Author Archive: James Richardson

Samsung Pixon12 Review

The Samsung M8910 Pixon12 is deemed to be one of the best camera phones around at the moment. Taking great photos with a mobile phone is a huge bonus but can the Pixon12 deliver in other areas or is the camera all its good for?

Samsung M8910 Pixon12

What’s in the box:

• Samsung Pixon12 Handset
• Battery
• Charger
• USB Cable
• Plastic Case
• Manuals/Software
• Headphones
• 2GB MicroSD Card and adapter

See also Matt’s Samsung Pixon 12 unboxing video on site.

The ten second review:

Device: Samsung M8910 Pixon12

Price: £454.25

Summary: A fantastic camera phone with lots of other features too.
Best of: Camera, Wi-Fi, 3G

Worst of: No 3.5mm headset jack

Samsung Pixon12 specification:

• Display – AMOLED, 16M colours, 3.1"
• GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 (Quad-Band)
• 3G: 900/2100 HSDPA (Dual-Band)
• Connectivity – microUSB
• TV Out
• Bluetooth (2.1)
• WiFi
• MicroSD
• Camera – 12 Megapixel resolution
• Xenon Flash
• 5 x Digital Zoom
• Auto Focus
• Brightness Adjust
• Video- Hi-Resolution DVD Video Recording 30fps Video Recording (720 x 480)
• Supported formats: MP4, 3GP, H.264, H.263, DivX & XviD
• FM Stereo Radio (RDS)
• Windows Media Player Sync
• DNSe (Digital Natural Sound engine)
• Battery – Capacity: 1000 mAh
• Dimensions – 107.9 x 53 x 13.8 mm
• Weight – 119g with battery

General:

On the top of the device is the USB slot and a small clip for removing the battery.

Samsung M8910 Pixon12 Top

The left hand side houses the microSD card and also the lock button.

Samsung M8910 Pixon12 Left Side

Situated on the right side of the handset is the camera activation button, the camera function button and also a rocker which serves as the camera zoom and also the volume up/down.

Samsung M8910 Pixon12 Right Side

The front of the Pixon12 looks fairly typical Samsung with send/end keys, a menu button and on the top a second camera lens.

Samsung M8910 Pixon12 Front

A huge camera lens and the Xenon and LED flash are located on the rear. (Sticker can be removed).

Samsung M8910 Pixon12 Rear

Highlights:

• Camera
• Wi-Fi/3G
• Music Player

Lowlights:

No 3.5 mm headset jack

Review:

Taking the Samsung M8910 Pixon12 out of the box for the first time I was amazed how much it looked like a digital camera. I suppose that’s the idea though! The device feels okay in the hand but not great as it has that blooming great camera lens on the back which protrudes. The phone feels fairly weighty and sturdy. Its mainly made from plastic but has a nice chrome strip around its outside which adds to its looks.

Now, I would imagine that most people who are reading this are probably interested in the camera so I am going to cover this first.

It was terrible. Only joking, sorry!  It was actually pretty amazing. It took pictures very quickly and was easy to use. The camera interface is the same as on other Samsung devices and you have a big selection of settings options. Within the “shooting mode” you have the choice of Single, beauty, smile, continuous, panorama and vintage. In the “scene” settings you have even more. These include portrait, landscape, night, sports, party/indoor, beach/snow, sunset, dawn, fall (autumn), firework, text, candlelight and against light. Samsung clearly want you to produce really great photographs and I’m sure all the options will help but I tend to just stick with the auto mode and get reasonable results.

The flash works in two parts and works really well. Initially when you press the camera button half way down to focus, the LED flash illuminates the target. When you press the button all the way down to take the shot the Xenon flash then kicks in and gives fantastic results. Its without doubt the best flash I have used on a phone.

Like most cameras on phones you don’t have to use the highest mega pixel setting and there are plenty of lower options. The higher the mega pixel the more space the photo takes up on your storage card. This also means that emailing a 12MP photo will use more data than emailing a smaller sized photo.

