UPDATE:: Read up our Samsung Wave S8500 Review.

Samsung’s first smartphone running its proprietary OS, the Wave S8500 will hit Malaysian stores this week. There’s nothing new to report about the Samsung Wave running the bada mobile OS accept for the retail price, which is around RM1700.

That’s pretty good value for money considering the fact that you get a 3.3in Super AMOLED screen (800 x 480), a 1GHz processor that runs the same ARM Cortex A8 core as Apple’s A4 processor and a 5MP camera with LED flash that has face and smile detection along with blink activation. The Wave also packs aGPS, WiFi n along with an accelerometer and a proximity sensor all wrapped in a thin unibody chassis. There’s 2GB of on board memory with support for up to 32GB storage in MicroSD.

On top of that, the Wave records HD video in 720p and plays back DivX, Xvid, MP4 and WMV in virtual 5.1 surround sound but we’re not a fan of it’s edgy design. On the software side, the bada OS sports a unified contacts list, an integrated inbox and a social networking hub that combines some of the major social networking sites into one screen.

As the natural optimists that we are, we can’t seem to find the need for another mobile OS in the smartphone marketplace but Samsung seems convinced that they’ve got something different compared to the rest. The makers of bada claim that the OS will make smartphones more accessible.

We are certainly looking for to that.

Video of the bada OS UI in action avter the jump.

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	Mobile Devices, Samsung
	bada, S8500, Samsung, Samsung Wave, samsung wave malaysia

Analysts from UBM TechInsights have revealed a surprising discovery. They’ve found out that Apple’s claimed proprietary 1GHz A4 processor features very much the same ARM CORTEX A8 core found in Samsung’s S5PC110A01 application processor used in the recently released Samsung Wave S8500. The same processor will also run Samsung’s Android flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S.

Apple’s A4 processor is currently running its tremendously popular iPad and soon the company recently announced iPhone 4. Incidentally Samsung manufacturers the A4 for Apple and the S5PC110A01 processor for itself.

With a Samsung processors at the heart of two of the world’s most prolific mobile devices, what we can take out of this is that Samsung is the global leader in wireless and mobile applications processor manufacturing.

What it also means is that with roughly the same processor running three different devices with three different operating systems and varying specifications, it would be very interesting to see how they stack up against one another.

Now we’re wondering what did Steve Jobs mean when at the WWDC10 keynote he said that the A4 designed by Apple’s own team. Hmm.

[source]

	Mobile Devices
	1GHz processor, A4, apple, bada, iPhone, iPhone 4, S8500, Samsung, Samsung Galaxy S, Samsung Wave