Review: Just a faint ripple

So here it is — the Wave II. It is Samsung's mid-upper end phone and features its home-grown Bada OS. The first device was fairly successful with its great specifications and new operating system. The second iteration, however, fails to make the same impact.

For starters, the design is pretty much the same as the first one, except bigger to accommodate the bigger screen. The stretched form factor did feel a little irregular to me, but it wasn't something I couldn't get used to.

The rest of the design isn't going to turn any heads either. The newer screen is good, just not as good as the Super AMOLED screen which is found on the other Samsung devices.

The quality of the build is, however, by no means inferior. It feels good to hold in the hand and its aluminium back gives it a solid look.

The call quality was great, as is the case with all Samsung phones and the phone had no issues with getting reception.

The camera shoots photos at five megapixels and video at 720p; the quality on both was brilliant with a good contrast and vibrant colours for a phone camera.

It also has a good group of settings such as ISO, contrast, white balance and image modes such as landscape, night and sports, which work pretty well.

It is, however, the software which makes the phone really stand out — unfortunately, I don't mean this in a good way. The Bada may have been good the previous year but considering the strides Android has made in the past year, besides the availability of similar and lower-priced phones that include it, Bada just feels, well, inadequate.

It does feature applications via the Samsung Apps store but there are hardly any good applications that add to the experience.

In fact, the entire experience with the operating system leaves a lot to be desired. It is clunky, unresponsive and unforgiving, especially when compared to the likes of the iPhone and Android, which are setting the bar in user interface and experience.

Even the browser on the phone isn't really great and could do with a lot more work.

The Samsung Wave is neither a mainstream phenomenon nor will it develop a cult following; and this is due to its half-baked efforts in delivering this phone.

For its part, Samsung's devices are mainly hit or miss, and the Wave II is definitely a miss. And its price (Dh1,799) would only make sense to go for a phone with a more capable operating system.

Bhavishya Kanjhan is a digital marketing professional and an early adopter of all things digital. Follow his tweets on @bhavishya