Samsung announce HD Omnia

Samsung certainly like firsts. After taking the title of first 8.0 Megapixel camera phone, the next landmark they have in their sights appears to be concerning video capture. But can they really have revolutionised mobile video recording simply by adding two letters to an existing phone? Well, when those letters happen to be H and D, you’d certainly be forgiven for thinking so. And so with the unveiling of the Samsung Omnia HD, Samsung are certainly a contender for best announcement at the Mobile World Congress (along with Sony Ericsson and the impressively spec’d Idou).

The Samsung Omnia HD earns its name thanks to the fact that it features HD video recording enabling you to capture precious moments in 720p HD quality at 24 frames per second and enjoy HD content on an HD TV via DLNA technology. This isn’t the only upgrade from the original Omnia, the Omnia HD is a complete re-imagining of the i900 Omnia. The new i8910 Omnia HD features an 8.0 Megapixel camera which incorporates premium digital camera ingredients such as Face and Smile detection, Wide Dynamic Range and Geo-tagging. Both camera and video recording are sure to look stunning on the incredible 3.7 inch OLED capacitive touchscreen capable of displaying up to 16m colours putting it as a strong rival to the current best in class, the HTC Touch HD (and the Omnia actually earns its HD title).

Ok so surely that’s the end of the new stuff, right? Wrong! The Omnia HD discards Windows Mobile(seen on the original) in favour of the new touch based Symbian series 60 user interface currently seen on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and the upcoming N97. Rather than being a carbon copy of the 5800 though, the Omnia HD does bring some Samsung flair to the party. TouchWiz makes an appearance on the homescreen giving you customisable widgets that you can move around and add to with new shortcuts. The camera interface is also given a Samsung overhaul for a far more user friendly experience than that found on the 5800.

To round up the rest of the features, the Omnia HD includes HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity for high speed web browsing and downloads, GPS SatNav with support for A-GPS, a proximitysensor for auto screen rotation, Bluetooth, an MP3 player, video player with support for DivX and XviD, a 3.5mm audio jack and an FM radio. The Omnia HD will launch with two different internal memory capacities; 8GB and 16GB. Don’t worry as which ever you choose, both can be expanded by a further 16GB thanks to a microSD memory card slot.

The Samsung Omnia HD was definitely one of the most exciting announcements at this years Mobile World Congress event and looks set to take the mobile phone world by storm when it launches later this year. Expected to arrive in June.