Good phone other wise. Review on Samsung Wave 533

Lets talk about its PROS

Good QWERTY keyboard

Simple user interface

Good call quality

Decent music playback quality

Decent camera

Decent web browser

Good social networking integration

Good battery life

CONS

Low resolution screen

No 3G support

Design and Keyboard

The first thing you will notice when you look at the phone is that it’s thicker than the Wave 525(same phone without a keyboard). This is because the Wave 533 supports a 4-row physical QWERTY keyboard and that makes the phone a winner in my book. Here’s why: first of all, the keys are island-style which means they are spaced out and not all together in a grid(ex: Droid 2). Having them spaced out makes for easier, faster typing. Secondly, the spacebar has a dedicated row. A lot of Samsung keyboards have put the bottom row of letters in the same row as the spacebar which makes typing a little funky. Having the spacebar below all the letters on a dedicated row like on the 533 makes typing feel more like using an actual computer keyboard.Third and last but not least, the keys are slightly raised and have a very nice tactile, click feel to them. In my opinion, it does not feel cheap at all. The only thing I do not like is that there is no dedicated number row but I can look past that. Overall, this keyboard is extremely good and could be compared to the keyboard found on the high-end Epic 4G(Galaxy S phone on Sprint).

As far as design goes, on the front of the phone, you have a 3.2? capacitive touchscreen with chrome accents surrounding the phone. This marks the seperation of the screen and keyboard. The screen on the Wave 533 is nothing to brag about with a 240×400 pixel resolution. This makes the display look a little blurry but that is to be expected on a low end device. Buttons on the front of the phone consist of a “send” and “end” button with a menu button in the middle. On the left spine, there is a volume rocker. On the right spine, there is a dedicated camera button and a power/lock button. At the top, you will find your microUSB charging port and 3.5mm audio jack. The phone weighs in at 4.09oz so it is a little hefty. When choosing your phone, you will have the option of having it come in black, white, and pink. Overall, the design of the Wave 533 is good. We would have liked to see a better screen but other than that, the phone looks and feels quite nice.

Software, Connectivity, and Performance

The phone is running the Bada 1.1 OS with Samsung’s TouchWiz 3.0 UI on top. I will say that you will notice the low-res screen because as I said in the beginning, at 240×400 pixels, everything looks blurry and not smooth. Other than that, the phone looks good to use. There is 100mb of onboard memory which seems to be enough for this phone to run the OS without much lag. No, the phone does not have a 1GHz processor so it is a little slower overall but the phone is not meant to be powerhouse. It is built to get the job done without breaking your wallet. The onscreen keyboard is your typical Bada style keyboard. The keys are well spaced and typing is smooth without any lag however, the low-res screen and small size do make it hard to type on which is where the physical keyboard comes into play. Personally, screens under 3.5? are just too small for touch typing but that is just a preference to me and might be different for you. None-the-less, the physical keyboard on this phone is a winner and makes messaging and social networking a breeze. Voice quality on the Wave 533 is loud and clear. The Wave 533 packs in a 1200mAh battery which should be good enough to last you all day with normal use. In terms of connectivity, the Wave 533 offers you connectivity via EDGE, Wi-Fi, A-GPS, bluetooth 3.0, and an FM Radio which is a nice add-on.

Messaging & Social Networking

As with all Bada phones, social networking integration is done in the contacts application. Bada will sync your Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and Exhange contacts and from there you can just have all your information in one spot. This is handy because everything you need to know about a person is right there in one spot. Each contact is broken down into four menus: Info, History, Activities, and Media. The info tab will show that persons email, phone number, address, etc. Any information you have on that person will show up there. When you click “History” you will see a running tally of all the communication you have done with that person including a list of all calls and texts. The social integration comes into play for “Activities” and “Media”. Under those tabs, you will be able to view there news feed from Facebook or status updates from Twitter where you can comment or re-tweet. In media, all the users photos are synced so that you can easily view photos of your friends. The contacts app with the social integration is best summed up as a “contact list on steroids”. Bada hit the nail on the head with how the integration is done. It is very simple and nice to use. Messaging on the Wave 533 is the same as all Bada phones. It offers push email support and your basic functionality of most smartphones. You can send/receive SMS/MMS messages as well as integrate your RSS Feeds within the messaging app.

Multimedia

The Wave 533 supports a 3MP shooter with your typical Samsung interface. The Wave 533 has a lot of options as well within the camera like different scenes, resolution options, face detection, and color styles. The camera does take some decent shots with good color representation but in low-light, the pictures were a bit grainy. As for video, the phone shoots in QVGA 15fps resolution. This makes viewing videos on the phone pretty decent but if you watch them on a computer, you will be disappointed. There is one weird thing I noticed, there is no dedicated gallery icon in the main menu. To access your pictures, you have to go through the camera interface which is a bit of a pain but nothing major. There is also some basic photo and video editing software onboard which is handy. The music player is a highlight of this phone and any Bada phone really. There are a ton of sorting options, music recognition software, and 5.1 channel SRS sound when using a headset with the phone. The speaker quality is loud and very clear as well. The music player supports all major audio formats including MP3 which is the most common format. Video playback and support is disappointing. The Wave 533 does not support DivX/Xvid and will only play videos up to the screens resolution. Overall, the music player on the phone is outstanding and the shooter is decent. Video playback and recording is lackluster to say the least in my opinion but again, this is a low-end phone that is not made to be a multimedia powerhouse.

Conclusion

The Wave 533 will not be mistaken for a high-end device like the Wave S8500 or the Wave IIS8530 but it WILL get the job done. The phone is made to be a messaging or business type phone and not meant to be a multimedia phone with HD cameras. The Wave 533 serves a basic purpose of bringing communication to the forefront with its excellent physical keyboard and connectivitiy options. We would have liked to see 3G onboard with this phone since EDGE is very slow but at least the added option for Wi-Fi is nice and can take the place of 3G if you in a hotspot. This is a great phone for someone who wants a messaging smartphone at a good price.