Thanks to Jayvee Fernandez, I got a very brief hands-on with the Samsung Omnia HD (which Samsung will release in some markets as i8910 HD). It shares the same OS as that of Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. The one that I held was not the final product, and it showed. The response to the touch input was sluggish.

The screen, however, was a big wow. The AMOLED screen was a joy to look at. The image above (sorry, I used an Olympus E-420 DSLR in taking that picture – you don’t take a picture using a DSLR one-handed) does not do justice to the impressive screen.

If you have used a Nokia 5800, the interface of this Samsung phone is the same. For the home screen, Samsung plastered its TouchWiz UI, so that you can add widgets to your home screen. Also, to go to the main menu, you can slide the home screen to the left.

I tried composing a text message using the fullscreen QWERTY input, and the characters have small spaces in between, unlike in Nokia 5800. The text entry experience is the same, though. At least there was no lag.

The unit is definitely larger and wider than Nokia 5800, but thinner. It was nice in the hands, not too heavy, and the built is solid (no creaking parts).

I think this is a nice phone, and I am sure it will be priced at the Php40k-upwards range when it is released here.

(Some more pictures here.)