History of the Bada operating system. History of the development of mobile operating systems: Samsung Bada Bada operating system competitions

Bada is a relatively young platform developed by Samsung. Why relatively? Because it was officially introduced only in 2009, later iOS, Android, WP. But it's not that simple. This closed system began to be developed ten years ago, when leadership in the mobile OS market had not yet been determined. Read more about this young, but almost “dead” OS under the cut.

Beginning of Bada development

All ancient Samsung phones, which were distinguished by the presence of a touch screen, had (and now have) a certain software platform on which all the applications installed on the device ran, and also the Java games and programs we are familiar with were launched on it.

Bada logo

Most likely, this platform (Samsung Handset Platform) was a test version of Bada OS, which, one can assume, Samsung had been developing for several years before the official announcement in November 2009. Samsung has allowed some developers to write programs that would run on the Korean manufacturer's new operating system, Bada (which means "ocean" in Korean). Of course, Samsung itself is quite capable of producing smartphones that can work on the old-new “ocean” system.

Samsung Wave S8500 running Bada 1.0

The first device on this OS (Bada 1.0) was the Samsung Wave S8500 smartphone. It was published in February 2010. Everyone really liked the breath of fresh air that the company’s new flagship running on Bada OS brought to the world of operating systems. It is noteworthy that “wave” is translated from Korean as “wave”, and this is very compatible with the concept of bada, “ocean”.

End of 2010. The second "wave" of the ocean

Following the release of the first version of Bada OS, in the summer of 2010 Samsung introduced a system update (Bada 1.1), which was a kind of simplification for budget devices. Naturally, smaller changes affected primarily graphics, animation and other interesting, but not very important functions. This helped reduce the cost of the system. The first devices running on Bada 1.1 OS were released in the second half of 2010 (Samsung Wave 525 S5250, Samsung Wave 533 S5330, Samsung Wave 575 S5750, Samsung Wave 723 S7230).

Samsung Wave 533 S5330, Samsung Wave 525 S5250,
Samsung Wave 575 S5750, Samsung Wave 723 S7230

In the new, simplified version, in addition to the reduced functionality, Samsung has corrected some errors made during the development of the first version. In the fall of 2010, when the whole world was already waiting for the release of the new “ocean,” Samsung introduced the “second wave,” which was called the Samsung S8530 Wave II.

Samsung S8530 Wave II

The new smartphone was pre-installed with Bada 1.2, which introduced significant bug fixes, many improvements, and most importantly (according to many) - the ability to use the smartphone even with a charge level below 15%!

Bada 2.0. The third "wave" on the second "ocean"

Many were waiting for the release of the latest version of the already famous and popular operating system Bada 2.0. In February 2011, as part of the Mobile World Congress exhibition, a new “ocean” (Bada 2.0 Beta) was presented to the public, which contained many improvements, a new design and, of course, new functions. Only users of Wave and Wave II smartphones could update to the new version, and then only after a year, namely in January-March 2012. But in August 2011, Samsung introduced the world to the third “wave” on the second “ocean”, i.e. the Samsung Wave 3 S8600 smartphone running on Bada 2.0.

Samsung Wave 3 S8600

In addition, the world was presented with two more budget models - the Wave M and Wave Y smartphones. The innovations that the second “ocean” brought with it turned out to be very interesting and useful.

Wave M and Wave Y

Among them, I note improved multitasking, running applications in the background, FlashLite4, HTML5, NFC technology, Web Access Control (WAC), Text-To-Speech (TTS), Wi-Fi Direct, Push notifications and speech recognition mode.

Tizen in exchange for Bada

January 2012 dispelled the seeds of doubt. The fact is that Samsung management announced its intention to combine Bada OS with the new Tizen OS, developed jointly by Intel, Asus, Acer and, of course, Samsung. After this statement, right up to the last, the developers began to claim the opposite, that they are betting on Bada and Tizen as two different OSs, which have their own pros and cons, that they are not going to merge these two OSs, that they will always support Bada.

Tizen OS

But on February 25, 2013, everything changed dramatically. Samsung announced the merger of Bada and Tizen, which was proposed to be considered not as some kind of unification of two different platforms, but as a transition from old to new. All the latest improvements to Bada will go towards creating a new, high-quality, modern mobile platform, Tizen OS. This was the end for Bada.

Conclusion

Samsung's Bada project was quite successful and perhaps one of the best solutions in terms of operating systems. In its early days, devices running Bada outsold those running Windows Phone. But even now Bada lives among the people, who has become dear to them over the course of many years of service.
Thank you everyone for reading the article, point out my mistakes and shortcomings. All the best!

Thanks to the user sPAMer02 for the title picture!