Below is a couple of sample shots taken at the full 12MP. Click on the thumbnail to see full size.

Photos taken with Samsung M8910 Pixon12

The macro setting was also impressive. Samples below.

Macro

The video camera option was not as good as the actual camera but still one of the best I have used on a phone. My favorite bit was that it had a slow motion setting.

For a sample video please click here.

On to the rest of the device as it does quite a lot.

The Samsung M8919 Pixon12 uses Samsungs Touchwiz interface which is nice. I’m not going to go into too much detail as its been around for sometime and if you are a regular reader of the site you would have seen it included in my Samsung Jet, Omnia HD and  Omnia II review. But like these devices the Pixon12 has three home screens that are all customizable.

Like on the other TouchWiz devices the menu on the Pixon12 is made up of three screens and the icons look bright and colourful set on a black background. Its a fantastic menu.

The device as a phone is good. The onscreen dialer takes up about three quarters of the screen so dialing is easy. The screen is super responsive and makes light work of typing really quick.

The phonebook is pretty nice too. There are two ways of searching for contacts. The first is by part typing the contacts name and the second is to use the scroll bar on the right hand side of the screen. This lets you zoom down your contact list from A-Z. If you haven’t got a million contacts this second way is really nice.

Each contact can have a good amount of information stored and also a photo.

The Pixon12 comes with a plastic case supplied. It smells of fish! It feels really cheap but the strange thing about it is that it has a cut out for the camera lens so you can take pictures with it in the case. Now this sounds great but while its in its case the screen is hidden. Why would you want to point the camera at something and not be able to see what you are taking a picture of. Well I thought its was odd anyway!

Messaging on the Samsung Pixon12 is fairly pleasant. Setting up email is easy and the email client does its job. You can only download a maximum of 5mb per email so big files are out of the window but 5mb is big enough for most things emailed.

Text messaging is as expected. The big bonus when messaging is the Pixon onscreen keyboard. Not only can you use it in portrait mode but also in landscape and when you switch to landscape the keyboard turns from the standard phone pad into a full qwerty. The keys are slightly smaller in this mode but still a decent size and I was able to type with few mistakes. The screen also gives you some haptic feedback which feels great.

The web browser on the Samsung M8910 Pixon12 is not the best but its not bad. It can be used in portrait or landscape mode and the screen scrolls smoothly. The browser does not support flash so some moving images will not appear on the screen which is a shame but this is not a smartphone. One thing I was impressed with though was that you can have five different pages open at the same time and tab between them. I cant do this on my smartphone!

As the Pixon12 supports 3G and also Wi-Fi this ensures you will be getting the best browsing speeds possible.

Listening to music on the M8910 Pixon12 was just as good as I thought it would be. Using the external speaker the quality was not great but using the supplied headphones was fantastic. I have mentioned this before but I think Samsung make amazing in-ear headphones. The only downside on the Pixon12 is there is no 3.5mm headset jack. Samsung have kindly supplied an adaptor so at least you can use your own headphones if you want to, but again the Samsung ones are cool. It also comes Bluetooth A2DP which means if you have a pair of wireless headphones you can use there to listen to your music.

The music player interface is fairly standard. The on screen buttons are a decent size and its really easy to use.

Watching videos on the Pixon12 is pleasant. The interface is the same as on other Samsung devices and is dead simple to use. The picture quality is reasonable but not amazing. The bonus here is that it does support DivX. I didn’t have any videos in this format but I’m sure this will improve the quality immensely.

The device comes with all the normal features you would expect to find such as a converter, calculator, Memos, a time etc.

Conclusion

Overall the Samsung M8910 Pixon is a decent handset. If you take a lot of photos with your phone and want the best quality then this device is well worth a look. Its not as good as a digital camera but its by far the best camera phone I have used.

I personally feel that this device is most suited to someone who wants the camera features more than the phone. As a phone its no way as nice as the Samsung Jet or Omnia II but it does have a great camera. If Samsung put this camera on other devices they would be kicking butt!

