Samsung Wave S8500 Preview

Samsung has created a new mobile operating system to compete with the other big players on the smartphone market. Will it succeed? We don't know that yet, but we are dying to see what will become of the new bada OS, and how it will evolve with time.

In Korean, "bada" means ocean, and the Samsung Wave S8500 is the first smartphone that will take you on a journey to bada’s depths.

The Samsung Wave S8500 has the new TouchWiz 3.0 interface, which makes the handset look like a typical Samsung feature phone. So we guess bada is to be an accessible, easy to use OS, which will still allow the user to install native applications that will be able to use the rich system resources in order to deliver a much deeper experience.

Design:

Samsung Wave S8500 is a handset that sports a metal chassis, and looks somewhat similar in style to the Google Nexus One but there's one important difference - the screen of the Wave measures 3.3 inches, while the Nexus One has a 3.7-inch one. Except for that one issue, we are perfectly happy with this display. Like every AMOLED, it delivers great contrast, blacks are really pitch black, and colors are incredibly vivid. However, Samsung has utilized a new “Super AMOLED” technology, which, in theory, should provide even better image quality and less reflection. The manufacturer has achieved this by removing the panel for the touch sensor and the air gap between the AMOLED and the touch sensor. This should also allow for better visibility under bright sunlight.

Comparison:

If we compare the Wave's screen with the LCD one of the iPhone 3G, it looks better in almost every respect.

[Samsung Wave S8500 (left), Apple iPhone 3G (right)]

When indoors, the Super AMOLED provides a lot more clarity and saturation, while its viewing angle is incomparably wider. The Wave is indeed quite usable when outdoors, but still the iPhone 3G maintains its supremacy here.