocket.

This smartphone’s solidly constructed, all-black plastic design will appeal to users from the corporate field, who craves a capable and easy-to-use mobile device. Although its must be noted that this business-minded look isn’t as stylish as that of the iPhone 4 or Sony Ericsson Xperia arc.      

Samsung’s Windows-running baby keeps things fast with Qualcomm’s QSD8250 1 GHz application processor. It enabled the OS to run without any hint of lag, while we also easily browsed through music, pictures and movies without any hassles. It must be noted that even though the single-core Qualcomm processor performed very competently, dual-core processors have become in-vogue of late for high -end smartphones, including Samsung’s own Galaxy SII.     

The Omnia 7 features a decent amount (8 GB) of internal storage, but unfortunately you cannot expand on this as the smartphone doesn’t have a microSD card slot. While also onboard is a 5 MP camera capable of snapping some really good-looking stills as well as recording HD-ready (720p) videos.

Good screen

The most prominent feature of the design of the smartphone however is its 4" Super AMOLED capacitive touch-screen. Although its resolution of 480 x 800 is in-line with what other phones in its price range offers, we still liked the clear, vibrant colours with some very good viewing angles.

If you put the Omnia 7 next to the iPhone 4’s Retina Display, the Omnia’s screen displays colours more vividly and brighter, but the iPhone 4 trounces it when it comes to detail, especially when you zoom in, thanks to its superior resolution of 640 x 960 pixels. The iPhone 4’s display also enables better outdoor visibility, being less prone to displaying reflections than the Omnia 7’s touch-screen.  

Runs on Redmond software power

As snazzy as the gorgeous display of the Omnia 7 is its Windows Phone 7 OS, which boasts a much cooler, design-conscious look and feel compared to previous versions. What we really like about this OS is that it sports a different manner of operation to both iOS as well as Android.

The epicentre of Windows Phone 7 is the Start screen that is populated by movable “tiles”. These tiles can represent anything from links to a user’s SMSs and Internet Explorer, through to quick launch tiles for your favourite apps or music videos.

If you swipe right (or click on the right arrow on the Start screen), you’ll be taken to the main menu, which is basically a list of shortcuts to applications, games, settings and “hubs”. The latter incorporating a wealth of information as well as a well-designed interface once pressed. The “People” hub, for example, opens up to your phonebook and also allows you to slide the screen right to recent contacts and your Facebook feed.

As can be expected there’s also a Microsoft Office hub, one of the strongest documentation creation and editing packages currently on offer on any mobile OS. It features the mobile version of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint as well as SharePoint, and if you are inclined to do some work on your mobile, this is what you need.

Critique

Overall the OS is really easy and even intuitive to use, leaving us with only two real criticisms to level at it. The first being the fact that you can pin a lot of shortcuts (in the form of tiles) to the Start screen, means that you’ll eventually have to scroll down a lot to get to specific ones.

This is because the Start screen works almost like the multiple home-screens of a Symbian- or Android running smartphone, except rather than displaying all your apps and shortcuts horizontally across three to seven home-screens, you’re left with a single home-screen to display these vertically on.

The other criticism is the number of apps available via Microsoft’s Windows Phone Apps Marketplace, currently numbering around 25 000. It compares unfavourably to the Android Market’s 200 000+ apps and Apple’s iOS App Store with its 425 000+ apps. There isn’t a WhatsApp messenger app for instance or even an MXit app (although there’s a version for Windows Mobile 6.5).

Samsung has tried to address this app shortage with the inclusion of its own-developed apps in the Samsung Zone, but even that is sparsely populated. Twitter integration is only part and partial of the forthcoming Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) update, but luckily you can download the Twitter app from the Microsoft’s Marketplace.

All apps were downloaded from the UK Marketplace, as the local regional one will only be activated with the release of the Mango update in September.  

Synching media via Zune and Windows Live!

Last but not the least of our criticism, is the fact that Windows Phone 7 OS doesn’t allow for the dragging and dropping of any files onto the device when connected to a PC. Like Apple’s iOS-powered smartphones which sync media content via iTunes, you have to sync your media content using Microsoft’s Zune package.  

Music and videos from your PC can only be transferred to your smartphone via Microsoft’s Zune media package, and firmware updates for the smartphone is also downloaded and installed by way of Zune (which is not bad per se). Even more annoying is the fact that, like Apple’s iTunes, you have to download (119 MB) Zune yourself, as it doesn’t come on a CD in the box.   

As is the case with Android devices for which you require a Google account to use, and Nokia smartphones that need an Ovi account, Windows Phone 7 needs a Windows Live ID to get the full experience. If you use a lot of the Microsoft services already, such as Xbox LIVE or Hotmail you will like the added integration for these.

Final word

Samsung’s Omnia 7 is a solidly built, simple to use device offering some impressive specs, such as its 4" Super AMOLED display and 8 GB of storage. Now Microsoft just needs to bolster the number of available apps for its Windows Phone 7 OS-running smartphones and it will be game-on with Google and Apple (especially with Microsoft’s new relationship with Nokia).

