Samsung OmniaPRO B7330 Review

Introduction and Design:

Upon opening the box to the Samsung OmniaPRO B7330 we are presented with a phone of extremely slick industrial design. The B7330 packs a surprisingly large 2.6” 320x320 display into its tiny frame and this sits above a nicely curved full QWERTY keyboard which is reminiscent of a shrunken down BlackBerry Bold layout. Pleasantly, the handset measures a thickness of under 11mm, a svelte full portrait QWERTY device festooned in glossy black plastic. The device is compact and, despite the inevitable fingerprint marks, attractive.



You can compare the Samsung OmniaPRO B7330 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

The Samsung OmniaPRO B7330 has a d-pad for navigation, this being the non-touch variant of the Windows Mobile OS.  Around it you’ll find the send and end keys, home and back, and two soft keys for context sensitive functions. The keys are nicely bevelled and matt plastic like the keyboard and are easy to locate and press. The only criticism we would have here, is that we continually pressed the start call button instead of the left soft key due to it’s positioning under the screen. The keyboard is a nicely tactile and well laid out QWERTY pad with two function keys for number entry. The keys are not spaced out as such, but are raised in such a way as to make typing fairly enjoyable; we say fairly, as if, like us you have larger thumbs then you may find that only finger nail typing will suffice, which slows down overall speed and accuracy. The phone has a volume rocker and USB charge/data port on the left and a microSD slot and camera shortcut key on the right.





Overall the phone is solid, feels good in the hand, with a nicely balanced weight and doesn’t suffer from any creaks or undue flex. It doesn’t quite feel like it’s worth the asking price, due to the acres of glossy plastic, that is so familiar from lower end Samsung devices, but general build quality is good.

Interface and Functions:

The B7330 runs Windows Mobile 6.5 Standard edition. Standard edition means that we don’t have a touch screen to contend with but also that you cannot create new Word or Excel files on the phone unless you pay Microsoft through Windows Marketplace for the privilege.

The Samsung OmniaPRO B7330 also packs a home screen skin called WizPro which does a good job in exposing functionality and speeding up access to commonly used programs. The home button takes us to a cross media bar style of interface with items listed down the screen which can be selected with up and down on the d-pad and a scrolling list running horizontally along the bottom accessed with the left to right. The main screen gives you notifications of missed calls, appointments, etc. and is well thought out and useful.

The sideways navigation takes us through pages of shortcuts, an AccuWeather widget as well as links to social websites such as Facebook and MySpace. We also have pages dedicated to Yahoo! search, CNN news, music, contacts and photographs. Overall these features give the interface an air of the utility but lack any visual flair.



Samsung’s tagline is “Work smarter with Play in reach”; and the software and features we have are the typical suite of windows email, calendar and office utilities. Generally the software suite works well and gives good access and control of calls, emails and the like. Replying to messages is quick and easy and the phone dialler, which searches across names and numbers simultaneously, is a feature which should exist on all platforms. The spit and polish provided by Samsung does not extend to the standard applications however; and when composing an email or inputting a diary event you are still confronted by a sparse and feature light application that has changed little since early versions of Pocket PC.



Camera and Multimedia:

Moving onto the multimedia side of the Samsung OmniaPRO B7330; the music player can be populated through drag and drop onto the microSD card or through Microsoft’s ActiveSync program. The experience, although relatively painless, is basic. Music sound quality cannot really be appraised due to the lack of a 3.5mm headset jack, relegating you to the bundled headset. A shame as the sound through the bundled set is pretty good and would only improve with a ‘proper’ set of headphones. 



Camera wise we have a 3.2MP autofocus sensor; the phone lacks a flash but the software side of the equation is actually well laid out and easy to use making accessing the camera’s features quick and easy. The camera application, however, was one of the worst offenders in terms of performance, sometimes taking 3-4 seconds to boot up and being slow to focus. Pictures, as you can see, are poor outdoors and worse indoors; this is certainly not a replacement for a point and shoot.




The video performance of the device was more than capable of belting out video files at, or below the device’s native resolution in .wmv format but suffered when we tried to play more demanding files. Things improve when using a third party program, such as CorePlayer, but the phone is never going to challenge a dedicated PMP in this area. Sound and picture quality on the Samsung OmniaPRO B7330’s screen was very good though.





Also present is Windows Marketplace for Mobile. In terms of design, it is a little below where the Android Market was on first release and a little above it in terms of usability. The Marketplace does at least offer screenshots of applications and purchases are tied to your Windows Live account. However, we found the store to be erratic and the applications to vary wildly in terms of quality.

Call quality and battery:

The microphone picks up your voice well while on a call and callers found us easy to understand. The ear-piece, however, gave a slightly muffled and noisy treble reproduction which left voices sounding flat and lifeless.
 
Battery life was excellent, the 1500mAh cell pushing the device out to 2-3 days of moderate use, without charging; a pleasant rarity on a smartphone.

Performance and Conclusion:

The Samsung OmniaPRO B7330 seems generally quite a nippy and responsive device, but was constantly dogged with what we presume are Windows Mobile related hang-ups with the device freezing for seconds at a time. Indeed, it’s really a tale of two halves; bar a few caveats, we have a strong piece of hardware; well laid out, attractive and modern, however, the software is often confusing, plain and old fashioned.

Ultimately, any positive feelings we have for this phone are spoilt by the knowledge that it could have been so much more. Targeted at the business professional, the Samsung OmniaPRO B7330 has to rate as a strong contender but the BlackBerry 8520 or Nokia E72 serve just as well? Staying closer to home does the OmniaPRO B7330 do enough to differentiate itself against other WinMo devices? In our opinion it matches, but is not significantly better than devices like the HTC Snap or the Palm Treo Pro.

Ultimately, it seems the BlackBerry 8520 offers a stronger keyboard and the Nokia E72 has a far better build quality. Even lower end phones, such as the significantly cheaper E63, give the Samsung OmniaPRO B7330 a run for its money. At the time of this review the Nokia E71 is offering everything the OmniaPRO B7330 does and at around a $100 cheaper price point. Given the state of the economy that must be a more enticing proposition.

Samsung OmniaPRO B7330 video review