The Samsung Omnia, which has been on the market in Europe and Asia for months, debuted in the United States on Verizon’s 3G network, just a couple of days before Thanksgiving 2008. For a Windows Mobile device with a decent skin Samsung calls the TouchWiz, the Omnia is the clear choice for Verizon Wireless customers.

The chrome finish and black matte plastic back give the Omnia a stylish look. Its features include the 3.2-inch, 640-by-480-pixel-resolution touch screen; end and send keys surrounding a smallish optical mouse at the bottom; a volume rocker and a dedicated camera button the left spine; a proprietary headphone and charger jack, and a stylus tether on the right side. The Omnia carries 8GB of internal flash memory and a microSD slot that can accommodate a card with up to 16GB of external memory.

Like all Windows Mobile devices, Omnia comes preloaded with the mobile version of Microsoft’s Office suite, making it easy to set up e-mail in Outlook, and the phone’s calendar widget integrates nicely with the Outlook calendar. The Omnia also has an IM client, which supports AIM, Yahoo Instant Messenger, and ICQ.

The Omnia also comes loaded with Windows Media Player and Samsung’s own TouchPlayer that supports album art and background music mode. The phone’s 5-megapixel camera has autofocus and a power LED flash. It comes with a handful of advanced features, including white balance and shooting modes such as Sports, Sunset, Night Shots, and even one for shooting text.

Available for $249, with a two-year contract, the sophisticated Omnia has just about everything you could want in a smart phone. But certain omissions, such as a standard 3.5-mm headphone jack and a physical QWERTY keyboard, prevent it from outshining the Apple iPhone and the T-Mobile G1.