Camera Phones Plaza

Is that time of the year when all manufacturers are rolling out as many devices as they can in order to consolidate their portfolio before the shopping season. It seems like this year, mobile phones manufacturers are launching as many phones as they can to compete with BlackBerry devices. The BlackBerry devices started to become one by one a market success. Therefore, the other manufacturers are trying to bring into their product the BlackBerry vibe, either for the business users or normal users who wants a top level (high end) phone. Samsung is one of the few manufacturers that are starting to release phones with full QWERTY keyboard, with both candy bar form factor and slide form factor.

A Samsung phone that is attacking directly the BlackBerry share of the market is the B7330 Omnia PRO announced in September this year, with a release date of end of October 2009. This phone sports an excellent business design. Samsung successfully merged normal materials with nice finishes and created a conservative, yet styled design. The front case of the B7330 Omnia Pro includes a nice glossy frame that surrounds the display and a matte grey plastic frame with a full black keyboard (with ten red keys, the number keys).


Above the display you get beside the earpiece an ambient light sensor, and the second video camera that enables the video calling. Under the display you get the four way navigational key (up down, left and right) with the centered OK key. on the left side of the four way key you get one soft key, the home key, and the call key, while on the right side of the four way key you can find another soft key, the back key, and the end call key. All the navigational keys are well sized, easy to use, and made out of a nice material.

Under the navigational keys you can find the full QWERTY keyboard, with acceptable sized keys, made out of the same material, and that offers great feedback. However, unless you are really familiar with a QWERTY keyboard, don't try to type in a hurry because you just might write a completely different message. The top and bottom part of the B7330 Omnia PRO lack any ports, slots or buttons.

On the right side of this phone you can find the covered (with glossy black plastic) memory card slot and the dedicated camera key, while on the left side, Samsung included the volume controls and the combo port (or universal port) with the headset / charger / connectivity cable, also covered with the same glossy black plastic cap. The back cover of this phone sports a glossy black plastic finish, which makes the B7330 too slippery. Samsung included in the upper side, centered, the 3.2 megapixels digital camera lenses and the loudspeaker grill. Unfortunately the camera lacks LED or Xenon flash, but includes auto focus. Overall, the B7330 Omnia PRO sports a nice design with a good build quality.

The build quality is almost solid, but can't be considered flawless because of the back cover made out of a rather thin glossy plastic. With a height of 114.9 mm, wide of 59 mm, deep of 10.8 mm, the B7330 weights about 107 grams, making this phone easy to carry around. The B7330 Omnia PRO works in 2 G network - GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900, and 3 G network HSDPA 900 / 1900 / 2100. Samsung included a 2.62 inches TFT display with a resolution of 320 x 320 pixels, capable of rendering about 65000 colors. Thanks to the ambient light sensor, this display will provide sufficient brightness under any environment light conditions.

The 528 MHz processor and the 256 MB of RAM are more than sufficient to run the latest operating system, Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 standard. It is needless to say that this operating system is flawless. Some people prefer S60 software for their business applications, but in the light of day, the Windows Mobile 6.5 standard is the best solution for a business orientated phone. Neither iPhone OS 3.0 or Android have successfully achieved the level of the Microsoft operating system for mobile phones.

Samsung added about 270 MB to the onboard memory value, expandable by using micro SD memory cards or Trans Flash memory cards up to 32 GB. The connectivity is well ensured by the Class 10 GPRS with 4+1 / 3+2 slots, with a varying speed from the lower 32 KB per second up to 48 Kb per second, HSDPA with the higher value of 7.2 MB per second, HSCSD, EDGE Class 10 with a maximum speed of 236.8 Kb per second, HSUPA with 2 MB per second, Wi-Fi with 802.11 b/g profile, Bluetooth version 2.0 with A2DP profile, and USB connectivity.

Beside the front cover camera for the video calling, B7330 Omnia PRO includes a 3.15 megapixel digital camera with a maximum resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels including auto focus and geo tagging. This isn't the best camera ever embedded into a phone, but it is an average camera for a business phone model, since it is highly unlikely to see 8 megapixel cameras on business phones until the end of next year. By know you probably already realized that Windows Mobile 6.5 standard includes beside excellent audio and video player, Microsoft Outlook Mobile, Pocket Office, which enables you not only to view, but also to edit Word documents, Excel documents, and to strictly view Power Point documents, and PDFs.

