[Christopher Price]

This phone is so close, and yet, at the same time, so far from where it needs to be.

Everything that it tries to pull off, just barely misses the mark. Where to begin... oh yes, the soft keyboard. It's awful... no matter how many modes Samsung offers (and they do offer many). Imagine iPhone's keyboard, and now imagine if it didn't know what key you were pressing. That's the Omnia's keyboard.

The trackpad is innovative, but within the walls of Windows, it's not very productive. The sweeps by default don't do very much, and the optical mouse mode is too slow to really use. I would trade it for a d-pad in an instant.

The best thing about the Omnia is that it's thin. It's the first Windows Mobile phone that doesn't make compromises. It has every high-end feature, without being a brick.

Screen rotation is another "nifty" feature. Omnia is the first phone with an accelerometer that constantly rotates. Meaning, when you flip the phone to the right the screen changes... regardless of the application. HTC could have at least offered the option on the Touch Diamond and Pro. However, the feature starts to lack luster quickly. When walking around, you're constantly vibrated to notify you that the screen rates.

Unfortunately, while it is thin, and has the fastest 2D graphics I've seen on an official Windows Mobile device... I see no reason to upgrade from a previous Windows Mobile 6.1 device. If you want TV-Out, the HTC Touch Pro has it, and that's the only edge that this device has over the XV6800 (HTC Titan, aka HTC Mogul on Sprint).

Perhaps I'm partial being an XV6800 owner. Perhaps I'm partial because I've put a custom ROM on there... but the Omnia just misses the mark. It has all the makings of a good phone, but last mile issues keep it from being great. It has a lot of style, but zero new substance. Save yourself hundreds of dollars, and get an XV6800 or XV6900.

Buy an Omnia from Verizon Wireless

[Auditor_Kevin]

Couldn't disagree more in your review of the Omnia.

For starters, the 5megapixel camera in the Omnia blows away the XV6800. Smile detection, panoramic mode that can take up to 360 degrees worth of pictures and stitch them together immediately, intuitive touchscreen settings. Then there's the fact that it takes better video, even including slow motion.

Form factor: the Omnia is substantially lighter and thinner than the XV6800.

Battery life: my Omnia lasts for 2 days before the "40% remaining" reminder goes off. It lasts over 3 days of light use. The XV6800s I've seen last a day tops. Advantage Omnia

Memory: 8 gig internal and up to 24 gig with the addition of a 16 gig microHD card, which I've done and now have 42 movies on my phone with 6 gigs left over. Advantage Omnia

Web Browser: the Omnia comes packaged with Opera, which is very similar to Safari (the iPhone's browser). Very intuititve touch screen countrols, fast and accurate web page rendering. The XV6800 comes with Internet Explorer mobile, which is hideous for surfing the web.

Call quality: I had to hack my friend's XV6800 for him just so he could hear the people calling him. The Omnia is one of the few smartphones I've heard where the loudest call volume is actually TOO loud.

Screen size: the Omnia has a larger screen than the XV6800, though the resolution is better on the XV6800. Movies are much easier to watch on the Omnia.

I've compared the Omnia side by side with my friend's XV6800 and there's no contest when it comes to which phone offers more features out of the box.

So basically if you ignore the 'best in class' camera/camcorder,screen size, form factor, web browsing, call quality, battery life and substantially more memory - yeah, I guess the XV6800 is comparable.

And a quick PS: I upgraded from the XV6700 (basically the same slideout keyboard) and I text just as quickly, with no increase in mistakes, as I did with the slideout keyboard. It just took a week of actually doing it to 'train' myself, much like how I had to train myself how to use the keyboard on the XV6700 in the first place.

If you're on the fence about upgrading to the Omnia, you'd be missing out if you just read this mini-review and took it at face value. It doesn't seem like the author spent much time with the phone at all. I could have written a more accurate comparison just using two thumbnail pictures and a spec sheet for each phone. I've spent lots of time with both phones and the Omnia is better in just about every way imaginable.