Well then I’ve now had the Samsung Omnia 7 from Three for just under a fortnight and I’m very much enjoying the Windows Phone experience. This has been aided in no small part by the riotous Three data network upon which the Omnia has been screaming with joy. Seeing the 3G+ icon and watching the operating system’s little blue dots zip along swiftly has made me feel very good.

My primary handset is a BlackBerry (Torch — at the moment) on Vodafone’s slightly ailing data network that, no matter what awards they purport to have won, doesn’t always feel at all fast. Especially when I’m in Richmond, where Vodafone hasn’t quite discovered the secret of telecommunications beyond a creaking ‘no signal’ Edge network. In order to try and give the Omnia a bit of a work out, I forwarded all my calls.

And whilst I am most sincerely wedded to RIM’s QWERTY messaging devices, I really did appreciate the Omnia running Windows Phone 7. The screen is huge and wonderfully lit. The curving on the casing makes it feel a lot thinner than anything else in it’s class. The camera is good. The operating system does not get in the way of things happening. Now and again I had to relax into the Microsoft Bosom and accept that it-will-work, rather than demanding some kind of clear demonstration of success. For example, when you tap the little dots to the right of the screen whilst viewing a photo, you are presented with the option to share a photo with one-tap. I would routinely tap to share the photo to my Windows SkyDrive, see the animated blue dots at the top of the screen dance a little and then boom… I’d be … well. I just worried that the photo hadn’t actually uploaded. My worries were unfounded though. It all just works. Obviously some kind of background process was in operation as I didn’t stay on the screen too long. Plus Three’s data network makes short work of even the largest files, especially at 3.5G+ rates.

During setup I configured my ‘Live’ account (e.g. my Hotmail address) and was rather impressed to see my Hotmail contacts already waiting for me when I hit ‘People’. Those Hotmail (or MSN) contacts who’d recently changed their status were also displayed. Responding to their updates requires just a tap. Adding in Google or Facebook (or, in my case, multiple Google Apps accounts) was ridiculously simple. Just the username and password, everything else is sorted by the OS — no exceptions. Contacts were synched, calendars were updated — again, everything just worked. I didn’t have to organise anything — and since most of my address book records are reasonably well organised, the People app worked beautifully, collecting information from Facebook, two Googles Apps accounts and Windows Live into one contact record.

Sharing is a delight. Indeed I felt like I wanted to do more sharing and more interaction thanks to the operating system.

I didn’t tire of the interface either. I was a little concerned about how I would feel about the ‘swipe right/left’ UI that involves incomplete words. (Marketplace is titled ‘Marke’ — and you have to scroll right to see the rest of the word). It actually works really nicely. I’m particularly impressed at how the email works.

The little sounds and transitions are nice too. The way the screen builds when you turn the device, or if you send or delete an email is pleasing.

The Marketplace works swiftly and easily. No arsing around. No ‘would you like to install this application?’ and ‘are you sure’ silly prompts. Tap ‘install’ and woosh, the phone starts downloading and installing the app.

Keyboard input is painless and you really can type fast once you’ve got used to the keyboard — much like the iPhone. Although I really do like the auto-suggest options where the OS shows you an array of possible words. Very useful. Very quick.

The Maps app, powered by Bing, is very pleasing to look at. I like how the map fades in as you zoom and eventually turns to a satellite photo when you zoom closer. I was less impressed by Bing — when I was filming on camera I searched for ‘Tottenham Court Road, London’ and the only result Bing presented on the Maps was ‘Gala Casino, Tottenham Court Road’. Rubbish. Usable — because I could see Tottenham Court Road and the surrounding area, but a little bit silly. Come on Bing! Everything else — from finding my location to plotting directions worked fine.

I’m going to play a little more with ‘Office’ — Word, Excel and PowerPoint, along with Outlook and OneNote. I didn’t get much of a chance to use them during the two weeks as I was mostly stuck in my email, taking photos, answering calls or messing around with Marketplace.

Another element I need to examine more closely is the entertainment capabilities. I don’t have a credit card setup on Zune and I wasn’t able to add that from the device. And I’m an Apple user by default so I had to mess around with VMWare Fusion running Windows Vista to download Zune (the iTunes equivalent). I managed that, but not without a few Microsoftian hiccups (‘install service pack 3′, ‘install failed’, ‘seriously, install service pack 3′, ‘error’, ‘restart’, ‘install failed’). That is one area that the Windows Phone 7 team need to show to love. Carrier billing will no doubt fix that too. So I’ll add a credit card soon and give some of the games, paid-for apps and other content a test. From what I’ve seen of the Marketplace, it’s regularly updated and there’s lots to see.

