The Samsung Omnia Lite B7300 is a quad-band full featured mobile phone with Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system supporting GSM, A-GPS, EDGE, HSDPA, USB, Bluetooth, A2DP, Wi -Fi. It runs a 624MHz Marvell processor with 256MB of RAM. Screen wise it features a WQVGA color TFT display with a 3-inch screen, 3.2 megapixel camera, MP3 player, FM Radio and microSD/SDHC slot for additional storage capacity. The Samsung Omnia Lite B7300 is a Smartphone, all be it a little dated compared to the newer touch screen Galaxy S and Ace. this phone has a fairly narrow profile. measuring 107 x 51.8 x 12.9 mm give it a trim form factor and it feels nice in your palm especially when compared to some earlier Android models like Samsung’s Galaxy Spica. While it is narrow, it is a middle weight contender at 103 grams. Unfortunately, the narrow profile means the 3-inch screen has an odd resolution at 240 x 400 pixels, a negative consequence of this is that when you view a Web page horizontally you end up scrolling vertically to read the page, most annoying.
Overview
Windows Mobile 6.5 may be far from as user friendly as the iPhone, but it has its points. You can use the phone to read emails or text messages without unlocking it. Obviously Microsoft engineers felt that the lock features was to secure your phone from calling and not all communications. If you take off your Security Sherriff hat this really makes the phone convenient to use for quick message updates. On the other hand, you need a stylus to navigate through the screens. Unfortunately, the designers forgot to give you a storage space for the stylus.
The Lite’s 3.2 megapixel camera is fairly average and even though it has autofocus, there is a definite lag between pressing the phone’s shutter button and taking the photo. A big design omission is that the camera doesn’t have a flash or two-step shutter key. Outdoor pictures look good, but indoor photos are noisy. As far as video recording is concerned, the Samsung Omnia LITE provides VGA resolution (640 x 480 pixels) at 15fps.
The Samsung B7300 Omnia LITE is well endowed with connectivity options including HSDPA 3.6 Mbps, Wi-Fi for your off-net fast Web browsing, stereo Bluetooth and it is a GSM ready phone you can use abroad. The network connectivity options of the touchscreen handset include quad-band GSM support and dual-band 3G (900/2100 MHz). USB 2.0 is supported as well through a microUSB port. The OmniaLITE has a hot swappable microSD card slot too. There’s GPS onboard working with Google Maps application.
Battery life is pretty impressive as you should be able to squeeze out two days of average usage before you need to recharge the battery. The phone is powered by a standard 1500mAh battery providing about 9 hours talk time and stand-by time up to 650 hours.
Features
- Samsung ARM 1176 667MHz CPU
- Band: Quad-band GSM support, 3G with 3.6 Mbps HSDPA
- Memory: 256 MB; expandable microSD card up to 32 GB
- Connections: Stereo Bluetooth 2.1, standard microUSB port;Wi-Fi: Yes, with DLNA A-GPS, EDGE, GPRS, A2DP, WLAN
- OS: Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional OS; TouchWiz UI
- Display: 3-inch 65K-color resistive touchscreen, TFT, WQVGA resolution
- Camera: 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera with smile detection and VGA@15fps video
- Dimensions: 107 x 51.8 x 12.9 mm
- Memory: Built-in 256 MB expandable to 32 GB
- Weight: 103 grams
- FM Radio with RDS
- Battery: 1500-mAh Li-ion battery
- Battery Life in Stand-by Mode: Up to 650 hours
- Battery Life in Talk Time: Up to 9 hours
Pros
- Office document viewer and editor
- Excellent response and performance
- Above average audio quality
- Wi-Fi and HSDPA
- A-GPS with Google Maps
- Mobile Office suite
- Decent media player
- FM radio with RDS
- Battery usage time is excellent
Cons
- Windows Mobile 6.5 OS
- Not a touchscreen, requires a stylus
- Camera doesn’t have two-position shutter key, despite autofocus functionality
- No landscape qwerty
- No flash on 3.2-megapixel camera (back camera)
- Low-end display resolution
- No standard 3.5mm audio jack
- Poor screen sunlight legibility
If you are looking for a reasobably specced phone at an affordable price, the Samsung Omina Lite B7300 is a worthy consideration. If you are more accustomed to the newer touch screen interfaces you’ll have to adapt to using a stylus and then finding a place to keep your stylus so you don’t lose it. The B7300 provides plenty of cool features, a decent browser and extra apps, but it really shows its age compared to later models.