And so, here we are. Three years in since the birth of Uncle Steve’s Jesus Phone, world’s most technologically advanced country (short of Japan, I guess) can now finally enjoy the wond’rous phone. After months of it’s coming soon now!, it kind of feels a bit too little too late for me, but I’m glad to see the phone here. At first I wasn’t sure how well it would go over here, but with over 60.000 iPhones pre-ordered in the first weekend, I’m guessing it’ll do just fine.

But I digress.

I was reading an article on Engadget, and was both amused and shocked by the responses people left on Samsung’s new amazing new Omnia II. I was fortunate enough to be able to gently stroke one myself, and must say that I wholeheartedly agree with what most people say. This thing is beyond horrible. Mostly because of that near-ancient Windows Mobile 6.5 it’s running on, but I can’t say I’m enjoying the not-all-that-touch-sensitive touchscreen, but perhaps I’m too spoiled with, you know, an actually working touch screen.

The screen itself is very crisp, I have to admit that. Apparently it boasts an AMOLED display, which might explain how awesome it looks. I think it would be a delight to watch HD(-ish) videos on that puppy.

Now, onto the juicy stuff, quotes from a few commenters on the aforementioned Engadget post;

I played with this at a local Bell store up here in Toronto and I was not impressed…the UI was neither intuitive nor responsive.

Honestly this thing is an experimentation in how many bad UI’s and and OS’s you can combine.

I feel bad for all the people waiting for this phone thinking it’s gonna be good.

The sad thing is that someone will buy this.

I would have trouble signing up for a 2 year contract for such ancient hardware, no matter how they tried to polish it by hiding the WM interface and giving it such a gorgeous looking screen.

resistive, slow response, real old technology nowdays. crappy. peroid.

Meh, would have been really nice… 2 years ago.

And also, on a more personal note to the guy making the Engadget hands-on review; How hard is it to control that freaking camera? Turn that auto-focus off next time, pretty please. Tanks.

So, how well will the iPhone do in Korea? Pretty well, I’d say. Competition is near non-existent right now, but I really do hope Samsung, LG, and even the Japanese brands that have been floating around here for ages will kick it up a notch (or six) and make some decent competition for the iPhone. It’ll take some drastic measures to get these people to change the way they think, though.

To wishful thinking!