Yeez had been working late for the last few days, and today was no difference. Instead of going home alone, I decided to drop by Vivo City’s Samsung retail outlet to take a second look of Samsung i780, to spend my time off. . I ended up checking out on the latest Samsung’s Omnia. And I got to say, it was a time well spent!

I got to first put a disclaimer, that the next few paragraphs merely recapitulate my first impression of the gadget, after a brief 20 minutes fiddle. Yes, I was playing with the phone for 20 minutes, oblivious of the people around me trying to get their hands on the demo set.

First thing I noticed was the accelerometer feature as I tried to maneuver the gadget around to appreciate every angle of the sleek design. The display auto-toggles between landscape and portrait mode smoothly without any sign of glitches, as the phone tilts accordingly.  Thumb up!

Navigating the phone is a breeze too. The touchscreen is sensitive, yet accurately responds to the finger movements and touch. The acid test was when I tried to compose a short message using the qwerty SIP (software input panel). I always have major reservation against texting using SIP, especially with a keyboard SIP. That was further epitomized by my earlier experience with iPhone’s qwerty keyboard, which makes backspace key indispensable. Even with my fat fingers, texting is a breeze, even if the phone is in portrait mode. Two thumbs up for that!

The other thing that impressed me was the software to enhance the basic navigation experience. Some of the essential functions like PIM, media browser and playback, camera, phone have been specially customised by Samsung. At least it is not the same old user interface that you would find in other Windows Mobile devices. While it does not have the fancy touch flick control that Apple had fronted in its flagship iPhone, it is intuitive enough to make one ponder why this isn’t part of a Windows Mobile standard offering. An average Joe might not even realise that this is a Windows Mobile based device, although there’re still some reminisce of the Microsoft mobile operating system with the good old Windows dialogue boxes, etc-cetera.  Another thumb up although no thanks for the “nostelgic feeling”.

Although I didn’t get to test it out, but the phone comes with other tonnes of features such as GPS, FM Radio, TV-out, etc that really makes this gadget not just another ordinary mobile phone. This could even be a worthy iPhone-alternative. All I know was that I went to the Samsung shop to check out i780 as a potential candidate to replace my trusty Q9h, but I came out with (confused) with more options. Omnia has effectively made my long-standing requirement for a phone — “my next phone must have a onboard qwerty keyboard” archaic.