Verizon announces Samsung Omnia II smartphone with AMOLED display

Samsung Omnia II for Verizon

Samsung Omnia II for Verizon

Samsung Omnia II for Verizon

Samsung Omnia II for Verizon

Today Verizon Wireless officially launched the much anticipated Samsung SCH-i920 Omnia II smartphone. Known for some time to be on its way to Verizon customers, the new Omnia II brings hot new features to Samsung's popular smartphone line, including a large 3.7-inch touchscreen display that uses AMOLED^(INFO) technology for super bright and saturated colors with deep blacks. The display features an impressive WVGA (800 x 480 pixel) resolution that should provide a good canvas for viewing photos shot with the phone's 5.0 megapixel autofocus camera.

One of the new features of the Windows Mobile 6.5 powered Omnia II for Verizon that is gaining a bit of interest from the media is the new text input method that it supports, called Swype. Swype allows users to input letters and words using a prediction system that reads the user's finger (or stylus) position as it drags across a virtual keyboard from one letter to another, without being lifted.

The Omnia II also features Samsung's TouchWiz 2.0 user interface extensions, which include a 3D cube menu system for accessing multimedia as well as a widget based homescreen. Naturally the device features support for push email on Microsoft Exchange servers, and comes with full Microsoft Office document reading and editing capability.

Web browsing tasks on the Omnia II are handled by the Opera 9.5 web browser, which offers a full desktop like web browsing experience. The Omnia II offers quick widget based access to popular social networking sites, and includes support for Verizon services like V CAST Music with Rhapsody, V CAST Video on Demand, V CAST Song ID, Visual Voice Mail, and VZ Navigator GPS navigation.

The Samsung SCH-i920 Omnia II, which comes in black with red highlights, features 8GB of internal storage and is capable of supporting up to an additional 16GB of storage through the use of microSDHC memory cards (not included). The Samsung Omnia II is set to go on sale on December 2, 2009 for $199 with a 2 year agreement, after a mail in rebate that comes in the form of a debit card.