Samsung's Omnia 7 refresh (SGH-i708) sails through FCC with FF camera

By Daniel Rubino
last updated

Why mess with a good thing? The Samsung Omnia 7 is a pretty popular phone, only rivaled by Sammy's other offering, the Focus. So it makes sense that Samsung would give a modest update to the design by adding a front-facing camera to the device and we're gonna bet some new silicon on the inside e.g. Adreno 205 GPU, maybe a faster CPU.

Other than that not much else can be gleaned from the filing. Since it is the FCC, we have to leave the door open that perhaps some US carrier will actually pick up this bad bad--Sprint maybe?

Source: FCC; via Phone Arena, Pocketnow

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.

34 Comments
  • I heard windows phone mango will not connect to a 4G network is that true?
  • False. Windows Phone Mango brings 4G support. Confirmed by Microsoft personally in May.
  • I hope the specs inside are indeed beefier.
  • They forgot to change the logo at the back ;)
  • Oh no! Looks like a simple battery cover swap would be needed. This thing better come to AT&T to rival the Titan. My bets are Sprint and several months later..... Verizon (if ever).
  • What's that new button for? It has four instead of three.
  • Maybe SD slot? who knows :) I can't see other reason ...
  • I noticed that too right away! :)
  • It's probably a dedicated button for the FFC.
  • Boring.
  • I can't believe they haven't changed the design. I'm not saying it looks bad, I think the front looks amazing, but the back could be improved. I hope they make a couple design tweaks before releasing it.
  • I'm guessing this is the so-called "Omnia W". If it is, then I would bet on the GS2 equivalent being branded "Omnia S" if they follow the same guidelines as they do for Android, just using Omnia instead of Galaxy.
  • Unlikely. The Omnia W is the Samsung GT i8350.
  • Can you make phone calls with it?Cause here in Sweden a lot of Omnia 7 owners are very dissapointed by the low quality of the phone functinality. And then they got a second disappointment of the crappy samsung support that is completely incompetent of fixing the issue. After over 6 months of complaints they still cant fix the phones so you can make phone calls without interruptions or robot voices...The support story was the last straw for me. I will never ever buy something from Samsung again...
  • This is a very boring refresh: no design change at all what-so-ever.A developer device perhaps?
  • I love my Omnia 7 but my next device has to have at least 32GB memory so this is the info I'm waiting for.
  • how is this boring?- CPU upgrade (awsome)- Samoled PLUS (FREAKIGN AWSOME)- FFC (meh) i just hope they dont do liek the Omnia 7 and forget about the SD slot . i hopes its more liek the FOCUS. the 3 things people wanted!!!!! aside from the useless LTE 4G thats out on 10% of world wide carriers. this is basicly the WP7 VErshion of the GS2.
  • *crosses fingers* sprint
  • Where the heck are the new WP7.5 devices coming to T-Mobile???
  • Rumor is the Titan is for TMo in the US.
  • I love my Omnia 7! So if the new version will have more storage and gyro (in addition to FFC) - it will be my dream phone.
  • Nope. Omnia 7 doesn't have microSD slow.
  • Nope. Omnia 7 doesn't have microSD slow.
  • Design wise, I thought that the Omnia 7 looked better than the Focus, especially given the materials used for the Omnia 7. While I'm disappointed that the design aesthetic didn't change much, if this device makes it to the U.S. I think that it would be a good looking device for Sprint or Verizon to have (I say this based on PhoneArena's assessment that it has CDMA bands).Hopefully, Samsung has learned their lesson from the firmware issues they unnecessarily plagued some Focus users with, and will release devices that will provide a consistent, top notch experience.
  • I would actually LOVE if they did this with the Focus. I still love this phone even at a year out. I wouldn't mind having a FF camera on it though (even though I don't know if I'd ever use it).
  • haters gonna hate
  • I thought that all second generation WP7 devices will have the back logo square like HTC Titan etc...
  • I'd imagine they will update the logo for retail devices. Recent LG device leak also had old logo.
  • i hope screen refresh is also there. not that super amoled is not still great, but a bit more sharpness of the samoled+ would be nice.
  • Sprint. I'd buy this in a flash. FFC is what I want. and a bigger screen, and not keyboard. and thin. and...
  • It's a CDMA + LTE phone, so I hope it's BOTH Sprint and Verizon (I'm Verizon, but I wouldn't want anyone on Sprint left without this great phone). There seems to be some sort of port on the bottom of the phone, anyone ID'd it yet? (See page 3: https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/eas/GetApplicationAttachment.html?id=1429750)
  • these design complaints are getting out of hand. who cares if it's a rehash or what not? maybe y'all should design ur own phones.
  • I hope they will call it Omnia 7.5
  • On closer investigation, the apparant "hatch" on the bottom of the phone is also on the original Omnia 7. The extra "button" on the left hand side appears to be a sliding switch of some kind. With it's size and shape I can't imagine it being openable, thus probably not a MicroSD slot, however, on page 9 of the Internal Pictures there is a 1.5cm slot that looks like it could be for a MicroSD card.