On October 25, Samsung introduced new models of the Wave smartphone line based on the bada 2.0 operating system to the Russian market. We told you about the event, as well as the developer conference that preceded it. Now it’s time to take a closer look at one of the three new smartphones - Samsung Wave Y. Let us remind you that this is the youngest model in the line, which should replace the Samsung Wave 525. According to Samsung, Wave 525 is the best-selling smartphone in Russia. Therefore, Samsung expects that the new model will be a success. But how valid are these calculations?

First, let's remember the main technical characteristics of the Samsung Wave Y and compare them with the characteristics of the Wave 525.

* Unofficial information; The official specifications do not indicate the frequency of the Wave 525 processor.

So, it is obvious that in almost all respects the new model is better. And one more advantage is the pre-installed operating system bada 2.0. It will not be possible to install this version of the OS on the Wave 525. However, the cost of Wave 525 is currently 1000 rubles lower, which is very serious in the lower price segment. In addition, for some unknown reason, the camera in the Samsung Wave Y shoots with a resolution of only 2 megapixels, while the older model has 3.2 megapixels. But - let's move on directly to testing and find out how Wave Y is generally adequate for today and the declared cost, and also get acquainted with bada 2.0 in practice.

Design

Externally, Samsung Y looks like a typical budget smartphone.

The only memorable detail is the elongated silver Home key. But, by the way, because of her you often try to take the phone upside down. Apparently because it vaguely resembles a speaker.

On the back we see a camera eye and a lanyard loop. The color on the back is metallic, but the entire body is actually made of plastic.

In addition to the Home button, the device has two more hardware buttons and two touch ones. The hardware ones are the on/off button (on the right side) and the volume rocker (on the left side).

It’s easy to guess that the two touch buttons are “Receive” and “Hang Up”, and they are located under the screen, to the right and left of the Home key.

Slots for SIM cards and microSD are located under the back cover. It is removed not without effort, but not to say with great pain. To get to the SIM card, you have to remove the battery, but the microSD is already available, so you can connect/remove it without rebooting the phone.

Overall, the design deserves a good rating. Not great, but good. While not possessing originality or any particular attractiveness, the smartphone nevertheless has those qualities that are most important for solutions of this class: practical, not overloaded, quite versatile, convenient to carry in a trouser pocket.

Screen

The Samsung Wave Y touch capacitive display shows a fairly bright picture with rich colors. However, the traditional disadvantage of TN matrices - small viewing angles - is evident here: with a slight deviation to the left, the colors immediately float and the image becomes illegible.

The image resolution is 320×480 pixels. This is more than the Wave 525 and is quite normal for displaying a clear picture. But, of course, when compared with more expensive models, the dots per inch density will seem too low. However, we repeat, for a budget smartphone the screen of the Samsung Wave Y is quite good.

Hardware configuration

The smartphone runs on a single-core processor with a frequency of 832 MHz. By today's standards, this is not enough, but no slowdowns or other performance problems were noticed during testing of the Samsung Wave Y (with the exception of some “brakes” when working with Samsung Apps, which can be explained by Internet connection problems). Samsung does not indicate the amount of RAM, but, again, based on subjective feelings, we can assume that it is quite enough to ensure smooth operation of the OS interface.

Unfortunately, we were unable to measure performance in any way: no benchmarks were found in the Samsung Apps store, and the online benchmark SunSpider 0.9.1 crashed, but even before the error, its work was so slow that it is unlikely that the results of this test would have been are comforting for Samsung Wave Y. However, no one expects records in benchmarks from a budget smartphone. Besides, looking at full-fledged websites on Wave Y is not that much fun. In terms of ease of web surfing, Wave Y is, of course, much inferior to iOS devices (iPhone and iPod touch). And by the way, as with the iPhone/iPod touch, the Dolphin browser on the Samsung Wave Y does not support Flash.

Returning to the issues of hardware configuration, we note that, unfortunately, the smartphone has very little available flash memory. The Wave 525 model had even less, but even now it’s still not enough. However, microSD support partly mitigates this drawback: you can not only record media content on microSD, but also install applications (to do this, in the “Settings” menu you need to specify where applications will be installed - on the phone or on a memory card).

operating system

Samsung Wave Y is the first smartphone in our editorial team that runs the bada 2.0 operating system. Therefore, we will pay special attention to the OS. Let's start with the lock screen. By default, it displays the time, date, information about the cellular operator, signal strength, the presence of an Internet connection (Wi-Fi or 3G), volume and battery level.

However, if you set up a weather widget, weather information will also appear on your lock screen. In addition, here you can see the number of new letters, SMS and calls. To jump to the corresponding application, simply pull the tab on the right. And if you just want to get to the main menu, swipe your finger across the screen in any direction.

In the home menu we see a large Yandex widget, as well as icons for four Yandex service applications. These are “Maps” (by default the mode displays traffic jams), “Mail”, “Metro” (convenient for plotting the optimal route) and “Market”.

