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Samsung Wave S8500 review

Samsung Wave is another flagship among the manufacturer's touchphones. The model under consideration has an index S8500, i.e. should be more perfect than the predecessors Samsung S8000 and S8300. In fact, the S8500 has seen a lot of changes and improvements.

Design and ergonomics

Externally, Samsung Wave is hard to notice anything fundamentally new. As before, the touchphone is a medium-sized candy bar. In this case, the size of the case is determined by the diagonal of the display. The case is quite thin and narrow, while the length is considerable. The phone fits comfortably in the hand, and carrying it in your pocket does not cause any discomfort.

The material from which the body of the device is made is mainly metal. Almost the entire rear panel, ends, as well as part of the front side are metal. This solution gives the device modernity and style, while making it more practical.

The display is surrounded by glossy plastic around the perimeter. Fingerprints are very visible on this surface. Moreover, this gloss is not resistant to small scratches.

There are no complaints about the build quality. All body parts fit perfectly. We shouldn't have expected anything else, especially considering the form factor, which does not imply the presence of a large number of parts. The battery cover is securely attached to the case, so we dare to assume that it will not wobble in the future.

There is a battery under the cover, and under it, in turn, there are slots for a SIM card and a slot for a memory card. There is no need to talk about "hot" replacement of memory cards.

On the left side face there is a swing button that controls the sound volume. On the right side there are two elements: a button for locking the display and a key that controls the camera.

Below the display, the manufacturer has placed a navigation block traditional for touchphones, consisting of call acceptance / end buttons and a central function key. A short press on the center key opens the main menu, and a long hold down opens the task manager. Note that all these buttons are physical, i.e. the manufacturer refused from sensors in the S8500.

The top edge houses a standard 3.5mm audio jack, microUSB, and a speaker. The microUSB connector is covered with a high-quality plug, which is implemented non-standard. It does not come out like in most phones, but fits inside the body of the device. This solution looks very original and elegant.

But the main speaker of the phone does not give cause for joy. At maximum volume, the sound is distorted, noises and wheezing appear. It is better to listen to music through the loudspeaker at a medium volume, otherwise there will be little pleasure.

Concluding the subparagraph on the appearance of the device, I would like to say that, by and large, we did not notice anything super-attractive in the design of the touchphone. Samsung's style is recognizable in many ways. On closer inspection, you notice that certain elements have already been used in their predecessors. Let's just say: the appearance of the Samsung Wave S8500 is not for everybody.

Display

The main advantage of the display is the technology by which the matrix is ​​made - Super AMOLED. Super AMOLED technology differs from conventional AMOLED in several ways. Firstly, in the new edition, the thickness of the matrix itself is minimal. Secondly, the problem of peeling elements is no longer (in the Super version there is only one layer). Thirdly, the touch sensitivity of the matrix has been significantly improved. Moreover, the brightness of such screens is greater, as is the lifespan.

The display is protected by a glass surface with a grease-repellent coating. As a result, fingerprints are invisible, only faint stains are visible. In general, the display can be called non-marking.

The diagonal of the screen is no less than 3.3 inches. Resolution - 800x480 pixels.The sensor is made using capacitive technology with multitouch support. The touch sensitivity of the screen is excellent. The same can be said for image clarity.

The color rendition is close to ideal. However, sometimes because of the excessive "juiciness", the picture on the screen looks unnatural. In any case, the Super AMOLED display only evokes positive emotions. The viewing angles are very wide.

Another significant plus is the behavior of the Super AMOLED screen in the sun. Even at minimum brightness, the information on the display remains readable. And if you set the brightness to maximum, then the loss of picture quality will be minimal.

At the moment, there is only one competitor to Super AMOLED matrices - Retina (used in Apple iPhone 4). Both of these matrices have similar characteristics, so it is very difficult to give preference to one or the other.

The display of the Samsung Wave S8500 touchphone is a kind of visiting card. When looking at the S8500, the first thing you notice is the high image quality, which is an order of magnitude higher than in top-end mobile devices from HTC.

Platform interface and functionality Bada

Samsung S8500 is based on the Bada mobile platform, which is essentially an operating system.

