Flashback: Samsung S8500 Wave, the first phone with Super AMOLED and first with Bada OS

31 October 2021
Bada OS was a precursor to Tizen, Samsung was trying to build a viable competitor to the quickly growing Android OS.

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One area where I like Samsung is they always use the fastest chips. Nexus One was released a few months earlier than this Wave and used Qualcomm S1 with Scorpion CPU. The Adreno 200 was AWFUL. Samsung used Power VR which was found on the iPhone 4/4S. Much better GPU. My Nexus One would lag playing even 2D SNES ROMs.

Samsung is always on the cutting edge with hardware. You can never blame them for using slow SoCs like Motorola and Google does. It's their software that was always their Achilles but it seems they greatly improved with One UI. The multi-window UI on the Fold series looks so fluid.

    AnonD-762416, 31 Oct 2021That's a weird take on it. Samsung isn't Chinese... more'That's a weird take on it. Samsung isn't Chinese. They don't provide backdoor for Beijing.'

    Weird take indeed as they provide backdoor for Washington instead, knowingly or not but I guess everyone knows what Google means. So yeah, no fear for the ban.

    And if You seriously think that 'backdoor for Beijing' was the reason for Huawei ban, You must be real simpleton.

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      • Anonymous
      • puk
      • 31 Oct 2021

      I still have the Samsung Wave. It's a testament to what happens when you don't commit yourself fully into making your own OS. It's why Windows Mobile failed and it's why BadaOS failed. BadaOS was actually brilliant and looked and felt million times better than other OS. And then just died because Samsung just couldn't seem to care about it after like 2 years.

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        • Anonymous
        • TL%
        • 31 Oct 2021

        AnonD-762416, 31 Oct 2021Huawei had a non-existent market cap in the US when they we... moreHuawei's prices were higher and are still higher than other Chinese brands. You keep making things up with no proof whatsoever. They sold more phones because they were well made and priced reasonably. They were entering the US and had carrier agreements before they were banned. The US didn't want their competition in the US market as they didn't want Xiaomi competing by trying to ban them too. You have nothing to support your arguments except lies.

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          • SHi
          • 31 Oct 2021

          Plastic, with terible batery.

            Since 2017, Samsung have been making better phones. Galaxy S8 was the step in the right direction. I did not like the S7 edge. But I've read the burn-in on the S8 can be pretty bad. Then S9 was a more refined S8. Then I really like the S10e with TouchWiz replaced by One UI.

            I can use my Flip 3 a decade from now and still enjoy using it to watch movies or play games. It's actually the most perfect foldable due to its portability as the writer from Forbes wrote. Foldables are the future and what turned this Samsung hater for many years into a Samsung faithful.

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              • AnonD-762416
              • Sec
              • 31 Oct 2021

              Anonymous, 31 Oct 2021US can't compete. If Chinese brands enter the US marke... moreHuawei had a non-existent market cap in the US when they were banned.
              The only reason Huawei managed to undercut other brands in the rest of the world was the near 100 billion dollar state funding they got to cut prices. That's the reason they're eventually getting banned from the EU, once the slow working lawmakers are done with that case.

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                • DMX
                • CH9
                • 31 Oct 2021

                If the old Nokia had adapted to the new times that were to come at that time and had adopted android for the N Series, the story would be different! those that happened to him were due to ambition and mismanagement and of course they had a scapegoat in their lines

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                  • Anonymous
                  • TL%
                  • 31 Oct 2021

                  AnonD-762416, 31 Oct 2021The refusal to change is what got them banned. If their reb... moreUS can't compete. If Chinese brands enter the US market, they'd decimate iPhones sales. US justify their ban on spurious national security grounds and it's complete rubbish.

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                    • AnonD-762416
                    • Sec
                    • 31 Oct 2021

                    Anonymous, 31 Oct 2021As if Chinese companies are providing a backdoor to Beijing... moreThe refusal to change is what got them banned. If their rebrand, Honor, does the same they will also get banned.

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                      • Anonymous
                      • TL%
                      • 31 Oct 2021

                      Hemedans, 31 Oct 2021Why move to Harmony? They just remove Playstore from One ui... moreYes, it'll be AOSP based like Harmony OS.

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                        • Anonymous
                        • TL%
                        • 31 Oct 2021

                        AnonD-762416, 31 Oct 2021That's a weird take on it. Samsung isn't Chinese... moreAs if Chinese companies are providing a backdoor to Beijing. They're just getting banned because the US can't compete with them.

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                          • Anonymous
                          • StU
                          • 31 Oct 2021

                          Anonymous, 31 Oct 2021Kinda silly the OP9 don't have AF when a smartphone la... moreOP9 does have AF

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                            • Anonymous
                            • AJq
                            • 31 Oct 2021

                            Kinda silly the OP9 don't have AF when a smartphone launched 11 years ago for 399 euro had it.

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                              • AnonD-762416
                              • Sec
                              • 31 Oct 2021

                              Anonymous, 31 Oct 2021Samsung will always develop an alternative to Android and t... moreThat's a weird take on it. Samsung isn't Chinese. They don't provide backdoor for Beijing.

                              Samsung maintains their own Linux because they're the biggest hardware developers in the world. It's needed when the software they sell devices with has zero abilities to utilise whatever they working on. It's a lot less likely these days and Samsung has managed to get almost everything they need from Tizen into Android these days. I mean, "Wear OS" is Tizen now and most of the core of Android is, too.

                                Anonymous, 31 Oct 2021Samsung will always develop an alternative to Android and t... moreWhy move to Harmony? They just remove Playstore from One ui, remember Android is open source, only Google services are tied to US restrictions. Even Harmony use Aosp.

                                  Samsung had lots of touchscreen phones around one decade ago. There was this Wave series, and later the S series but there were also some Corby phones then, which were quite popular in this region. A friend had a Wave phone, and it could do bulk copy-and-paste files which was quite advanced for then. It is also amazing that iPhone did not have an OLED display till late 2017 since phones were packing it long before that

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                                    • Guru
                                    • Dk7
                                    • 31 Oct 2021

                                    I had the Wave 2 and yeah it was a nice phone design wise. Eye catchy with removable battery. You don't know see such designs these days. It looked premium compared to S series. Anyways, Samsung doesn't have good designs anymore.

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                                      • TFS
                                      • pYq
                                      • 31 Oct 2021

                                      The worst phone I've ever had. I've advertised it 8 times... First, to play the software then, the camera button, then the microphone didn't work and so on...

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                                        • Anonymous
                                        • ftb
                                        • 31 Oct 2021

                                        Samsung Z4 was the last Tizen phone https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_z4-8682.php