Review by: James

Samsung Omnia II review

The original Samsung Omnia i900 was an extremely popular device and I loved mine when I first got it. Unfortunately as time goes on and smartphones get better and better it didn’t actually take me very long to swap my Omnia for a bigger and better device. Lets see how Samsung’s new offering, the Omnia II, compares in a market that is being pretty much flooded with new devices at the moment.

Samsung Omnia II i8000

What’s in the box:

• Handset
• Battery
• Charger
• USB Cable
• Software/Manuals
• Case

Take a look at Matt’s Samsung Omnia II unboxing video to see what the device has to offer.

The Ten Second Review:

Device: Samsung I8000 Omnia II

Price:£408.25

Summary: Pretty much everything you could want from a phone plus more!

Best of: Nearly everything!

Worst of: On screen keyboard

Samsung Omnia 2 Specification:

• Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional
• 8GB Internal Memory (17GB available)
• Processor – 800 MHz
• Amoled Resistive Touchscreen, 65000 Colours, 480 x 800 Pixels, 3.7 Inches
• Operating Frequency – 2G Network – GSM 850/900/1800/1900, 3G Network – HSDPA 900/1900/2100
• HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps
• Wifi – 802.11b/g
• Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR
• Built-in GPS with A-GPS
• MicroSD socket supports up to 32GB
• DixX / XviD / MPEG4/ H.263/ H.264/ WMV player
• Camera – 5 MP, 2592 x 1944 pixels, Auto-focus, Dual Power LED flash
• Li-Ion 1500mAh battery
• Stand-by Up to 430 h (2G) / Up to 430 h (3G)
• Talk time Up to 10 h (2G) / Up to 10 h (3G)
• 118 x 59.6 x 11.9 mm
• Weight – 117 grams with battery

General:

The top of the Omnia II contains the 3.5mm headset jack and also the USB slot.

Samsung Omnia II Top

The left side of the device houses only the up/down volume rocker.

Samsung Omnia II Left Side

The lock switch and camera button can be found on the right. In addition there is a cube menu shortcut button.

Samsung Omnia II Right Side

On the back can be found the 5MP camera lens and flash.

Samsung Omnia II Back

On the front of the device are the send/end keys, the menu button and at the top can be found the front facing camera.

Samsung Omnia II Front

Highlights:

• Wi-Fi/HSDPA
• Camera
• OLED Screen
• UI
• 8/16 GB Storage + MiceoSD

Lowlights:

• On Screen Key Board
• Finger Print Magnet

Review:

A few months ago I did the review of the Samsung Jet and was extremely impressed with it, so I was looking forward to the Omnia II and expected good things.

First impressions out of the box were positive. The device feels great in the hand. Its fairly large but lightweight and I imagine would sit unnoticed in a pocket. Due to its nice rounded edges it actually feels smaller than it is.

In terms of build quality the device feels solid but very plasticy (is that a real word?) The phone is defiantly a finger print magnet but at least with the new OLED screens, that Samsung are now using, a swift wipe on a shirt sleeve will remove these marks.

All the buttons on the handset give a real click/press and feel like they will stand the test of time.

Like when I reviewed the Jet, once I turned on the Omnia II I was amazed with the screen. The colours are super vibrant and sitting beside my HTC Touch Pro2 it really put my phone to shame!

The screen is also wonderful to use. Its really smooth and makes gliding your thumb/finger on it feel almost effortless. Good work Samsung.

When it comes to the user interface on the Omnia II you have two initial options. You can go with the new Windows homescreen or use Samsungs Touch Wiz interface.

Windows Mobile Home Screen

The Windows Home screen as seen above is made up of a list of most common features and you can either scroll the whole list up and down or scroll the highlighted bar that selects the feature you require. The OLED screen make this a wonderful action. The home screen picture can obviously be customised. The device didn’t come with the above eye. I just liked it!

