Samsung Wave 3 Preview

Introduction:

The latest grandmaster of Samsung’s bada OS dropped by the office to say hi in the form of a prototype preview unit, and the first impression it brought was that of a pretty solid device. Unlike the original Wave, though, which was the first smartphone with Super AMOLED display and the excellent Hummingbird chipset, the third edition won’t steal the spotlight from Samsung’s best Android handsets.

It sports bada 2.0, a single core processor pumped up to 1.4GHz, and a 4” Super AMOLED display. Bada OS is not optimized for dual-core chipsets and doesn't support Adobe Flash, so one core clocked at 1.4GHz seems enough, but does it run the new visual candy well? Read on to find out our thoughts on the Samsung Wave 3 prototype…

Design:

The Wave 3 feels rather wide in the hand, leaving the impression you are nestling something larger than a 4-incher in your palm. That feeling is aided by the solid metal chassis, half of which simply slides up when you push a thin button on the back, revealing the battery compartment with the SIM card and microSD slots – no need to look for nail slots to pry open a flimsy back cover.



You can compare the Samsung Wave 3 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

The regular 4” Super AMOLED display seems like taken directly from the last year's Galaxy S editions. It has the same 480x800 resolution, wide viewing angles, gaudy colors and almost infinite contrast. Unfortunately, it still sports overly cold colors and the PenTile matrix, which places it a level below the Super AMOLED Plus display on the Galaxy S II, for example.

In short, we are very satisfied with the design – the phone is slim at 0.39“ (9.9mm), with 4.30oz (122g) of heft, despite the largely metal chassis, and has all the curves at the right places that make it comfortable to hold. Moreover, from the looks and materials one can immediately tell they are holding a high-end bada phone, so the Samsung Wave 3 has managed to both be distinctive, and keep the flagship design heritage alive. The only gripe is that it is a tad on the wide side, which would make it unwieldy for people with smaller hands – a taller, but narrower design approach would have been better, like the way a 4.2” screen was fit in the Sony Ericsson Xperia arc's narrower body.