Samsung Omnia M (GT-I8350), another windows phone by Samsung

By
Martin Gicheru
-
9
Samsung Omnia M GT-I8350

Samsung Omnia M GT-I8350Samsung Omnia M will be the next Windows phone from Samsung selling, starting with Europe. Other regions get it soon thereafter. The Omnia is model number GT-I8350 and will rock a 4 inch SuperAMOLED display and a 1GHz processor. Samsung Omnia M is targeted to users who like social networking and multitasking and has optimizations for that. The outward appearance is a smooth edge, contoured casing to ensure comfort when holding the phone.

Other specs are:

  • Windows 7.5 mango
  • 5Mp rear camera, Autofocus with Flash, VGA front camera for video call
  • Video recording VGA @30fps WVGA @30fps
  • Samsung ChatON
  • People Hub
  • Photo Share
  • Samsung  Allshare
  • Windows Live SkyDrive with 25GB  7GB free storage
  • XBox Live
  • MicroUSB 2.0
  • Bluetooth 2.1
  • A-GPS
  • Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
  • Accelerometer, Digital Compass, Proximity Sensor
  • 4GB User Memory=384Mb (RAM)
  • Dimensions of 121 x 64 x 10.5mm and weight of 119g
  • Battery of 1500mAh Li-ion

So there you have it, Samsung AllShare allows one to share media or games direct with your TV, laptop, camera and mobile phone either wirelessly or via cable. Music Hub has Smart DJ which automatically generates a playlist to suit your mood. Windows phone device makers have been striving to make most of the features an ordinary smartphone user would require out of the box, to cover the hole left by lack of apps on windows platform. This has made most windows phone users feel their device as sufficient without any addons.

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Martin Gicheru
https://techweez.com
Martin is the Managing Editor at Techweez, passionate about personal tech and telling stories of consumer experiences. Talk to me: [email protected]

9 COMMENTS

  1. Samsung making a smartphone with 4GB internal memory is laughable, or are they on Microsoft payroll to make users get into skydrive?

  2. 1. Omnia series design always feels good to handle… Seeing how 4 Inches is the comfortable average for most people.

    2. Seriously Samsung… SERIOUSLY… You people aren’t taking Windows Mobile Seriously… How do you use ALMOST IDENTICAL specs on a 2012 device that you did on a 2010 device?

    http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=3537&idPhone2=4750

    I know you have petitioned Microsoft to open up their hardware support base so you could use the standard parts across all your platforms (Android  & WP) but it would be nice to show some initiative as well.

    Create some high speced phones which the users will just update to a better OS (The same way we have quad core phones running on 2.3.7 & ICS but can also support Jelly Bean and Key Lime Pie)

    Ever thought how good tiles would look on a Galaxy Note-esque screen?

    3. I did notice, that unlike the old Samsing Omnia, this one they havent announced a chipset yet… So that is curious, we shall wait to see…

    • Lol, good of you to note the no-change-of-specs there. Just a way of getting an Omnia W to get 7.5? Something I would wonder is, whether they are going to avail this before Apollo or after.

      • The Omnia W is already on sale in India. The real question to ask is what will happen when Apollo is launched. I suspect the following will happen:

        Current and Low-End devices will remain at the Windows phone Tango level with a small sub set of Apollo features trickling down. If a user wants an Apollo phone, they will have to purchase a new device. The downside of this is all the Lumia owners out there who will have only had their phones for less than 10 months. 

    • Teri, this Phone is a low end device, nothing more. You will not see high spec’ed devices (screen res / processor) until Apollo launches late this year.
      The chipset on this is phone is the Qualcomm MSMS8255. The Omnia M is built on the same chassis as the Samsung Focus 2 that was just released on AT&T. It has 8 GB and LTE, but is still priced as low end smartphone ($50 w/ a 2 year contract, $399 contract free).

  3. Thanks to Techweez for covering the launch of the Omnia M, a low end Windows Phone device (similar to the Lumia 610, Lumia 710 and ZTE Tania). The hardware on these devices are configured to enable consumers in the emerging markets experience Windows Phone at the lowest possible price.

