Samsung announces Omnia W, we go hands-on

Windows phone 7 Mango update is coming any moment now and so are the first phones that will have it stock right out of the box. HTC has already announced the Mango-based Titan and Radar, so today is the Samsung's turn - meet the Omnia W.

The Omnia W packs a 3.7-inch WVGA Super AMOLED screen and is based on the Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon chipset with a 1.4GHz Scorpion processor, Adreno 205 graphics and 512MB RAM. Since Microsoft has strict policy about the hardware there is very little space Samsung to innovate.

Samsung Omnia W official pictures

The rest of the specs are pretty much standard - a 5 megapixel snapper with a LED flash, a 720p camcorder, a front-facing VGA camera, 8GB internal storage, a 1500mAh battery and the usual connectivity (Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth).

Samsung Omnia W runs on the latest Windows Phone 7 Mango version and there are just few Samsung apps you can download for free to get something unique with your phone, since Microsoft forbids customizations.

According to GSMInfo.nl the Omnia W is expected this November for about €450 for the unlocked device.

We also got a chance to play around with the Omnia W. It's nicely compact and not too heavy. The battery cover is made out of brushed metal (a nice touch!) but the rest of the body is plastic. Still, the Omnia W feels solidly built.

Samsung Omnia W live pictures

On the front, there's the 3.7" SuperAMOLED screen with WVGA resolution. Below that is the Windows key flanked by capacitive back and search keys. There's a half-pressable shutter key on the side as it's customary for Windows Phones.

Unfortunately, the phone had a rather bad case of a dead battery, so we can’t share any impressions about actually using the phone. We bet, however, it won't be long before we get one-on-one with the Omnia W again.