It is curious that Yandex application icons have a characteristic shape that is different from the shape of other icons. As for the applications themselves, they will be useful only to those who are accustomed to using Yandex services. If, for example, your mail is not on Yandex, then you will not need the Mail application at all. If you do not live in Moscow or St. Petersburg, then the Metro application will be superfluous. And it is apparently impossible to remove unnecessary applications. At least I haven't figured out how to do it. But you can remove them, at least from the home screen. But I couldn’t remove the Yandex widget. On the other hand, this widget is really useful, so let it be :)

The menu of installed applications can be seen by clicking on the “Menu” icon in the lower right corner of the home screen. In this case, the three main applications will still remain in the bottom row (let’s call it the dock), but they can be changed to other applications. You can also change the location of widgets, arrange icons on different screens, etc.

In general, the interface logic is the same as in Android. The similarity is emphasized by the fact that in both Badafons and Googlephones Samsung uses the proprietary TouchWiz shell, so the icons look almost the same, and the general style is similar.

On the one hand, this is a minus, since the operating system does not have its own appearance, but on the other hand, for users accustomed to Android, it will not be difficult to switch to bada. Well, it will also be easy for beginners who pick up a smartphone for the first time to figure it out.

Unlike iOS, bada has an open file system. Using the convenient “My Files” file manager, you can perform all standard operations with files, including copying and moving files and folders (including from your phone to a memory card or vice versa), sending them by mail, publishing them in online services, etc. P..

However, you can only move or delete files and folders that you created. Those that are in the system by default are protected from operations.

What else did you like? Built into the OS is the function of taking screenshots (by simultaneously pressing the Home key and the on/off button). It might seem like a small thing, but for some reason such a simple thing in Android requires a bunch of extraordinary actions. But what I didn’t like was the on-screen keyboard. After two weeks of using the smartphone, I still couldn’t get used to it. It's much more convenient on the iPhone.

Attempts to search for an alternative keyboard in the Samsung Apps application store did not lead to success. By the way, about the application store. The store itself is not bad - nothing fundamentally different from the iOS, Android, WebOS, etc. stores. But, alas, there are very few programs for bada 2.0. For example, the request for video player returns nothing. It’s also difficult with games... In general, if you absolutely lack something among the pre-installed bada 2.0 applications, I wouldn’t count on Samsung Apps just yet. However, the operating system has only just become available to users, so we must assume that in the near future the arsenal of applications will grow significantly.

The last thing I would like to talk about in connection with the operating system is multitasking. Its full support appeared just in OS version 2.0. This is implemented as follows: if you have an application open, but you do not want to exit it, you can press and hold the Home key, after which you will see a window with running applications (see the previous screenshot). You can switch to any of them, and the rest will hang in the background, or you can close the application (one, several or all at once).

Camera

As we already noted at the beginning of the article, we found it rather strange that instead of the 3.2-megapixel camera that was in the Samsung Wave 525, the new model has a 2-megapixel camera. And although a lower resolution in itself still means poor quality images (just as a high one means good quality), it still made us wary. And the test shooting confirmed that our fears were not in vain.

Photos on the Samsung Wave Y are fuzzy, blurry, and have noticeable artifacts. Color rendering is average. Of course, it can be worse, but the Samsung Wave 525 was better. And it was logical to expect no lower quality from the new device. The specifications indicate that the Wave Y camera is equipped with autofocus and an LED flash, but we did not find either of those.

The quality of the video recording is completely depressing. The smartphone shoots at a resolution of 320x240, 14 frames per second, with a very low bitrate. The result is appropriate. For those wishing to verify our findings for themselves, we suggest downloading a 30-second video shot on a Samsung Wave Y.

Battery life and user experience

Samsung Wave Y has a rechargeable battery with a capacity of 1200 mAh (voltage 3.7 V). The smartphone works on one battery charge for about two days - provided that you do not play games, watch videos, listen to music, hardly use the Internet (except occasionally check your email), and mainly use telephone functions (calls, SMS ). With more extensive and active use, the battery charge will last for less time. If you save money and don’t turn on Wi-Fi at all, your smartphone can last two and a half days.

In addition, Samsung Wave Y does not clearly display the remaining battery charge. That is, you think that there is about a third left, when suddenly the screen brightness suddenly drops to minimum, and you are informed that the smartphone is low. After this message, the device will last another half an hour or an hour, no more. And then it turns off completely. When we tested Wave Y, it seriously let us down twice: for some unknown reason, precisely at the time when the smartphone had already reported that it was low, but had not yet turned off, Wave Y, being in his trouser pocket, committed on his own initiative several calls at once. Apparently, for some reason the screen lock was disabled or something else did not work correctly. But, one way or another, it happened.

The second incident occurred right during a conversation: the smartphone froze (the conversation, naturally, was interrupted) and for some reason required connecting it to the PC for synchronization. Attempts to turn off the device did not lead to anything; I had to remove the battery.

