Samsung I8000 Omnia2

The Samsung I8000 made its first public appearance thanks to a Lithuanian online retailer. The I8000 pointed as the Omnia2 will sport a huge AMOLED touchscreen, 8.1 megapixel camera, full pack connectivity and Windows Mobile OS.

Samsung I8000 Omnia2
The successors of the Samsung i900 Omnia apparently will bear the model name I8000 - and also calling it Omnia2 is pretty straight forward as well.

The differences between both devices are a lot and Omnia2 will deserve a place on its own.

The Samsung Omnia2 sports a 3.7-inch WVGA TFT resistive touchscreen, 8.1 megapixel camera with dual LED flash and VGA@30fps video recording, 150 MB internal memory, a Qualcomm processor and a microSD card slot. The connectivity includes all you may need as usual - 3G support, Bluetooth, miniUSB, GPS and Wi-Fi.

Rumors speculate that the Windows Mobile OS on board (purportedly 6.1) will be heavily customized and will bear the Samsung's TouchWiz styling with deep menu restyling (much like the latest TouchFLO 3D in HTC Touch Diamond2 and Pro2). DivX/XViD support is also expected.

Until some official info gets out the door all we have here is just another rumor. The real announcement however will probably due quite soon as the Samsung Unpacked worldwide unveiling event is closing in (15 June 2009).

The Samsung I8000 Omnia2 seems to be a part of a bigger Samsung Cubic project, which also includes the previously leaked Samsung S8000 Jet and M8000.

Though not all of those devices are smartphones like the I8000 Omnia2, they all seem to share a cubical central button, which invokes some kind of Cube-like interface. But didn't LG already have a Cube interface? We guess they do. However you can fight the market trends.

One of our readers was quick to point us to a YouTube video demoing the Samsung I8000 customized WM interface (use the HQ button):

Samsung I8000 Omnia II


Samsung I8000 Omnia II runs Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional OS and sports a large 3.7" AMOLED resistive touchscreen display of WVGA resolution. The successor of the extremely popular Samsung i900 Omnia will come with version 2.0 of Samsung's proprietary TouchWiz UI preinstalled on top of the WinMo OS.

Samsun I8000 Omnia II has connectivity very duly covered with both HSDPA (up to 7.2 Mbps) and HSUPA (up to 5.76 Mbps) onboard. It will also sport Wi-Fi, GPS plus the usual suspects USB and Bluetooth. Some of the other highlight features include 8/16GB of built-in memory, microSD card slot and a 5 megapixel camera with D1 (720 x 480 pixels) video recording.

As of now there is no official information about the availability or the pricing of the Samsung I8000 Omnia II. Earlier rumors had it though, that it will become available in October this year.

It just keeps getting better for the WinMo fans recently. The Samsung I8000 Omnia II official launch which was initially said to come in October, will take place this weekend in Singapore. Latest rumors had it that one of the most powerful Windows Mobile-powered handsets so far will star selling about a month ahead of schedule but this got us totally off guard.

Coming with a 3.7-inch AMOLED touchscreen display of WVGA resolution, the Samsung I8000 Omnia II is one of the most sought-after WinMo devices. It packs a great set of features, including advanced connectivity (Wi-Fi, 3G with HSDPA and HSUPA and GPS) and good imaging capabilities (5 MP camera with D1 video recording).

The recommended retail price of the Samsung I8000 Omnia II is 440 euro before taxes or subsides.

You can check out our Samsung I8000 Omnia II preview over here.

Samsung also announced that the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD should start selling from 1 August at a recommended retail price of 540 euro. The first samples (mostly carrier-customized units) of the monster-spec'd Symbian handset made their way to the market back in May but right after its launch mass production was stopped in order for some i-dotting and t-crossing to take place. Apparently there were some issues with the Omnia HD that Samsung wanted to get fixed before the handset received wider availability.

You can find our Samsung i8910 Omnia HD preview here. We will be doing our best to acquire samples of both of these handsets for out-and-out reviews as quickly as possible.