July 16th 2010 10:33 am
Samsung Wave S8500 review, do you really need Samsung Wave?
The 802.11n support in Wave is a welcome but not necessary feature. Having 802.11g is good enough for small devices. On top of that, 802.11n is not commonly available. And the price for a 802.11n wireless router is still a bit on the high side.
Multimedia features is what loved by Samsung, 5MP autofocus camera with the ability to record HD video at 720p and 30FPS. And as always, support with loads of audio and video codec; DivX, Xvid, WMV and ACC+ just to name a few. Even high end phones like Nexus one and iPhone4 doesn’t support the aforementioned codecs natively. You might argue that one can get a 3rd party apps for this respect, but having a phone with playability of these codecs just right out of the box is quite convenient for multimedia lovers.
Next, comes the new kid on the block OS. Bada OS is the new smartphone OS from Samsung. Samsung says this OS is much cheaper and support over a large variety of phones when they announced it last year, as it was actually derived from their own proprietary Samsung OS that was employed in its phone since the very beginning. What it basically means was; using their own OS, make the SDK (software development kid) available to the public, and make an application installable functionality on its OS. And voila, there you have the Bada OS.
Bada OS is Samsung very attempt to get a slice of the smartphone market with their own OS. Though Samsung did quite well with Android too. But I believe Samsung have their own planning in the long run for this Bada OS. It was risky actually. As Samsung actually selling this Wave at a lower profit margin, more on this later. But if it succeed, you might see Bada OS on phones not from Samsung itself, but others like LG and Nokia. This is just a very speculative statement, which I hoped I was wrong about it. Why? The OS from Samsung is just not optimized enough and memory leak was profound. Thus, 512MB RAM is what needed to minimized the problem.
So, what about the applications available for this Bada OS? As I publish this article, there were about 300+ available. It has increased by 200 for the pass 5 weeks, which is moderately impressive. The most important is not the quantity, but the quality. There aren’t any decent GPS applications available right now for Bada. The route66 which comes with most Samsung phones are pathetic to start with. Even chat applications like Ebuddy is not available in Bada, so you are stucked with java mobile J2ME version of it. In other words, you better off getting basic applications in J2ME format instead.
Theoritically, by having a 1500mAh battery on a Super AMOLED screen which Samsung claims to conserve power even more compared to its AMOLED predecessor, this Wave is able to withstand usage on a single charge more than any other phones available right now. Of course, that would be funny if you take the veteran Nokia 3310 into this comparison. On a moderate usage with occasional SMS, calls lasting no more than 15minuntes per session, short clips on YouTube and checking mail via WiFi, this Wave is able to last 2 days which is very impressive considering that other smartphones won’t even last for more than a day.
Remember the lower profit margin I mentioned earlier? If you’re thinking the very reason Samsung is able to ship over a million units of Wave S8500 was because of its overall package, you’re wrong. The main reason was its pricing. The catalyst was the much marketed Super AMOLED and its design; aluminium build which looks very elegant and it looks pricy too, much like the design borrowed from Samsung’s own i8910 HD Omnia handphone.
i8910 Omnia HD, kinda similiar to Samsung Wave isn't it?
By having the design, the super clear Super AMOLED and Bluetooth 3.0, one might suggest a pricing of RM1800(USD560) for this Wave, much like the Jet when it was released this time last year. But, there is one thing, there are better smartphones at that price range. It just doesn’t make sense to get this Wave anymore if it was priced at RM1800. Android smartphones are far more superior than Wave with a Bada OS. Therefore, Samsung decided to earn a lower profit, get people to like Bada and sell it at a very low price of RM1450(USD450) – considering the features you will get in this phone. nextpage–>
2 Comments »
wefg on 21 Jul 2010 at 12:43 am #
nicely done. what do you think about the future for this platform is? i am still skeptical about buying this phone.
admin on 22 Jul 2010 at 11:02 pm #
i dont suggest you to consider future about this phone, what u need to consider is what you want now. you can refer back to the advice i wrote there