We emphasize that we had a pre-sale sample, and it is possible that such glitches will not be present in commercial copies. But, in any case, it would be unfair to remain silent about this.

As for the quality of communication, sometimes we had some complaints, but we cannot vouch for the fact that it was our smartphone that was to blame for them, and not the device of the interlocutor. At the same time, Wave Y did not lose its network for any reason, so we have no reason to suspect it of a low-quality cellular module.

conclusions

If we close our eyes to the above-described failures and chalk them up to the fact that we had a pre-sale sample, then we can recognize the Samsung Wave Y as a very good smartphone for its price category (except that the camera was disappointing). True, it’s too early to make a final assessment, because the functionality of the device will largely depend on the number of applications in Samsung Apps for bada 2.0. As for the operating system, we think it is convenient, easy to learn and quite suitable for such inexpensive devices. Yes, it has some drawbacks - for example, an inconvenient on-screen keyboard or the inability to remove pre-installed applications. But there are many advantages: an open file system, multitasking, conveniently organized work with files, the ability to install applications on a memory card, the ability to customize the appearance (including the location of application icons, selection of backgrounds and screensavers).

We will monitor the development of bada OS and will certainly return to this topic in the future. In the meantime, a small lyrical digression.

Samsung Wave Y is perhaps an exemplary example of a budget smartphone, with all the typical advantages and disadvantages (we are, of course, taking branded devices, not Chinese noname). But after a week of using it, I thought about the topic: is a budget smartphone really necessary? Isn't it better to choose a high-quality mobile phone, even without a full-fledged operating system and the ability to install third-party programs? For comparison, I had a phone from the same company - Samsung Champ, costing 3,000 rubles. Yes, it certainly has a worse screen than the Wave Y, there is no Wi-Fi, the browser and email client are of the “fishless and cancerous” category, Samsung Apps has only Java games, there is no way to import contacts... But but it works on a single battery charge for a week; in six months of using it there were absolutely no complaints about the quality of communication, as well as failures like those that we described with the Samsung Wave Y. Typing SMS on it - I won’t say that it’s less convenient than on a smartphone (however, this is a matter of habit: Samsung Champ has a resistive touch screen, but with large on-screen buttons, each of which has several letters). As a result, I personally decided for myself that I was not ready to make a choice between a phone and a budget smartphone in favor of the latter. Another thing is that I always have an iPod touch and a tablet/laptop with me, so they take on all the non-telephone functions that a smartphone (even a very good one) can perform. But even if you do not carry any other devices with you, I would still think several times whether you really need the functionality of a smartphone in order to sacrifice battery life, the quality of telephone functions, as well as an extra three to four thousand rubles (all -even the cheapest smartphones are more expensive than good mobile phones; well, if you don’t take Vertu, of course :)).

In my opinion, today the combination of “good phone + tablet with 3G” or “good phone + tablet or laptop + mobile hotspot” is much more effective than “budget smartphone + whatever.” Moreover, the first option can even compete with the “top smartphone + anything” configuration. Another thing is that if you have a top-end smartphone, you can do without a tablet, because you can answer email, work on the Internet relatively comfortably, and even view documents on it. Well, the ability to check email on the go can also be useful. In addition, an expensive smartphone is still an element of style, an image detail. So there are serious arguments in favor of this option. But I don’t see any serious universal arguments in favor of a budget smartphone. Unless, again, the need to check email on the go. But I doubt that a person with active business correspondence does not have the opportunity to buy himself a device for at least 15,000 rubles. So, the main audience for budget smartphones seems to me to be those people who used mobile phones before, but wanted a smartphone (for experiments or simply because they saw it with friends), and they were afraid to pay a significant amount at once, so first they decided to try something cheaper . However, pretty soon these people will either upgrade to more expensive devices or switch back to mobile phones. Because the level of convenience and functionality that smartphones can offer today for 8,000 rubles and below is not enough to be completely satisfied with this option. Let me emphasize that this is my personal opinion, which does not at all claim to be universal; this is the opinion of a user who has a certain range of tasks; your tasks may be completely different.

In August this year, Samsung released a new version of its mobile operating system bada 2.0. The new product and devices under its control were presented to Russian developers and the press in October. The Russian representative office of Samsung organized two events dedicated to bada 2.0 at once - on October 12, a conference for developers bada Developer Day was held, and on the 25th of the same month - a presentation for the press, where, in addition to the operating system itself, a new line of smartphones based on bada 2.0 was shown.

Before moving on to the story of the presented devices and listing the innovations of the operating system, we will briefly describe the history of bada.

Bada is a closed Samsung platform, first used by the company in the Samsung Wave smartphone (illustrated below). This model was presented to the public at the World Mobile Congress in 2010.

