Samsung has announced the Samsung i8000, a Windows Mobile 6.1-powered smartphone with 3G and WiFi connectivity, a 5 megapixel camera with camcorder, and internal memory available in either 2GB, 8GB or 16GB options.

Samsung Omnia2. This little leak, just a few days ahead of a large Samsung mobile event here in London, brought the follow-up to last year's Omnia i900 into the baking glow of the day.

The phone is running Windows Mobile, has a 94mm (3.7-inch) touchscreen (resistive, as Windows Mobile doesn't yet support capacitive screens), an 8.1-megapixel camera with LED flash and a 150MB of microSD-expandable internal memory. We're also expecting 3.5G HSDPA connectivity for 7.2Mbps Web browsing, GPS and Wi-Fi. Pretty much the standard for this sort of phone in 2009, although the lack of a xenon flash is a major shame.

The Omnia2 uses Samsung's new TouchWiz 2.0 interface. The OS includes 3D Cube multimedia effects, a motion responsive user interface that includes accelerometer controls, and a smart unlock feature that allows users to use gestures to open particular apps from the lock screen. The Windows Mobile 6.1 base operating system is upgradable to 6.5 when Microsoft releases it.

The device's 5 megapixel camera can take vivid pictures and can shoot DVD-like videos with 480p resolution recording and playback.

The Samsung i8000 Omnia2 will be available from Verizon in a CDMA version in the future. Pricing and availability have not been announced for either the Verizon version or the GSM/UMTS version of the Omnia2.

It appears to run Samsung's Windows Mobile overlay, but the traditional WinMo issue remains: wrapping a turd in attractive wrapping paper doesn't make a turd any nicer a present. And so our hopes remain neutral, in contrast to the Symbian-running Samsung i8910 HD, previously known as the Omnia HD.

Samsung I8000 Omnia2 Specifications & Features :

General

2G Network     GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network     HSDPA 900 / 1900 / 2100
Announced     2009, June
Status     Coming soon. Exp. release 2009, Q3

Size

Dimensions     118 x 59.6 x 11.9 mm
Weight     117 g

Display

Type     AMOLED resistive touchscreen, 16M colors (65K effective)
Size     480 x 800 pixels, 3.7 inches
- TouchWiz 2.0 UI
- Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate and Motion UI
- Handwriting recognition

Sound

Alert types     Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
Speakerphone     Yes
- 3.5 mm audio jack

Memory

Phonebook     Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall
Call records     Practically unlimited
Internal     2/8/16 GB storage
Card slot     microSD (TransFlash), up to 32 GB

Data

GPRS     Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
HSCSD     Yes
EDGE     Class 10, 236.8 kbps
3G     HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps
WLAN     Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth     Yes, v2.0
Infrared port     No
USB     Yes, microUSB v2.0

Camera

Primary     5 MP, 2592 x 1944 pixels, autofocus, Dual Power LED flash
Features     Geo-tagging, face and smile detection, mobile blogging
Video     Yes, 720×480@30fps
Secondary     VGA videocall camera

Features

OS     Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
CPU     800MHz
Messaging     SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, IM
Browser     HTML, Opera Browser v9.5
Radio     No
Games     Yes, 3D interactive games
Colors     Black
GPS     Yes, with A-GPS support, 3D map
Java     Yes, MIDP 2.0
- Photo editor, video editor
- DixX / XviD / MPEG4/ H.263/ H.264/ WMV player
- MP3/ e-AAC+/ WMA / WMDRM / OMA DRM 2.1 player
- Find Music service
- Media Gate 3D

Battery

Standard battery, Li-Ion 1500 mAh
Stand-by     Up to 430 h (2G) / Up to 430 h (3G)
Talk time     Up to 10 h (2G) / Up to 10 h (3G)