Hot New Devices: Samsung Omnia, Treo Pro, Xda Ignito, HTC S740

Reviews of some of the most appealing new devices are popping up, so I wanted to point you to those this week. It’s fun to see the different form factors and technologies. While devices with iPhone-like touch interfaces are hot, there’s still plenty of action in other form factors and approaches.

Samsung Omnia

The Samsung Omnia appears to be one of the strongest competitors for the iPhone, with a state-of-the-art interface and some impressive specs: WQVGA touch screen, quad band unlocked GSM, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, FM radio, a 5-megapixel camera, and an SDHC microSD card slot.

MobileTechReview has posted a thorough review of this new device, including photos, screen shots, and videos.

The article helpfully makes clear the big limitation of this device: it currently leaves out triband HSDPA, such that in the U.S. one is limited to EDGE speeds for data — no 3G. Hopefully a U.S. carrier will pick it up and that will change.

Palm Treo Pro

The Palm Treo Pro is getting a lot of attention. Despite all the hype about the touch devices, the Treo/BlackBerry form factor with a front-facing QWERTY keyboard is still quite popular. This newest model is thinner than the previous Treo 750 (which I used for a while and liked quite a lot), and it has a larger battery, plus a 320 x 320 display. It’s only available unlocked in the U.S., at a price of $550.

Brighthand has a great review that uses a sensible approach: it evaluates the device as a phone, as a communicator, as a mobile computer, and as a multimedia device.

WMExperts offers a thorough review and extended discussion, as well as a second-look review.

Xda Ignito

The Xda Ignito has recently been released by O2 in the U.K., and it deserves a quick look for one big reason: it’s so tiny. Check out this review on 4Winmobile.com.

It has a candy-bar form-factor and sports a 3.2-megapixel camera, 528Mhz processor, VGA (640 x 480 display), A-GPS, 3G phone / video phone, Touch FLO 3D interface, and more.

HTC S740

And the HTC S740 (Windows Mobile Standard, i.e., no touch screen) has made an appearance on Engadget, despite not yet being official. This device has dual keyboards: a numeric keypad on the front, and a slideout QWERTY keyboard like the HTC Touch Pro. But it’s thinner than the Touch Pro.

Engadget has also helpfully posted some photos comparing it with the HTC Touch Pro and HTC Touch Diamond.

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