I’ve been reconsidering the Omnia Pro again today. An encounter with an HTC Hero and a Toshiba TG01 got me thinking about large-screen ‘buddy’ devices and how they could be a problem. The Omnia is definitely on the large side but to be fair, it’s not as huge as the 4.1″ screened device I was thinking about when I wrote that article. The Hero, on the other hand, was lovely and slim and I was impressed with the on-screen keyboard. Do I really need a huge converged MID-Phone when I can get a slick, lower-end ‘buddy’ phone with a vibrant OS and application ecosystem as my 24/7 device and supplement it with a more powerful, web-focused MID?
One of the main reasons I’ve ordered the Omnia Pro is the keyboard. I plan to be twittering, tagging a microblogging like a mad thing. I’ll be using a lot of social networking software (Twitter, Flickr, Facebook and others) and as with all social networking software, i’ll be needing a good browser to view the URLs that come across these networks. 50% of the ‘tweets’ I receive have URLs in them and if the browser is no good then the social networking experience suffers big-time.
So far there have been few real browser speed and accuracy tests but there’s one device out there that matches the Omnia Pro almost exactly. The Samsung Mondi SWD-M100 MID. It has the same screen resolution with the same browser on the same operating system with the same CPU – an 800Mhz ARM11 device. Fortunately the Mondi has been reviewed by a few publications already so I’ve scoured them to see if I can find some hints about browser performance.
We tested the Mondi using CNET’s Wi-Fi network. Most Web pages loaded in about 10 seconds, which is more than acceptable. We tried sites like Yahoo, The New York Times, CNET, and United Airlines, and waited about the same length of time for each page. Sites that are busy with heavy graphics like Wow.com took about twice as long to load, but we were quite satisfied with our browsing experience.
10 seconds for most pages is good although there’s no indication of whether these sites were mobile versions or not.
Web browsing on the Mondi works much better than on most Windows Mobile phones, thanks to the built-in Opera Mobile 9.5 browser and Flash Lite 3, which supports Flash 8 content such as YouTube videos. (It doesn’t support Hulu, which requires Flash 9.) Flash videos played jerkily, but clearly.
Pocketables says…
Nothing yet. Jenn ove at Pocketables usually does an excelent job reviewing browser usability and speed so this is one to look forward to. Will Opera 9.5 provide a speedy, complete experience or is that 800Mhz CPU there for no good reason at all?
I’ll be looking very closely at what Jenn has to say about web performance on the Mondi. If it’s looking good then I’ll keep the Omnia in my Amazon shopping cart. If not, I may be taking my money elsewhere.
#1 by Jenn on August 18th, 2009
Eep! Talk about pressure!
Opera Mobile is absolutely the best WM browser for the Mondi (I also tried IE, Skyfire, and something else I can’t remember right now) but the CPU definitely slows things down. It’s really a shame that the Cortex wasn’t used.
I don’t know where CNET got their 10-second load time claim. There are CPU settings on the Mondi (auto, high, normal, low) that likely play a role in browser speed, but when I tested load times on Auto CPU mode a few weeks ago, the results weren’t very good. They were on par with the iPhone 3G, which generally takes twice as long to load pages as the 3GS: http://www.pocketables.net/2009/06/website-load-times-iphone-3g-s-vs-iphone-3g.html
I’ll redo the Mondi tests and compare the times with some additional devices soon.
#2 by Carl on August 19th, 2009
I doubt the OP would be the same speed as the 3G. The former has twice the processing speed of the latter, and Safari/WebKit just isn’t that much better optimised than Opera/Presto to explain such a wide difference.
A Cortex processor would have made the Pro much faster, but unfortunately the WinCE kernal just doesn’t support them yet, which is why the TG01 and Leo are using Snapdragon processors. The first MIDphones with Cortex processors will be the Nokia N900 and the Motorola Sholes, which to me are the Omnia Pro’s true competetors.
#3 by chippy on August 19th, 2009
No pressure Jenn. The next 24hrs would be fine
I’m also thinking that 10-seconds is too fast. 15-20seconds or maybe 10-15 seconds with Opera Turbo (have you tried Opera Mobile 9.7 yet?)
#4 by Jenn on August 20th, 2009
Opera 9.7 is still on my to-do list for the Mondi. I heard from another user that Flash isn’t working properly, though.
Regarding browsing, I just did a quick load time test in Opera 9.5 of this website (all with cache, cookies, and history cleared).
Mondi: 13 seconds
iPhone 3G: 12 seconds
iPhone 3GS: 8 seconds
#5 by chippy on August 20th, 2009
Hmmm. About the same as the iPhone 3G. Not quite what I was hoping for but in smartphone terms it’s not bad.
Thanks Jenn. Really looking forward to your full review.
#6 by Carl on August 19th, 2009
Talking about other devices, here’s the first web preview of the N900. http://mobile-review.com/review/nokia-rx51-n900-en.shtml
#7 by Chippy on August 20th, 2009
This is an important device. Omnia Pro fans, we need to take a long close look at this. Cortex CPU with that Maemo 5 OS and the mozilla(firefox)-based browser is going to make it a very tough choice. Looks like (from early reports) it will cost 100-150 Euros more though.
Maybe I need to order both to work out the answer!
#8 by Carl on August 20th, 2009
To be honest, I think the Motorola Sholes looks better than either of them, but the only version of that we’re likely to see in 2009 is the CDMA version. You’d have to drag me kicking and screaming to get me to use Telecom’s antiquated CDMA network here, although I guess it’s not so bad if you live in the US or Korea. A GSM/900-2100UMTS version has been rumoured for next year, but I imagine other manufacturers will have their own better models coming down the pipes by then, too.
Back to the N900, it lacks the three biggest flaws of the Omnia Pro; lack of full Flash in the browser, lack of a Cortex A8 or equivalent processor, and that 65k colour display. Unfortunately, it also has a horribly layed out keyboard (why, Nokia, why?), Maemo has a very lacking software library and lacks the lure that Android and WebOS have for developers, and Nokia have a bad habit of using underwhelming LCD screens. If you picked the best bits of both machines you’d have a nearly perfect device, but unfortunately that isn’t the case.