A slim mobile with a [...]]]> Samsung have long been associated with stylish and practical mobiles: The D500 led the way for a new future of the ‘slide’ model and the Tocco provided consumers with a low-priced but fashionable touch screen. Enter Samsung’s latest offering to the mobile phone community – The Wave.

A slim mobile with a 3.3″ touch screen gives this phone an aura of class and fashion. But that does not mean that it takes anything away from the practical end. Indeed over the last few years, with the recession biting into consumers’ pockets, many have opted for practicality and function over basic design – so it’s good to know that the Samsung Wave deals available can offer the practicality and function required without sacrificing style, or breaking the banks (again).

The 800 x 480 pixels screen proves to be more than sufficient to meet the demands of web surfing and photo viewing and with a Wi-Fi support and a 3.5G high-speed data option, not to mention its 1ghz processor and 2gb internal memory with the ability to expand to 32gb, video streaming will be accessible like never before on a Samsung phone. Indeed 720p HD video playback will be perfectly acceptable to its processor. A 5 mega-pixel camera and the ability to record in HD gives The Wave a further edge in multimedia mobile technology.

However perhaps the most appealing element of this new offering from Samsung is the debut of its Operation System – Bada. While it is not entirely new – the system is based on existing proprietary OS – it does include a new ‘layer’ which will enable a innovative developing community to thrive. What does this mean? In essence it will allow something akin to the ‘iPhone apps’ to flourish and give The Wave an ‘open source’ feel to it as it will mean that independent developers and programmers will work closely with Samsung to let the phone reach its full potential.

For some the size of The Wave, 118 mm, will be a put off to those who want a compact mobile but when you realize what it has to offer this should quickly become a distant apprehension. Furthermore others have raised concerns over its new Operation System, however there is no reason why it shouldn’t be able to succeed with a committed group of developers behind it and it seems as though there is little to stop The Wave making a huge splash in the mobile market. The Samsung Wave is available on Vodafone now.