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28 Jun 2010
The Wave is an excellent addition to the Samsung portfolio and the smartphone market. While it would be ill-advised to suggest it will rival the iPhone or the growing Android smartphone market in the near future, it is a serious contender.
Pros:
Fast processor; attractive to use; simple and intuitive layout; good screen; excellent sound quality; good camera and video.
Cons:
Some built in applications lack complete functionality; small application store; poor battery life
Price: £300
Manufacturer: Samsung
Samsung's Wave smartphone, announced at Mobile World Congress in February, is not going to have an easy entry to the market with Apple's iPhone 4 dominating the headlines.
However, this sleek and stylish device, available on the Vodafone network, is certainly not to be dismissed.
The Samsung Wave is light and pleasant to hold, weighing in at 118g and measuring 108.9mm x 53.5mm x 10.9mm.
It features a super Amoled 3.3in screen, which Samsung boasts is a smartphone first, offering 16 million colours at 800x480 pixel resolution.
All this makes the device very attractive to look at. Web pages are crisp and clear, and images are very sharp. The handset has just three buttons on the front, making the screen the focal point, no doubt as Samsung wished.
Using the touch screen is simple, and the screen is responsive without being overly so. It orientates well in terms of scale in landscape and portrait modes, and responds instantly to the shift in dimension.
Like all touch-screen devices the art of finger placement should be pretty well mastered after a little practice, but for some it will prove an irritation.
This seems to be something the industry will need to address to push smartphone take-up beyond those willing to accept the slow input speed and inevitable mis-keying.
The layout of applications on the screen is well put together, resembling that of most other smartphone screens, and can be easily customised.
'Pages' can be added to the start-up screen so that key widgets can be accessed directly from the home screen, rather than having to go to the applications menu.
3.3in touch-screen, Bada OS, Dolphin browser, 1GHz chipset, GSM, Wi-Fi, and HSPA, Bluetooth, 5-megapixel camera with fixed focus and flash.
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Do you agree?
Excellent phone, bad battery.
I have had this phone for a few weeks now and I absolutely love it. The only drawback I can see with it is that the battery life is rather poor. I can normally get about one and a half days out of a light to medium use of the phone.
Posted by: Andrew 29 Jun 2010
Any Originality?
I don't argue the fact that Samsung makes a decent product, however, my first impression at seeing this phone was that it was a cheap iPhone knock-off. The bottom tray of most important apps is a direct take off of the iPhone, the calendar app, the home button (albeit at least they changed the shape of it, surprisingly), and even the dots signifying what page you're on are all Apple. Although Apple is far from perfect, it just proves that they're the trendsetters.
Posted by: kev 28 Jun 2010