Samsung has unveiled its latest gadget, the Samsung i900 Omnia, launched in direct competition with the Apple 3G iPhone. The phone is targeted at the high end customers who don't want to compromise on their desire.

The smart phone weighs 127 grams and comes in an aluminium casing. The stylish sleek phone sports a 3.2-inch WQVGA haptic touchscreen with a 240x400 resolution of 16 million TFT colours.

The handset has a 5 MP digital camera with video recording and editing capabilities. The phone also has other features such as auto focus, face detection, smile detection and auto-panaroma shot, which are more than enough features to keep a trigger-happy photographer happy for a long time. It also has a second VGA camera for making video calls.

Samsung Telecom country head Sunil Dutt said, "Samsung Omnia demonstrates our vision for the Samsung mobile business, which is to provide premium phones for users who desire functionality, style, usability and entertainment in one innovative device. The Omnia mobile range will help users to be at the forefront of work and play and at the same time, to stay connected anytime, anywhere."

The Omnia comes packed couple of useful business applications on board, including mobile versions of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint and most importantly, the smartphone supports push email. The phone comes with a built-in GPS receiver and Geo-tagging, while its Microsoft Office Viewer, ergonomic QWERTY keyboard and handwriting recognition features makes text messaging, emailing and instant messaging fast and easy.

The Omnia comes in 8GB and 16GB versions while they can be future upgraded to 16GB to 24GB in SDHC microSD card slot. With a 2.0 connection the transfer of the data to a PC or Mac desktop is made fast and easy. Powered by a 1440mAh cell, the Omnia can rock for 10 hours at a stretch before it needs a recharge.

The Omnia seriously lacks in one department - wireless connectivity. It has no triband HSDPA and its 3G connectivity applies only in Europe. It means anywhere else, one has to be content with using Wi-Fi and EDGE speed for data.

The quad band GSM phone, priced at Rs.37,999 (8GB) and Rs.39,999 (16GB), will be available across India at all major mobile phone retail stores.