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Samsung’s new Omnia i8910 smartphone is not yet for sale in the United States even though it’s an amazing piece of hardware.

The specs are impressive:

GSM/GPRS/EDGE/HSPDA/HSUPA (that means it works on 3G networks everywhere on the planet including AT&T’s here in the U.S.), a fantastic-looking 3.7-inch AMOLED (organic LED touch screen (360 by 640 pixels), 8 GB of built-in memory (plus a microSD card slot for an extra 16 GB), HD video recording/playback, an 8MP camera with electronic flash, GPS, Wi-Fi (802.11b/g), Bluetooth and a 1500 mAh rechargeable battery pack (lasts all day long).

The user interface is wonderful. It’s easy to understand, use and even master. The pictures from the camera look great on my computers. The wireless connections are solid on both T-Mobile’s 2.5G EDGE as well as AT&T’s 3G wireless networks.

So far, so great.

Then there is the software. Unfortunately, this smartphone runs on Symbian’s (Nokia) S60, 5th Edition operating system. It’s the same OS Nokia has beeen using on their high-end smartphones (like the recent N97).

It’s not that the operating system is bad – it’s just somewhat awkward and outdated. It was ahead of the curve at a time when cell phones were designed, primarily, to make voice calls. Data connections (especially overseas) used to be very, very expensive – so the phone was designed to double and triple-check your choices every time you tried to connect to a data network.

Times have changed. Data connections must now be ubiquitous and cheap. Unfortunately, the Symbian OS hasn’t changed with the times. Don’t get me wrong. It is OK but constantly does things like ask you (in a number of different ways) if you’re sure you want to complete a task at hand. That gets annoying really quickly – especially when you’ve experienced more modern iPhone/Pre/Android and others.

I expect an OS upgrade for this handset very soon. That shouldn’t surprise anyone – Nokia has just announced that they’re switching to a new, Linux-based OS called Maemo 5 for their upcoming N900 smartphone.

I’d be surprised if Samsung and others using Symbian didn’t follow Nokia’s lead. Or maybe Android. Don’t forget, Samsung is currently one of the top cell phone manufacturer on the planet for good reason. They make good phones.

If and when that happens I will be able to recommend Samsung’s i8910 whole heartedly.