While they’re on 2 different carriers I thought I’d do a very quick comparison of the 2. Full reviews of each device will come soon.

To recap the IQ is a WinMo 6.5 device with a 3.2″ WVGA display, 1Ghz processor, QWERTY keyboard and a 5 megapixel camera.

If you haven’t seen it check out my hands on with the LG IQ here:

I’ll have a full review of it in a couple of days.

I recently had a chance to play with the LG IQ aka the Monaco. Here’s the vitals: 1Ghz Snapdragon processor, WinMo 6.5, 3.2″ WVGA screen, 5 megapixel camera, slide out QWERTY keyboard, finger print reader, HSPA and an optional projector that mounts on the back. It also has LG’s S-class UI. If you don’t like it you can also use the WinMo 6.5 UI.

I didn’t really play with it enough to form a lot of opinions on it but here are some:

WVGA on a 3.2″ display is really crisp but it’s also pushing it unless you have a stylus (sort of like on the Xperia)

The projector is really cool. While not cheap at ~$150 it’s not horribly expensive either. I can see kids buying them and projecting ‘kick me’ on each other with it.

I’m not a fan of the S-class UI nor am I crazy about the LG apps. S-class is just weird and the LG apps (such as the phonebook, media player, photo app, etc) look kind of cheesy. That said they generally have nice big text which is good if you don’t like small text.

The 1Ghz Snapdragon processor is snappy.

I played with the LG Xenon a while back (a feature phone) and it had an excellent keyboard – the IQ also has an excellent keyboard.

It’s coming to TELUS before the end of the year.

It’s kind of hard to tell but the screen looks amazing, stunning, incredible. Not only is it high resolution but the colour just blows me away. It’s easily the best thing about the Omnia 2.

Other random thoughts. While it has a 800Mhz processor Opera still feels kind of slow. The hexagonal button in front isn’t a navigation pad – instead it’s a single button that looks like a nav pad. It’s a waste of space.

TouchWiz 2.0 is nice but having the Windows Mobile menus and TouchWiz makes for a inconsistant user experience.

The camera is very similar to the camera on the Samsung i910. It’s very good except when you’re trying to take close ups where the flash is needed. In those situations it blasts the subject out – that said you can raise the ISO to 800 so you don’t need to use the flash as much.

In the past, whenever I tested a Bell CDMA phone there was always very low signal levels in my house. The Omnia 2 runs on Bell’s new HSPA+ network and it too gets very little signal – FYI.

Anyways that’s all for now. I’ll have a full review up later after I’ve had a chance to play with it more and drool at the screen some more.

Here’s the Samsung Galaxy. It’s their first Android powered phone. If you’re familiar with Android here’s very quick low down:

It’s a very generic Android implimentation (it’s cupcake) – It’s their first Android device so there’s no Samsung customization. I’m sure the next version will be more customized.

The 2 distinguishing features are it’s AMOLED display – it’s incredible. It also has a 5 megapixel camera on the back.

Fully loaded with fun multimedia features and practical smartphone capabilities, the 3G Samsung OMNIA includes Windows Mobile^®, a 5 megapixel camera, GPS, a customizable touch screen and much more.

3 year: $129.95
2 year: $399.95
1 year: $499.95
no contract: $549.95

Head over to Bell Mobility to purchase.

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Like Bell’s model Telus’ will feature a touch screen and a full keyboard, Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional Edition, chat-style view for text and multimedia messages (similar to the iPhone), and a 2.0MP camera.

As you can see from the graphic, launch pricing is as follows:
3 year: $149.99 (voice and data over $20/month)
2 year: $399.99
1 year: $499.99
no contract: $549.99

Head over to Telus to learn more.

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