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Samsung’s top Bada phone has reached the third iteration – the S8600 Wave 3 maintains the slim, metal body tradition of its predecessors and goes back to SuperAMOLED (four whole inches of it). Bada OS itself has made the jump to a new major version and now offers an interface that holds its own even against high-end Androids.

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The screen felt instantly familiar when we picked up the Samsung Wave 3 – no surprise, since it’s the 4″ WVGA SuperAMOLED of the I9000 Galaxy S, one of our all-time favorites. It beats the smaller SAMOLED of the first one and the SC-LCD screen of the second one too – score one for Wave 3.

Tapping on the metal back of the Wave 3 also made us realize what the Galaxy S and S II missed out on – it’s possible to be both thin and all-metal.

The Samsung Wave 3 borrows more than the screen from the Galaxy S, here’s the spec overview:

Samsung S8600 Wave 3 at a glance

• General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 900/2100 MHz, EDGE, HSDPA 14.4 Mbps and HSUPA 5.76 Mbps
• Form factor: Touchscreen bar
• Dimensions: 125.9 x 64.2 x 9.9mm, 122g
• Display: 4″ 16M-color SuperAMOLED capacitive touchscreen with 480 x 800 pixels resolution, scratch-resistant glass surface
• Platform:Bada OS 2.0
  

  samsung s8600 wave3 image

• CPU: 1.4 GHz processor
• Memory: 2GB user accessible internal memory, microSD card slot
• Camera: 5-megapixels auto-focus camera with LED flash, 720p video recording @30fps; VGA video-call camera
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with WPS support and Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP, standard microUSB port, GPS receiver with A-GPS, Glonass (region specific), 3.5mm audio jack
• Misc: NFC support, accelerometer for screen auto rotate and motion controls, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, FM radio with RDS, DivX/XviD support, multi-touch input and pinch-zooming gestures
• Battery: 1500 mAh battery

The S8600 Wave 3 bets on proven specs and stylish looks – not a bad strategy, we think. As good as the I9000 Galaxy S was, it did lose points on being all-plastic.

samsung s8600 wave3 image

The Wave 3 has solid multitasking chops and the Bada app store has been building up content. The 1.4GHz CPU will deliver top-notch performance if the Galaxy S Plus is any indication.