14 DAY TRIAL // Shortly after introducing Australia’s first 4G smartphone, the HTC Velocity 4G, Telstra added the Samsung Omnia W handset to its lineup of Windows Phone devices.
This would be one of the first second-generation Windows Phone handsets that are launched in Australia.
With Nokia Lumia 800 arriving in the country only in March, customers who are anxious to experience the latest Windows Phone 7.5 Mango operating system can grab this one for free from Telstra. Of course, customers will have to commit to a new 24-month contract with a $59/month tariff.
Specs-wise, the smartphone is similar with Nokia Lumia 710 with a few small exceptions. For example, the Omnia W sports a secondary VGA camera, while the Lumia 710 lacks one of these front-facing cameras.
It is also worth mentioning that Samsung Omnia W packs a 3.7-inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, whereas the Lumia 710 has a Nokia ClearBlack display of the same size.
According to Samsung, the Omnia W with Windows Phone 7.5 Mango “lets you sort, scan and respond to emails on the move - as well as open and edit attachments with built-in versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint.”
More customization options are available via third-party applications, which can be downloaded and installed directly from Windows Phone Marketplace.
Just like the Lumia 710, Samsung Omnia W is powered by a 1.4 GHz single core Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon processor, which is complemented by an Adreno 205 graphics processing unit.
In addition, the smartphone packs 8GB of internal memory, 512MB of RAM, but no microSD card slot for memory expansion. HSDPA and HSUPA support is provided as well, along with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.
On the back, the smartphone sports a 5-megapixel camera with autofocus, LED flash and HD (720p) video recording, while in the front there’s a secondary VGA camera that we already mentioned above.