Home  ›  News  ›

MWC 2010

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Comments  20  

Samsung Wave Sony Ericsson Garmin Nuvifones Moto Cliq XT  

Feb 14, 2010, 6:30 PM   by Eric M Zeman & Rich Brome
updated Feb 21, 2010, 9:46 PM

Phone Scoop's full report from MWC in Barcelona. Hands-on with new phones from Puma, Motorola, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and a special preview of Windows Phone 7.

Today Samsung announced its first Bada OS phone, the Wave. It's a slim touch phone that marries an interesting array of elements together into a stylish phone.

The defining feature of the Wave is no doubt its "Super AMOLED" display. It is, without doubt, the most amazing display I've seen on a mobile phone. The resolution (480 x 800) matches many of its peers, but the brightness is an order of magnitude better. The pictures and video Phone Scoop captured simply can't do justice to the real thing. It's simply stunning. What's a shame is the size. It measures 3.3 inches, which makes it smaller than many of today's best smartphones. A Samsung representative, however, said that the company plans to release a device with a four-inch Super AMOLED later this year.

Wave Body  

The form factor is pretty typical for a Samsung phone. Some of the design language echoes that of the Ultra Edition series of phones that Samsung churned out back in 2006 and 2007. It is extremely slim, light-weight, and feels really good in the hand. The overal form factor is smaller than a Nexus One. It is very pocket friendly, and will slip in and out easily.

The three physical buttons on the front are squished way down at the bottom of the Wave, making them somewhat awkward to reach with your thumb. Even so, they had good travel and feedback. On the left side of the phone is the volume toggle. It is a bit on the small side, but it had good travel and feedback. The lock key and camera key are on the right side of the phone. They are also both a bit small, but travel and feedback was good. The 3.5mm headset jack and mircoUSB port are on the top.

As for the operating system, well, it didn't feel all that different from Samsung's current crop of TouchWiz phones.

Bada is a new platform that Samsung created to compete with the likes of Android and perhaps Symbian. We really can't say straight up what native Bada feels or looks like, however, because the Wave runs TouchWiz 3.0. TW3 has been improved a lot when compared to TouchWiz 2.

Wave Menus  

TW3 has multiple home screens and supports up to 10 of them. The home screens can be populated with widgets, links, bookmarks, shortcuts or other apps for quicker access. The dock that hides in TW2 appears to be gone in favor of the multiple home screens.

The main menu is accessed by pressing a button on the home screen. It is laid out in a grid exactly like the iPhone, and swipes from screen to screen exactly like the iPhone. It is blazingly fast. The Wave is powered by a 1GHz processor (made by Samsung) and it is one of the faster phones I've used. Much of the software is an obvious evolutionary update of the TW2 software, especially applications such as the music player and camera.

The browser is Samsung's own Dolfin browser. When it worked (which was rare) it actually loaded the WAP version of Phone Scoop rather than the html version. That's pretty weak.

The best feature of TouchWiz 3.0 is the new Social Hub. Basically, it is exactly like Motorola's MOTOBLUR social media service, only it's a bit more polished.

It combines all messaging and social networking messages into threaded conversations that are visible from each individual contact. So, for example, if you look up John Smith in your contacts database, you'll see all the recent calls, SMS, emails, IMs, Twitter posts, Facebook posts and shared pictures on John's contact detail page. You can also look at a master inbox that shows all messaging in one stream.

The Wave crashed several times while we were using it. Once it required a battery pull. The second time it gave us a memory error, but eventually it recovered. We were told that the software is still pretty early in the development cycle.

What's perhaps most disappointing is that Bada and TouchWiz 3.0 still feel like a feature phone platform, even though Samsung is pitching them as a new smartphone platform. Granted, we only spent a few moments with it and didn't get to play with every feature, but it simply felt like the OS didn't do all that much.

In all, there's no denying that it is a slick phone. I am sure the version that comes to market will be less buggy and even more polished. With no plans to bring it to the U.S., though, there are better alternatives if you're looking for a phone right now.

About the author, Eric M Zeman & Rich Brome:

Eric has been covering the mobile telecommunications industry for 17 years at various print and online publications. He studied at Rutgers Newark and University of Kentucky, and has a degree in writing. He likes playing guitar, attending concerts, listening to music, and driving sports cars.

Comments

This forum is closed.

This forum is closed.

Roddy227

Feb 22, 2010, 6:13 PM

Adobe and Android

Has anyone seen data to suggest a release date for the flash updates on the android OS? I'm itching to see how much it will change things
JestaMcMerv

Feb 15, 2010, 11:02 AM

I think WP7 caught everyone off guard...

Color me impressed. I'd have to say that I'm happy Microsoft is taking the bold steps needed to assure quality across its mobile platform. The hardware requirements and desire to leave the visuals of WP7 intact will help quality and consistency. Even if you don't agree that the interface is pretty or usable or whatever, you have to commend Microsoft for developing a solid product and standing firmly behind it. I'm a little excited to finally see some shake up in the mobile arena.

Also no syncing for contacts and such is great. Finally. Also I'm happy they added WiFi Zune sync also, one of the coolest zune features after zunepass.
If you're not a Zune user.. if you're not an xbox user...if you prefer Google over Bing.... WHY WOULD YOU BUY THIS PHONE? I want a phone for THE INTERNET.....NOT to be brainwashed and herded like a sheep into using Microsoft's other products.
...
Because of how different it is. It's not trying to be all eye candy. There are some neat transitions, but it's a wholly new look for a UI.

My only real concern is how this device will be able to work with power users. Most people I know who use ...
(continues)
...
Its def. a nice looking UI. I'm glade Microsoft took the chance, they need to. We will see how well it actually runs in the real world. I hope it is a success since it will make Google and Aple work harder.
...
Tmo Slave

Feb 18, 2010, 1:30 PM

Metallica?

When talking about the HTC Desire the article said the metallica surfaces are nice instead of the metallic surfaces are nice. Guess someone was rocking out to Master of Puppets before the convention. 🤣
pilialoha66

Feb 18, 2010, 10:27 AM

Toshiba and spb mobile shell

Is it just me or is the new Toshiba interface really spb mobile shell?
kingstu

Feb 16, 2010, 1:05 PM

Nuvifone A50 not coming to US?

The official garmin-asus website lists the phone as capable of working on all 5 bands? Did they tell you that it won't be launched in the USA or do they not have any US-based carrier agreements? I would love to buy a non-carrier customized/locked version since it looks like a significant improvement over the G60.
bluecoyote

Feb 15, 2010, 12:33 PM

Bada = Fail

What is "Media...wser" .

I swear, does Samsung have ANY quality control procedures?
Bada=new feature phone ui imo.. seriously.. the only thing neat about it is the screen.
bluecoyote

Feb 15, 2010, 12:27 PM

Zune software...

So they're syncing with the Zune software, which is the definite weak point of the Zune ecosystem now (Microsoft Points is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of.)

Are they going to make it cross platform compatible? If not they're shooting themselves in the foot.
bob a

Feb 15, 2010, 11:31 AM

it's just so amazingly... ugly ... to me

i'm sure many will like it but there's no way i can't live with that. unless there's a way to replace the whole front end...and from what i understand they've killed that option... sorry msft ... adios.. byebye
 
 
Page  1  of 1

Subscribe to news & reviews with RSS Follow @phonescoop on Threads Follow @phonescoop on Mastodon Phone Scoop on Facebook Follow on Instagram

 

Playwire

All content Copyright 2001-2024 Phone Factor, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Content on this site may not be copied or republished without formal permission.