Samsung Omnia i900 - 16GB - White (Unlocked) Smartphone

It did have the largest screen available on any phone. That's why I bought it. I needed to be able to see the screen and my eyes are telling me I'm gettin' old.
Running Windows Mobile 6.1 and sporting a touch screen and accelerometer, this phone has plenty of capability. It does not have a physical keyboard but the onscreen variety functions quite well. Three things were an absolute requirement for my device. GPS, the ability to utilize Google maps on my mobile, and a pointing device. In place of the Blackberry's scroll wheel, this one has an optical mouse. It reads the movement of your thumb over the square "Select" button. Great for getting the pointer into the tiny check box that is so hard to select from the touch screen. One of these days the hackers are going to be able to use the wifi radio to create a mobile hotspot with this phone. It is great for the gadget guru who likes to play with programming and widgets. For the rest of us, it is a wonderful widget box. Get your news feeds, blog feeds, or stream internet radio through its media player. Simply open your web browser and navigate to thestreamcenter.com/pda for nearly any radio station in the English speaking world. 2 of the 5 side buttons serve dual purposes, 4 of which can be reassigned to customize your phone to your preferences. You can set the today or home screen to 2 different configurations depending on if you hold it in profile or portrait positions. Slide your finger up or down the screen to scroll through your contacts or to slide your programs screen left or right to a second page which also scrolls up and down. Set widgets on your today screen to monitor wireless radios or email or all of the above. It has 8GB of native memory and can be expanded to 16 via a micro sd card under the back cover. The longer this one's out there, the more programs and apps are available to download to further customize your handheld communications center.
Given the problems this device had at launch (8GB memory yet warnings pop up with less than a single GB of data loaded in it and the gps and other features were originally locked down to Verizon's programs) which have subsequently been fixed with the ROM released just a few months later, this phone is a bit of a sleeper, meaning it is a greater value than its reputation suggests. So, when you first get your phone ensure it is running the latest ROM before you load your contacts and favorite files as you will have to do it all over again after the ROM update which you can ask your local Verizon store to do for you. If that sounds like too much trouble, simply make sure the phone you are buying has the gps unlocked. A few of the devices from the original launch are still floating around but the vast majority have either been updated or were released after the update. In fact you might be able to find a real deal if you are willing to go through the bother of taking an out of date phone to Verizon to be updated before you start it up on your contract.
All in all, a good smart phone but check the specs and compare them to the most recent devices and know the requirements of the latest programs and widgets you'll want to run on it. At this point the phone has only been out for about a year. It is fullfeatured at this point, but as tech advances, I'm sure new goodies will eventually make this one look old in short order the same as the PPC6900 by HTC. Suddenly, we had to have gps, accelerometer, etc., App store?

Fast little device, had the SCH I730 before and although I like the 730 the 910 is so much better. They can be had from auctions at great prices and since they are a Verizon phone they can be used on the Pageplus pay as you go service.

The Wifi works alot better than the 730, the 730 has limitations to older hardware and standards. Opera Mobile works great on this phone, probably the best mobile browser for it, I hope Firefox gets a working mobile browser for WM.

The screen is alot better, the touch interface is fine enough, with some training its pretty finger friendly.

The built in accelerometer works well and the screen rotates quickly.

At times I miss the slide out keyboard on the 730, but I assigned one of the buttons long press to bring up the on screen keyboard.

I do not use the Touch Wiz interface that it comes with stock but it seemed to work well when I first got the phone, instead I use the SPB Mobile shell with it and it really brings this phone to life, search youtube for demos.

The 5.0 megapixel camera is one of the highlights of this phone, it will not replace my 10 megapixel Samsung standalone digital camera, but it is feature rich. Auto focus, macro, and face detection. 14 different scn modes, 5 different shooting modes including smile detection and panoramic, very cool. 6 picture size choices from 320X240 all the way up to 2560X1920. Video mode from 176X144, 320X240, up to 640X480, not Hi Def but OK.

This phone has GPS built in and the latest Verizon update is supposed to unlock it from Verizons VZ Navigator and allow it to work with other programs, so far I have not been able to get it to track satellites in google maps but I haven't tried too hard yet. If I can get to act as a GPS Nav with a program like Garmin that will be one less device to carry around. Google maps works great with it but I haven't been able to get the voice activated search to work with it, the SCH-I730 did.

The size of the phone is nice, of course the screen is not as nice as the newer phones but they need expensive plans, I can get a pay as a go plan as low as $10.00 for 120 days of service.

Uses a proprietary connector for both syncing and head phones instead of a mini usb or 2.5mm jack, synching not a big issue but a non standard head phone jack is a pain.

Battery life is good as a phone, but if you use wifi or bluetooth or watch video battery life drains fast, but a larger battery means a larger phone. Pick up a couple and a standalone charger and your set.

SCH-I910 has the Micro SDHC card slot that can only be accessed if the battery is taken out, kinda sucks but what can ya do.