I’m hearing lots of whispers about better-than-expected results for Windows Phone across the industry and — well, we’ll need to wait until sales figures are announced — but I wouldn’t be surprised if they show positive reception by consumers.

I used to have to hide my pained look whenever I came across someone who’d purchased a handset running Windows Mobile 6.5. Invariably the devices were phenomenally well specified but the slugging 6.5 was abhorrant. Now, when I come across consumers who’ve plumped for WP7, I am genuinely pleased for them — and they too appear to be happy.

My first impressions of Windows Phone? Excellent.

The Samsung Omnia 7? Top marks.

And Three? Yes, yes and thrice yes.

[I should point out that the areas I generally frequent have got really, really good 3.5G+ Three signal.]

I’ve done a video walkthrough of the phone and the OS — I’ll have that online shortly.

You can pick up a Samsung Omnia 7 free for £40/month on a 24-month contract with Three. That includes 2,000 minutes, 5,000 texts, 1GB of data and 5,000 Three-to-Three minutes.

There was a private press pre briefing today in London all under embargo that we weren’t invited to, but we’re hearing good things are afoot.

We’d like to bring you more details, but there just aren’t any to offer – sorry.

Stay tuned and we’ll bring you any ground breaking news that arrives.

Who knows what it could be; it might even be the 16GB Samsung Omnia we’re all hearing news of *cough*

Or even the 12megapixel camera phone they’re bringing out *cough* *cough*

With a headline that will be lost on some, Samsung’s 8MP Pixon touch screen camera phone gets an exposure on O2.

This builds on from their first 8 megapixel i8510 phone launched in August, along with almost marrying the full touch screen abilities of their Omnia i900.

Recently LG made the claim of having the slimmest touch screen 8MP mobile around with their KC910, which measures up to being 107.8 x 55.9 x 14 mm in size.

Samsung now takes the crown away with its 107.9 x 54.6 x 13.8 mm M8800 Pixon. What a difference .2 of a millimetre makes to a headline.

Somebody once said ‘With enormous power comes great responsibility’, we’d like to equate that with memory instead. Our version goes along the lines of ‘With enormous megapixels should come great memory’, which isn’t the case here sadly as there’s only 200MB of built-in storage

With the i8510 they got their act together and released two models, an 8GB and another in 16GB. Seeing as the average file size of an 8MP photo is around 2MB, you don’t really get many megabytes for your the buck as compared to other sizeable camera phone they have.

Other features it has worth mentioning are the 3.2-inch LCD screen, x16 digital zoom, geo-tagging, Shozu sharing, dual power LED flash, online widgets, quad band GSM with 3G connectivity.

It even has DivX and XviD playback on the video front, integrated GPS and AGPS, FM radio with RDS and even a TV Output.

The talk time appears to be around 3.5 hours, with standby being noted as 290 hours.

Samsung has backed this single handset with a £4.5million for a marketing campaign, with the theme being ‘capture the unexpected’. This is aiming to get people to use this phone for capturing that odd shot that comes along once in a lifetime, such as Steve Ballmer using an iPhone or Steve Jobs a BlackBerry.

Although not on their website as yet, we’ve seen tariffs starting at £25 with the phone costing £99 and £35 with the handset being free.

If you liked their Omnia i900 and the i8510 INNOV8, this could be a touch of the picture perfect for you.

Caution, though: The Omnia is Windows Mobile… which as we all know is a rather challenging OS for anyone other than the most patient…

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Recently Samsung released the iPhone-rivalling Omnia i900, which incorporates superior features such as, build in GPS, a 5MP camera with flash, video calling through 3G as well as automatic synchronisation with MSN live messenger and Hotmail.

I have been using the handset for about three days, and am impressed with its high-end features. The Omnia comes loaded with nearly every feature that the Apple iPhone does, but adds components such as a high resolution camera and the ability to picture and video message, which people have come to expect in a high end mobile device — and Apple has, as yet, failed to deliver.

In terms of hardware, the Omnia sports a laminated chrome and silver front with a mirrored touch screen (3.2 inches), as well as a plastic back which comes in either black or white. The handset feels solid and sits just right in the hand, however I was not impressed with the strange stylus, which hangs on the outside of the phone and resembles a mascara tube.

The user interface of the phone is the latest Windows Mobile with Samsung customizable widget home screen. After using the phone for a short amount of time I have realised how incredibly frustrating Windows Mobile can be, with tiny icons forcing you to use the stylus, confusing sub menus, and general incompatibility with Apple.

One of the only positives for the UI was the Haptic feedback from the touch screen as well as the touch sensitive mouse pad, which helps you be precise in your choice of tiny Windows icon.

