| Windows Mobile phone gets 800 x 480 display |
Nov. 03, 2008
 Samsung has announced a Windows Mobile 6.1 phone that includes a touchscreen display with 800 x 480 pixel resolution. The T*Omnia has 8GB or 16GB of flash storage, a five megapixel camera, GPS, WiFi, and a DMB (digital multimedia broadcasting) TV receiver, the company says.
(Click here for a larger view of Samsung's T*Omnia)
With the new T*Omnia, Samsung becomes one of the few manufacturers of Windows Mobile phones to incorporate an 800 x 480 display. The others are HTC, with its Touch HD, Toshiba, with the G900, Sony Ericsson, with the Xperia X1, and Wilcom, with the 03. As the images below indicate, the higher screen resolution provides a substantial enhancement for web browsing.
 
Shown to scale: Windows Mobile at 320 x 240 (left) and 800 x 480 pixels (right)
(Click either to enlarge)
Samsung's Omnia
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Other than its new pixel-rich new screen, the T*Omnia is apparently similar to Samsung's "ordinary" Omnia (right), introduced in June. While it is not available from any U.S. carrier, the Omnia has excited the blogosphere, thanks to its 400 x 240 touchscreen, five megapixel camera, haptic technology, up to 16GB of storage, and customized Opera Mobile 9.5 web browser.
As indicated, the new T*Omnia ups screen resolution to 800 x 480, spreading the pixels over a slightly larger 3.3-inch surface. The device -- so far announced for the Korean market only -- also adds support for S-DMB (satellite digital multimedia broadcasting) TV reception, according to Samsung.
Korean customers will get the T*Omnia in a choice of colors
(Click to enlarge)
Samsung has not specified the processor used by the T*Omnia, nor by the Omnia, for that matter. However, the T*Omnia likely uses the same CPU as the Omnia, said by third-party reviews to be a Marvell PXA312 clocked at 624MHz.
And, while the T*Omnia's RAM is not revealed, the device once again comes with relatively massive amounts of flash storage. The phone is available with either 4GB or 16GB of flash, which, according to Samsung, can be supplemented via a microSD expansion slot.
The T*Omnia hides its Windows Mobile 6.1 origins under a "TouchWiz" user interface, which allows personalizing the home screen with "widgets," Samsung says. The phone's touch-sensitive, 3.2-inch screen uses "intuitive tap, sweep, drag and drop operations," and is supplemented by a tiny trackpad. As with the HTC Touch HD, the Apple iPhone, and other gadgets, a built-in accelerometer automatically switches the screen from portrait to landscape mode when the phone is rotated.
In addition to the S-DMB receiver, the T*Omnia's wireless interfaces include quad-band (850/900/1800/1900MHz) GSM telephony, supporting HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access), Bluetooth 2.0, and 802.11b/g. The T*Omnia has GPS, with geotagging capabilities that allow recording the coordinates of photos taken using the phone's integral camera. The camera also offers five megapixel resolution, autofocus, flash image stabilization, a face detection feature, and automatic stitching of multiple photos into a panorama, Samsung says.
Features and specifications released by Samsung for the Omnia include:- Processor -- Undisclosed, but is likely Marvell's PXA312 clocked at 624MHz
- Memory -- Unspecified amount of RAM, with 8GB or 16GB of flash storage
- Display -- 3.3-inch 800 x 400 display
- Keys -- two main buttons, plus miniature trackpad
- Camera -- 5 megapixel, with autofocus, face detection, image stabilization, image stitching, electronic flash
- Wireless interfaces:
- WAN -- Quad-band (850/900/1800/1900MHz) GSM, with HSDPA downloads at up to 7.2Mbps
- WLAN -- 802.11b.g
- WPAN -- Bluetooth 2.0
- GPS
- S-DMB receiver
- Other I/O:
- USB 2.0
- Headset with proprietary connector
- Expansion -- microSD slot
- Battery type/life:
- 1440mAH lithium-ion
- 570 minutes GSM talk time
- 550 hours GSM standby time
- Dimensions -- 4.53 x 2.28 x 0.53 inches (115.2 x 58.1 x 13.65mm)
- Weight -- 4.62 ounces (131g)
The T*Omnia will be available in mid-November in South Korea, via an "exclusive" deal with the carrier SK Telecom, Samsung says. No information about pricing or availability elsewhere in the world was released, however.
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