A Review of the Samsung Wave 2
Samsung recently released their Wave smartphone, largely to showcase Bada, the companys open mobile platform. The device was well-received by customers and critics, encouraging the company to continue developing product lines featuring Bada. In an effort to reach growing markets such as Russia, Samsung has released Wave 2.
Because the Wave 2 targets regions that arent terribly established in the smartphone game, gone is the support for 3G networks. It is a quad band handset that supports GPRS/EDGE. WiFi b/g/n is still found on the Wave 2, but Bluetooth v2.1 is included instead of 3.0. Additionally, the style of the Wave 2 Pro (the Wave 2s companion) itself has changed somewhat from the Wave in that it features a slide out QWERTY keyboard. The standard Wave 2 is a touch only screen. The screen itself is a 3.2 inch version and the user interface is Samsungs TouchWiz.
The Wave 2 comes equipped with 80MB of onboard memory and a microSD slot that allows for up to 16GB. Maybe its not as much memory as is found on the lighting fast, high priced smartphones on the market, but there is still plenty to keep the Wave 2 from bogging down while performing tasks. It is, after all, a smartphone geared toward social networking. Facebook and Twitter are already installed on the Wave 2 and plenty of other applications can obtained from the Samsung Apps store.
In order to keep the Wave 2 affordable for burgeoning markets, some of the most ancillary features are being left off of the phone. It is still an impressive handset. Granted, DivX and Xvid playback is unavailable, but there is an FM radio, GPS, microUSB, and the microSD slot mentioned before. And keeping true to its reputation as a social networking center, Samsungs own Social Hub makes an appearance on the Wave 2, combining Facebook, Twitter, IM, and email into one easy feed. Additional software is unnecessary when downloading apps such as games and navigational functions. The Wave 2 can be synched up to a PC for larger files. Cameras are a given on smartphones, and the Wave 2 comes with a 3-megapixel version.
A fine complement to the already popular Wave, Samsungs Wave 2 is a nice introduction to users who are not already familiar with much smartphone technology. What the Samsung Wave 2 lacks in innovation, it makes up for in affordability and reliability. It is a quality continuation of the Wave series of phones.
