Windows Phone Thoughts: Hands-On With the Samsung Omnia Pro 4 B7350

"This morning I was fortunate to attend the local Microsoft Office 2010 launch event for consumers, after the Microsoft Office 2010 launch event for businesses back in May. One of the cool things for me as a Windows Phone enthusiast was a demo of Microsoft Office Mobile 2010 on the Samsung Omnia Pro 4 B7350, which was announced today on the CommunicAsia 2010 event."

As a long-time fan of the front-keyboard messenger-style devices, I like what this device has to offer - while I was initially impressed with the touchscreen keyboard on my HD2, after extended use I have to say it needs so much more work before it's usable without frustration.

It pains me to say this, but the significantly smaller virtual keyboard on my iPod Touch is light years better than what the HD2 offers. Yet another good thing about what's coming with Windows Phone 7: HTC won't be using their own keyboard, they'll be using Microsoft's software keyboard, which should be an evolved version of what we see on the Zune HD. How good is it? I can't say for sure - my initial impressions were positive, but because there are so few apps on the Zune HD, I hardly ever use the keyboard.

But back to the Samsung Omnia Pro 4 B7350. What a name - it sounds like a jumbo jet. Samsung seems to have done a lot right here, but they managed to make the sync/charge port even more idiotic by putting it on the top - it was irritating enough when it was on the side, but the top? Sheesh. The port should be on the bottom - period. The rest of the hardware looks decent - doesn't that keyboard layout just scream "Blackberry!" though?