Samsung announces Wave 3 Bada 2.0 smartphone

There is a market for more than iOS, Android and Windows Phone. At least this is what Samsung believes. Samsung today announced another model running their own Bada operating system. Samsung Wave 3 is running on the 2rd main release of the Samsung Bada OS. A little late maybe, but the Bada 2.0 now has got multitasking which we would expect from a OS released in 2011. Other improvements are a new UI, NFC support, app-to-app communication, text-to-speech and speech-to-text, Wi-Fi Direct and Push notifications. Bada 2.0 has also go a brand new Web Application Framework where UIs can be created using JavaScript and HTML5. The WAC API let developers access device feature using APIs for Camera, Accelerometer and PIM.

The Wave 3 has that distinctive Wave-look inherited from the predecessors. At 9.9 mm, the Wave 3 is a relatively thin 4 inch smartphone model with a Super AMOLED display, 1.4 GHz processor, 5 megapixel camera and 3 GB memory.

The first Wave model received good critics from reviewers despite the few available apps compared to more widespread OSes.

With the Wave 3, Samsung also introduces the new mobile messaging service called ChatON. The ChatOn service will let users send text, video and images to other phones for free. A freely downloadable ChatOn app will be available later for iOS and Android. It is excellent with yet another free messaging service, but there is a drawback. The ChatOn service requires the receiver to use ChatOn service as well.

Samsung Wave 3 highlights

• Size: 125.9 x 64.2 x 9.9 mm
• Weight: 122 gram
• Networks: GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900, UMTS 900/2100, HSPA 14.4/5.76
• 4 inch Smart AMOLED touch display, 480 x 800 pixels resolution
• Wi-Fi b/g/n. Wi-Fi Direct
• 5 megapixel camera, LED light
• 720p HD video recording
• Bluetooth 3.0
• USB
• 3 GB memory. Expandable up to 32 GB with microSD card
• 1500 mAh battery
• 1.4 GHz processor
• Bada 2.0 operating system