The latest Bada OS powered smartphone is here but unlike its predecessor, the first Wave which was the first device to feature a hummingbird CPU and a SuperAMOLED display, the Wave 3 won’t be the first in anything.
Samsung Wave 3 specifications.
The Samsung Wave 3 measures 125.9 x 64.2 x 9.9 and weighs 122 grams. It has a metal chassis and a good looking design. All the materials used have a premium fee and you can tell you have a Bada flagship in your hand.
The front of the device holds the 4” SuperAMOLED display with a 480*800 resolution that is very similar to the one on the first Galaxy S. It has the same wide viewing angles, almost infinite contrast, great looking colors but it could use a little more brightness. Under the display we find the Call, End Call and Home keys while above we have the proximity sensor and the secondary camera.
The left side holds the volume rocker while the right side holds the lock/power key. The top of the device is bare with the bottom holding the microUSB port and the 3.5 mm audio jack. On the back we have the 5MPx camera with LED flash and the loudspeaker grill. Under the cover we have the microSD card slot and the SIM car slot that can be accessed without removing the battery. The 1500 mAh battery gives the Wave 3 over 8 hours of talk time and 480 hours of standby.
The Samsung Wave 3 is powered by a 1.4 GHz CPU and runs Bada 2.0 with TouchWiz on top. The new versions offers a lot more visual effects and is very similar to the Android UI found on the Galaxy S II. It even has the default wallpaper and the widget grid. The lock screen shows message notifications and the weather widget. It also offers a lot more eye catching animations, transparency, fonts, and buttons. All the menus, app buttons and color schemes have been updated with better visuals.
The UI moves fast and smooth, as it should with a 1.4 GHz CPU. The touchscreen is very responsive, kinetic scrolling is fast with no lag and multi-tasking works perfectly. If you hold the home key you get the list of running apps which can be toggled or closed. The UI also offers voice recognition that invites you to say a command or a phrase. It is pretty accurate if you speak slowly and distinctly.
The messaging app is good, it looks good and it has a contact bar under the recipient so you can easily choose the recopied. It also has a quick method of attaching photo, video or sound files. The Email app can be configured very easily for most email providers and it has a good set of font options. Typing on the Wave 3 is very comfortable thanks to the 4” display and great keyboards (both landscape and portrait keyboards offers a good typing speed).
The 5MPx camera with LED flash and auto-focus does a decent jobs and offers Panorama mode, smile recognition and some other useful effects. Pictures look pretty good, colors are natural looking; it has proper exposure, a good amount of detail but sharpness could be better. In low light pictures is average at best but if you use the flash quality improves. Video recording is done at 720p resolution and 30fps. Outside videos have enough detail, good colors and smooth filming while inside they tend to get grainy.
The Gallery app suffered a complete redesign and now has cool effects and animations. But there is no picture or video editor present, you only get a few basic options like crop or rotate. The music player also has a new and better looking interface. It also gets options like embedded song recognition, equalizer presets and sorting options. The video player can play DivX/Xvid with 720p resolution easily and most other formats and it also has a redesigned interface.
In terms of connectivity the Samsung Wave 3 offers quad band GSM, tri-band 3G with HSPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS with A-GPS and Glonass, DLNA, FM-Radio and Wi-Fi direct. The browsing experience si pleasant, the display is crisp enough for small writing and the Dolphin 3.0 browser works great. Unfortunately Bada 2.0 lacks Flash support.
The new flagship of the Bada OS is a good looking phone with a fast CPU and a decent set of features. It also has a great display, good call quality and an overall nice multimedia package. But it lacks a dual core CPU an app market. So it doesn’t stand a chance against the Android flagships, but it might do better against mid range Android phones like the Samsung Galaxy W or Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S or the WP7 devices like the Nokia Lumia 800 or Samsung Omnia W if it didn’t have such a high price tag.
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