Thus, the operating system is not yet two years old. And yet, the “baby” already has certain achievements: according to Samsung representatives, the share of smartphones with bada on the Russian market is 16.1%, and it now ranks third in popularity among other mobile OSs. The result for such a young system is truly impressive. But let’s add a fly in the ointment: the global share of bada, as Samsung representatives themselves admit, is only 2%. According to information announced by a Samsung representative, this share is higher than that of Windows Phone 7, but, on the other hand, Windows Phone 7 is significantly younger than bada. And, for example, the Microsoft operating system just recently launched in Russia, so there is a high probability that its share in our market will increase greatly in the near future (it is possible that to the detriment of bada).

But there is an interesting nuance here: smartphones running bada are positioned in the middle price segment, while Windows Phone and iOS are aimed at the upper segment. In many ways, the success of bada in Russia is associated precisely with the availability of “badafones”. Thus, the most popular smartphone on our market (again, according to Samsung) was the Samsung Wave 525 (shown in the illustration).

Note that we mean “the most popular in general,” and not just among bada smartphones or Samsung devices. At the same time, if we talk about the manufacturer’s share as a whole, Samsung is our leader here too.

However, the company does not stop there. The share of the bada platform in the global market should change fundamentally next year, when Samsung promises to double the number of “badafones,” Alexey Dorofeev, director of the Samsung mobile devices department, said at a conference for developers.

Alexey Dorofeev’s speech was dedicated to bada’s development strategy. And in addition to the above, he voiced one more very important thing: bada will move towards cloud technologies.

In principle, this is a global trend: Apple in the latest version of iOS made a very big step towards the “cloud” (we are talking about iCloud, the notification system and Siri), and Android was initially deeply integrated with Google online services. This would be less expected from bada, since Samsung is not as cloud-focused as Apple and Google. But, presumably, the Korean company sees this as one of the ways to increase the popularity of its platform. However, we have yet to find out exactly how the movement towards the cloud will be carried out. Although... the first step in this direction can be considered the strategic partnership between Samsung and Yandex. bada 2.0 will have pre-installed Yandex services - Mail, Metro, Maps, Market, and a widget containing a search bar, information about weather, traffic jams and exchange rates will also be available.

We will tell you more about Yandex services in an article dedicated to the Samsung Wave Y smartphone from the new line based on bada 2.0, but for now we’ll just note that such a step as cooperation with Yandex can become a really strong trump card for Samsung in the Russian market. Therefore, even despite the upcoming competition with Windows Phone 7 and the unabated positions of Android and iOS, there is reason to assume that bada will not lose its position, or even get stronger.

True, we must understand that we are talking specifically about the Russian market. Understanding its importance, Samsung is relying on deep localization of the OS, but there is a downside to this: new firmware for bada 2.0 will be released in our country with a significant delay compared to Europe. So, for example, if overseas smartphones Wave and Wave II will be updated to bada 2.0 in mid-November, Wave 723 - at the end of November, and Wave 533 and Wave 525 - at the end of December (only a partial Value Pack update is available to them), then Russian users will see the new OS in older devices only towards the end of the year. But owners of devices from the new Wave line will be able to work on bada 2.0 right now.

In addition to the pre-installed services, Yandex bada 2.0 has other differences from the first version of the OS. We will list only the most basic and important, in our opinion:

Full multitasking
Samsung Kies Air wireless synchronization capability
HTML5 and Flashlight 4 support
Wi-Fi Direct
Voice recognition support
Ability to display weather and notifications on the lock screen
A single ChatON messenger that allows you to send not only text messages, but also contacts, photos, etc.
Find My Mobile feature to locate a lost or stolen smartphone and lock it remotely

As before, apps for bada are available in the Samsung Apps store, but apps for previous versions of bada are not compatible and will need to be recompiled.

We will tell you more about bada 2.0 OS in a separate article. In the meantime, let's see what the new smartphones from the Samsung Wave line are like.

New models of the Samsung Wave series

The company releases three new products - Wave III (illustrated below), Wave M and Wave Y.

They correspond to the conventionally upper, middle and lower price segments. Conventionally, because the 16,990 rubles that are asked for the bada flagship Wave III is much less than the 26,990 that are asked for the Samsung Android flagship (Galaxy X II). That is, relatively speaking, the flagship of the bada line approximately corresponds to the average level of the Android line. And for the youngest bada model (Wave Y) they ask for only 6,490 rubles, which is cheaper than the company’s most affordable Android smartphone (Galaxy mini S5570). Let's look at the characteristics of the new Wave devices! For comparison, we have placed information about the Samsung Galaxy S II next to Wave III.

