Samsung S8600 Wave 3 review: Third time's the charm

Dolphin is your web browser

Samsung S8600 Wave 3 packs the latest version same Webkit-based Samsung Dolphin Browser, but this time looks a bit different - it resembles the Android's browser. Yes, we know we said that before. At least twice. Once the page loads, all you see is the URL bar and the refresh button on a line at the top of the screen. Once you zoom in or pan around though even that line disappears (scroll to the top or press menu to bring it back).

Wave 3 Dolphin web browser • multiple pages • settings

You can zoom in/out with pinch gestures or use double tap. Text reflow is available on works great. There is kinetic scrolling too.

Text reflow works like a charm

Bada 2.0 offers Flash Lite support and most of the banners and even the 360p embedded videos played well.

The Dolphin browser also offers download manager, search on page and quick access to brightness settings. If you tap and hold on some text you’ll get the usual selection tools, copy and translate options too.

Organizer has everything

The Samsung S8600 Wave 3 comes with the full version of Polaris Office on board. It supports creating, viewing and editing Word, Excel and PowerPoint files including the Office 2007 versions.

Polaris Office on Samsung Wave 3

The calendar has three different types of view - daily, weekly and monthly. Adding a new event is quick and easy, and you can also add location, participants and set an alarm to act as a reminder.

The organizer centerpiece - the calendar

The Samsung S8600 Wave 3 features a decent alarm clock application which allows a huge number of alarms to be set, each with its own start time and repeat pattern. It also hosts the world clock, stop-watch and timer functions. There is also a calculator aboard. It is nicely touch optimized - the buttons are big enough and easy to hit. Oh, the Wave 3 packs a voice recorder as well.

The Clock app has the alarm options, the world clock, the stop-watch • Calculator

Samsung have included the My Files app – a simple to use but functional file manager, which also doubles as an image gallery. It can move, copy, lock and rename files in bulk, even send multiple files over Bluetooth.

The My Files app

The Memo, Tasks, Voice Recorder and Desk clock are self-explanatory.

The Memo and Tasks • Voice recorder • Desk Clock

Social Hub is the messaging and media sharing Holy Grail – this one app allows you to create a message (it may pack media content too) and then send it to various services – SMS/MMS, email, social networks.

The Social Hub

The Smart Search works on everything in your phone – contacts, images, music, videos, emails, history, apps, etc. It works excellent and helps when you have lots of content. It also offers internet search with Google or Bing.

The Smart Search

The Caster app also comes pre-installed. Its functionality is similar to the Social Hub – you can easily share various content with different social services. The Dolphin browser has a dedicated Send to Caster key, so it might be a good idea configuring the Caster app as well.