samsung wave s8500

The first handset to ship with
Samsung's new Bada operating
platform is the Samsung Wave
S8500, a slim touchscreen
smartphone with a large 3.3"
Super AMOLED display and a fast
1GHz processor.
We've looked at Bada briefly
before, and we feel that the
world doesn't really need
another mobile phone operating
system, but then Bada is really
just an extension of what
Samsung have already been
doing, and the launch of Bada
allows third party developers to
add their own applications to
make Samsung handsets even
more appealing.
The Samsung Wave handset
itself is a fairly typical slabby
device, although it is very slim
and the brushed metal casing
gives the handset an elegant air.
The 3.3" screen is large, although
there are smartphones with
much bigger displays. Flip the
phone over and there's not
much on the back apart from the
5 megapixel camera and flash.
Samsung's AMOLED displays are
well-known for being very
bright and clear, with the Wave
Samsung have gone further still
by eliminating many of the
different layers of material
normally used with a
touchscreen display. It's
complicated stuff, but Samsung
assure us that the Super AMOLED
display used on the Wave will be
very impressive indeed. The
panel itself displays 800 x 480
pixels, making it ideal for web
surfing or video playback.
Underneath the slim casing, the
Wave supports WiFi, 3.5G high-
speed data, GPS, HD (720p) video
recording, microSD memory,
Bluetooth v3 and USB
connectivity. There's an FM radio
and 3.5mm audio socket as well,
and overall it's hard to see
anything missing in terms of
specifications. The large 1500
mAh battery should provide
adequate talktime, but Samsung
have not said what it is.
Most of the buzz with this
handset is about the software,
and this version of Bada comes
with the new TouchWiz 3
interface, plus a set of social
networking applications, web
browser, email client and
support for Exchange
ActiveSync. More applications will
be available for download once
they are written - and Samsung
are spending a lot of time and
money to encourage developers
to write for the Bada platform,
which is promising.
It's certainly a nice looking
device, and powerful too.
Perhaps by the time the
Samsung Wave launches in April,
there might even be a library of
applications available for it..