By default, the main screen consists of 3 pages on which all kinds of widgets are placed. If desired, the number of these pages can be expanded to ten. Comparing the interface with its predecessors, you can see some changes. So, the widget windows have slightly increased and added in terms of functionality. The set of widgets is now wider.

The main menu is designed in Corby style: several pages and no folders. Similar to the situation with the main screen, the number of pages can be adjusted from 3 to 10. There is a useful trick. If you activate the option of automatic sorting of shortcuts in the settings, then the system will analyze the most frequently used applications and "throw" them to the first page.

The system tray is located at the top of the screen and is almost always displayed (the only exceptions are running full-screen applications). In the minimized state, the following information is displayed in the tray: battery charge level and signal reception level, time, alarm clock, current profile, etc. You can expand the tray and then quickly enable / disable the wireless interfaces Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or select the desired profile. In the same menu, you can see missed calls, unread SMS. Moreover, control of the music player is available from this menu. In general, this menu is very convenient and practical, because provides access to the most requested functions.

It's worth noting that the Samsung Wave interface has a lot in common with the Apple iPhone. Neither Android, WinMo, nor Symbian have as many similarities to the iPhone.

The similarities can be seen not only in the organization of the menus, the effects when the image is rotated or in the keyboard. In our case, the manufacturer took over from the iPhone directly the way of organizing functions. For example, in order to take a screenshot, you need to press two buttons at the same time: the block key and "Home". On iPhone, you need to hold down the Home button to take a picture. As a comparison, here is Android, where you need to install the SDK on your PC, and then synchronize with your mobile device.

The tachfon has the Samsung Apps utility - a manager for accessing the mobile program store. At the moment, most of the applications are free, but soon the list of paid ones will be significantly expanded.

The program you need can be found through the categories, or using the search function. The page displayed includes a description and some screenshots. By the way, deleting applications in our case is quite simple: just click the delete button opposite the corresponding icon (in this case, the icon moving mode must be activated). Despite significant similarities with iOS, the Bada platform has its own proprietary features. And those who call it a copy of iOS are mistaken.

We have already mentioned that when you hold down the central navigation key, the task manager opens. This dispatcher is designed as a 2x3 grid of icons. If the number of icons exceeds the six mark, then they are shown on several pages. Bada implements multitasking, albeit quite limited. Simultaneous operation of 1 Java application and 1 Bada application is supported. In such a situation, when you run the 2nd utility (for example, gallery, browser, contacts), the first one is minimized and you can return to it. If, after opening the first one, you decide to open the second equivalent, then the first application will simply close. In this case, the link to this application will remain in the task manager. By clicking on it, the application starts again from the place where the work was interrupted. It is unlikely that such a solution can be called a work in the background. But it's better this way than nothing.

Those widgets that are launched on the home screen are also displayed in the task manager as a separate utility. If you select the "Close All" option, the main screen will clear of installed widgets. The same system is applied in the iPhone OS.

The "brain" of the Samsung Wave S8500 is a processor operating at a clock frequency of 1 gigahertz. The amount of RAM is 512 megabytes. Moreover, the embedded processor has a dedicated graphics processing component. It is called the POWERVR SGX540. This chip supports processing up to 89 million polygons / sec. For comparison, let's say that the Snapdragon chip, which is installed in many productive communicators, is capable of processing no more than 22 million polygons / sec. In view of this, only the iPhone 4 (88 million ppm / sec) can compete in this area. We do not take into account the Samsung Galaxy S.

As you can see, Samsung Wave is equipped with one of the best fillings. Despite this, the manufacturer for some reason imposed a limit on the number of running applications. True, this solution has one positive point: during the testing of the device, not a single slowdown was noticed. Even actions such as zoom and scrolling are smooth. The same applies to games - everything is fast and clear, without "brakes".

Next, I would like to dwell on the description of applications that will run in the background. These applications include messages, contacts, notes, and calendar.

Contacts now have more functionality than before. Several informative tabs are implemented here, reminiscent of the Symbian analog. In addition to information about the selected contact, the user can view the history of calls and messages related to this subscriber.

Displaying messages is available in one of two modes. The first mode is to display one by one. The second is in the form of a chat with the selected subscriber.

The interface of the notes is very attractive. The main menu of the application displays the bookmarks of the notes, which are sorted in chronological order. The user can expand and view these bookmarks both in one and in a separate window. The background color can be changed.

