Samsung Wave 3 review
For the past couple of years Samsung has been pushing its own Bada OS based Wave series of smartphones, which started off as a more affordable alternative to Android. The Wave 3 is the latest and greatest Bada has to offer, but unlike some of the top tier smartphone platforms, the Bada OS has been beleaguered with a rather non-existent apps ecosystem, which has often stranded the Samsung Wave series in no-mans land. Samsung would hope that the Wave 3 would trigger a positive change for the platform, but with the likes of Android breathing down its neck it is not going to be easy. Let’s see if the Wave 3 floats the boat in a sea of Androids.
LOOKS
As a Galaxy S2 user myself, I have some strong opinions about Samsung’s industrial design direction. Generally their devices come of as extremely plasticky and cheap. Don’t get me wrong here the Galaxy S2 is among many things, a stunning smartphone on the whole, but a premium device it is not, even if it is more resilient than most smartphones on the market. On the other hand the hardware on the Samsung Wave 3 is a breath of fresh air. Its almost un-Samsung like! It’s not plastiky, not cheap, however at the same time it is neither groundbreaking nor head turning. But its brushed aluminum exoskeleton is a massive improvement over Samsung’s Android brethren. At 9.9mm the Wave 3 is deceptively thin. So deceptive is its slenderness that it feels thinner than the iPhone 4S, which is actually slimmer than the Wave 3. The tapered edges add a lot for flavor to the general ergonomics of the device and on the whole, the Wave 3 provides an optimal balance of weight (122g) and feels solid when held.
Coming back to general ports of the device, the Wave 3 comes equipped with the regular frills. On the bottom-end we get the micro-USB port alongside the 3.5-mm headphone jack, while on the left hand side we get the volume rockers and on the right side we get the power/standby button. On the fascia we get the main home-button, in addition to the call and back capacitive buttons. We also get a front facing camera and the standard suite of sensors (accelerometer, proximity, ambient light).
On the rear we are introduced to the brushed aluminum back, which lends a tremendous amount of ruggedness to the device. On the top part is the 5.0 MP camera accompanied by a LED flash and a speaker. But the unique aspect of this back cover design is that instead being pried open like a can of beans it just smoothly slides open revealing the 1500 mAh battery, the SIM card slot and the micro-SD card slot. Another interesting bit about this design is that the back lid does not come off but remains attached to the chassis of the device, while only revealing the needful compartments. On the whole Samsung has married elements of a traditional accessible back and a locked unibody design to the tee.
Hardware
The Wave 3 is a pure Samsung product from top to bottom. While the software is a core component of the end-to-end experience, Samsung’s core specialty always has been hardware and here is where the Wave 3 comes into its own. Powered by a 1.4GHz processor, tied in with 512 MB of RAM, the Bada 2.0 powered Wave 3 is now in the big leagues. In addition to this, Samsung has packed in a 4.0-inch Super AMOLED display, which frankly is pretty gorgeous. Yes, it still has the unwholesome taste of a Pentile matrix and a WVGA resolution, but seriously, who cares? The colors look sharp, the blacks are nice and deep and the contrast ratio is superb. I think only 1 percent (yes, THAT 1 percent) of the total mobile phone community will even detect the difference between standard RGB arrangement of pixels and a Pentile one so this pretty much a non-issue.
As far as the photography goes Samsung has armed the Wave 3 with a 5.0 MP snapper, which is also capable of shooting 720p video. I am assuming Samsung has packed in the very same camera module as the one seen in the original Galaxy S because the performance is very similar. It’s a shade better in low-light conditions courtesy the flash which was amiss in the Galaxy S. In comparison to the camera seen on the Samsung Galaxy S2, the Nokia Lumia 800 and the iPhone 4S, the results are a tad underwhelming especially in low-light conditions with images displaying a lot of noise and graininess. Even with 720p video the quality was pretty satisfactory, but in my opinion the built-in image stabilization was a bit off – it’s still not the best in the class.
