Samsung Omnia Lite review

A scaled down member of Samsung's ever-expanding Omnia touchscreen smartphone portfolio, the Samsung Omnia Lite (GT-B7300) is being pitched as a 'simple all-rounder' in the Omnia range. Nonetheless, the Omnia Lite is far from a lightweight mid-end offering.

Arriving out of the box with Windows Mobile 6.5, the Omnia Lite is kitted out with Wi-Fi, HSDPA mobile data connectivity, A-GPS satellite location finding gadgetry and a whole bunch of Windows Phone applications - including an Office Suite of document reading, writing and editing software.

The pre-loaded software also includes extensive communications options for email and instant messaging - including Microsoft Exchange server support for corporate email, Outlook and Windows Live applications. Plus Google Maps is included for finding your way round satellite-wise, and there's a pair of browsers , with both Internet Explorer and Opera onboard.

Oh, and there's a 3.2-megapixel camera, plus a media player that supports DivX and Xvid video files.

Post-iPhone, though, just packing in a high feature count isn't enough to make your smartphone an essential purchase - usability is fundamental if you want to go toe-to-toe with the Apples and Androids of the touchscreen world.

It has a slim and pocketable Tocco Ultra-like design that's 13.3mm thin and weighs 109g. It's typically minimalist, with the Omnia Lite's 3-inch display dominating and only three buttons on the front (Call, End and a Clear/Task switcher that looks like a navigation pad). The display is a prod-to-activate resistive type rather than a multi-touch, slick to use capacitive screen; it's a WQVGA (240x400) pixels 65K-colour array.

Various buttons and slots dot the sides, including a MicroSD card bay, a camera button, microUSB port and a Menu key and a screen Lock button. There's no 3.5mm headphone socket though.

With the Omnia Lite, Samsung has skinned the Windows Mobile 6.5 platform with an outer layer of its TouchWiz user interface - a bright, user-friendly touch-based control set up that works easy-to-use widget mini apps. Like previous Samsung touchscreens, these can be pulled onscreen and dotted around a co-joined three-homescreen canvas from a pop up toolbar running down the side of the phone. It's familar Samsung; the selection of 20-plus widgets can be switched around and a limited selection of others downloaded easily enough.

Onboard widgets range from music player, calendar, notes and picture viewing apps to accessing online-based services such as YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, AccuWeather plus a suite of Google search, map and mail apps. A side button also enables you to pull up four screens of Samsung-style grid menus, which you can sweep through with a sideways finger swipe.

Windows Mobile 6.5 though is the main show for the smartphone action. Among the numerous settings options, you can switch from the Samusng Touchwiz skin to a vanilla customisable Windows Phone Today view. Windows Mobile 6.5 is supposed to be the next step in terms of finger-friendly usability for the Microsoft mobile phone operating system.

Certain elements have been re-worked and made more consumer friendly, although this is certainly no iPhone in terms of its user interface. There's a stylus supplied in-box - you attach it to the phone with a string rather than inserting it into the bodywork - and this will probably be required for most users, as the screen space for some options is limited and fingers just aren't precise enough to operate everything.

Besides, although it's fine for general scrolling around, prodding and swiping, the resistive screen isn't the most responsive we've encountered. For instance, around the edges, pressing the thin top-of-the-screen status bar for the Start button (one of our first bits of touch control) was irritatingly hit-and-miss with our fingers; on the homescreen the widgets toolbar would often open up instead.

Similarly awkward was finger typing with the default onscreen QWERTY keyboard in portrait mode - the keys are too small and it's easy to mispress, particularly around the edges of the screen. Not too far under the Samsung skin, some Windows Mobile menu options too seem designed for a bigger display and are fiddly to press accurately with fingers alone.

Thankfully, the message typing provides normal phone keypad alternatives, and the QWERTY keypad switches orientation automatically when the phone is held in landscape view, stretching across the full width of the display for more finger dabbing room. A predictive text option with correction is included too, though this can be switched off if you prefer.

This being a Windows Phone, there's a healthy amount of communication and messaging options built in. The email set-up wizard makes it easy to set up several regular POP3 email accounts, either using pre-stored settings or over the air downloaded ones. It can sync with corporate email, contacts and calendars, with MS Exchange ActiveSync and IBM Lotus Notes support, and push email is naturally an option. A separate Windows Live application takes care of Hotmail, while Live Messenger IM is also supported and  decently integrated into the phone. Texting, however, still doesn't feel as effortless to use as on many a conventional non-touch phone.

As well as accessing the customisable TouchWiz-style menus via the side menu key, pressing the onscreen Start button opens up the full roster of applications, listed in an off-set grid format, with easy-on-the-eye icon graphics rather than old-school Windows Mobile lists. Out of the box there are just over 20 icons on show, though any apps you install are slipped in here automatically too. That makes it easy to find and open apps, and haptic feedback confirms when you've successfully prodded an option.

Below the surface though, the Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system on this device doesn't have the streamlined ease of Apple's OS or Android-powered handsets we've looked at. Menu options have a conventional phone look and feel. Delve into the Windows Mobile settings a little way beneath certain functions and apps, however, and you'll find quite plain looking, functional miniature sub-menu options with sometimes little guidance to help users. Here, the OS feels more like older Windows Mobile rather than something with a fresh new consumer-friendly approach.

Running on an ARM 667Mhz processor, the Omnia Lite has 512MB ROM and 256MB RAM. There are plenty of applications onboard, but with several open it can feel a tad sluggish to respond to commands, with occasional notable delays while an app is opened or options selected. This can lead to extraneous pressing of buttons as you retry the command or cancel, sending you to the wrong place. This can be frustrating.

We had such an issue with one of the basic functions - the text message feature - which was disappointing. You can, however, monitor open apps and close down unused one with the Task Switcher - activated by holding down the central (D-pad-alike) clear button.

The Samsung Omnia Lite does have some good quality multimedia functionality embedded. Its supports DivX, Xvid, H.263, H.264, WMV9 and MPEG4 video file formats, and the 3-inch screen provides a platform that's bright and clear enough to enjoy smooth video playback. MP3, AAC, AAC+ and WMA music files are also supported.

As well as Samsung's media player app, Windows Media Player 10 software comes as part of the standard software package. Samsung's Media Player offers a more attractive way of organising media content categories, while Windows Media Player adopts a more functional, austere PC-like list approach.

Both media solutions play video and tunes with usable onscreen control graphics - and the Samsung player software adds some almost iTunes-alike Cover Flow-style 3D carousel cover art or thumbnail graphics when browsing in landscape mode.

As you might expect, it's easy to sync the Omnia Lite with Windows Media Player on a PC for sideloading content. Over the air downloading or streaming of content is also possible, either using HSDPA or Wi-Fi. As well as its internal storage, the phone can accommodate MicroSD cards (up to 32GB), so it has potential as a mini media player.

The supplied earphones provide an acceptable if not exceptional audio performance; it delivers a satisfactory range and solid bass, although there's some toppiness at higher volumes. Still it's good enough for this sort of handset. We'd have a liked a standard 3.5mm headphone socket or adapter though to try better earphones with the device.

A user-friendly FM radio is included in the package too, which has a useful facility to capture music clips. Midomi song identification software is included, to, which allows you to hum or sing tunes you want ID'd as well as capture clips of music you hear around you for identification, like Shazam. Surprisingly, we found the singing option does actually work sometimes. ArcSoft Streaming Player software is included too for online video and audio streaming.

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