WHEN I caught the Samsung Wave in my hand I was immediately and magically drawn to it – for the look, weight, size and feel. Although I liked the form, fit and finish I did not know what to expect from Samsung’s bada platform as I had not heard anything from my peers or read anything about it.
In my hand, I loved the cool metal casing. It just felt better than any plastic, and it imparted resilience in my mind. The glass capacitive touchscreen that stretched almost to the left and right edge of the face impressed me even more than the Samsung GALAXY S’s massive 4.0-inch screen. The Wave’s screen is only 3.3-inches but it is still a WVGA (Wide VGA measuring 800 x 480 pixels) SUPER AMOLED display.
The Wave’s external buttons and controls are straightforward. On the face you have the capacitive touchscreen and three buttons at the bottom. The right button is used as a Close call or the button to turn on and off the device. At the centre is a raised diamond shaped button that is a singular button, and not a D-Pad for directional control. It brings up the main application screen. On the left is the Call button.
Looking at top of the Wave, there is a 3.5-mm headphone jack, sliding cover microUSB and a small opening that is used to let out the speaker audio when using speakerphone. I love the sliding USB cover. No more lost or broken off covers.
On the back side of the Wave, you will notice the oddly shaped digital camera. The camera lens will always be the same shape it is. Just that Samsung decided to make the glass window stylish and shaped it like a diamond with a matching LED flash. The shape does not add or detract the phone's picture-taking capabilities. Notice as well the rear cover finish is brushed aluminum as is most of the body.
The location of the battery makes it impossible to change out the SIM and/or microSD flash memory card without removing the battery first.
Now that I’ve covered all the cosmetics and hardware let me tell you that my biggest worry when I looked at the Wave was whether or not there is proper application support for the hot applications – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and others.
It was a relief to find direct support for those applications. If those applications are not able to satisfy your cravings, you can always try out Samsung’s App store.
Here’s a shot of the Facebook application. Looks neat, tidy and easy to navigate.
The album view mode of the Facebook application looks quite like the media file viewer (See below).
When I was first introduced to Samsung’s 5-megapixel with my Samsung Jet, I immediately fell in love with the quality and capabilities of the built-in camera software. I am happy to see and report that the same great software setup and features made its way into the Wave. Some of the features have been tweaked a bit but otherwise the camera works great. The video capture capability is something not to be missed. It doesn’t capture 720P or 1080P HD video. But what it does capture in DVD quality turns out amazingly for amateurs. Just make sure you have adequate light for shooting.
The media browser is easy to use and useful for shutterbugs that have difficulty remembering when a particular photo was taken because the browser will neatly organize the pictures as thumbnails sorted chronologically using the date the picture was taken.
If you prefer a big overview of the photos on the phone just change the orientation to landscape and you’ll get a visual list of the photographs.
The Wave may not have thousands of applications like those available for the Android™ platform, but Samsung made sure the important applications were done without having to resort to using the Internet Browser directly to access the web applications.
Time will tell if the bada platform can grow in popularity with the key being application availability. However, even if it doesn’t become popular, the Wave is a great phone and you’ll probably often get asked, “What is it?” and comments like, “It looks great – sleek, slim and a beautiful LED screen!”
Grab one now to show off the beautiful 3.3-inch SUPER AMOLED screen, the smooth application and onscreen keyboard input.
Here are some photo samples taken using the Wave's 5-megapixel camera.
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Posted by JamCanSing
28-Jul-2010