Ladies and gentlemen, roll up, roll up, for the next instalment of our thrilling iPhone Killers series! We join the action only to find the iPhone’s not having a good time of things at the minute. After its initial strong performance against the Samsung Pixon and LG Renoir, its performance has suffered against the big boys, seeing it beaten by the 5800, and absolutely mullered by the Nokia N97 and HTC Touch HD.
Yep, it’s definitely been getting its backside handed to it on a regular basis, just lately…
Unfortunately, things don’t look massively hopeful today for it, either, because once again, it’s going up against a phone that’s already beaten it, although to be fair, it cheated with a bucket of water last time… Will the memory of its last beating make the iPhone falter? Or will it make a sudden comeback? Let’s find out as the iPhone takes on the Samsung Omnia.
1. How useful is it for doing actual work on?
In theory, this should be an easy win for the Samsung Omnia, since it has Office software built into it, from the get-go. Er, but it isn’t, for two reasons: 1/ the screen’s smaller than the iPhone, and therefore harder to use the virtual keyboard on and 2/ it hasn’t got a physical keyboard to make up for the smaller screen size. Ok, you can use the keyboard in landscape mode, but then your edit window goes all miniscule and harder to use. It’s also got a lower screen resolution, which isn’t a good thing. So, there’s no doubt that since you can download Office apps to the iPhone, its bigger screen hands it the win.
Winner: iPhone
2. How good is the phone for mucking around and not doing any work on?
Unlike its Windows Mobile cousin, the HTC Touch HD, the Samsung Omnia has another tough time in this round. Sure, you’ve got the 5 megapixel on the back, and you can get extra games and software for it, but that smaller screen goes against it once more. And unfortunately, the iPhone provides more opportunity for wasting time doing pointless and stupid things like making a pair of virtual breasts jiggle on screen. And unfortunately, jiggly breasts beat a 5 megapixel camera, meaning the iPhone takes this round.
Winner: iPhone
3. How many opportunities for showing off to my mates will the phone give me?
The Samsung Omnia has to win this round to stay in the game, but does it have what it takes to beat the iPhone in the ‘being a smug git’ challenge? Well, shockingly, yes, for pretty much the same reason as the Samsung Pixon: the TV-Out socket allows it to become the hub of a home entertainment centre, which easily beats the iPhone’s nose-picking game. Oh, and the premium build quality on the Samsung Omnia really does look much prettier, so it wins this round.
Winner: Samsung Omnia
4. How easy is it to use the phone to cheat at pub quizzes?
Ooh, a close one, since both phones are keyboard-less and rely on you typing stuff into Google via the screen, and the iPhone’s already shown it has a bigger keyboard, meaning you can type surreptitious things more quickly. However… once it’s typed in, it comes down to the speed of something else: the connection itself. And there, the Samsung Omnia takes the cake, its top HSDPA speed being double that of the iPhone. So, although it’ll take marginally more time to type stuff in to Google (and even that can be rectified by turning the phone into landscape mode, for a bigger keyboard), you’ll get your answers back quicker, which means that just by the skin of its teeth, the Samsung Omnia wins this round.
Winner: Samsung Omnia
5. How good will I feel using it, and how GOOD will I look using it?
Ooh, it’s all come down to the last round, in what may be the tensest showdown yet seen in the iPhone Killers series! But the question is, which one’s going to take the round and the match? Well, both phones score well on the usability scale, as both have fluid, whizzy interfaces, and feel brilliant to use. Both have exquisite design, although the brushed metal of the Samsung Omnia is more impressive-looking. And then there’s other people’s perceptions of you, when you use one, because there’s an unavoidable air of smugness that us lesser humans (what many iPhone users cal people without an iPhone) see around them, which does tend to foster a desire to punch them. Because of the simple fact it doesn’t make you want to knock the owner’s lights out, the Samsung Omnia has to win.
Winner: Samsung Omnia
And the winner is…
Ooh, it went right down to the wire, but in the end, the Samsung Omnia held on to its earlier victory, once again beating the iPhone into submission (and this time, it didn’t even cheat and use a bucket full of water, WWE style…). It was close, but in the end, the Cupertino Kid just couldn’t beat the Korean Killer. Let’s hope it gets itself back into shape soon, because next time, it’s going up against the open source-iness of the T-Mobile G1.
Join us for the next incredible instalment, where the iPhone takes on the might of the world’s biggest search engine, built into the T-Mobile G1! Subscribe today, to make sure you don’t miss out on any of the action as the iPhone Killers go to war!
