Overview:
Samsung look set to ride the wave of high-end handset success with its latest release. The Samsung Wave features eyebrow-raising specs including AMOLED screen, 1GHz processor, HD video recording as well as Samsung's brand new Bada OS. So is this phone an iPhone contender? Let's take a look.
Review:
The Samsung Wave is the first handset to sport the new Bada operating system, overlaid with the brand new Touch Wiz 3.0 user interface.
"Bada" means ocean in Korean, and wave means"¦ well you get where Samsung is sailing off to in the land of metaphors.
The whole point of Bada is that it's application-orientated, complete with its own app store. Apps can then appear among other widgets on the Wave's homescreens.
The Wave boasts up to 10 homescreens, so there's plenty of space for all of your widgets.
To include a new app to your line-up, you just need to simply touch the widget button at the top of the screen, then drag your widget of choice from the list to your homescreen.
Samsung will even help spring clean your phone, by including a function to organise your widgets in order of most used, and this will continue to update as you get bored of old apps and move onto new ones.
Seeing as this handset will house a lot of your life, you may find the need to hunt around for an old email or text message before long. Samsung has thought of this as well, and by simply double-tapping the screen, you get a search menu that will let you scour through your phone, mobile content or the internet.
Looking at the phone itself, the big screen harks to the iPhone and HTC Desire, but the Wave is noticeably thin, measuring in at just 10.9mm thick versus the Desire's 11.9mm and the iPhone 3GS looking like a bit of a heffer at 12.3mm.
Packed into this sleek chassis is quite a bit of power with a 1GHz processor, that is Samsung's own Hummingbird brand. The phone is quite zippy, especially when going online so it looks like Samsung has cracked it with the Wave.
The display on the Wave is a touch on the small side with a 3.3 inch screen (the iPhone stretches out to 3.5 inches), but the AMOLED technology on the Samsung Wave really brings out colours vividly.
Samsung has said that it has stretched out to "Super AMOLED" technology, which is designed to improve visibility when in direct sunlight. We tested it outdoors and would say there was a bit of glare reduction in the sun, but we still needed to find a right angle to see everything clearly on the screen.
Similarly to the iPhone 3GS, the screen on the Wave is covered in an oleophobic coating, so you can eat a Big Mac and check your emails without smudging up your pristine screen.
The Samsung Wave comes with a 5 megapixel camera, and as we already mentioned, records in 720p HD.
Shutter lag when taking pictures is minimal, and the camera menus are easy to navigate, with a range of scene and shooting modes to choose from.
The phone supports Xvid, DivX and H.264 video playback.
Listening to your tunes on the Wave is a bit of an event, with CD cover displays when you search and playback songs.
Music can be sorted by Album, Artist, Playlist or can display all tracks, which is to be expected. What is a nice feature though, is the one-touch button to add a song to a playlist as you're listening to it.
So is the Samsung Wave an iPhone rival? Well the specs are there, but what about the x-factor? With prices starting from £20 at MobileShop.com, it's cheaper than an Apple device which we're pretty sure will add a certain appeal to the Wave.
We Say:
We quite like the new Bada OS and love the Touch Wiz 3.0 UI, and think it's high time Samsung got serious about apps. The Wave is a great handset to look at and performs well under the bonnet as well. This is by far Samsung's best handset to rival Apple and Android.
One thought on “Review: Samsung Wave. An iPhone Killer?”
this phone sound much better than the iphone because there is problems that arent even noticed suchas the screen on the 3gs it goes on aa wild one going white and then also 80 percent of the time it freezes so yeah ithink the wave is better thanks guys