Unpacked event
In a way, Samsung jump-started the MWC a day early with their Unpacked event. Dedicated to their headline phone, the S8500 Wave, the show was heavy on multimedia in a way we've rarely seen before. The lavish event was keen to emphasize how committed Samsung are to their latest project and how hard they will be trying to make it work.
The Samsung Unpacked event
Launching a smartphone OS with an appstore and all certainly won’t be easy (even for Samsung) but the S8500 Wave is a promising start.
Samsung S8500 Wave
The Samsung S8500 Wave is the first device to run the new Bada OS but it comes with a familiar TouchWiz interface. Lively and colorful, the interface packs several usability and design upgrades compared to its featurephone days.
A notification tray sits at the top always ready to show you the latest events you have missed and let you control all your connections. The video and audio players have completely revamped interfaces and all the UI icons are new. The visual task switcher and the optional ten menu screens are also nice features although not as innovative.
Samsung S8500 Wave live shots
The young Bada OS owners will source applications from Samsung Apps - an online store that is already available in 3 countries and should launch in 50 more in the coming months. For now there are only around 100 Bada apps available there but Samsung promise to put great effort in extending that number.
Samsung S8500 Wave live shots
But the innovations that the Samsung S8500 Wave brings certainly don't end up with software. The handsets runs on a 1 GHz CPU and we can confirm that it's blazing fast. It is also among the little few to support the latest Wi-Fi n standard.
The best part of the Samsung S8500 Wave hardware however is its Super AMOLED display which is simply great. You can find out more details about it in our preview and see how close it comes to perfection.
The list of noteworthy Samsung S8500 Wave features continues with a 5 megapixel autofocus camera and 720p video recording. The camera interface is familiar - it's pretty much the same as on Samsung M8910 Pixon12. Here go several camera samples and a couple of sample videos that we took with the Wave.
Samsung S8500 Wave camera/ samples
Now add the fact that Samsung S8500 Wave is the first handset to support Bluetooth 3.0 and you get yourselves a really nice package. Now the question remains if they will also get the pricing right to succeed in promoting their new OS.
MWC booth
Now that we have the Unpacked event covered, we moved to the Samsung booth at the MWC to check out their other new announcements. The number isn't as high as in previous years but there are still several devices that deserve attention.
Samsung's booth at the MWC
Samsung S8500 Wave
We also got a chance to get to know the Samsung S8500 Wave better the following day at the Samsung booth. There isn't much more we can tell you at this stage about the interface and performance but since we were allowed to take it off the premises we have a bunch of new samples from its camera.
Samsung S8500 Wave in the wild
The camera software (and probably hardware) is still far from complete so what you see here should be easily beaten by a final retail unit. Dramatic improvements in still images are likely, it would be a surprise if a company of such great record in imaging to disappoint with their most important project.
Samsung S8500 Wave camera samples
Samsung I8520 Beam (Android 2.1)
Samsung I8520 Beam is the first Android phone to pack a built-in projector and at 14.2mm it is also the slimmest handset that we can think of with that feature. Unlike the Samsung I7500 Galaxy and I5700 Galaxy Spica, the I8520 has its UI thoroughly customized to match the latest Bada/TouchWiz amalgam.
Samsung I8520 Beam live photos
Samsung I8520 Beam is the second phone to come with a Super AMOLED display and its 3.7" unit is even more impressive than that of the Samsung S8500 Wave. It also sports quite a powerful shooter capable of delivering 8 megapixel stills and 720p video.
Samsung I8520 Beam live photos
384 MB of RAM make sure that the Samsung I8520 Beam rarely has memory shortages, while Wi-Fi, GPS and 3G with 7.2 Mbps HSDPA make up for a well geared connectivity department.
Unfortunately, the Samsung I8520 Beam software is still a long way from being ready so we couldn't quite check out every single aspect of it. Our first impressions are that the Android-running I8520 offers plenty of eye-candy but it is way slower than the Bada-powered Wave.
Samsung I8520 Beam in the wild
The Beam is definitely a fatty, when compared to the Samsung S8500 Wave but it still handles nicely and unless you want to slip it in jeans pockets it won't bother you at all.
The jog dial actually turned out to be in charge of adjusting the pico projector focus, rather than having anything to do with the interface navigation.
The 10 lumens brightness of the built-in projector is fine if you are using it in next to complete darkness but fails to really impress even in moderately-lit rooms. It might just do the trick for showing the odd YouTube video to your friends but watching whole movies doesn't seem too comfortable to us.
At least the projector scores an extra point for delivering good WVGA resolution and being as easy as it gets to activate. A single click does the trick.
Besides their flagship Bada-based S8500, Samsung also announced several other handset at the MWC 2010. Those are all feature phones in the entry and lower midrange segment.
Samsung C3200 Monte bar
Besides the awkward name, the Samsung C3200 Monte bar perhaps has little to brag about. One of our first impressions was that it looks a lot like the last year's Samsung Ultra b though specs-wise, the two are quite different.
The Monte bar only has a 2-inch QVGA screen and a 2 megapixel camera.
Samsung C3200 Monte bar
Samsung E2550 Monte slider
The Monte slide is spec'd even lower than the Monte bar. It's got a 1.3 megapixel camera and its 2-inch screen doesn't even go as high as QVGA resolution.
Samsung E2550 Monte slider
Samsung B3410W Ch@t
The Samsung B3410W Ch@t is a refresh of the Samsung B3410. It adds Wi-Fi to an equation that already delivers a 2.6-inch touchscreen, a full QWERTY keyboard, a 3.5mm audio jack and an FM radio.
Samsung B3410W
Samsung E2370
The Samsung E2370 looks a lot like the other rugged phones by Samsung such as the B2700 and theB2100 Xplorer. In fact the only difference to the Samsung B2100 is the lower spec'd camera and the doubled battery capacity. A 2000 mAh battery is rare enough on modern mobile phones.
Samsung E2370
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