Samsung Wave 2 (S5250 / Wave 525) and Wave 2 Pro (S5330 / Wave 533)

Available now
15th June 2010

Note: these are now marketed as the Wave 525 and Wave 533.

Two very similar smartphones running Samsung's Bada platform, the Samsung Wave 2 S5250 and Wave 2 Pro S5330 follow on from the high end Samsung Wave S8500 with something a little more affordable.

The only major difference between the Wave 2 and Wave 2 Pro is that the "Pro" version comes with a decent looking slide-out QWERTY keyboard which adds 3.5mm in thickness.

Both Wave 2 handsets sport a 3.2" 400 x 240 pixel display, a 3 megapixel camera, FM radio, 3.5mm audio socket, GPS and WiFi (including 802.11n), but rather surprisingly neither of them support 3G or 3.5G connectivity. However, the Wave 2 handsets can operate in a no-SIM mode which presumably means that they can be used as mini Internet tablets if you have a WiFi connection. Of course, there's also Bluetooth support and USB connectivity as well.

The Bada platform is (by all accounts) pretty decent to use, but because it is still very new then there are not very many applications available for it. Samsung are encouraging developers to write for the new platform though, so things should improve.. however if apps are your bag then perhaps a low-end Android phone like the Galaxy 3 or 5 might be better.

Mind you, many consumers will have no idea what OS the Wave 2 is running as it also runs Samsung's familiar TouchWiz interface. There's also a pretty good web browser, email client and support for ActiveSync to connect to corporate Exchange servers. Added to this is Samsung's "Social Hub" to support social networks and a set of built-in personal information management tools.

Initially aimed at Russia and South-East Asia, the Samsung Wave 2 and Wave 2 Pro will be available in black, white and pink colour schemes. We have no guidance on pricing though, although our bet is that these will offer very good value for money as Samsung seeks to establish Bada as an operating platform.