Samsung Releases The Best iPhone Clone Yet With The Omnia SGH-i900

Korean Manufacturer Samsung proved once more that it will be a force to reckon with after prelaunching the SGH-i900 on the very day of the 3G iPhone release; sure, it's just a blip on the radar but it will appeal to those who want the iPhone without the price tag.

The Omnia SGH-i900 looks like an elongated iPhone and sports a rather strange screen ratio (5:3 rather than the usual 4:3 or 16:10); it is still capable of displaying 240x400 pixels on a large 3.2-inch touchscreen.

An intriguing feature is that great looking optical sensor, introduced by the i780, that acts like a mouse pointer as well...

In Cnet Crave's own words, "the i900 also has an optical sensor for a directional pad. This can be used in two modes--as a regular four-way directional pad or as an onscreen mouse pointer. Pressing on this optical sensor selects."

It runs Windows Mobile 6.1 and sports some interesting specs like an onboard GPS, a haptic feedback screen, a 5-megapixel digital camera with autofocus, 128MB internal memory and a huge 16GB internal memory (which is supplemented by a microSD expansion slot that can accommodate up to 32GB).

Connectivity is not something that has been left out; 7.2mbps 3.5G HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.2 A2DP, TV-Out, Wi-Fi ... You name it, it has it...

A preview from Pocket-lint points to an August launch date which might be a tad too late to prevent the iPhone from owning the smartphone market.

And the expected price, more than £500 unlocked, could make customers stumble.