Samsung's Wave

Samsung Wave marks the South Korean major’s first serious foray into the smart phone segment in India.

The highlight of this phone is that it works on Samsung’s own proprietary operating system—Bada—which is an open platform that allows users to download applications from Samsung Apps—which is an application store that can be accessed from the device and online.

The online application store features lots of freebie downloads. This is where the social networking, games and many other applications can be found. Bada is an open and configureable platform that also allows developers to create new applications with ease. Multi widgets provide weather reports, news headlines, stock updates and personal schedule all on one screen.

Besides the Bada platform, the other feature that’s being highlighted about Wave is the Super Amoled screen. It definitely is bright and eye-catching—20% brighter and 80% more visible in sunlight, the company claims, than the general Amoled screen. It also uses 20% less battery. The 3.3-inch display with a high-resolution touchscreen adds the wow factor to viewing experience—both videos and photos.

The phone’s ultra fast 1 GHz CPU enables seamless HD video playback, a great gaming experience and the running of multiple applications at the same time. While the touchscreen is intuitive and fast, we’d give more marks to the Wave for bright display. Multitasking is easy and there are ten home screens that can be customized. Moving on to social networking – the phone’s integrated Social Hub feature brings together all major email portals and SNS services directly. Managing all contacts is possible at one place, without getting confused.

The 5-megapixel camera comes with the usual bells & whistles—LED flash, autofocus, face and blink detection, beauty shot, smile shot, panorama shot, geo-tagging, and built-in image editor.

The Samsung Wave is a good-looking device with a streamlined aluminium body and strong tempered glass display. The black and gray colour combination, however, puts it firmly in the business category—a few more brighter colour options would be welcome. The phone is priced at Rs 19,100.