To begin with, requirements - (i) Good for office use (ii) Good storage capacity (iii) Price range 25 thousand (iv) Multi media capability
I have used cheaper phones that played music very well and took good pictures, too. But requirements were different this time around. Bluetooth, Wi-fi, MS office, storage capacity, etc also took priority. The phones shortlisted were Nokia 5800 xpress Music and I-phone. Then came a chance encounter with Omnia on Internet. Nokia’s reviews were not that encouraging - issues with touch screen, slow processing speed, so on. So the choice was between I-phone and Omnia.
I’m writing below the features of Omnia and I’ll compare it with I-phone wherever needed. Me and my colleague bought 2 phones on the same day - I bought Omnia and he picked an I-phone 3G. Hence my confidence in the review below.
Touch screen - Ok, but nothing beats the I-phone. However you have motion sensor accelerometer feature in Omnia, means you can hold the phone in portrait and landscape positions and display will change accordingly. Omnia has a 3.2" screen, I-phone a tad bigger at 3.5"
MS office and other software add-ons - you can view and edit files on Omnia, while with I-phone you can only view MS documents (word, excel, ppt, notes). Omnia uses Window Mobile 6.1 operating system, due to this you can do many things you could with your PC. You can view pdf files on both the phones. I-phone has very very limited 3rd party software compatibility. Thanks to Apple’s business strategy, you have to buy even Apple’s own applications. I personally am against such unethical tactics. You can choose from thousands of free softwares and download them on your Omnia. a BIG plus.
Camera - Omnia has a 5 MP camera with flash and video recording capability. I-phone has a 2 MP still camera, no flash, no video recording capability
Music player - You have windows media player and divx player for music files, alas! there’re no equalisers, you can download 3rd party software for this. But nothing beats the sound of I-phone. Interestingly, the sound of Omnia’s in-built speaker is superior to I-phone’s. You can get an output to external speakers in both the phones (3.5 mm jack)
3G - both the phones work on 3 G networks
Operator dependence - a BIG BIG plus with Omnia. I-phone in India is available only with Airtel and Vodafone, while there’re no such hassles with Omnia. All you need is a SIM card to get going
Phone as a mass storage device - You can use the Omnia as an external flash drive, too. You can attach it to any computer and exchange files. However, you cannot do the same with I-phone.
Sound reception - Omnia is better on this front. a BIG BIG plus
Processor speed - Nothing differentiates the 2 phones significantly
Navigation - Whoa! Omnia has an in-built optical mouse. A BIG BIG plus, it eliminates the need of a stylus. However, typing with fingers is easier on the I-phone. You will hear a lot of people whining about no slot in the phone to tug in the stylus on the phone. My question is "where’s the need?" a BIG plus
Battery life - I think I-phone scores better. I have to recharge Omnia twice in 3 days. I talk almost 4-5 hours everyday, play some songs on the speaker and play some videos, too. Even if I don’t do all that, it’s not going to increase the battery life significantly. a BIG minus
Connectivity - Both the phones have wi-fi and bluetooth connectivity
Storage - Both the phones come with internal storage capacity options of 8 GB and 16 GB. I chose 8 GB, You can carry couple of movies, couple of thousand songs and numerous docs. Even 8 GB is not so small for a phone. You can extend the memory of Omnia by another 16 GB, thanks to the memory card slot. I-phone, on the other hand, has no external memory card slot. In my view that’s not a big let down for I-phone, unless you want to gift your songs to your friend.
Multemedia - Omnia has an FM radio. I-phone does not. You can play MP4, WMV, MPEG, AVI files on Omnia. I’m not all that sure of I-phone in this regard. All apple video formats will play but I have doubts regarding other MS multimedia formats on I-phone. All popular sound formats can be played on both.
Physical appearance and interface - Omnia is lighter than I-phone by about 10 grams. I like interface of both the phones. Omnia has a great feature on its desktop called "Today". Desktop is comstised according to your liking. Navigation is familiar because of the Windows OS. Most of the things look familiar. But I-phone’s display is much much brighter in the sun. a BIG minus.
Price - I bought the Omnia for 26.4 K. I-phone 8 GB is available for 31 K and 16 GB for 36 K. Omnia is lighter on pocket, too. a BIG plus
GPS enhancement - Omnia comes with extra GPS enhancement software. You can download the maps on the phone from a CD contained in the pack. I guess that’s a good improvisation.
I-phone is basically a gadget for people who worship style and music. In contrast Omnia is a very "balanced" piece of work. You ask for it and it goes for it. Virtually you can find everything on Omnia. Omnia has a much better utility value than I-phone on the whole and scores much higher on Value-for-money quotient. You can learn more about the two phone face-to-face at
https://gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone2=2424&idPhone1=2422