I used the XV 6800 for Verizon before going to the Omnia. Frankly, I quite loved my XV 6800. I had WM 6.1 running on it and all of the finger-friendly apps you can get from XDA and the like. Had the today screen tweaked using SPB Pocket Plus and had the GPS unlocked using the Valhalla AGPS system.
The problem was that the RAM was so anemic on the XV 6800 that I started to have problems with even the simplest things like having Live Search open and playing WMP underneath it. I would run out of RAM and then the music would start skipping and Live Search maps would take forever to update on the screen.
Meh!
So when I saw that you could essentially try out a new phone from Verison for 30 days for a $35 restocking fee, I did an amazing amount of research between the Touch Pro and the Omnia, and ultimately I tried the Omnia, thinking that if I didn't like it I could then return it and try the TP and if that failed just go back to my XV 6800.
Having had my Omnia for 27 days, I can say for certain I am keeping it, selling my XV 6800, and not even bothering trying the Touch Pro.
Don't get me wrong, I like the XV 6800 aside from the RAM and the camera. I could have lived with the latter, but the RAM was the deal breaker.
The XV 6800 is great for several reasons:
1. It has a hard keyboard. I have big fingers and I despised using soft keyboards when I tried them on the Iphone or even on my XV 6800 using 3rd party keyboard apps.
2. The XV 6800 has the best collection of hard buttons EVER! Twelve of them. In all sorts of places and configurations. You have a scroll wheel that also presses for an Enter key. You have 5 other buttons on the sides, two on top (mail and IE) and several on the front bottom. Each of these buttons was configurable using SPB Pocket Plus to use long holds so that you could practically run your entire OS from the hard buttons, which was great when on the go or in the car.
3. The unlocked GPS rocked. I could use Google Maps, Live Search, Amaze, and many other neat apps for free. I always got 6+ sats outside.
But having had the Omnia now...I would never go back.
1. The WQVGA screen allows me to cram more stuff on my today screen (read plug-ins) without invoking the scroll bars. That's a big deal for me. Now I can have my weatherbug direct, my email notifications, two days worth of appointments in Today Agenda 1.5, my tabs from SPB Pocket Plus, my battery and mem indicators, and a host of icons on the front screen and still have room for that stupid Intellisync icon at the bottom that I cannot seem to get rid of.
2. The WQVGA screen means when I use the soft keyboard of the Omnia in landscape, I have extra room for the keys to be bigger and even my meaty fingers can type pretty darn well on it...especially with the aid of the haptic feedback, which I didn't thing I would like...but now love it!
3. The WQVGA screen does mean some apps won't function. You can get around this by downloading the free WVGA/WQVGAfix application that can be found on XDA. Even so, some apps won't function. Mainly older games (like the RPG LEGACY by Redshift). A small price to pay to be sure.
4. The camera is really REALLY good. Will it replace a dedicated 8 MP digital camera? Nope. But compared to the crappy camera and video on the XV 6800 it rocks. The flash is decent, and the 5 Mp resolution is excellent. I happen to like the gadgets in the camera, such as the smile function where then camera automatically focuses on a face and then snaps the shot (automatically) when it sees the subject smile. That feature alone has got to be able to get you laid at a bar if you show it off
5. The RAM is excellent. I have everything I had on my XV 6800 and more and I have about 60 MB of RAM to spare for apps. That spare RAM equals the entire RAm built into the VX 6800.
6. Storage is also excellent, with two caveats. I really enjoy having 8 GB of storage built in and then I can plop in another 16 GB into the micro SD slot. Try that on any other WM device. That's 24 GB. I can have every piece of music I own and over 30 hours of videos and still have room for my apps and snapshots and everything else (including PDFs of every D&D 3.5 rulebook I own!).
Caveat #1 - the micro sd slot requires you open the battery cover and , worse, take out the battery. This means you have to shut down to switch out cards. For most people, this will never matter. When I travel I like to have all my movies available to me, and that means I have several 16 GB cards. It is a slight pain to swap cards in that you cannot hot swap like you can on the XV 6800. It's not a huge deal...it takes literally 10 seconds to swap, but restarting the phone is a small pain.
Caveat #2 - While storage space is excellent, device space is anemic. RAM is great, but ROM sorta sucks. After you account for the OMNIA ROMs, you don't have a lot of device storage left. This shouldn't be a massive issue, but it does mean you have to put most of your apps on the built in storage card (8 GB). Some apps, however, require or work better installed on your device. I have lots of apps on my device, but I did have to only leave the really device important ones (like S2u2) on the device and move the others to the storage. Not a massive issue, but there nonetheless. That said, I still have over 10 MB free on my device for device storage.
7. The Omnia does not have the hard buttons of the XV 6800. If hard buttons are your thing, you won't like the Omnia. It has basically two configurable hard buttons on the edges and a volume rocker that can ne quasi configured to work the flashlight.
8. The Omnia does not have a stylus holder. At first this puzzled me. Then I tied it to the device using the stylus and string that comes with the stylus. It looks a bit feminine and I always felt like I was opening lipstick. It also just looks icky having a tube dangling from your phone. Then a funny thing happened on the way to the forum...I found I just didn't use my stylus for anything except when I needed to soft-reset. So I chucked it. I do everything finger friendly and it works fine.
9. Omnia comes with Touch Player, which IMO is much better than WMP.
Not sure what else to say. Hope that helps. I love my Omnia and will love it even more when Verizon unlocks GPS this quarter (I use VZnavigator...but it really sucks compared to Google Maps and Live Search). About the only thing that would ever take me away would be if a US company came out with the Touch HD with a hard keyboard. And even then I'd have to consider very hard if I wanted to go with that.
Devin