TouchWiz

The TouchWiz option is like on many other Samsung devices and comprises of three homescreens that can be changed but flicking the screen left or right. You will see three bars at the top of the screen which shows you which screen you are on. On the left hand side of the screen is the widgets bar. From here you can drag and drop widgets of your choice onto the homescreens giving you access to common features. These can be positioned anywhere on the screen you like. The new addition on the Omnia II homescreen is the block of features at the bottom of the screen. Again these can be customised and you can have up to 10 applications here.

Both options work well as the screen is so responsive. It just comes down to personal choice which one you use. I preferred the TouchWiz option, sorry Microsoft.

When going into the menu on the phone you again have two options. You can either press start on the top left of the screen and like on all the new Windows 6.5 phones this will show you the new improved menu.

6.5 Menu

Option two is to press the hexagon between the call send and end buttons. This will pop up Samsungs own menu which is made up of four screens that can be scrolled left or right.

Samsungs Menu

As you will see above there are three option keys at the base of the screen. The “others” tab takes you into another screen that contains mainly the Windows apps that Samsung have not included in there menus, such as Facebook, Marketplace, MyPhone and Bing. Why they didn’t just put it all together baffles me but that’s just the way it is.

The cube option presents you with a onscreen cube that you spin using touch and it has multimedia features on each side of the cube. Use this if you are not in a hurry to find what you are looking for. I found it it be a bit of a novelty.

The “edit” tab does exactly as you would image. You can remove items from the menu screens and add others if required.

Both menus do the job but the Samsung one lets you edit properly and therefore I think you will find the desired app quicker than using the Windows menu where the only edit option is to move an item to the top of the screen.

Another nice feature that Samsung have brought to the Omnia II is the quick access connectivity manager.

Connectivity Manager

By touching the top of the screen it gives you quick access into Bluetooth, volume control, power options and the wireless manager where you can manager things like airplane mode. This Samsung add-on is a welcome option and makes getting to the connectivity tabs quicker than on other Windows Phones.

As the Omnia II is a phone I thought I had better cover the phone options. The home screen gives you quick access into both contacts and the dialer. The dialer is really nice to use. The keys are big and sensitive. The contacts section of the device has been tweaked by Samsung and gives a few added options over some other Windows Phones. At the top of the contacts page is a bar with five tabs on it.  These are phonebook, category ( where you can put contacts into groups), speed dial, reject (where you have the option to reject or accept all calls) and search.  As with all Windows Phones the amount of contacts you can store is virtually unlimited. Another nice touch Samsung!

Messaging on the Omnia II is pretty straight forward. You can set up multiple email accounts very easily and using SMS was as simple as expected. However I did have one problem. Although the Omnia II has an accelerometer I only managed to get it to work in a few applications excluding messaging, so when compiling emails or texts I had to use the keyboard in portrait mode and this caused me problems.

In portrait mode the keyboard looks nice but I found myself making so many mistakes it was ridiculous. When tapping a key it does give you haptic feedback and also pops an image of the key you have pressed above where you have pressed it, but I struggled. I recently reviewed the HTC Touch2 which has a smaller onscreen keypad but I was much better with that one! In landscape mode its fine but if you cant use that when messaging it kind of sucks. Maybe I have missed something in the settings but I did have a look on the internet and found some other people that had the same problem.

The camera on the Omnia II was better than I expected. The interface is very nice with lots of on screen options. You can have the flash on, off or on auto. Focus options include macro, face and auto. You can change the exposure so in low light conditions you can let more light into the lens. There are many shooting modes including, single, continuous, smile, mosaic, panorama and action. All work well. There are also many scene modes – portrait, landscape, sunset, dusk & dawn, night, text, sports, indoors, beach & snow, fall colour (autumn), firework and candle light. Samsung really want you to get the best results possible. Its a shame the other major manufactures cant supply as many features with there cameras! In the settings you can alter white balance, effect, ISO, contrast, saturation, sharpness, metering and quality. There is a timer and an anti shake option as well.

