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As though in some kind of Karmic re-aligning effort, watchphones seem to the be one of the things that mobile phone manufacturers are concentrating their efforts on at the moment. First we had the LG GD910 announced as hitting our shelves next month. And, obscenely expensive as it is, it looks pretty damn lovely. Now Samsung have slipped in there with their own effort, cheekily doing so with a release date that’s even earlier than the LG, and a price tag that’s less than half. Ouch. And the Samsung S9110 still seems like a stonker, with it’s TFT capacitive touchscreen, it’s Bluetooth and Outlook connectivity, and in many other things that this Samsung S9110 review will tell you about.

So, why Karmic, you ask? Well, we don’t think we’re going to be alone in claiming this, but: we haven’t worn a watch in over ten years, and pretty much the sole reason is because of mobile phones. Why, when you can carry a date/time/calendar sporting thing in your pocket, would you then also want to splash out for something to give you date/time (and nothing else) that you then strap to your wrist? Unless you really need those few accumulative seconds you’ll save each day by looking at it… So, after probably hitting the watch market all over the place for the last decade or so, it seems only fair that things like the Samsung S9110 start to bring back some love for the watch, right?

But, what’s that you say? This doesn’t make any difference at all, because the watchmakers still won’t be making any profit? And the mobile phone manufacturers will just be making even more profit.

Ah. Right. Yeah. Good point.

Oh well, sod it: line their pockets, go look at these Samsung S9110 deals. It’s not like they’re going to get any poorer.

Do you think, when you read about a new businessphone: oh wow, look at that, a little business inside a phone. I wish they could make it more like an actual business. Maybe give it some little tiny employees to work inside and perhaps exploit and work for minimum wage. No, you don’t.

Do you think, when you read about a new smartphone: oh wow, look at how downright smart that phone is. I’m going to make mine take an IQ test and then get it to do all my tax returns. Again, no, you don’t.

Then why is it that manufacturers keep on with this futile attempt to make their cameraphones into actual cameras. The new Samsung Pixon 12, for example, which boasts more megapixels than just about every other actual camera on the market. This despite the fact that most of those megapixels will be redundant because unlike, say, a real camera, they’ll be crammed onto the tiny surface behind the tiny lens that is the tiny cameraphone’s camera. We’re not saying the Pixon 12 is a bad cameraphone, far from it. But, it is not, never has been, and never will be an actual camera. But we can hear those annoying voices in our head already, those so called friends waving the thing in our faces and telling us who their Pixon 12 is better than our Cybershot, or our digital SLR because it has more megapixles. AAAHHHHHHhhh, make them stop already, those nasty voices in our head. What you have there is a cameraphone – a phone, with something pretending to be a camera in it. Something that should be for taking pictures of people falling over drunk, or snapping a quick memory of someone before you pass out, or doing any number of similarly low key things.

The Pixon 12 is, in fact a semi-decent cameraphone, as this Samsung Pixon 12 review tells you. Just don’t go around pretending it’s anything else. Please. Or we’ll get very, very mad indeed.

As a Honda ad asked us recently (and rhetorically): isn’t it nice when things just work? Well, yes it is. And with the Samsung Jet S8000, Samsung will soon (although it’s not yet confirmed exactly when) be releasing something that doesn’t just work, but works very nicely indeed.

The main thing of note is the inclusion of the latest version of the TouchWiz software, the user interface that is now featuring in all of Samsung’s touchscreen releases. And for good reason: it’s intuitive, fully customisable (widgets wherever you want them) and, well, downright enjoyable to get to grips with. The sheer fact it was designed from scratch with touch users in mind (rather than being a shoddy conversion from a non-touch interface) tells you all you need to know. And thanks to the 800mhz processor (one of the best you’ll find on a mid-ranger), you can rest assured that whatever tasks you set of this thing it’s going to handle with aplomb. So whether you’re recording video, browsing up to five tabs at once on the internet (with another new addition – the Dolfin browser), uploading pictures to your Facebook using the handy ‘communities’ features, the Samsung Jet is going to handle it all.

And, not only is it nice when things work, it’s also nice when they look mighty fine too. And the Samsung Jet is no slouch in the design department either. In fact, we can’t really think of a better phone in this category when it comes to sheer pleasure in carrying/using. So, all-in-all, looks like Samsung are on to a winner with this little thing. Keep those ears pinned back for a release date, and in the meantime have a read of this Samsung Jet Review, and a look at this video:

It’s all in the name. Even if the name is one of those silly, long, pretentious and ridiculously numbered names that mobile phone companies are so fond of. Why not just the Samsung Omnia 2? Why the need for that full Samsung Omnia 2 I8000 moniker? Especially when this is the follow-up to last year i900…

Anyway, the important point here is that of all the new range of Omnia phones Samsung announced just last week, this is the one that they’re declaring as the second, the sequel, the follow-up, the ‘II’. The others, while great in their own right, are merely offshoots or spin offs from the main act. The Samsung Omnia 2 is the fully-spec’ed, high-end daddy of the new range, and it looks like it’s going to be a worthy follow-up indeed (kind of like an Aliens; rather than, say, a Matrix Reloaded).

