Feb 7, 2011 14:44 GMT  ·  By

Confirmed for a Q1 2011 release in South Korea, Samsung Wave II has just hit the shelves and is now available for purchase via SK Telecom.

Wave II is Samsung's sixth bada smartphone after Samsung S8500 Wave, Samsung S5250 Wave525, Samsung S5330 Wave533, Samsung S5750 Wave575 and Samsung S7230E Wave 723, and the first bada phone available in South Korea.

Labeled as SHW-M210S, the device strongly resembles the older S8500 Wave, but unlike its predecessor, 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 Android smartphones.

Samsung SHW-M210S (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.

Specs-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.

Wave II is also an “all-in-one” communication tool, as it features a wide range of connectivity methods: T-DMB, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n connectivity, 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.

Korean customers will have to pay around 700,000 won (about $630) for Samsung Wave II, which is much higher than expected. The device is available in three different color schemes: Ebony Elegance Grey, Pink and Platinum Silver.

As a side note, the phone is already available in India for just Rs. 17,000 (about $370) free of contract.

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Samsung SHW-M210S
Samsung SHW-M210S
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