SlashGear

We caught up with Samsung’s flagship Omnia HD handset at Mobile World Congress this week, and there’s certainly a lot to be said for an AMOLED touchscreen rocking in at 3.7-inches and an 8.1-megapixel camera.  In the hand, the Omnia HD almost feels like a small MID; the display is responsive and incredibly bright, and the sliding pane-based GUI animates smoothly.  TouchWiz is an acquired taste, but at least there’s plenty of room for the new internet-connected widgets.

Samsung Omnia HD video after the cut

The particular handset we were playing with was obviously as unstable as Samsung first warned us: when we initially picked it up, it had various error codes showing, plus there’s a folder full of debugging tools.  That’s what we’re blaming for the slight slow-down you can see in the video. 

If we were to play devil’s advocate, we’d wonder out loud just how many people will ever connect their Omnia HD up to an HDTV or other 720p capable display.  Cynical, yes, but we’re wondering if it’s a case of “features because we can” rather than “because we should”.  We’d love to see Samsung take the phone away and put Android on the Omnia HD, though given the company has confirmed plans for the open-source platform, and seems to be making a range out of the Omnia brand, that could be a very real possibility in future.

Until then, it’s S60; enjoy our hands-on demo video and live photos!