The main talking point has to be the screen, and so it should be. Samsung have gone all out to make this something special, starting, in a pretty obvious but nevertheless impressive way, by making it the biggest touchscreen ever. Yep, that’s right, it’s 3.7” screen is the biggest ever on a mobile phone device. Not a bad opening, we think. And with the AMOLED technology making it brighter, sleeker and more contrasty than most screens you’ve ever seen too, this thing definitely has you hooked from the off. But like any good film, the Samsung Omnia 2 manages to sustain interest throughout. With the best possible specs out there – 8.1 MP camera, 3.5G HSDPA connectivity for 7.2Mbps Web browsing/downloading, Windows Mobile 6.1 (upgrading to 6.5 for free once that’s released – it’s also as good a smartphone as you can hope for. Fair enough, come actual release date (still unconfirmed, but we reckon sometime early autumn) these stats might not look quite so good, but we doubt they’ll be far beaten. (Check out this Samsung Omnia 2 review for a full rundown of the features.)

So beautiful, bold and a bit of a show off it might be, but like any good actor, this thing has the skills and credentials to back it all up. Check out this trailer for a sneak peek of what’s to come.

It’s all in the name. Even if the name is one of those silly, long, pretentious and ridiculously numbered names that mobile phone companies are so fond of. Why not just the Samsung Omnia 2? Why the need for that full Samsung Omnia 2 I8000 moniker? Especially when this is the follow-up to last year i900…

Anyway, the important point here is that of all the new range of Omnia phones Samsung announced just last week, this is the one that they’re declaring as the second, the sequel, the follow-up, the ‘II’. The others, while great in their own right, are merely offshoots or spin offs from the main act. The Samsung Omnia 2 is the fully-spec’ed, high-end daddy of the new range, and it looks like it’s going to be a worthy follow-up indeed (kind of like an Aliens; rather than, say, a Matrix Reloaded).

The main talking point has to be the screen, and so it should be. Samsung have gone all out to make this something special, starting, in a pretty obvious but nevertheless impressive way, by making it the biggest touchscreen ever. Yep, that’s right, it’s 3.7” screen is the biggest ever on a mobile phone device. Not a bad opening, we think. And with the AMOLED technology making it brighter, sleeker and more contrasty than most screens you’ve ever seen too, this thing definitely has you hooked from the off. But like any good film, the Samsung Omnia 2 manages to sustain interest throughout. With the best possible specs out there – 8.1 MP camera, 3.5G HSDPA connectivity for 7.2Mbps Web browsing/downloading, Windows Mobile 6.1 (upgrading to 6.5 for free once that’s released – it’s also as good a smartphone as you can hope for. Fair enough, come actual release date (still unconfirmed, but we reckon sometime early autumn) these stats might not look quite so good, but we doubt they’ll be far beaten. (Check out this Samsung Omnia 2 review for a full rundown of the features.)

So beautiful, bold and a bit of a show off it might be, but like any good actor, this thing has the skills and credentials to back it all up. Check out this trailer for a sneak peek of what’s to come.

One of the worst things about all the touchscreen phones we’ve come across recently is that too many seem to have had their UI’s imported from earlier, none-touchscreen versions of the phones. This most often means that while you’re using your fingers or thumbs to navigate, you still aren’t convinced the phone you’re using is a full touchscreen device. Not so with Samsung, who’s nifty TouchWiz interface is now up to version 2.0 and is improving in leaps and bounds. Designed from scratch with the touchscreen user in mind, it allows all your tapping, scrolling and dragging to feel as naturally in tune with the phone’s function as possible.

With TouchWiz 2.0 at its core then, the Samsung Omnia Lite is a phone we think a fair number of people are going to get a huge amount of satisfaction from. Basically a slimmed down version of the other Omnia series phones, the lite still gives you pretty much all the smartphone functions you could need, just not at the very highest specs. And we’re all for it, because unlike its chunkier relations, the Samsung Omnia Lite B7300 is a supermodel thin 13mm, a not-too-heavy-considering-the-decent-battery 100g, and shouldn’t cost you an arm and a leg. And it also excels in the looks department, with a choice of two bold colour designs to set off the standard brushed metal and cool cellular pattering that’s standard.

So for all the GPS’ing, WiFi’ing and 3G’ing you’d expect from a smartphone, but in a much neater package, the Samsung Omnia Lite B7300 could well be the phone for you. The only bad news is it’s not due out for some time – we’re currently hearing October but that might well change, so keep yours eyes peeled for more updates. And why not pass a little bit of that time reading this Samsung Omnia Lite review.