Software
The real story of the Wave 3 resides in its operating system, the Bada 2.0. Developed in-house by Samsung, anyone who has used a Samsung Android smartphone with TouchWiz UI will be right at home with the user interface. Users are welcomed with the same ‘Live Tiles’, the same cartoony icons and even an Android like pull-down menu. All the core elements of the TouchWiz are the same, however the Bada 2.0 experience comes with a twist. Firstly, it does not have the tight integration with Google services as Android smartphones. Secondly, the apps ecosystem is literally non-existent. However, on a positive note, the UI appears light years smoother than any dual-core Android smartphone I have reviewed including the Galaxy S2, which I own.
Now the TouchWiz UI invokes ‘love’ or ‘hate’ emotions, with my personal opinion being toward the latter. But I can understand a user being totally at home with it as Samsung has applied it to millions of low-end Galaxy smartphones. The tight integration with Google was almost impossible to implement as that integrated experience is reserved for Android. However, Bada provides users with a Google app, which basically redirects users to a mobile webpage of the service. This is not ideal, but that’s what we get. Luckily the inbuilt email application in Bada is superior to the one found on Samsung Android phones and since there is no separate Gmail app we can integrate all our inboxes via one app.
The biggest shortcoming of the Wave 3 and Bada is the non-existent apps ecosystem for Bada 2.0. Samsung has loaded its apps store on the device which provides a handful apps, but lacks numbers. Bada 2.0 shows no promise, unless the user is ignorant about apps and just wants a fluid user experience and basic core functions.
The Wave 3 is loaded with features like Samsung’s new multi-platform ChatON service, Wi-Fi Direct and a productivity suite in Polaris Office. Wi-Fi direct was in particular a faster and more intuitive way of transferring files. I transferred multiple videos from my Galaxy S II to the Wave 3 and everything was transferred at a swift rate. In essence Wi-Fi direct is very similar to AirDrop introduced on Mac OS X Lion as it bypasses the Wi-Fi router and the Wi-Fi modules between two devices directly interact with each other.
Another facet of Bada 2.0 I really like is the built-in virtual keyboard. It is the fastest and most accurate virtual keyboard I have ever used. I think what makes it special is the way Samsung has arranged the characters and when one combines that with the convenience of a larger 4-inch display and slick haptics things automatically become smooth. While the predictive text input wasn’t anything worth writing home about, I hardly felt the need to use it as the keyboard even without the predictive input was super slick.
Performance
The Wave 3 is fiendishly fast; it’s an absolute scorcher. Even with 19 apps open in the background everything ran smoothly. People say Windows Phone is a buttery smooth OS, but I think at some level, the Bada 2.0 powered Wave 3 outdoes Windows Phone. This is as a result of the end-to-end integration and synergy between hardware and software. Even the built-in Dolphin browser performs very smoothly. As far as battery life was concerned the device lasted me 27 hours where I was shuffling between my Gmail, light web browsing on 3G and some light media playback. Apart from this the call quality was par for the course, though I did notice it was decidedly better than the Samsung Galaxy S2.
At the end of the day apps or no apps the Wave 3, performs fabulously as a phone for all general utilities, may it be browsing the web, listening to music, photography or even social networking via Samsung’s Social Hub. What it does not have in general beauty or apps, it makes up in usability and core functionality.
Verdict
Reviewing the Wave 3 has been a bittersweet experience. It offers solid core functionality, a solid user experience, and a relatively attractive device. However at the same time, it does have some glaring flaws – its non-existent apps ecosystem, and an average looking UI. At its price point of Rs 19,600, there are numerous Android Smartphones available so I cannot fathom why an Android user would jump ship to Bada 2.0, which has no apps and looks almost exactly like Samsung’s Android offerings. Having said that, I do believe there are millions of Symbian or non-smartphone users out there who would absolutely love the non-nonsense fluid experience offered by the Wave 3.
Comments
Showing 5 Comments
Turn your Wave 3 to Pattern Lockscreen, downloaded at SamsungApps.com
http://www.samsungapps.com/topApps/topAppsDetail.as?productId=G00004028678
dear concern,
My cell model is Samsung wave-3, GT S8600
and current OS is Bada.
Now i want to change my OS to Android OS. Please help me in regard.
Monir
Nice review; Thanks!
No body is going to purchase Wave 3 if it has OS bada.As Samsung provide many phone with more feature in android on same price.But in android user has a greater access to application in android market
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