When I started using the Omnia Pro I was well prepared for fonts that would be too small (in real sizing terms) to read. I’m having to zoom in on Opera Mobile to read text despite it being rendered properly and that’s one of the reasons that 3.5” screens with 260+ pixels per inch just don’t really work that well with standard web fonts. One the other extreme is this which is simply bad software design.
The image below show’s the Omnia Pro’s email application in landscape mode as it is out of the box. The EMAIL APPLICATION no less. Not only is it badly designed for the screen (it’s slightly better in portrait mode but not much better) but its one of the few apps that Samsung haven’t implemented touch scrolling on. It trips me up ever time I try and use it because the rest of the UI is actually quite well implemented with touch scrolling. The engineer responsible for tailoring this app certainly doesn’t deserve to get another smartphone software project.
Presenting 3 email subject lines on a screen with 384,000 pixels….
When looking at resolutions, especially when you’re thinking about web browsing, think about the screen size (220PPI is a high limit, 200 PPI is easier to read with standard web font sizes) and the OS. Make sure it’s fully tailored for the hardware. Maemo and Apple OS will are leaders here because they (currently) design their OS for a limited range of hardware but they still have to zoom web pages.
P.S. Yes, UMPCPortal was down. Thanks JKK!
P.P.S. I forgot to mention, the email app is Ugly!
September 17th, 2009 at 7:05 am
New article: An example of badly used pixels. http://cli.gs/Wb84m
September 17th, 2009 at 10:36 am
Chippy, you probably know this, but just in case – go to Settings, System TAB, Screen Applet, Text Size TAB – you can set the default system wide font size here.
I have it set on the middle and I get 5 mails on the screen in Landscape on my Touch Pro2 with identical resolution and almost same size screen.
Oh, and the mail app as you see it is standard Windows Mobile mail application and has nothing to do with Samsung – yes it’s not pretty, but I find it quite workable – the things that I’m missing is ability to create tasks and appointments from mails and better integration to GMail (wishfull thinking).
Chippy Reply:
September 17th, 2009 at 11:01 am
It’s a slightly modded app. Samsung have implemented touch scrolling on the folder view but it just makes the matter even worse!
Thanks for the font-size tip. What effect do you see on the rest of the UI?
Steve
alese Reply:
September 17th, 2009 at 11:16 am
Given that mail is the only “standard” application that I use in my TP2, I don’t see any other changes when I change the font size. I’m guessing there are changes in other built in applications (calendar, tasks…) but I don’t use them and the Today screen is running the HTC’s TouchFlo3D so there is no impact there.
One other comment.
There is a third party mail application (Flex Mail) that has a lot of additional features and more flexible UI, but for me it’s a bit slow and resource hungry…
BassoPT Reply:
September 17th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Alese is right, it’s just standard pocket outlook mail there, with different colours than usual. Font size on the UI are independent (normally) from system fronts. However changing the font size will change the font on other apps also.
Joao.
chippy Reply:
September 17th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
I think a Google Mail app is going to be the answer here!
September 17th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
An example of badly used pixels. | UMPCPortal – Ultra Mobile …: I’m having to zoom in .. http://bit.ly/p8udy
http://bit.ly/gqjOF