Second Face Off: Samsung Omnia HD vs. Sony Ericsson Satio

This is the second face off of the two greatest phones of 2009. The Samsung Omnia HD and the Sony Ericsson Satio (formerly known as Idou). You can read the first face off here.

Samsung has just release their flagship device, Samsung i8910 Omnia HD, it is still unavailable in some countries but it is already available in some stores in UK while we still don't know the exact release date of Sony Ericsson Satio what we all know is that it will going to be in the market at Q4 of 2009. Last May 28 Sony Ericsson announces Satio, (They announce it last MWC 2009 but they really don't give specific information about it) The Satio will be Sony Ericsson’s flagship for 2009. It’s the first of a brand new line of phones, namely the Entertainment Unlimited brand.

So Lets get started.

CAMERA
12mp Camera plus a Xenon flash is superb. It is the highest mega pixel count yet. Well, more pixels doesn't mean good quality but Sony Ericsson is known for its Cyber-shot brand which is one of the best phone cameras out there. Entertainment Unlimited Brand (Which is Satio's Brand) is a combination of Cyber-Shot and Walkman brand plus others. Even without Exmor, i think it will still be great. On the other hand, Omnia HD got a wonderful 8mp camera (which is the same with innov8) plus a single Led Flash. Satio has a good Lens cover while Omnia HD has none. We can’t really compare the quality of both phones since there are still no sample pictures of Satio plus it is still a prototype.

DISPLAY
No changes from the first part: No question about it, Samsung OmniaHD is the winner in this part. It has the biggest screen of all; the 3.7” OLED capacitive touchscreen is just so amazing. OLED are giving the pictures its perfect color plus it is more economical. Sony Ericsson has 3.5” resistive touchscreen.

DIMENSIONS AND WEIGHT
Minor changes from the first part: Satio is smaller and lighter compare to OmniaHD, OmniaHD has a dimension of 123 x 58 x 12.9 mm and a weight of 149g while Idou has a dimension of 112 x 54 x 13 mm and a weight of 126g. (This is even slimier and lighter than the old prototype!) And Of course, we want a lighter device, so in this round Satio is the winner. The 3.7” screen of OmniaHD has its downside huh?

MUSIC
Sony Ericsson are known for its Walkman brand, one of the best music player in the world and Satio has it. OmniaHD got good visual effects on its music player but Walkman is really the best. The Satio has no 3.5mm jack which is really bad but instead Sony Ericsson includes a Wireless headphone on the package of the phone! However OmniaHD got some good answers, it has a DNSE 2.0 (Digital Natural Sound Engine) and a Virtual 5.1 channel Dolby surround for headphones.

VIDEO RECORDING AND PLAYBACK
We really don’t know anything about the capabilities of Satio in terms of Video Recordings, but its prototype can only records up to VGA at 30fps while OmniaHD has it all, it can record a High Definition Video at 24 frames per second, it can play a High Definition Video (720p), and it can play DivX/XviD/WMV/MP4 format. We still don’t have any information about the playback of Sony Ericsson Satio. As you can see, OmniaHD looks like a champion, but wait, have you heard that OmniaHD can only record a very low quality audio on its camcorder? A High Definition Video with a VERY low Definition Audio. Now that sucks! We are still waiting for Samsung to fix it. If ever they will not, and even Satio can only record up to VGA but if it has a good quality audio, I will declare that Satio is the winner in this part.

INTERNET
Since the both phones runs Symbian s60 v5, I assume that they will have the same browser.

STANDBY SCREEN
OmniaHD offers touchwiz where you can even download widget from the web while Satio offers Wallpaper animation. Both company has really did a good job customizing its OS, but I think Sony Ericsson did a better job doing it. You can search Satio in Youtube and see what I mean.

FINAL WORDS
Both phones have almost the same features, they run at Symbian s60 v5 with some similarities of applications. They both have Wifi with DLNA, GPS, lots of Camera Features, TV-Out, and many more similarities. As of now, Sony Ericsson has still no word on its CPU (but rumors suggest that it is the same with OmniaHD), also on its capabilities on Video playback whether it can play DivX/XviD/WMV or not, and if it has a digital compass and a FM transmitter while OmniaHD has all. (Except for FM transmitter) For me, as of now, OmniaHD is still the winner since it has everything except for some problems like the audio quality and the problem with Jar files. If ever Samsung has no answer for these kinds of problems, Surely Satio will be the over all winner.