By doing so, Samsung successfully completed the user experience. The on board Lithium Ion battery has a value of 1500 mAh. However, we must wait for the final version to hit the stores before jumping to conclusions regarding the offered battery. Overall, the B7330 Omnia PRO can be considered a good competitor against the BlackBerry, especially because it its line you can find more than one phone. The direct sibling of the B7330 Omnia PRO is the B7320 Omnia PRO. This Samsung model sports a better design, by all means. The B7320 Omnia Pro was first announced on May 2009, and released a few months later, in August 2009.

With a height of 111.8 mm, wide of 59.6 mm, deep of 12.6 mm, the B7320 weights more than B7330, 110 grams. Even so, it not a big phone, or impossible to carry around; more likely it's the other way around. The B7320 sports an excellent design, with a full brown metallic - plastic case. Samsung has successfully merged these two materials and created a beautiful look. The front cover sports around the display a glossy look, while the front frame is made out of brown metal. Above the display you get beside the "Samsung" logo, the ambient light sensor, and the second video camera for enabling the video calls.

Under the display you can easily find the navigational buttons, which look exquisite made out of a trans-lucid material (basically similar to plastic). However, the style overcomes functionality. Therefore, be prepared to press hard on those navigational keys in order to get a proper feedback. As you already imagined, the B7320 includes a four way key (up, down, left and right), with a centered Ok key made out of stainless steel. You get two more buttons in the navigational pad of the B7320 than in B7330.

Therefore, you can find two soft keys, the home key, the mute key, the call key, the lock switch, the back key and the end call key. Under the navigational keys you can find the same QWERTY keyboard from the B7330, with acceptable sized keys, including several empowering keys such as messaging, browser, sync, or even camera key. I suggest you take your time when typing a text for the first time with this keyboard, since you might need some adjusting time. You can find on the right side of this phone the micro SD memory card slot (covered with a nice brown plastic cap), while on the left side you can find the volume controls and the combo port, headset / connection / charger (covered with the same plastic brown cap).

On the back side of this phone you will get a 3.15 megapixel digital camera, and the loudspeaker grill. The B7320 Omnia PRO works in both 2G network (GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900) and 3G network (HSDPA 900 / 1900 / 2100). Samsung included in this model a 2.4 inches display with a 320 x 240 pixels resolution, capable of rendering up to 65000 colors. The available operating system is Windows Mobile 6.1 standard, upgradeable to Windows Mobile 6.5. Even more, you don't need to worry about hardware specifications, because this phone will run easily the latest operating system thanks to the Qualcomm MSM 7201A 528 MHz processor, with 256 MB of RAM.

The same business applications are also onboard, Pocket Office, Microsoft Outlook Mobile, Adobe Flash Lite, Windows Media Player 10, and others. The on board memory is only about 100 MB, expandable value using the micro SD memory cards or the Trans Flash memory cards, up to 16 GB.

The connectivity department is well ensured, but not as fast as the one found on the B7330, with Class 10 GPRS (4+1 / 3+2 slots) with a varying speed from 32 Kb per second and 48 Kb per second, HSCSD, HSDPA with a maximum speed of 3.6 MB per second, HSCSD, Class 10 EDGE with a maximum speed of 236.8 Kb per second, Wi-Fi with the 802.11 b/g profile, second version of Bluetooth including the A2DP profile, and second version of USB connection. The included camera on this model is a 3.15 megapixel camera with a top photo resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels including several features like auto focus, geo tagging, and face and smile detection. The Lithium Ion battery included within the B7320 Omnia PRO has a value of 1480 mAh, sufficient for 590 hours of standby time and up to 10 hours of talk time. For an average user these values mean about 3 days of autonomy.

Overall, the Omnia PRO B7320 is a more stylish competitor for the BlackBerry aiming the public that want the BlackBerry only for the connectivity, design, and QWERTY keyboard. The second phone, B7330 Omnia PRO is strictly aiming the business user who needs a business phone, with a conservative look, and a QWERTY keyboard. Even more, Samsung successfully delivers two candy form competitors for the BlackBerry devices.