				Samsung Galaxy S II
Screen (size in inches, matrix type, resolution)	3.2″, TN, 320×480	3.65″, TN, 320×480	4″, Super AMOLED, 480×800	4.3″, Super AMOLED Plus, 480×800
CPU	1-core, 832 MHz	1-core, 832 MHz	1-core, 1.4 GHz	2-core, 1.2 GHz
Flash memory	150 MB	150 MB + 2 GB	3 GB	2 GB + 16 or 32 GB
Memory card support	microSD	microSD	microSD	microSD
Camera (photo)	rear (2 MP)		front (VGA), rear (5 MP)	front (2 MP), rear (8 MP)
Dimensions (mm)	110×58.2×12.3	113.8×63.3×12.2	125.9×64.2×9.9	125.3×66.1×8.5
Weight (g)	102,4	121	122	116
Recommended price (rubles)	6490	9990	16 990	from 26,990

Only key characteristics were included in the table, demonstrating the differences between these devices. More detailed specifications can be found at. Unfortunately, the official specifications of the new Wave smartphones do not indicate the amount of RAM. Samsung Galaxy S II has 1 GB of RAM. Most likely, Wave smartphones have less RAM.

In principle, it can be seen that Wave III’s characteristics roughly correspond to the Galaxy S Plus, which belongs to the same price category (recommended price - 18,990 rubles). In addition to the similar price, what they have in common is, first of all, the processor and the screen. But the Wave III has better cameras, but the Galaxy S Plus has a larger battery and more flash memory.

Note that of the new models in the Wave line, only the flagship has a Super AMOLED screen (although not Super AMOLED Plus, like the Galaxy S II). The other two models are equipped with conventional TN screens. Another interesting detail: all three smartphones run on single-core processors. Either the fact is that dual-core ones are still significantly more expensive (even if the clock speed of each core is lower), or bada simply does not know how to use both cores at the same time. One way or another, the fact remains: the line of bada smartphones does not yet include models with dual-core processors.

As for the two younger models, they look like typical budget smartphones, which is primarily evident in the characteristics of the screen and processor, as well as in the amount of flash memory. The design of both devices is practical and discreet, without pretension. Except that Wave Y (in the illustration below) is decorated with a pseudo-metallic edging, but Wave M (in the illustration above) looks, in my opinion, too faceless. At least it lacks some zest.

Nevertheless, there is no doubt that both devices will be successful. In terms of price/quality ratio, this is one of the best offers on the smartphone market. Therefore, those who are not chasing advanced technical characteristics, and who do not care what OS is installed, may well opt for representatives of the Wave line.

conclusions

Samsung has chosen a very promising strategy to promote its own software platform bada. Deep localization, as well as targeting the lower and middle price segments, distinguish bada from iOS, and the low fragmentation of the platform gives it an advantage over Android. In addition, Samsung updates its OS quite quickly (version 2.0 was released in the second year of bada’s existence) and promises to actively develop it in the future. And this already makes bada more attractive than, say, Symbian in all its varieties (Nokia’s policy regarding this OS cannot but raise many questions, although if we evaluate only the facts, that is, the release of new devices and OS updates, there is no reason to panic yet No).

A very interesting question is whether Samsung will use bada in tablets. We asked this question to Alexey Dorofeev, to which he replied that this step would be quite logical, but so far he cannot say either yes or no. Perhaps next year the situation will change. For now, the scope of bada's development is limited to smartphones. And the new badafone models presented by Samsung look quite attractive. Yes, these are not the devices that will become a sensation thanks to technological innovations or some outstanding parameters. But, as the sales results of the same Wave 525 show, buyers are more verbally interested in flagships, and vote in rubles for practical and inexpensive models.

This concludes our report. But we will continue the conversation about bada 2.0 in the near future with a review of Samsung Wave Y, designed to replace the previous sales leader - Wave 525. Let's see how strong Wave Y's reasons for this are! And at the same time, we will study in detail the innovations of bada 2.0.

It is a closed platform, and it can only work with so-called “native” applications written specifically for a given operating system.

The platform has a multi-level architecture, the operating system layer is the bottom one, the upper levels use its functions to access the hardware. The device layer sits above the platform core layer. Services running at this layer build on the capabilities of the kernel and allow upper layers to access device functions such as media and communications. It is this level that provides programs written for Bada with 3D graphics and the ability to access the Internet through all existing communication interfaces.

The history of the platform began quite successfully, as between 2010 and 2012, sales grew from 2 million devices per quarter to 5 million. In the third quarter of 2012, Bada even overtook Windows Phone in popularity, but then began to lose ground.

As for the budget line, it, of course, was devoid of the “frills” of the flagship line; plastic and other inexpensive elements were used in their assembly, but the build quality itself was maintained at a high level.

Throughout 2012, Samsung continued to mention here and there that there would be no merger between Bada and Tizen - both products are interesting and have different goals, company representatives said. However, on February 25, 2013, the company's management announced the merger of the platforms, saying, however, the following: "This step should be considered not as a merger, but as a transition from old to new quality." This was the end of Bada. The complete end of support for the platform should have stopped immediately after the release of the first Tizen device. However, on February 28, 2013, Samsung for some reason released an updated version of the Bada SDK 2.0.6 development kit.