The built-in browser has good functionality. In particular, the application can run in the background. The browser does an excellent job of displaying mobile and full-fledged versions of sites. This is largely due to the high-quality display with multitouch support. The browser can work with multiple open windows. In addition, it is possible to adjust the brightness regardless of the basic settings. The built-in browser also has some drawbacks. For example, quite often an error appears informing about insufficient memory. This error appears when trying to open a "heavy" site (assuming other applications are running in the background). The phone's specifications claim to support Flash elements, but in practice the Flash format is not displayed. We found the corresponding "Launch Flash" item in the settings, but nothing changed.

Samsung Apps currently offers over 500 free apps to users, although the number may vary by region.

Now let's talk about applications that do not fully collapse. First is the Daily Briefing - a daily summary of information that includes calendar entries, stock quotes, news feed and weather forecast. Secondly, the Mini Diary application, as you might guess from the name, is a diary with the ability to add photos and text comments. The main task of this application is to synchronize current records with social networks (Facebook, Hyves).

Next, it's worth noting Wave's support for social media. For Facebook and Twitter, the manufacturer has provided dedicated clients. These clients have standard features. In addition, the user can configure synchronization with services such as Windows Live, My Space, Google and Yahoo. In this case, the mobile device will independently check accounts and display updates in a special section of the Social Hub.

Samsung Wave supports Bluetooth version 3.0, which allows data transfer at speeds up to 24 megabits per second. Here we immediately note that such overclocking is available only on condition of the second device with a "blue tooth" of the third version. There are very few such devices at the moment, but in the future it will become more convenient to use Bluetooth.

Wireless data transmission is available via Wi-Fi. The built-in module supports the 802.11 b / g / n standard. There are no complaints about the stability of this function. Also note the support for 3G +.

Another function is satellite navigation. On average, a mobile device takes about 40 seconds to establish a connection. The indicator can be called average. The main problem with navigation is primitive software. In any case, this applies to the standard configuration. For example, through Samsung LBS Belarus is a blank spot on the map. In a company store, you are unlikely to be able to find anything suitable. But you can download and install Yandex maps or Google maps.

Multimedia capabilities

The music player may appear differently. The first option is an album cover and simple visualization. At the bottom, there are virtual keys. The second option is design in the tracklist itself. As playback progresses, the selected song line gradually fills with a blue background.

When you turn the mobile device to landscape orientation, then the interface will also change. In this case, the player will be displayed as a CD changer with discs. By and large, the design of Wave has a lot in common with the musical brainchild of Samsung - the Beat DJ M7600.

One of the main features of the phone in question is the ability to watch videos in HD quality, as well as support for the popular DivX and XviD codecs. This allows you to view video files without the need for conversion. The touchphone recognizes DVDRip video files without problems (it doesn't matter 700 megabytes or 1.4 gigabytes). But as far as playback is concerned, not everything is so smooth here. During playback, slowdowns are often observed.

Camera

The device is equipped with a 5-megapixel photo module. The camera does not have any outstanding characteristics. The pictures are of good quality. Below are some sample photos taken with the Wave camera:

As for the video, the indicators are noticeably better. The camera can record videos in HD quality - 1280x720. At maximum recording quality, 1 minute consumes up to 90 megabytes of space. The resulting videos look good, especially due to the increased clarity and rendering.

Accumulator battery

Samsung Wave with its broad capabilities has good battery life. Under a serious load (about half an hour of phone calls, a few SMS, half an hour of surfing the Internet, using wireless interfaces, playing games, a couple of hours of playing music tracks) Wave worked for almost two days.This figure was achieved largely thanks to a well-thought-out power consumption system and an economical Super AMOLED display.

Conclusion

Samsung Wave is definitely an interesting and very strong offer from the South Korean manufacturer. The Bada platform can rightfully be added to the advantages of this device. Subsequent Bada-based mobile devices are likely to impress even more.

Probably the Wave's biggest plus is its gorgeous Super AMOLED screen. Pleased with the wide multimedia capabilities. The performance also did not disappoint.

Among the shortcomings, let's single out the pre-installed low-quality navigation package. In addition, the appearance of the phone is not to everyone's liking. In conclusion, we will say that Wave's price looks very attractive - on average, less than UAH 4,000.

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