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Phone Reviews: Mobiles and Smartphones >
Florence Legrand
Test date: June 22, 2010
The Wave as a phone

The Wave is a high-end smartphone and comes with all the latest connectivity options: HSDPA, WiFi n, Bluetooth 3.0 and DLNA support are all there for wireless communication with compatible devices. It does a good job of connecting to the mobile network, and we didn't have any problems getting signal.

During calls, the Wave behaved very well, with clear sound, audible conversations and absolutely no feedback or crackling to complain about.

You can set up several types of e-mail accounts, including Gmail and Exchange. If you set up push mail to receive your mail almost instantly, you can only store a limited number on the phone itself. Our Gmail account, for instance, could receive mails, but didn't display them because there were over 600. It's up to you to keep an eye on how much room you have, and it's much less convenient than with a BlackBerry.

Contacts are handled using a system that we're getting used to, especially after HTC adopted it. A 'keypad' button allows you to dial a number straight away, while the 'contact' button opens your address book. You can arrange your contacts by group and choose to add your favorites to your homescreen. You can also sync contacts between your phone and Facebook.

Samsung, currently the world number in mobile phone sales, has decided to get back into the smartphone game with its new open OS, Bada. 

The Wave is its handset to run Bada, and is a high-end touchsreen smartphone which, if its spec is anything to go by, is cut out with social networking in mind.  With the manufacturer's own Super AMOLED display, a fast 1 GHz processor (also designed in house) and the ability to both record and watch 720p HD video, it should be more than capable of keeping up with the current generation of smartphones—and even overtaking some.  But is it up to the job?



The end of the Samsung glossy look?


The Samsung Wave next to the iPhone 3G S


You certainly can't say that this is a Samsung phone that looks like all the rest.  We're not surewhat's happened in their design department, but it's definitely a change for the better.  In the past, the Korean manufacturer had a nasty habit of producing glossy plastic cases with dubious build quality, but the Wave, and its light grey brushed aluminum finish, is a picture of solidity.  Given Samsung's target market, the finish was always going to have to be excellent, but we'd like to see how well the outside resists scratches over time.  The new look is very much a pleasant surprise though, and we'd be only too pleased if this model was the first of a whole new generation from Samsung.  We're not too demanding are we?
 

Samsung's new look

 

The Wave is very easy to get hold of, thanks in no small part to the fact it only measures a trifling 11 mm from one side to the other.

 


Once you've waited for it to boot up, which takes about as long as with other similar smartphones, you come face to face with the 3.3'', 5:3, 480 x 800 pixel Super AMOLED screen.  Last year's Jet was the first Sasmung phone to have a display using this technology, and we were amazed back then by the excellent contrast and the lively colours.  The Wave's screen is quite simply incredible, even if it's not obvious to spot the improvements made since the Jet.  Colours are lively, contrast is accurate, viewing angles are wide, and, even in bright sunlight, you can easily read the screen.  As a bonus, this technology should also help reduce energy use, and we can confirm that.  The Wave only ran out of steam after two good days of full use (video, 3G and WiFi browsing, navigation and calls included), while other phones hardly manage to last 24 hours.
 

Bada boom!

The look and feel for Bada OS comes from version 3.0 of Samsung's TouchWiz interface.  Anybody who's already tried the TouchWiz system on a phone from the Player range won't be out of their depth, but you'll no doubt also appreciate the improved ease of use, which makes the system much more intuitive.  Users can create up to nine customizable homescreens for their widgets.

Sticking with the current trend for giving social networks and communication pride of place, Samsung has included a Social Hub app, which aggregates content from your e-mail, Facebook, SMS and Twitter.  Clicking on a single icon opens different accounts, but the integration isn't taken has far as it could be.
 

Social Hub: all of your messages on one screen

We would have preferred more direct access from the homescreen to check messages as they arrive, no matter who or where they're from.  We also would have liked an interface that combined all of our interactions with a given contact on a singl screen.

You can drag and drop these widgets
onto nine different homescreens
 
We found ourselves dreaming up ways to make the interface even simpler here and there, but overall, we think that most users, who are looking for a solution that works straight out of the box, won't have too much trouble with it.