Samples – click image for full screen

Sample in auto mode (no sunshine)

Sample in macro mode

The video recorder was not quite as good as the camera but that’s no surprise. The videos were okay and looked great on the phone but once on my PC they were a little grainy.

Watching online videos on the Omnia was great. It has a built in YouTube player that is fantastic. The Omnia II supports many formats but as its Windows Mobile you can always download Coreplayer which plays pretty much any format.

Music was another superb feature. Through the speaker the music was loud and of good quality. The music player interface it pleasant and easy to use. The supplied Samsung headphones do a great job and really boost the quality of the music. Its wasn’t the best quality I have had on a mobile but not far off. The “Metallica” test was a big success! If you prefer to use your own headphones you can do as the Omnia II comes with a 3.5mm headset jack. Bonus!

The calendar was also very nice on the Omnia. I think we are finding out that most things are! Its very easy to use and there are multiple ways to view it, by month, week or day. Entering appointments was simple and nice work Samsung for re-skinning the calendar interface. It looks real good.

MSN weather comes pre installed on the device. Here you can set up numerous cites and see them in a list showing the current weather. Click on the city and it will give you a five day forecast. Nice!

The clock options on the Omnia II have also been heavily tweaked by Samsung. As well as the normal multiple alarms you get with a Windows Phone there are also tabs for anniversaries, world clock and a stopwatch. All which are really easy to use.

If you listen to podcasts the Omnia II has a podcast application. It does comes with the standard WinMo RSS reader but having a dedicated podcast app really is a bonus as podcasts are becoming more and more popular.

Being Windows the device comes with Office Mobile. This allows you to not only view, but create Word, Excel and OneNote documents. You can also view PowerPoint shows you either put on the device or receive via email. And its free of charge unlike some operating systems!

The device comes loaded with two different web browsers. The first is the latest version of Internet Explorer which I am not so keen on. The second, and better one,  is Opera Mobile. This was one of the best features on the phone. As the Omnia screen is so good, web browsing looks fantastic. Scrolling is super smooth and it scrolls faster than some other smartphones. You have the option to view the web pages like you would on a PC or you can select “mobile view” which takes away a lot of the adverts on certain websites and presents the page to fit the phone screen allowing you to only scroll up or down. I prefer browsing this way and the Omnia rendered the pages beautifully.

An added bonus, which I was not expecting,  is that the Omnia II supports flash. For example – when viewing tracyandmatt.co.uk I scrolled down and found an unboxing video. Now on a lot of phones you cannot watch the video but on the Omnia II you can just click play and the video starts just like on a PC. The video quality is not the best but its better than the other option of nothing!

The Omnia II comes with some nice games as standard. As you would expect from a WinMo device you get Solitaire and Bubble Breaker but in addition Samsung have also included three others. The first isn’t really a game. Its a set of dice. Shake the phone and the dice spin. Handy I suppose if you play a lot of board games. Next we have Asphalt 4 which I was expecting to be rubbish but its actually really good. You race a Mini around circuits and use motion to control the cars movements. Tipping left and right to steer, tipping away and down to use boost and pulling up and back to brake. I think I will have another go when I have finished writing this! Last is Crayon Physics which is a bit odd! Its a puzzle game which involves drawing on screen different shapes or lines to complete the puzzle, Its quite clever but not my cup of tea. Maybe I would have a good crack if I was really bored.

Conclusion:

The Omnia II is an amazing device. Its a million miles away from the original Omnia. That one was good but this one is supa-doopa with a cherry on top!

The screen is without doubt the best I have seen to date. Windows Mobile 6.5 works flawlessly and a lot of the time you wouldn’t even know it was a Windows Phone.

The Omnia II offers pretty much everything you would expect from a high end device. If you are happy with a touch screen only device then at this moment in time I think this is the one to get, however there is some competition coming very soon – the HTC HD2 with some impressive hardware and a 4.3 inch screen.

Let the battle commence!

Posted by: James