Samsung Wave S8500
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In a way, the Samsung Wave S8500 looks at first glance like any of the other recent smartphones from the company. There’s the odd screen lock button in the top right, a frankly frustrating battery release panel at the back (for fingernail biters like me anyway), and the TouchWiz UI settled neatly on top of the mobile platform.

However, there’s a lot more riding on the Wave than first meets the eye.

The flagship device for the new bada mobile format should effectively be considered in the same light as the G1, Nexus One, or the original iPhone in its importance to the maker, as it represents the first handset in a whole new direction for the world’s second largest mobile manufacturer.

Not only is it the flag bearer of the new Super AMOLED screens the company claims are brighter, richer, and just frankly better than the iPhone 4’s ‘retinal display’, but it also represents the model for future bada devices to develop upon.

Cresting

The Wave feels like a high end smartphone. Samsung’s often ‘plastic’ build-quality has been tightened up, with curving contours and a balanced weight giving the phone an expensive feel.

A modified version of the TouchWiz UI sits on top of the bada platform, which essentially operates like a cross between the stock Android and iPhone UIs. This means Widgets and a notification bar on the home page, and carefully laid out app screens viewable via the central button.

The 5MP camera is sharp, with a lightning quick viewfinder that hints at the power of the custom 1GHz Hummingbird processor lurking inside. Despite this processing grunt, the battery life is impressive, surviving a full three days of moderate 3G, text, and talk usage on one charge and having an advertised standby time of 650 hours.

Wipeout

The build quality, CPU, and battery life are not going to be the first things that will attract your attention, though.

While it’s tricky to compare with the iPhone 4 (unreleased at the time of writing), there’s no denying that the Wave’s S-AMOLED screen completely blows the normal LCD displays out of the water with its brightness and quality of pixel contrast, making the iPhone look washed out and murky in comparison.

Don’t expect to get a perfect image in bright, direct sunlight however. It's not impossible to make out the images on screen, but it’s far from non-reflective and isn’t going to make Asphalt 5 or Edge any easier to play.

Play the game

The most encouraging sign from a gamer’s perspective is the extent at which the new bada platform has already been taken up by some of the larger mobile games publishers, even at such an early stage in its development.

It took Gameloft almost two years before any of its titles began appearing on the Android Market, yet Samsung Apps already has a number of its titles, like Dungeon Hunter and Let’s Golf, available to download, along with the expected contributions from the Korean developers/publishers like Com2us (Homerun Battle 3D)

Another encouraging sign is that they all run at close to iPhone 3GS levels of detail and speed. That doesn’t sound like much of an achievement given that the processor is far faster than the iPhone 3GS, but as these are essentially launch titles, and ports at that, it bodes well for future efforts.

The touchscreen doesn’t feel quite as accurate as the iPhone’s, but it still manages to do a good job when compared to a lot of its Android rivals, including the Nexus One.

Falling from the same tree

On the less positive side, however, is that nearly all of the current titles on the platform are iPhone ports - an unavoidable consequence of starting after the App Store established its grip.

There’s every indication that Samsung is hoping to change this, however. The Samsung Apps service feels faster, slicker, and easier to navigate than the Android Market for instance, and the pricing of the apps is, on average, around £1 cheaper than their App Store equivalents, with time-limited offers like Real Football 2010 available for free during the World Cup sure to attract gamers to the service.

With the Wave, Samsung has constructed an attractive and powerful phone to spearhead its new mobile platform, packing in a great UI, fantastic screen, good camera, and a decent selection of high quality games and apps available from the off.

If the handset is a sign of things to come from the South Korean giant, then there is every possibility that both bada and Samsung Apps has a chance of making significant inroads into the Symbian, Android, and iOS dominated market.

Samsung Wave S8500

The Samsung Wave is an excellent high end smartphone that is fast, simple to use, and stunning to look at
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Will Wilson
Will Wilson
Will's obsession with gaming started off with sketching Laser Squad levels on pads of paper, but recently grew into violently shouting "Tango Down!" at random strangers on the street. He now directs that positive energy into his writing (due in no small part to a binding court order).