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Samsung Wave S5250 Review
Phone rating: In a nutshell: The Samsung Wave 525 (or Samsung S5250) is an entry-level smartphone running Samsung's Bada operating system. Bada may not have a lot of apps available to download (although it has some great free games), but it does have a lot of smart features built into the operating system. The result is a phone that's very much more than what you'd typically expect at this price point. Key features include facebook and twitter integration, GPS mapping, camera, music player and FM radio with track ID and radio recording. Connectivity includes Wi-Fi and the battery life and memory are excellent too. 3G is missing and the camera is pretty basic, but the Wave is one of the best phones for the price. Available in Black and White. Review: February 2011. In a move designed to broaden their range of handsets using the Bada operating system, Samsung have launched the Wave 525 and placed it right into the bargain £100 price range (or as low as £10 per month on contract with free line rental thrown in!) Previously Samsung's Bada operating system had only appeared on high-end handsets. Now, here it is, bringing smartphone capabilities into the budget sector. The Wave 525 (or Wave525 or Wave S5250 or Wave 2 as Samsung annoyingly refer to it sometimes) is a smart-looking smartphone, with an ultraslim lightweight design, chrome edging and an unusually narrow shape, making it longer than usual, but great to hold in the hand. The extra length allows for a longer than normal LCD screen with a generous size of 3.2 inches and a WQVGA resolution of 240 x 400 pixels. The extra screen space is used to good effect by Samsung's TouchWiz 3.0 user interface, which works well and lets you customise up to 10 home screens with icons and shortcuts to good effect. The Bada operating system is easy to use and intuitive and comes with some nice features, such as good integration between contacts and facebook and twitter accounts. The virtual keyboards are easy to use, with generously-sized keys, especially in landscape mode. While the number of apps available for Bada cannot match the iPhone or Android, there's plenty of pre-installed features that make it superior to a standard (non-smart) phone. There are some very good free games available. The Wave 525 isn't a 3G phone, which does limit its smartphone aspirations, and means that there's no secondary camera for video calling. However, it does have Wi-Fi, so you can get fast internet access if you're in a Wi-Fi hotspot, and you can use EDGE if not. Web browsing uses Samsung's Dolphin browser, which does the job but isn't as good as the browser on Android phones. Apart from the lack of 3G, connectivity is outstanding, with Bluetooth 3.0 and USB available in addition to Wi-Fi, GPRS and EDGE. The Wave 525 has a built-in GPS receiver, with assisted GPS and geo-tagging. The camera is one area where pennies have been saved. With 3.2 megapixels with no flash and no autofocus, it can't match the other Samsung phones in this price range. However, it's easy to use, making good use of the touchscreen. The video recording is at QVGA resolution with just 15 frames per second, so again is below the average for this type of phone. On the positive side, Bada does provide you with an image editing app. The music player is better than the camera, and the phone also has an FM radio with RDS and the ability to record directly from the radio. There's a music-recognition app installed too. A 3.5mm headphone socket is present, and simulated surround sound is available when you plug in suitable headphones. The phone's memory is 100MB, which is quite generous for an entry-level smartphone, and the phone will accept microSD cards up to 16GB as well. The processor seems to be adequate for the job, although it's not lightning-fast like the 1GHz CPU used in the high-end Samsung Galaxy S. The user interface is responsive most of the time, but hiccups on occasions. The battery is reasonably high-powered, at 1200mAh, and is more than sufficient for a phone of this type. Samsung quote an incredible 50 days standby time, which is beyond incredulity, but real-world users should find that they get several days use between charges. We're actually very impressed with the Wave 525. iPhone it ain't, but as a budget smartphone it does a heck of a lot, and does it very nicely too. Although there aren't too many Bada apps available, there are plenty of tools built into the OS, and some great games to download. Alternative smartphones to consider in this price bracket would be the Android-powered Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 or the Symbian Nokia 5230. We'd go for either the Wave 525 or the Sony Ericsson.
Features of the Samsung Wave525 include:
Samsung Wave 525 User ReviewsLove your mobile? Hate it? Please share your experiences to help other people choose the phone that's best for them. Please do not review this phone if you have not used it. This is a review site, not a forum, so please don't just ask questions. Please do not use swear words or offensive language, and please, no advertising! Average rating from 18 reviews: Reviewed by Rochelle from UK on 6th Mar 2012 Reviewed by raja from india on 27th Feb 2012 Reviewed by Jordan from INDIA on 31st Jan 2012 Reviewed by judo from uk on 25th Jan 2012 Reviewed by Jamie from UK on 5th Jan 2012 Reviewed by siddharth kamble from India on 23rd
Nov 2011 Reviewed by ajay bhagat from india on 17th Oct
2011 Reviewed by jerwenjay from philippines on 21st
Sep 2011 Reviewed by shampi dodo from india on 19th Sep
2011 Reviewed by vikas from india on 5th Aug 2011 Reviewed by amish from india on 29th Jun 2011 Reviewed by Neil Danks from UK on 11th Jun 2011 Reply by abc from india on 24th Aug
2012 Reviewed by Kath from England on 29th May 2011 Reviewed by sam from england on 23rd May 2011 Reviewed by anonymous from england on 5th Apr
2011 Reviewed by Ed from UK on 25th Mar 2011 Reviewed by sam from uk on 12th Mar 2011 Reply by Terry from E.U.S.S.R on 28th
Jan 2012 Reviewed by Terry from E.U.S.S.R. on 13th Mar
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