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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.