The announcement that Samsung had decided to close the project to develop mobile devices on its own Bada operating system did not come as a surprise, although the company had long denied this development, but it was not clear whether the platform would become history or a kind of legacy of Tizen. But not so long ago, in an official statement, the director of Samsung Media Solutions Center Hong Won-pyo announced that all developments regarding Bada would be stopped, and the developments would become the basis for Tizen. However, Bada users will not have the opportunity to upgrade to Tizen, although some

Samsung management could not calmly look at the developing market of operating systems for smartphones, where OS from RIM, the consortium of Symbian, Apple, Google, Microsoft reigned supreme, and offered its own progressive platform - bada (translated from Korean as “ocean”). This happened in 2009.

One of the features of bada-backgrounds is the relatively low price with the powerful hardware characteristics of the flagships Wave (S8500) and Wave 2 (S8530), running bada 1.0. The proprietary TouchWiz 3.0 shell was chosen as the interface for the platform. The long-awaited version of bada 2.0 with the TouchWiz 4.0 interface entered the Russian market along with the new flagship in the Wave line – Wave 3 (S8600). Let's talk about it in more detail.

Technical characteristics of Samsung Wave 3 (S8600):

Network: GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), UMTS/HSPA 14.4 Mbit/s (900/2100 MHz)
Platform (at time of announcement): bada 2.0
Display: touch, capacitive, 4”, 800 x 480 pixels, Super AMOLED, 16 million colors
Camera: 5 MP, autofocus, flash, video recording 720p@30fps, f/2.6
Additional camera: 0.3 MP
Processor: single-core, 1.4 GHz, Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255T
Graphics chip: Adreno 205
RAM: 512 MB
ROM: 3 GB (1.7 GB available to user)
Memory card: microSD (up to 32 GB)
Navigation: A-GPS, GLONASS
Bluetooth 3.0
Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n), Wi-Fi Direct
3.5mm audio jack
FM radio with RDS
microUSB 2.0
Position sensor, distance sensor, light sensor, digital compass, pressure sensor
Audio: MP3, AAC, AAC+, EAAC+, 3GA, M4A, WMA, FLAC, OGG
Video: 3GPP, H.263, H.264, MPEG4, WMV
Battery: Li-ion, 1500 mAh
Talk time: up to 13.3 hours on 2G networks, up to 8.3 hours on 3G networks
Talk time: up to 490 hours on 2G networks, up to 430 hours on 3G networks
Video call time: up to 200 min
Dimensions: 125.9 x 64.2 x 9.9 mm
Weight: 127 g
Form factor: monoblock with touchscreen
Type: smartphone
Announcement date: August 30, 2011
Release date: November 2011

Design and construction

The design of Wave 3 is made in the style of previous flagships. Wave 3, like the original Wave, uses a Super AMOLED display, but Wave 2 was equipped with a lower-quality Super Clear LCD panel (there was not enough production capacity and all Super AMOLED screens went into Galaxy smartphones). The resolution is identical to previous devices - 800 x 480 pixels, but the screen diagonal has increased to 4" (Wave - 3.3", Wave 2 - 3.7"). Despite the fact that the smartphone seems large, it can be controlled with one hand.

The front panel is made in an original way. The protective glass covers not only the screen, but also the touch control buttons below it, as well as the front camera, light and proximity sensors, and the Samsung logo above it. The smartphone speaker is installed above the logo. The central button is not touch sensitive and is located in a glass slot under the display.

The back cover of the Wave 3 is made of metal, it is sliding, but it is completely impossible to remove it. After pressing the button at the bottom, the lid moves up. The solution is interesting, although it is not clear how long it will take root. Access to the SIM card and microSD slot is only possible after removing the battery. But it is almost impossible to remove it without breaking your fingers - it is better to use a screwdriver or a paper clip.

There are no connectors on the top end. At the bottom there are holes for a microphone, microUSB and 3.5 mm audio output. The sound rocker is on the left, and the power button is on the right of the screen. The smartphone lacks a camera button, so the S8600 is not suitable for quick shooting. The upper and lower ends of the case have plastic inserts that cover the radio modules. The body is made well - it doesn’t creak, it feels solid in your hands.

Software

The TouchWiz 4.0 interface installed on bada 2.0 has a lot in common with iOS. Users of Apple smartphones will immediately notice the similar fixed area with the main functions at the bottom of the screen, the notification strip and similar square shortcuts in the menu. The main difference between TouchWiz and Cocoa Touch iOS is the presence of empty desktops for placing the necessary widgets. To be fair, it must be said that a similar interface can be seen on Android. Desktops with applications are called up using the Menu button. It also allows you to organize applications into folders.

