The Samsung Wave was the first smartphone to feature the Bada operating system (OS) and it was a very impressive device. Post that, a couple of entry-level Bada phones were launched with good hardware but smaller displays that did not stand in front of the package that the Wave offered. With the Wave II, Samsung has finally launched a phone that is a successor to the original Wave.
The first thing that is noticed with the Wave II is how similar it is to the original Wave in terms of design, looks and build quality. The phone retains the slim form factor with the metal body with brushed steel finish. Even the call accept and end button as well as the main menu button remains the same in design and placement. The only difference is the larger form factor due to the 3.7-inch display.
The phone?s hardware is also unchanged. It has the same 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor with PowerVR SGX540 GPU running on the Hummingbird chipset with 2 GB internal storage. Connectivity also doesn?t get any changes and the phone features 3G connectivity along with WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0.
The only major change in terms of hardware is the display screen. It has been upgraded to a 3.7 inch size and uses Super Clear LCD instead of Super AMOLED with the same resolution of 480 x 800 pixels. Sadly, the Super Clear LCD is no match for Super AMOLED in terms of black levels, clarity, colour vibrancy and sunlight legibility. The touchscreen response is still top notch though.
The phone runs on Bada 1.2 OS, which gets a few minor tweaks over what was running in the Wave. It still feels a mix up between Android and Symbian in terms of usability but still has the TouchWiz interface running on top. Due to the top-notch hardware, the navigation and usage is zippy, though the apps are still very limited in comparison to what the competing operating systems offer. The browser is a bit irritating as on any touch it brings up the address bar, which in turn makes it a pain to select anything on the top banner of most webpages.
In terms of multimedia, the camera is same 5 mega pixel with LED flash that records videos in 720p high definition quality. The camera takes great images in day and in low light conditions wherever flash is used the images are good. However, with the flash turned off, there is a lot of noise visible in the images. The video recording is also superb with great audio quality as well. The sound output from the phone is outstanding with great clarity and loud output. Not to mention the output is splendid across voice calls and multimedia playback.
The phone comes with a 1500mAh battery that lasted over one and half days on a full charge with 3G connectivity which is just brilliant. The Wave II is simply put the best non-Android touchscreen phone available in its price segment. At R17,000, the phone offers the biggest touchscreen in this price with the only alternative being the Motorola Defy that sells at R19,000 and runs on Android platform.
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