Our friends over at Verizon have sent us the Samsung ATIV Odyssey for us to review. This is another one of their Windows Phone devices and it will fall into the midrange category. This is the first Windows Phone 8 smartphone from Samsung to land in the United States. It was announced back at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show and has some nice features to it. It comes in at the low price of $49.99 with a 2-year contract. Now let’s dive into the full review of the ATIV Odyssey for Verizon!

Unboxing

NJTechReviews unboxed the Verizon Wireless Samsung ATIV Odyssey and gives some first impressions on the device, you can see it below!

Hardware

Let’s start off with the display on the ATIV Odyssey. Samsung is known for their great Super AMOLED displays, like those found on the Note II. Samsung did give the ATIV Odyssey a 4.0-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 800 X 480. The display can get very bright and this makes the colors very vibrant. When zooming in on photos or text, I was not able to find any blurry spots that were caused by zooming. It was nice to see some good viewing angles on the ATIV Odyssey as well, overall the display is very nice!

As you may have guessed the ATIV Odyssey is running on Verizon’s insanely fast 4G LTE network! Verizon’s 4G LTE network was launched on December 5th, 2012 and it covers around 273 million people in the United States. It truly will give you some of the fastest speeds out there. Keep in mind though that coverage does depend on your specific location. As usual webpages loaded quite quickly, streaming video was fast, and the internet speeds were good. Since this is a Verizon Windows Phone device it has Data Sense, this will let you track the data that you use every month and you can set usage limits as well.

Speed on the device and software itself, is also very important. Inside the ATIV Odyssey you get a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 1.5GHz Dual Core Processor with 1GB RAM. For the most part it keeps the device running smoothly, but everyone in a while it does get a little hung up. Depending on how large the application is you are viewing and how many applications you are running. Overall, I think the speed on the ATIV Odyssey will be okay for most smartphone users.

In terms of internal storage on the Verizon Samsung ATIV Odyssey, you will get 8GB on the inside and you can expand with a micro SD card slot. Of course you can use Microsoft SkyDrive cloud storage solution, if you want even more space. There are also many other cloud storage options available, if you would like to go with something else. It has a 2100mAh battery with NFC or Near Field Communications built right inside. With average use the battery did last the full day, if you planning on watching a lot of videos or playing games for a long time you may want to bring along an extra battery.

On the back of the device you have an average 5 megapixel auto focus camera with an LED flash. I was not that impressed with the camera and the images that were taken with the device, many of them appeared washed and were not as vibrant as I would have liked. With that being said I would not recommend this for some one who loves to take photos with their phone, due to the fact that I don’t think the images will impress or be that good. On the other hand the 1.2 megapixel front facing camera on the front did a great job with capturing selfies or video calling on the go.

Design

The Verizon Wireless ATIV Odyssey looks like a Samsung device. It seems like a run of the mill smartphone or other smart device, I just think that Samsung could have spiced up the design about more. Why not add a few popping colors like HTC did with the Windows Phone 8X or mix the up design similar to that of the Nokia Lumia 822. It seems like a very cookie cutter design, but it does feel nice in the hand. It fits nicely in the hand and you can one finger to use the entire display. The main color of the device is what I would call steel, a mixture between black and grey. There is an aluminum rim going around the device as well. I’m hoping that Samsung will add a pop of color in future versions of this device and change-up the design as well.

Above the display you have the Verizon logo, a 1.2 megapixel front facing camera, and a earpiece. Below the display you have 3(three) touch capacitive buttons and a Samsung logo. You dedicated camera shutter button and power/sleep button are on the right hand side, but you can find your volume rocker and micro SD card slot on the left. You can charge your phone with the micro USB port on the bottom or plug-in your headphones into the headphone jack on the top of the device. You 5 megapixel back camera with LED flash, Verizon logo, 4G LTE logo, Windows Phone logo, and speaker live on the back.

Software

The Verizon Wireless ATIV Odyssey is running Windows Phone 8. This is the latest and greatest operating system from Microsoft, it goes hand-in-hand with the look and feel of Windows 8. One of the biggest features of the new operating system is that you can resize the Live Tiles to your liking. You can have one that takes up an entire row or have 8(eight) that take up an entire row. They still update live, which is a nice feature to see. This will let the user customize the device to your liking. Kids Corner is perfect if you are sharing your phone with a child, you can choose which apps they have access too and what they can do with the phone. You access kids corner by swiping to the right when you are presented with the regular unlock screen. Once you are on the kids corner screen simply swipe up and you child will have a fully customized experience. You can set their name, a photo, which games they can play, which music they can listen to, and much more. Overall, some nice new features have arrived in Windows Phone 8 but, I am hopeful that more features will come in future versions of the operating system.

Nokia is known for having exclusive applications on their smartphones and this is the advantage to the Nokia smartphones. Samsung does not offer an entire suite of exclusive applications but Samsung Now comes preloaded. This will update you on the latest weather, news, stocks, twitter, and more. It seems very similar to HTC Hub and it is a nice way to congregate information that is important to you. Photo Editor will give you some simple ways to enhance and edit your photos. You can share the photo from within the applications as well. Samsung Mini Diary is like the Windows Phone version of S Note and it looks very similar to Ever Note. It is an easy way to jot down your thoughts, drawings, photos, voice, and you can save them by locations. This experience does not really compete with what Nokia offers you on their smartphones. Verizon has pre-loaded the ATIV Odyssey with My Verizon Mobile, NFL Mobile, and VZ Navigator.

Bottom Line

The Verizon Wireless Samsung ATIV Odyssey is a nice Windows Phone 8 smartphone, but I am not sure if it has a place in the lineup or market. The ATIV Odyssey has a nice display, super fast 4G LTE speeds, good internal storage, and more. However, the camera does not perform that well. Images look very washed out and it does not perform well in low light. The design is also very cookie cutter, but it does feel nice in the hand. It does not include the great applications that are pre-loaded on Nokia smartphones either. To put the ATIV Odyssey in perspective, you can get the Nokia Lumia 822 for free with a 2-year contract or the Windows Phone 8X By HTC for $99.99 with a 2-year contract. Both of these devices have higher end features and specifications then what is on the ATIV Odyssey. You may want to look at those devices over the ATIV Odyssey. However, if you are looking for a Samsung Windows Phone smartphone on Verizon the ATIV Odyssey may be for you. For More Information On The Verizon Wireless Samsung ATIV Odyssey, Please Click Here. We would like to thank Verizon Wireless for providing us with a “Verizon Wireless Samsung ATIV Odyssey”.