In terms of multimedia, the phone has been somewhat of a disappointment, with over half of my MP3 files being labelled as corrupt data, despite being able to be played on my old phone and iPod. Also despite the handset supporting Youtube videos; it appears that you are not able to view them via WiFi as I expected, but must use
the mobile network instead which, of course, is not free — and requires an unlimited data package.

PDA features such as the personal organiser, handwriting recognition and the virtual appointment card all serve their purpose without much fault, which would definitely make this phone more suitable for the business user in need of a personal organiser as well as a phone. And, er, a mascara tube stylus.

I don’t recommend the Omnia for someone in search of a fun multimedia handset. iPhone it ain’t.

Other points of frustration are the relatively lo-res screen, loading large amounts of data onto the internal memory (seemed to slow the device massively), and the fact that British retailer Phones4U advertised the Samsung Phone as the 16GB version, but merely supply you with the 8GB version and give you an 8GB SD card to go with it.

Overall I would say that despite offering superior features to the iPhone, the Omnia’s painful interface prevents it from being the iPhone killer that people were hoping for.

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I don’t know about this Mascara tube stylus, Dan!

I’m pleased that it’s not just me who thinks Windows Mobile is a thoroughly annoying operating system. I’ve seen the Omnia ads on the tube in London and I haven’t been fooled for a minute. Good on paper, but in practice… no.

I wonder if Sony’s Xperia will suffer from the same malaise.

Netbooks were very much in evidence – being supplied free with the various subscription 3G data packages.  In addition to the existing range including some Eee models from Asus, an Acer Aspire One and an Advent 4211 a new model from Fujitsu was on show.  Spec wise there was little separate it from the pack but styling and finish were impressive… Everyone agreed there would be a ‘bloodbath’ in this sector in the next few months with Dell, Lenovo and Toshiba all also due to announce products.

The Samsung stand was one of the best with the Omnia – a Windows Mobile 6.1 iPhone-a-like (that’s mine on the right of it for comparison) – launching today and the very impressive i8510 – one of Samsung’s first Symbian handsets – also on show.  The i8510 give Nokia’s best a run for their money – expect to hear more on this… my wallet is itching!  I’ve already got Ewan excited see here.

Next up was Nokia announcing an exclusive (until Christmas) white 5310 handset via CPW for the launch of their ‘Comes with Music‘ offering which is first to launch in the UK.  This gives a code for unlimited downloads from the Nokia music store which is very cool.  Even better is the fact you can keep the tracks after your year-long free subscription expires, but some of the answers about transfers to upgraded handsets and renewing subscriptions were worryingly vague – Nokia best have some good answers before those years start expiring!  Also on show were a number of the newer handsets including the N96 which, in my opinion, is looking lamer and lamer everyday as a flagship model (sorry Nokia).

Next up were our new best friends at SonyEricsson (the same chap in fact) who had his X1 out again and couldn’t answer any of the hard questions about when it would actually be released.  He did say some nice things about the show though so there is some hope for them

The new Jawbone headset we reviewed a few months back is now available in gun-metal grey and gold…. Meh.

Motorola had their Z10 out which impresses with its unusual form factor and video playback if nothing else, but also had their ‘budget smartphone’, the A810 on display – at around £90 on PAYG this is a Linux-based mini-tablet intended for people who want smartphone features at a lower cost… The interface and screen size are all much poorer than the best smartphones available, but at this cost I think they may have a good compromise.  Also impressive was the ZN5 – a 5 megapixel cameraphone with Kodak branding and xenon flash (something that helps Nokia’s N82 shoot such great pictures).  This has a WiFi photoframe accessory that is set to automatically show pictures the phone uploads to Kodak’s online photo site (via a Shozu-like feature) and multiple frames can be added.

LG were also present but apart from a nice table setting didn’t have much new to announce.  Disappointingly the PR there didn’t know about the LG blog so I gave up and moved on.  Nice table though…

It’s got a five megapixel camera with smile detection, decent internal memory with 8GB or 16 GB options, GPS with navigation and geo-tagging, 3.2-inch WQVGA LCD screen, HSDPA up to 7.2Mbps and 12.5-mm thin body. All that, and Windows Mobile 6.1 too.

And like any iPhone wannabe worth its salt, the Omnia also has a touchscreen interface – a Samsung built UI called TouchWiz which can “tap, sweep, drag and drop”. At first glance, the Omnia looks like it could give the iPhone a bit of a run for its money in good looks and functionality – but it seems like most other handset makers are struggling to match Apple on the software front. Still, if you’re looking a solid smartphone that’s not the iPhone, you could do a lot worse than the Omnia.