Samsung Wave S8500 - will it deliver?

cnocbui

Samsung have an interesting new handset on the way called the Wave. In terms of the hardware, it seems to be a technical tour de force, but I have my reservations about the OS and Samsung.

The Wave is using a new open-source based OS Samsung call Bada With a Touchwiz 3.0 interface.

Now the hardware is mouth watering:


-3.3”amoled, capacitive touch screen
-Tempered glass
-5mpix autofocus, flash
-720p video
-2gb internal memory
-Microsd slot
-HSDPA 7.2 mbps
-WIFI b/g/n
-Bluetooth 3.0
-1ghz processor
-Bada OS
-Touchwiz 3.0
-3.5 mm jack
-1500mAh baterry
-Aluminum body
-Divx player
-10.9mm thick!

Full specs here: http://www.phonearena.com/htmls/Samsung-Wave-phone-p_4435.html

The screen is probably the best that has ever been put in any phone and blows the rest away except my Jet, it is only a little bit better than my Jet ;-)

Comparison with a Google Nexus One:



With Nokia X6:



More such comparrison images here: http://www.unwiredview.com/2010/02/14/display-wars-samsung-wave-super-amoled-vs-google-nexus-one-nokia-x6-samsung-s8000/

Now while the Wave has hardware to die for, will the OS deliver? As a Jet (S8000) owner, I have my reservations. The Jet was hyped by Samsung as being 'smarter than a smart phone' but it never delivered on that promise. Unfortunately for Samsung, many people bought them without looking into the details and ended up with a feature phone instead of the smart phone they were expecting. I knew it was just a feature phone so the lack of Apps never bothered me, but the world is now full of disgruntled Jet owners.

The real problem with the Jet, and why I have reservations about the Wave, is that Samsung have failed to support it properly.

On Samsung's own UK handset support site, it took them about 6 months to even manage to provide a dedicated Jet Forum!

These days, manufacturers release new handsets into the wild before all the bugs have been ironed out or all possible features have been implemented, due to the ultra competitiveness of the handset market. The bugs are overcome, and new features added, with firmware updates that upgrade a handsets OS after it has been sold to the customer.

This is where Samsung failed with the Jet. They provided PC based software that was supposed to allow users to download firmware and update their phones, but it didn't work. Samsung support people keep making excuses and saying they are working on it, but It is now almost 8 months since the Jet was introduced, and they still don't have an authorised and easy to use method for updating the Jets firmware. With Samsung, it seems to be mañana ware. Oh, and if you are a Mac user, Samsung are not interested in providing you a means of updating firmware on their handsets - period. Sony Ericsson are the same, but if these guys want to ever compete with the iPhone, they better learn how to write software for computers.

Samsung have developed new firmware for the Jet, but they only two ways to get it installed are by joining the hacking community and going DIY, thus voiding any warranty, or by taking/sending the handset to a Samsung service centre. Sorry Samsung, London isn't quite good enough; Ryanair isn't 'that' cheap.

I still think the Jet is a great phone and like mine a lot, but it has a few annoying bugs that should be corrected. How about an airline mode where the WiFi on the phone can still be transmitting merrily away?

The Wave is like a Jet on Viagra, but I have my doubts as to whether the whole package will be 'up' to it. Will Bada be badass, or just bad.

Availability: April for around €450.

imitation

It looks nice, but I just dont get these "feature" phones, I had one with the tocco, it was a good choice as the only other options at the time were the iPhone, s60 or good ole Winmo. It would be fine if samsung went the s60 route so you could at least get some form of apps developed, but every new phone they change the goalposts and render it void.

I honestly think with the likes of android the days of these os`s are thankfully numbered, if you put android on that phone you could open it up so much, there are loads of decent emulators for android for example.