When turned on, we are greeted by six desktops. In the localized version, the main table is represented by Yandex services: Maps, Mail, Metro, Market, Weather and Exchange Rates. Four more screens are free to place widgets. Unfortunately, there are only five widgets: digital clock, pointer clock, weather, calendar and notes. But it is possible to install folders with application shortcuts on windows. The sixth desktop will be of interest to business users: it contains a calendar, a news application in English, time in two time zones, a stock chart and a panel of 4 contacts. If you pull the clock located at the top of the screen down, the notification bar will open. In addition to the list of received messages and system errors, it provides access to quickly enable/disable Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, sound and vibration, and auto-rotate the screen.

Among the pre-installed applications and services, we can mention the ChatON and Chat programs for text communication, Social Portal for communication via Facebook, Twitter, etc., BookReader for reading books, E-mail email client, AllShare (a program for broadcasting content via DLNA), office application PolarisOffice, Samsung Apps store. An interesting feature is Wi-Fi Direct - it allows you to use Wi-Fi to transfer files directly between devices. Some applications and functions are clearly presented in the screenshots:

Camera

The smartphone is equipped with a main 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and a front camera with a resolution of 0.3 megapixels. The camera's autofocus adjusts to objects quite quickly, and the settings in the camera application can't help but please. At the camera position, flash modes (auto, on, off) and shooting modes (Single Shot, Highlight, Panorama, Portrait, Landscape, Night, Sports, Indoor, Beach/Snow, Sunset, Dawn, Autumn Colors, Fireworks, Text, Twilight) are available , Against the light). Moreover, the panorama mode pleasantly surprised me with the ability to take a picture in any of four directions:

Manual settings are also quite extensive: Exposure value (from -2.0 to 2.0 in steps of 0.5), Focus mode (Autofocus, Macro), Resolution (0.3 MP, 0.4 MP, 1.5 MP, 2 MP , 2.4 MP, 3.2 MP, 4 MP, 5 MP), Auto Contrast, Timer (2, 5, 10 sec), White Balance (Auto, Daylight, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Cloudy), ISO (Auto, 100, 200, 400), Effects (Gray, Sepia, Negative), Metering (Matrix, Center-weighted, Spot), Grid, View, GPS, Memory and reset.

In the video shooting position, the settings are quite sparse: Flash in flashlight mode (on, off) and Recording modes (Normal, Video for MMS). Manual settings: Exposure value (from -2.0 to 2.0 in steps of 0.5), Resolution (176x144, 320x240, 640x480, 720x480 and 1280x720 pixels), Timer (2, 5, 10 sec), White balance (Auto, Daylight) Light, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Cloudy), Effects (Grey, Sepia, Negative), Image Stabilization, Grid, Playback, Memory, Reset.

Photo quality is average. It’s not worth comparing the Wave 3 camera even with simple point-and-shoot cameras, but for posting on the Internet or making a contact, the resulting images are quite suitable. I note that shooting in panorama mode occurs automatically and, unlike most camera phones, allows you to stitch in any direction.

The video, despite the declared HD 720p, turns out blurry and out of focus. The camera does not reproduce color well, the optics are blurry, but it is suitable for emergency photography of an unusual event. It's a pity that there is no dedicated button on the body, and to start shooting you need to wake up from sleep mode and launch the camera application.

Experience of use

The battery lasts for about a day in medium load mode. In any case, in order not to be left without a phone, you will have to connect the S8600 Wave 3 to charge every evening.

The screen is great. With a black background, it is not easy to see the boundary between the screen and the black plastic border; it has excellent viewing angles. The screen has a drawback - the size has grown to 4”, but the screen resolution remains the same (800x480 pixels), that is, the pixels have become larger, which has affected the display of solid colors. White, for example, appears grayish with a blue tint.

The built-in video player opened all the declared formats, including streaming video, but it completely refused to play some HD files downloaded directly without conversion.

Unfortunately, among the applications written for bada, not many are actually useful. Therefore, finding an alternative to out-of-the-box programs is not so easy. In addition, setting up a messenger agent or choosing a normal navigator will be a difficult task.

Samsung Wave 3 has a single-core Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255T processor with a frequency of 1.4 GHz. The graphics are powered by the Adreno 205 video accelerator. In general, this is a fairly powerful platform, which Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and HTC installed in their 2011 flagships.

Among the minuses, I would like to note the slowness of the sensor, which regularly “thinks” when reacting to presses. Strange system errors, for example when the network is lost, are also confusing.

Bottom line

Bada phones remained on the market thanks to their low price and good hardware characteristics, and in 2011 they occupied 14% of the Russian smartphone market (more than 1 million of the 7.6 million devices were in the Wave series). But developers are still cautious and reluctant to support the platform. As a result, Samsung Wave 3 turned out to be a stylish and productive gadget that will appeal to those for whom appearance and hardware characteristics come first, rather than the range of the application store. We will continue to monitor the development of bada and wait for Tizen.