The main menu looks a little familiar, doesn't it?

What you get in the box is only part of the story, though, as Samsung has added an app store where you can download extra tools whenever you like.  The interface reminds us of its two main rivals, the iTunes AppStore and Android Market, but the selection of content is still a long way behind these two alternatives.  There are a hundred or so apps right now, including twenty-odd games, some of which are pretty expensive.  Developers are already heavily solicited by both Apple and Google, so will they want to add Bada apps too?  Only the future will tell ...




 You can receive updates from Facebook
in real time

Is the Wave fast enough?

As we mentioned above, the quality of the screen makes the Wave a very attractive proposition, but as well as having a great display, the capacitive multitouch interface, which is as powerful as the one found on the Apple iPhone 3G S or the Motorola Milestone, reacts quickly when you run your finger over it.  Accuracy doesn't let it down either, reducing the number of errors that crop up when typing SMS or e-mail on the virtual keyboard.

Usable virtual keyboard


We know that the screen isn't the only link in the chain, though, and even a 1 GHz processor—here it's an ARM Cortex-A8, which is also found in the iPhone apparently—isn't always a guarantee of speedy performance.  (Do we even need to go back over the Toshiba TG01?)  If your software is badly written, poorly integrated and with no optimization, then no matter how far you push the hardware, your phone won't take off.  Overall, we found the Wave to be very responsive and it proved to be very fast: navigating through the menus is a very fluid experience.  Scrolling from one homescreen to another, loading photos and launching apps all take place without any lag.

Because this handset supports multitasking, it can easily cope with launching several apps at once without slowing down, which is a real strength.  You can check which apps are running by holding down the physical button in the middle of the screen, which normally opens the main menu.  It's a good idea to close those that you're not using as you go along, to save yourself some battery life.

We should point out that we occasionally noticed some hesitation when we were downloading mails or apps over WiFi.  When we tried starting an app at the same time, the phone struggled a little.  It doesn't hang for too long, and certainly didn't leave us frustrated.

720p HD video, DivX and web browing

Like any self-respecting smartphone, the Wave is ready to show off its multimedia credentials.  And it's certainly got 'em ...

To start with, the browser is pretty powerful.  You can switch between pages easily, and the multitouch zoom, implemented either by pinching your fingers together or double-tapping on the screen, works as you'd expect.
 

 

The sound is decent and features plenty of detail for a handset like this.  You should still ditch the supplied headphones, but because the Wave has a standard 3.5 mm jack, nothing could be easier.  The speakers, which normally on a mobile produce an awful saturated racket don't do too badly at all.

Moving on to video, the Wave is billed as offering 720p HD for both recording and playback.  That's all well and good, but we wanted to see what our films actually looked like, and the results were pretty impressive, as long as you remember not to bother with the digital zoom which really ruins the image quality.

For playback, the Wave is very flexible with regard to the formats it can handle, which include both DivX and Xvid.  We gave it lenity of 720p HD films to play, and the result on such a great screen is really worth looking at.

Let's finish with the most disappointing aspect, the camera.  Taking and saving photos is q, and there are plenty of options, but ultimately, the quality is less impressive.  The Wave does have an LED flash, which can help when you want to take a photo in a dark environment, but overall, photos are missing details and colours are neither accurately reproduced nor particularly attractive.

Compare the Samsung Wave to other mobile phones in our Product Face-Off
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Pluses

-

Quality screen handles multitouch interface well / Great finish

-

Responsive smartphone, stable OS, intuitive interface

-

Battery life

-

Video: films and records DivX and 720p in native resolution

-

FM radio with RDS / standard headphone jack

Minuses

-

Disappointing photos

-

Messaging system could be even better

-

Case seems like it could get scratched

-

App store still fairly limited with some expensive downloads

3
With the latest technology on board, the Wave has got what it takes to win over a lot oaf consumers after a simple, well-rounded smartphone. Samsung has made a great stride forward in a very competitive market with such a convincing first attempt at its new OS. Let's hope this is the start of a whole new range of successful handsets from the Koreans.

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