The Samsung S8500 Wave is the first bada OS powered smartphone to hit the market. It takes Samsung's TouchWiz user interface and slaps it on a new, more open version of Samsung's phone platform. And it does this on some of the hottest hardware to come out of South Korea ever.
The Wave has one of the best displays on the planet, and its user interface is far nicer than what we have come to expect from any TouchWiz branded device. Add to this a great 720p HD video capable camera and a very capable browser, and you can start to see why I am smitten with the Wave.
But the Wave certainly has its issues. As a 1.0 OS, you somewhat expect things to require more polish, but some of the memory snafus I've seen on the phone have wiped the configuration of my customized home screen, and that's downright dastardly. There's also the relative lack of applications in the Samsung Apps store. But in the end, I can forgive the Wave because it is so personable otherwise.
Hardware
The Samsung S8500 Wave is a beautifully designed device. It weighs only 118g (4.1oz) in spite of sporting an attractive metal cover, and its 119 x 56 x 11.5mm (4.7 x 2.2 x .5in) dimensions and soft curves mean that it fits very comfortably in the palm of the hand. Three hardware buttons (call send, call end, and menu) rest below an absolutely stunning 3.3-inch, 800 x 480 pixel
On the right edge of the phone are the lock/unlock button and the camera shutter button. The left edge is home to the volume control. The top and bottom of the phone are capped in a glossy black plastic, and you'll find a speaker grille, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a micro-USB port with a sliding cover all on the top of the phone. The rear of the device hosts the 5 megapixel auto focus camera and a very bright LED flash. The metal battery cover is easily removed, and the battery itself must be removed to gain access to the
Our phone featured only 1GB of internal storage, half of which was already spoken for, but other versions of the phone should sport larger internal capacities. A 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor powers the entire device. Overall build quality and material selection are top notch. The Wave rests firmly on the top of my list of favorite hardware designs.
Usability
Samsung's bada OS is brand new, but is built largely upon the later versions of TouchWiz 2.0 we've seen in devices like the Samsung S8000 Jet. It features a widget based home screen with up to 10 panels that the user can customize. Unlike prior versions of TouchWiz, widgets stay put once placed and don't appear to change size dynamically - which is a good thing. Unfortunately, there are times when bada will get low on memory and kill the widgets application, which wipes the home screen clear of the user's customizations. That is a huge problem that will anger users.
The main bada menu is a multi-panel system that mimics most of the iPhone menu's functionality. It can be easily reorganized, and apps can be uninstalled simply by removing them from the menu. The notification bar at the top of the screen will be recognizable to Android users. It is a pull-down curtain type affair that works very well and provides shortcuts to common system functions. Application specific menus are accessed by tapping on the tab with 3 dots that appears at the bottom of the screen. Common functions are accessed with softkeys that appear on either side of it. One of which is typically the back button, but not always. As such, the user sometimes has to use to main menu button or call end button to get out of a screen. This is not unlike the non-multitasking versions of the iPhone.
Bada does offer user multitasking, though. Long pressing the menu button will bring up a list of running apps that can be switched to or ended with a quick tap. On-screen text input it handled by a pair of virtual QWERTY keyboards, an on-screen alphanumeric T9 keypad, or two different handwriting recognition modes (neither of which seem to work well). Subtle vibration feedback can be enabled for the keyboards and keypad, which makes them easier to use. In general they work well, but predictive text and auto-correction are only enabled in a few parts of the phone, such as the text messaging editor, and the prediction and correction are not as intelligent as on other platforms. The phone can slow down during text input at times, too, though this doesn't happen often.
The Wave can pull in contacts from Exchange, Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook. It does not appear to support Gmail for contacts. The contacts system is very nice and integrates social networks, and there is a nice Buddies widget that provides quick home screen access to favored contacts and their recent status updates. Samsung's bada OS provides thorough ring profile support, but does not provide any quick access to it other than allowing silent mode to be enabled from the notification area.
There is built-in support for 3 user selectable fonts in the S8500 Wave, but no ability to change font sizes. Theme support is also built into the phone, but our Wave shipped with but a single theme installed.
The S8500 Wave's bada OS and TouchWiz 3.0 user interface are very intuitive and easy to use, but the poor memory management that randomly closes apps - including the home screen widgets - shows that there is yet work to be done.
Calling / Data
Since my Samsung S8500 Wave is a European spec device, I've been unable to test 3G connectivity and the 900 and 1800MHz GSM bands that this phone has been optimized for. I can report, however, that its support for the 850 and 1900MHz GSM bands used by T-Mobile and AT&T is somewhat weak compared to other devices I use. GSM call audio quality on the Wave was very good, both with the noise reduction feature it offers enabled and disabled. The Wave also features an etiquette mode will automatically mute the ringer if the phone is flipped over when a call is inbound. The built-in speakerphone seems adequate, but not particularly impressive.
What was impressive, though, is the phone's "fake call" feature. By long-pressing the volume down button, the phone will count down a user configurable number of seconds before it starts to ring, showing a caller ID number, name, and photo that the user configures. Better yet, you can even record a voice clip that will play over and over to simulate a real person on the other end of the call. I think we all could use something like this from time to time.
