Samsung Omnia 7 review

Does the best screen make this the best Windows Phone 7 handset?

Samsung Omnia 7
The definitive Samsung Omnia 7 review

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Samsung omnia 7

We'd have bet good money that Samsung would have wanted to bring out the Windows Phone 7 handset that had the best camera, but that's not the case here.

Instead of the 8MP camera with Xenon flash on the HTC Mozart, the Samsung Omnia 7 comes with a pretty basic 5MP option with only a single LED flash.

Samsung omnia 7

The camera interface is pretty basic too, but it's easily accessed from the phone's screen, and enables you to change the focus mode, ISO levels and a constant option to change the flash, which we're glad Microsoft has realised is among the most often used features.

Samsung omnia 7

The same can be said for video where, like the camera mode, the light can be toggled on and off for easy use and there is a basic range of options to mess with resolution and the like.

Samsung omnia 7

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The flash can be used to good effect in brighter situations

Samsung omnia 7

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However in darker scenes it completely washes out the subject; this was the third attempt from progressively further away

Samsung omnia 7

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Despite the hilarity of a dental fitness centre, the background light still bleeds into this quick snap

Samsung omnia 7

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A mixed scene will show up better however, with some nice detail captured

Samsung omnia 7

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Despite the super-fast camera loading, the Samsung Omnia 7 still has problems capturing a quick snap

Samsung omnia 7

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The Omnia 7 does its best in bright light - a good portion of detail is captured here although the contrast isn't the greatest

Samsung omnia 7

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Again a brightly lit scene works well on the Omnia 7

Samsung omnia 7

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Macro mode took a couple of tries to get correctly in focus, but the results are quite detailed

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Captured with the standard auto mode

Samsung omnia 7 review

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With high contrast

Samsung omnia 7 review

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With low contrast

Samsung omnia 7

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Zooming in loses most of the detail in the picture

Samsung omnia 7

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It's possible to take some stunning shots with the camera - it's perfectly passable for the odd point and shoot but it's not enough to label the snapper on the Omnia 7 as a killer feature

Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.