14 DAY TRIAL // A few days after Samsung confirmed the imminent launch of the Wave II in South Korea by the end of the month, the manufacturer announced that the smartphone is now available on the Indian market.
Wave II (S8530) is Samsung's sixth bada smartphone after Samsung S8500 Wave, Samsung S5250 Wave525, Samsung S5330 Wave533, Samsung S5750 Wave575 and Samsung S7230E Wave 723.
However, this is the rightful successor of the original Samsung S8500 Wave, sold in more than 2 million units since its launch in April 2010.
While the smartphone might seem similar to S8500 Wave, it looks like Wave II will come with an updated bada 1.2 OS.
The new operating system is said to feature Quicktype by T9 keyboard functionality, which works much the same as the Swype function on the Android smartphones.
Samsung S8530 Wave II is powered by a 1GHz Hummingbird CPU and features a 3.7-inch Super Clear LCD capacitive touchscreen with 16 million colors support (480 x 800 pixels resolution), which has a scratch-resistant oleophobic surface.
Other highlights of the device include: accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate, multi-touch input method, proximity sensor for auto turn-off, TouchWiz UI 3.0, Handwriting recognition, Smart unlock.
Spec-wise the device sports a 5-megapixel camera with autofocus, LED flash, geo-tagging, face, smile and blink detection, image stabilization, touch focus, as well as video recording capabilities (720p@30fps) and video light.
S8530 Wave is also an “all-in-one” communication tool, as it features a wide range of connectivity methods: HSDPA 3.6 Mbps, HSUPA 2 Mbps, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP support, DivX/Xvid support, microUSb 2.0, GPS with A-GPS support (Samsung Mobile Navigator).
The phone comes with a 1500 mAh Li-Ion battery, microSD card slot for memory expansion (up to 32GB, 2GB card included), 1.5 GB system storage (390 MB user available storage), 3.5 mm audio jack, DNSe (Digital Natural Sound Engine), TV-Out, Stereo FM radio with RDS, and FM recording.
Samsung's Wave II suggested retail price is Rs. 20,900 (about $454), but it seems that many retailers are selling the product for just Rs. 17,000 (about $370).