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..

HTC Legend

The HTC Legend is a tablet-style
Android smartphone hape keren, following
up from the HTC Hero with a
number of improvements all
around.
Launched at the same time as the
HTC Desire, the HTC Legend is
more compact and comes with
the same 3.2" 320 x 480 pixel
display that the Hero had.
However, the design has been
reworked to look more elegant
(more of which later) and the old
trackball has been replaced by an
optical one with a clickable
surround.. not that Android really
needs such a thing anyway. On
the back is a 5 megapixel camera
with autofocus, LED flash and
geo-tagging support.
This is an Android 2.1 handset,
and as usual HTC have added
their own feature on top such as
the Sense UI that we have seen
before. Inevitably, it has been
given some new social
networking features called
"Friend Stream" which brings
together updates from friends
on Twitter, Facebook and other
social networking sites all in one
place.
This is a very elegant looking
handset, with a combination of
aluminium and plastic "bumpers"
that make it look absolutely
fabulous. The HTC Legend is
certainly going to attract the
right kind of attention when you
take it out of your pocket to use.
HTC say that the Legend is made
out of a single piece of
aluminium which should add to
the robustness and "wow factor"
when you look at it. It still retains
the distinctive "bump" that other
HTC Android devices have,
although originally that was a
design feature to protect the
trackball which is now optical
rather than mechanical. The black
sections are there for practical
purposes - the WiFi, cellular and
GPS antennae are all hidden
underneath plastic sections
because metal housing would
tend to block the signal.
Inside the HTC Legend is a 600
MHz Qualcomm 7227 processor,
which is pretty much standard
for this type of handset..
although we do wonder how
well it will cope with the
processor demands of Android
2.1. Internal memory is 384MB of
RAM which should be enough for
most users. It's a slim device at
112 x 56 x 12mm, but perhaps a
little on the heavy side at 126
grams. The 1300 mAh battery is
quoted as giving up to 6 hours
talktime on 3G and 23 days
standby time.
This is a 3.5G device with
maximum download speeds of
up to 7.2Mps and uploads of up
to 2Mbps. 802.11 b and g WiFi is
supported, and of course there's
Bluetooth and USB for local
connectivity. The HTC Legend
has the usual multimedia player,
plus an FM radio and a useful
3.5mm audio socket too.
Slated to be available in Europe
from April onwards, the HTC
Legend will provide stiff
competition for other
smartphone manufacturers, and
should appeal to customers who
want something that's as elegant
as the iPhone but quite different
at the same time.

HTC DESIRE

Launched at the same time as the
HTC Legend, the HTC Desire is an
Android 2.1 handset with HTC's
Sense UI loaded on top and
improved social networking
support included, but the Desire
comes with a much bigger
display and packs in a lot more
pixels.
It looks a little like the HTC
manufactured Google Nexus
One, and indeed the
specifications are very similar.
But the HTC Desire isn't simply a
Nexus One with HTC branding, as
there are a number of
improvements.. but you will
have to wait until sometime next
quarter to get your hands on
one.
Inside is a 1GHz Snapdragon
processor, which is about as fast
as a mobile phone processor will
go. The 3.7" 800 x 480 pixel
display uses OLED technology to
ensure that it is bright and clear,
and with this sort of resolution
and processor power, the Desire
should be ideal for web surfing
and video playback. Internal
memory is an impressive 576 MB
of RAM which should allow
plenty of applications to run at
the same time.
On the back is a 5 megapixel
camera with autofocus and flash,
the sort of thing that most rival
Android devices also offer.
There's a multimedia player,
microSD expandable memory, FM
radio and a 3.5mm audio socket.
At 135 grams in weight, the HTC
Desire might seem a little on the
heavy side, but for a large
screen device such as this it is
fairly average, the Desire is also
a little on the large size physically
coming in at 119 x 60 x 12mm,
but again this is fairly typical.
The large 1400 mAh battery can
power the Desire for up to 6.5
hours talktime and 15 days
standby time on 3G.
Unlike the Nexus One, the HTC
Desire has been overhauled with
HTC's Sense User interface which
gives a slightly more polished
look and feel. HTC have also
developed an application called
Friend Stream which integrates
all the social networking updates
from your contacts in one place.
Flash 10.1 support is built in as
standard, and of course as this is
an Android device then you can
add more applications as you
wish. The user interface
supports multi-touch use as well.
HTC say that the Desire should be
available in April, although no
guidance was given on price, we
would guess that it will be fairly
expensive though and be
something in the region of €550.