8 gigs of built in internal storage with 16 gigs capable with a Micro SDHC, might not seem like a lot but I have put alot of programs on it and have tons of room. BTW there seems to be alot of nice apps/programs for it, not as many as or as cool as some of the ones for IPhones or Droids but still alot.

If I can get the GPS to work like I want it I can combine 3 devices with this one, Phone, GPS Nav and Camera, and I freakin love that.

Update 11/17/2010
Have been able to get Garmin Mobile XT up and running and it works great with this phone , I love it.

Get the latest verizon update(it unlocked the GPS feature), Turn on "location" in phones settings under GPS, use a GPS toggle program like BAF GPS toggle otherwise it will not find sats. Install Garmin Mobile XT.

I also have Smartphone tracker installed that will locate it via sms if its lost, lol.

First, I will start by saying that i900 Omnia came out more than 2.5 years ago, so you need to look it in the context. And when you do, you realize that this is a great peace of technology for that generation. My phone originally came with WM 6.1, and I upgraded it on the second day to Windows Mobile 6.5. ROMs to do this are available online, if you follow the instructions to the letter, it's really easy process that takes around 7 minutes. The ROM I used contains modified user interface (M2D), which is way better than the original 6.1.

Good points:
- big screen - it takes lots of space, and provides plenty of room
- excellent synchronization with desktop Windows OS through ActiveSync - comparing to some Android devices, this is a breeze.
- very good battery life considering screen size, this is my favorite, in my opinion better than 95% of Samsungs.
- WM software at the phone runs very fast, faster than some HTC WM models.

Weak points:
- touch screen responsiveness - not the top-of the line, better than Nokias (N97), around some HTC models I had in my hands (Touch and Desire), worse than iPhone 3G, worse than some of the later models like SonyEricsson X8, HTC Wildfire. Again, if you keep in mind that this is 2.5 YO child, it is pretty good.
- screen keyboard is a pain, this is virtually useless if you want to use the usual one it comes with, and I did get the original stylus with the phone. I ended up using FingerKeyboard2, it is the best of what it has to offer, still worse than the one on X8 for example.
- navigation through menus seams to be overly complicated for some things (like reading and writing SMS, checking battery life), I think this is because of the Windows Mobile, not because of the Samsung. Some other things are working perfect like alarms and organizer. I have seen some things on Android phones to be better than this, but some things better on this one (Speed Dial to name one). All comments stated in relation to this are subjective based on my navigation habits and expectations (by now I have used exclusively SonyEricsson as my phone, so it may be up to that).

I haven't written anything about the camera (haven't used it so far) and GPS (also haven't used it by now, a friend of mine uses latest iGo on WM 6.5 on his HTC and it works, so it would for sure work on this one).

To conclude, in my opinion this phone is a very good choice when you compare its price with what this piece of technology provides.

This phone was marketed by Verizon as the "iPhone killer". I got it for free from Verizon with free shipping after waiting about 4 months to renew my contract. They kept sending me emails dropping the price until they sent it to me for free.

It runs on Windows and frequently freezes. The touch screen is so unpredictable. It never picks up the link that you want, it's always the link above or below or to the side of the link you actually want. This screen is also a nightmare to try to type on. Don't bother to try to text on it. It pulls up crazy words and misspellings while you type. There is also limits on the number of links you can open in an unspecified time period.

The camera is a decent 5.0 megapixel and the photos are good, not great. I went to a Verizon store, asked them questions about the phone and they laughed at me. They told me they really got me with that phone. Even though I received it for free with free shipping, I still fill ripped off. Avoid this phone at all costs.

I will be upgrading to the Droid and maybe to the iPhone if (when) Verizon gets it.

SAMSUNG SGH-I900 (SILVER)
This is a magnificent "mobile (so easy to use) very smart phone"; it looks fantastic and is Very easy to set up.
Making a call or texting is a doddle; it even locks on to my Wi-Fi at home, this save’s me money and gives me more credit to spend on songs or games for the phone it feel a little bit top heavy too me, but I’m get uses to that now (after a few hours playing on the two games and surfing the web). It’s a pocket laptop with a phone built in. That’s the best way for me to describe it. You get window’s office and other little things you would find on a laptop. Out of a 100 I’d give it a 99.25. The only downside to the phone is a lack of instructions it gives you some in a minute booklet but these are more confusing than helpful. That was the -0.25 now for the minus 0.50. It’s the software on the disc is out of date. I spent time loading the software and then up dating it. Only to find out the phone wouldn’t synchronize with my laptop. I’ll try again today
But the phone is so cool you’ll do what I’ve done. Forgive all the little niggles and they can be sorted out another time you can still down load song/wallpaper and games if you want. Don’t forget you can put a 16GB memory card in and to save all your pictures and songs on. The camera is fantastic it’s so easy to get the hang of it. My 6yr old can use it; the video is also very easy to use
Has I’ve already said this phone looks and feels great. It’s a fantastic bit of kit for an out of this world price. I’m in two minds weather to buy another one just in case this gets stolen or I drop it and stand on it(its happened before to me).