In addition to built-in Wi-Fi support for local home/office data, the Wave also works on
When attached via a USB cable, the phone can be used as an
Messaging
Like all smartphones, and many feature phones, the Samsung Wave has good messaging support. The threaded SMS/MMS system is very easy on the eyes, and quite obvious in its use. If you see a notification for an inbound message appear at the top of the screen, you can tap on it (if you can catch it in time) to read and reply to it from there. Instant Messaging support is provided through a Palringo client, which allows you to connect with friends on Gtalk and AIM.
Email support is also pretty solid on the Wave. Exchange push support for email (and contacts and calendar) is built-in, but limited to the most basic Exchange functions. You can, at least, search the server for messages. Google Gmail and many other mail systems are easily configured thanks to the setup wizards. The light text on black background theme used in the email apps is really pretty, and makes the most of the SuperAMOLED display. The social networking support in the phone includes Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. The clients are decent, but not hugely impressive. They are all quite slow in use, even over Wi-Fi.
Apps / App Store
There are a handful of applications pre-installed on the Samsung Wave, but the big draw for a smartphone is what's available in its application store. This is where Samsung bada OS and the S8500 Wave fall short - for now at least. While I had to jump through some hoops to access it, I was able to browse the German version of the Samsung Apps store and saw that there are currently only 147 applications available for the German market. That's including both free and paid apps. That puts Samsung very firmly in last place when it comes to smartphone apps, and likely places it behind quite a few feature phones, some of which have plentiful access to games and other simple apps.
I must add, however, that I was, overall, quite pleased with the quality of applications offered by the Samsung Apps store. Pleasantly surprised, in fact. And I love the ease with which they are installed and removed, similar to that of an iPhone.
The Wave ships with the normal assortment of personal organizer apps, like a memo pad, calculator, alarms. There are a few games installed as well, but most are trials. Even the Navigation app that Samsung includes is just a 30 days trial. There is a built-in YouTube player that works with the web browser, and of course the previously mentioned social networking apps, but that's about it.
Samsung has a lot of work before its new platform will be able to compete with any of the others in terms of application support.
Browser
The browser offered by the Samsung bada OS is based on the same WebKit rendering engine found in the iPhone and Android phones as well as in desktop browsers like Safari. The browser has Adobe Flash 9.1 support built-in, but it is disabled by default. It probably should stay disabled, too, as it is very resource intensive and can make the browser hard to use.
With the Flash support disabled, however, the browser works very well. Multi-touch zooming is available, and the browser does an excellent job of rendering both complex desktop sites as well as mobile formatted sites. I am disappointed, however, that the browser doesn't re-flow text when you zoom in, something that most other smartphone browsers support. Multiple windows can be opened at once, RSS feeds can be easily added, and the bookmarks view scrolls nicely. The Wave's 1GHz process ensures that the entire process works speedily, too.
Camera
The Samsung S8500 Wave features a 5 megapixel auto focus camera that impresses me in general. Outdoor stills and indoor shots with flash are quite good. Focus can be a bit soft on indoor shots without flash, though, and the flash also overpowers macro photos. The UI is very user friendly, though, and there are advanced features like blink-detection and digital anti-shake.
Where the Wave's camera really shines, however, is in its 720p HD video recording. The HD video recorded by the Wave is the best I have seen on a phone, and better than what my HD Flip camcorder is capable of. The gallery app that the Wave comes with seems a bit messy to me, but it does feature swipe gestures for navigating and multi-touch zoom control.
Music
The Samsung Wave makes a fine music device. It even has a slick-looking Apple Coverflow like view that is accessible when the phone is held sideways. Music is well organized and easy to navigate, and playlists can very easily be created on the Wave directly.
I used the phone's
Battery
Not living in Europe, where this device is intended to be used, it is a bit harder for me to give the Wave an accurate battery rating. On the weak T-Mobile 2G network in my area, with WiFi on 24 hours a day, I have been able to get a solid day and a half of use out of it as long as the display is turned down to a reasonable brightness level. I can't be certain, but the phone feels quite power efficient in spite of it's high-octane processor. With good signal strength, I expect the S8500 Wave could eek out two full workdays of battery life.
Its 1500mAh battery is rated for 7 hours of 3G talk time (over 15h of 2G talk time) and a full month's worth of standby time. The antenna plays a big part in this, though, and if the signal is weaker in your area, you won't get these kinds of numbers.
Reviewer Spin
I've been playing around with the Samsung S8500 Wave for two full weeks now, and I really love the phone. It has the friendly feel of a feature phone, but some of the more advanced functions of a smartphone. All of that in a beautiful hardware design that features one of the best touchscreen displays ever made.
The Samsung bada OS shows some real promise, and puts forth the best face we've ever seen for the much maligned TouchWiz user interface. Samsung has borrowed heavily from other smartphones OSes in reworking TouchWiz for bada, and it shows. In a good way, that is.
I still have real doubts that there will ever be significant developer and app support for the platform, but that doesn't keep me from wanting to have the Wave in my pocket all the time.
You'll find a gallery of photos shot with the Samsung S8500 Wave, along with a sample HD video, on the following pages.
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