Jekyll and Hyde. That’s all someone needed to say: Jeckyll and Hyde. Someone, somewhere at some point should have just yelled those words out at any of the early meetings Samsung must have held about the upcoming Samsung Omnia Pro. And why? Well, it’s being reported that the Omnia will some with two UI’s. That’s right, two User Interface’s for you to choose from, or even switch between at the press of a button. One, tentatively called “pro” will be geared towards business users, making internet, email and other so-called professional features more easily accessible. The other, “media” will streamline all the, well, media options (video, music, etc.).

Now, far be it from us to judge something before it’s even been released, but we judge this a terrible idea! We’re obviously sure which of these two UI’s will be the evil one of the two, but you just know that one will be poorer. And you also know that not only will one be worse than the other, you will also without doubt that if only Samsung had allocated all their tech geeks / developers / graphic designers / etc. to all work together on one all-encompassing UI for the Samsung Omnia Pro B7610, then they would have produced a far, far better phone. Divide and conquer? More like divide and dilute, because no matter how good either is, we just can’t see how this is a good idea.

Anyway, enough ranting. The phone still has a kick-ass screen (3.5”, and incorporating some power-friendly, ultra-bright technology that should look mighty impressive), a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and all the other usual smartphone suspects, and it might be that you are a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde yourself, that the Samsung Omnia Pro B7610 will satisfy your needs to be a suit-wearing “pro”-UI-using person by day, a ripped jeans, “media”-UI using type by evening. But we think you’ll be in the tiny majority even if that is the case. Check out a Samsung Omnia Pro review here, or watch the video below for a sneak peek of that screen.

That is the big question. We are used to seeing manufacturers look to prolong the product lifecycle of their handsets by adding additional features, with limited success. Can Samsung buck the trend with the announcement of the Samsung Pixon 12? On the face of it not much has changed. There is a new 12 megapixel camera and a bright 3.1-inch AMOLED touch screen. Other than that it seems that it is a rehash of the original pixon, which was a huge hit last year when in was released.
However times are changing and with the impending release of the Sony Ericsson Satio we are left wondering can it really compete? Yes the Samsung Pixon 12 will be the first 12 megapixel camphone to market, but does it make it the best? In our opinion, no it does not. The Sony Ericsson Satio is a much sleeker design and represents what phones should look like for 2009/2010. So which should you go for? Well if you can’t wait, go for thePixon 12, but if you can hold on, we reckon the Satio will be well worth the wait. Sorry Samsung, but we think you need to do better to capture our imagination.

The newly released Smartphone, the Samsung Omnia HD i8910 is the first phone in the world to offer recording and decoding in HD video quality. It has curved edges and is slightly bigger than the previous phones in the Omnia series. This phone comes with a 3.7 inch OLED touch screen(640 x 360 pixels).It has a 16:9 aspect ration and 16.7 million colours. The AMOLED auto-rotating screen increases its sharpness offering greater clarity even in direct sunlight. The screen’s size will be handy for video viewing, and the Omnia HD performs well with a range of video formats. Video demos of this phone have been released and you can check out this video at YouTube.

The Omnia HD i8910 has the Symbian full-touch operating system pre-installed on it. The TouchWiz interface is on the top. The touch interface is intuitive and selecting icons was easy allowing the user to navigate menus easily.

The Samsung Omnia HD i8910 has impressive connectivity options with stereo Bluetooth,USB 2.0, EDGE class 12 , HSDPA 7.2 Mbps, WLAN, GPRS, uPnP and UMTS.

Internal memory is either 8 GB or 16GB depending on the model. The memory is expandable to up to 32 GB using the microSD card slot.

The Samsung Omnia HD i8910 also has an excellent 8 MP Autofocus camera with a LED flash. The camera has face detection, smile detection and a “panorama shot” feature. Video recording in this phone goes to unprecedented heights with a maximum capture resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels at 24 frames per second. There are several video editing options such as video trimming, audio dubbing, subtitles, live dubbing and image capture.

Audio and video playback is also impressive through the dual stereo speakers and the large display. The Omnia HD also has several other audio enhancements. These include the Samsung’s DNSe technology and deep bass sounds.

The built in GPS with compass makes this device a valuable navigation tool with the speakers offering voice guided directions when required.

Other features include an accelerometer and FM radio.

Overall the Omnia HD is a neat phone with first class media features. Check out the best mobile contracts when purchasing theSamsungOmnia HD i8910 at mobilecontracts.

For network specific deals, follow the links below:

Samsung Omnia HD on Orange
Samsung Omnia HD on O2
Samsung Omnia HD on T-Mobile
Samsung Omnia HD on Vodafone
Samsung Omnia HD on 3 Mobile
Samsung Omnia HD on Virgin