Available
now 30th August 2011
A midrange smartphone, the Samsung Wave M runs the latest
version of Samsung's proprietary Bada operating system. The Wave
M is pitching itself against a mass of cheap Android handsets, which
is a tough market to beat, especially for a non-Android device like
this.
There's a respectably sized 3.7" 320 x 480 pixel display
on the front, a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash on the
back capable of very basic QVGA video capture, a secondary video
calling camera on the front, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0 and 3.5G support
plus a microSD slot with a 2GB card in the box. There's a stereo
FM radio as well, and some versions of the Wave M will support NFC
communications.
Bada is a well designed operating system and this latest version
comes with enhancements all around, including better social networking
support. Although there are thousands of applications
available for Bada, don't expect to see the dizzying range that
there are for Android or the iPhone.
Pricing will be the critical issue here, and we just don't know
how much the Wave M will be. If they can manage to get it down to
€200 or so then it will be an attractive proposition for people
who want a fairly basic smartphone but don't want to pay the earth.
The Wave M measures a fairly typical 114 x 63 x 12mm and weighs
121 grams. The 1350 mAh battery gives up to 6.5 hours talktime and
20 days standby time. Samsung didn't say when the Wave M would be
available, but we would expect it to see it by the end of the
year.
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