    In short, Windows Phone was designed to give the user a tightly integrated experience on the social networks (LinkedIN, Facebook and Twiiter account) as well as other mobile needs. It differs greatly from the other two major mobile OS’s (iOS, Android), in that the functions that you use everyday on your phone are built right into the OS. Thus the need to keep jumping in and out of apps is greatly reduced. 
    The WindowsPhone email client is hands down the best in the mobile space as well, with the ability to have all your email accounts (POP3, Exchange) come into a central email hub. You can even group different email accounts together. eg I have personal and professional email accounts on both Gmail and Hotmail (4 in total). With WindowsPhone, I am able to group my professional Hotmail and Gmail accounts together into one Inbox. 
    There are many other features in WindowsPhone that I will not go into today as I would like to focus on the Samsung Omnia M. Lookout for a full WindowsPhone Feature on TechWeez before the end of this month.

    The Samsung Omnia is a beautiful and slim device that would compliment any professional’s gadget library. The front and rear camera allows the user to easily Video chat using Skype or Tango. Even though the camera is only 5 MP, it is sufficient enough to take great photos and instantly share them on your social networks again using Windows Phone integrated experience. To see how fast this experience is, see the “Smokeded By Windows Phone campaign” http://www.youtube.com/user/windowsphone/videos where WindowsPhone takes on iPhones and Super Android Phones. Out of 58,000 contests Windows Phone won 98%!
    The Office Hub allows you to view and edit Microsoft Office documents (Word, Excel, Powerpoint). Youcan then save these documents to their SkyDrive account that allows seamless syncing between your Phone and Desktop (once you have installed the SkyDrive desktop software). 
    NOTE: The free storage limit for NEW Skydrive users is limited to 7 G, not 25 GB as stated above by Techweez.
    The 1 GhZ processor is powerful enough to run WP7 smoothly without the hangups usually associated with low end Android Smartphones. This is due to the efficient Metro design that eliminates unnecessary “bling” (3D icons, gradient task bars, over-animations) that the other OS’s splurge on. 

    The other point I disagree with TechWeez is the  lack of apps in the WindowsPhone marketplace. As of today, the Windows Phone marketplace has over 85,000 apps (on schedule to top 100,000 by July 2012). Even though this is still a far cry from the 500,000 iOS apps and 400,000 Android apps, the Windows Phone marketplace is growing at a faster rate in its first 18 months than both iOS and Android did when they launched. You will be able to find an app that will satisfy any need that you need. 
      
    The one negative point of the Omnia M is the non-expandable 4GB storage. Samsung did this to cut cost  ( the retail price of this phone is Rs 15,200 or Kshs 23,000 , $282). You maybe surprised to notice the lack of a MicroUSB slot in WindowsPhone. To maintain maximum Read-Write performance, WindowsPhone uses a certified storage card that is then formatted in a specific way. Allowing users to be able to replace these cards with  standard FAT32 formatted storage cards would compromise the smoothness of the OS.
    However the counterpoint to low storage on your phone, is the Free cloud storage available not only on Sky Drive, but Drop Box and Google Drive as well. This should reduce the impact of the low storage capacity.

    WIndows Phone will getting a major upgrade at the end of the year that will align it with the upcoming WIndows 8 launch. This will realise Microsoft’s One-Ecosystem-For-All dream.

    About Me:
    I post daily on Twitter on all things Windows Phone and Microsoft related. You can follow me at:
    @NairobiWP7. 
    I have used Windows Phone since it was launched in Nov 2010 (LG Quantum). Prior to that I used Windows mobile 6.0 and 6.5 (Motorola Q in 2005, HTC Touch Pro in 2007, HTC TouchPro 2 in 2009, HTC HD2 in 2010). Prior to that way, back in 2004, I used WinCE aka Pocket PC on a Fuji PDA, followed by the awesome Dell Axim x51v. I have also run custom Android ROMs on the HTC TouchPro 2 and HD2 since 2009.

    • BTW this is not the usual 7GB of skydrive but 25 for Omnia M, this was specific from Samsung. But why would Samsung launch a device that will be deemed out of date in months due to the impending WP8 launch. Then again, what happened to OS upgradability, like they do on desktop, or Android?

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