The Omnia 7 comes with an RRP of R5299, making it cheaper than the WP7 powered HTC Mozart (R5700), as well as a number of recently released Android-operating smartphones. The latter includes the Samsung Galaxy SII (between R6699 and R6999), the Samsung-built Google Nexus S (R6299) and the Sony Ericsson Xperia arc (R6599).      

Pro

Easy to use OS, fast processor, lots of internal storage, excellent display.  

Con

Design not the most stylish, synching via Zune, downloading Zune software, no microSD support and very few apps.

SaFPWR Fusion rechargeable smart battery case for iPhone 4

Publish date: 12 July 2011 by Hanleigh DanielsTweet Last month we employed Swiss Charger’s iPower cover for the iPhone 4, a protective cover/battery pack, to almost double the battery life of our iPhone. Now we put a similar product, SaFPWR’s Fusion rechargeable smart battery case for the iPhone 4, to the test. Is it capable of extending the iPhone 4’s battery life, beyond the time it takes to say its extremely long name?

A protective glove fit for Cupertino’s smartphone royalty

This case boasts the same type of rubberised plastic protection for the back as the iPower, but sports see-through plastic protection for the sides of the iPhone. There are holes in the cover for the iPhone 4’s 3.5 mm audio jack, camera, proximity sensor as well as its buttons, such as the volume buttons.

The Fusion case also includes four LED lights on the back, indicating the remaining power level of the built-in battery, as well as a button that you can press to select either standby or charge mode for the case’s battery. The latter is the only design element we didn’t like so much, as it would have been more convenient to have that button and lights at the front of the cover, but this boils down to personal taste. There is also no screen protector or kickstand included, which were present with the iPower. 

As is the case with the iPower, the bottom part of the Fusion case also clips into your iPhone 4’s proprietary connector, meaning you have to make use of a micro USB cable to USB cord to charge your device. One is provided in the box and you can use it to connect the iPhone to your PC to sync content via iTunes and charge the device via USB. You can also clip this cable into the USB end of your iPhone 4’s two-point power adaptor in order to charge your smartphone (as well as the cover’s built-in battery) via the wall socket.      
Extending the iPhone 4’s battery life

Power users and social networking junkies tend to leave the Wi-Fi connectivity, email, Facebook and Twitter apps, always on and running in the background. This normally results in your iPhone 4’s battery lasting about a day. As with the iPower case, SaFPWR’s cover boasts a built-in lithium polymer battery. This 1500 mAh battery is not only bigger in capacity than the iPower’s 1400 mAh built-in lithium-ion battery, but also bigger than the iPhone 4’s own standard battery (Litium-ion polymer 1420 mAh).

During our tests the iPhone’s own battery remained at 100%, whilst making use of the built-in battery of this charger. It did so from 07:30 in the morning until 11:00 the following day, amounting to around 27½ hours, which is quite a bit longer than with the built-in battery of the iPower. From then on the iPhone relied on its own battery, which lasted from 11:00 until 13:20 the following day, approx. 26 hours and 20 minutes.

The grand total (SaFPWR’s built-in battery + the iPhone’s 4 own battery) comes to 53 hours and 50 minutes, which is a couple more than the 51½ hours of the total of the iPhone and iPower cover pairing. It must be noted though that only a couple of calls were made during the tests for the iPower, a lot more calls were made and received whilst testing the Fusion cover, so it might have lasted a little longer.

SaFPWR technology

Protective covers with built-in batteries, such as the iPower and Fusion, are very convenient in that they allow you to charge your iPhone’s battery whilst on the go. The problem that emerges from this is that lithium-ion batteries have limited amounts of charging cycles.

By employing these kind of covers you will then add a significant amount of charges, possibly even double your charges, meaning that your battery might not last as long as it would have, had you mere utilised your iPhone’s wall socket charger to charge it.

SaFPWR state that their Fusion rechargeable battery case features an “intelligent, efficient and adaptive energy management system designed to optimize the run time of your smart mobile device.”

The company claims that its patented Energy Management Technology (EMT) will enable the battery system to communicate with your iPhone to discharge power only as needed and adapt to your mobile device’s changing energy demands. This will result in the prolonging in the lifespan of your iPhone 4’s internal battery. Wether this is true or not we don't really know, since there isn’t really an easy way to truly put this to the test.    
Conclusion

SaFPWR’s Fusion rechargeable smart battery case for the iPhone 4 doesn’t just protect your iPhone, since it will also function as a source of power when your iPhone’s internal battery is almost depleted, in many cases more than doubling battery life. Beyond that, this smart case will also conserce the lifespan of your iPhone’s battery via its smart Energy Management Technology.

It is available for a recommended retail price of R599 from SaFPWR, which makes it more expensive than the iPower. You can visit its local website for more info.   
Pro

Large built-in battery, protective cover for your iPhone, Energy Management Technology.
Con

No screen protector or kickstand included, more expensive than the iPower and placing of the power button on the back of the cover.Be the first to post a comment!