Samsung has introduced a lower- midrange category in the bada lineup, as it sports a 5MP camera and a larger screen, Samsung Wave M. This brings together a wide variety of new capabilities and enables smartphone users to experience advanced services such as photo and file sharing without Internet networking, mobile payment and transport pass-card recharge. Along with this, The Samsung Wave M allows users to keep up-to-date with their hectic social lives with ChatON and Social Hub. ChatON is Samsung's proprietary mobile communication service that works across all major mobile devices.
With the screen size at 0.48" (12.2mm), it is somewhat bulky and there's enough grip on the sides. The back cover which seems to be brushed with metallic finish, is made of plastic, and is pretty slippery. The 3.65" LCD display sports 320x480 resolution, making it comfortable enough to type on the virtual keyboard. The 832MHz processor runs things very smooth and zippy, without any interface jams. The TouchWiz UI here, however, introduces notifications on the lock screen, and a dedicated homescreen for cool widgets with transparent backgrounds, which we can scroll up and down, instead of swiping, called Live Panel. The UI also sports redrawn icons and folders, as well as the new radio buttons for turning different functions on and off. This Samsung mobile sports a nice set of connectivity options - 7.2Mbps HSDPA, Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct, as well as Bluetooth, A-GPS, DLNA with the AllShare app, FM Radio and even NFC, which has its own app for making and receiving NFC tags. We have a 5MP camera on the back with an LED flash, situated next to the speaker grill, and an addition of a front-facing cam is a nice touch. The camera focuses well and sharpness is decent, plus the phone captures detail commensurate for a 5MP shooter. The LED flash is capable enough to illuminate the scene from about six feet, without casting any weird shadows. The Samsung Wave M records 640x480 video with 30fps, which makes for a watchable experience, but can't be compared to HD 720p and 1080p video capture regimes in any case. Other than that, the video is with accurate color representation and enough sharpness. The handset only plays MPEG-4 video files, which is a let-down considering DivX/Xvid support comes standard on a lot of Samsung mid or even low-end handsets. There are also no photo and video editors, not only embedded in the Gallery interface, but also missing as preloaded standalone apps. Talking about the battery, the 1350mAh battery is quoted for 6 hours and 30 minutes of talk time in 3G mode, as well as 20 days on standby.
Overall, the Samsung Wave M being bit bulky, sports a passable design but it is comfortable to grab and hold. The major issue came across for the category is a lower than usual pixel density, which sometimes makes text appear uneven, and the TouchWiz interface is rough. Although pictures from the 5MP shooter and the good call quality took all the appreciation. The Wave M didn't make it to stand much against a decent Android midrange phone, which indeed provide hundreds of thousands of apps backing it up, but it is a decent addition to the bada lineup nonetheless.
