As they say in the online circles, no phone has managed to escape the black hole that is the mobile review website, and Samsung’s latest smartphone, using its own (new) bada operating system, is no exception. The website timed this review of the new Samsung Wave aka S8500 perfectly to coincide with the commencement of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) today in Barcelona, and I think what must have been a PR coup for Samsung has had its thunder taken away by the website due to this review! Imagine – a review of a phone that has not even been officially announced nor acknowledged! Priceless!
So, the reviewer loved the phone, from what I can read. The Super AMOLED screen, of which Samsung is the sole supplier at the moment, is incredible – it gives off even more vibrant and livelier colours than the “normal” AMOLED screens. It is readable under direct sunlight. Here’s what they say about it:
- even a light press will suffice (previously, the Apple iPhone was the boss in this department, now Samsung is about to take over);
- top-notch readability under direct sunlight;
- screen brightness – absolutely unbelievable colors (AMOLED topped TFT, Super AMOLED will best everything);
- display’s lifetime has increased immensely thanks to the absence of layers of air;
Actually, no words can describe how marvelous these screen look in real life – extremely bright and crisp. In fact, it won’t be an exaggeration to say that I haven’t seen anything like that in portable devices, ever. After the S8500, the displays found in the Nexus and other phones seem bleak and lifeless.
And I think that if you look at the comparison shots between the Google Nexus One and the Wave the difference will be immediately obvious to you. As for the rest of the review, I’ll leave it to you to read through it since today happens to be another lazy day where (almost) everyone is not working. The price in Europe is expected to be in the region of €450, approximately RM 2,094.
My personal impression is that it is a little pricey. If it’s going to sell for that amount in Europe, when it arrives in Malaysia (assuming it does arrive) it will likely cost more than that. Also, the success of any new smartphone operating system will be heavily dependent on the applications available for it – as they say “it’s the apps, stupid”. Even an excellent operating system can be killed by the lack of third party support in terms of applications. In this area, the future is still uncertain for the Wave. And finally, I wished that Samsung would invest a little in industrial design – the hardware design of its phones is getting a little stale with almost the same look for its higher end smartphones!
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…and 5 things to dislike. This is the title of an article from the geardiary website, who had three persons review the new-ish Google Nexus One. All of them used it for at least a month, and then came together to try to agree on the 10 things they liked about the phone, and 5 things not to like. It’s not a technical read at all; more of an end-user perspective. Some of the things they liked are not really applicable to Malaysia, such as Google’s Voice service, since we don’t get to enjoy it here, so it may subtract somewhat from the number of positive items.
