Samsung
Wave

The Wave (model GT-S8500) was Samsung’s first Bada OS phone and was considered a flagship device when it was launched. It featured a wrap-around aluminium case, dubbed OneBody, and an eye-catching 3.3-inch Super active matrix organic LED (AMOLED) display. Samsung once again exploited its global leadership in display technology to showcase a variant of AMOLED technology that had previously only been available on its TVs. Samsung’s Super AMOLED screens integrated the touch sensor into the display panel, rather than sticking it on top. This brought the display closer to the front of the device. It offered vibrant colours on a screen that was five times less reflective than existing AMOLED displays, which had previously been difficult to read in direct sunlight. The Wave used the latest iteration of Samsung’s TouchWiz 3.0 user interface and it also featured a Samsung 1GHz processor. The combination of these elements — high-quality hardware, spectacular screen and fast processor — made it an impressive device and demand was strong in European markets. However, the phone triggered a fierce debate about how to classify Bada. Opinion was divided between those who regarded Bada as a smartphone platform and those who saw it as an extension of Samsung's proprietary device software. Ultimately the operating system failed to get traction and was abandoned in the second half of 2012.