Samsung Wave Overview

A quick flick through recent mobile phone reviews suggests that, of the latest mobile phones jostling for a premium place in the market, the Samsung Wave GT-S5800 has a lot to commend it. Its strikingly handsome slim-line appearance and its fabulous ‘Super AMOLED’ touch screen will leave you feeling decidedly spellbound and the solid metal body undoubtedly gives it a distinctly expensive feel, even though it’s actually rather reasonably priced (£300 on pay as you go, free if you opt for a £20 per month, two year contract).

Samsung mobile phones have certainly made progress on their original AMOLED screens – although they were amazingly bright and crisp, their glossy finish made viewing difficult in daylight. The Super AMOLED is considerably less reflective, and all the better for it. And the Wave’s Super AMOLED also happens to be super-responsive, too, which makes navigation a pure delight. Like the Galaxy, this highly sensitive capacitative screen supports multi-touch – to zoom in on a text or image, you just pinch your fingers together and, hey presto, you’re closer. You’ll also find that the phone includes HSDPA for super-fast web browsing over 3G, as well as GPS and the very latest 802.11n standard of Wi-Fi. You can also expand the integral 2 GB memory to a jaw-dropping 32 GB with a micro-SD card – and that camera’s a dream: not only will it automatically compensate for dark areas with a quick touch of the screen, it also shoots superb 720p HD video.

The Samsung Wave uses the new ‘Bada’ OS rather than Google’s Android, and Samsung believes this will deliver more smartphone features to less expensive phones. We’ll have to wait and see, but in the meantime, the Wave is a truly smart-looking smartphone at a reasonable price.