Pros & Cons of Samsung Wave 525 GT-S5253

Review: Pros and Cons of Samsung Wave 525 GT-S5253 

How many of you own a Samsung Wave 525 GT-S5253 (previously known as 'Samsung Wave 2'? I bought one a few months ago and so far the mobile phone has thrown up some interesting insights, at least for me. For all intent, the mid-segment Samsung Wave 525 of the brand's 'Wave' series is definitely worth reviewing for three basic reasons:

•    The phone is an entry-level Smartphone (read 'a Smartphone anyone can afford'). How many "smart phones" out there is low-budget?

•    The Samsung 525 comes with Bada Operating System (OS). In my opinion, the Bada OS is an incongruous platform in contrast to more 'optimized platforms' such as Androids. Therefore, I thought it would be interesting to see how a Bada OS makes for 'Smartphone'.

•    The third reason I felt to write this "review" was curiosity about how the phone's features justified the performance of a mobile phone that is low-budget but called itself a 'Smartphone.'

(*Please note that this "review" is not conceptually a 'review' in its strictest sense but more of an outline about what you can expect from the Samsung 525's system, generally. As explained, this article is simply a gist - of the Pros and Cons of the phone.)

Some main Specs:

So where do we start? Let us look at some of the main specifications of the Samsung 525.

The Wave525 operates on EDGE networks. The phone features a 3.2-inch WQVGA TFT LCD displays and 100MB internal memory with up to 16GB expendable memory (from external microSD).

The device also comes with access to the Samsung Apps Store, the integrated application store for Samsung users to buy apps or download them for free.

Camera: 

The phone comes with a 3.15 MP (2048x1536 pixels) primary camera as also a video camera. 

Connectivity:

2G network: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900

GPRS: Class 12 (4+1/3+2/2+3/1+4 slots), 32 - 48 kbps;

EDGE: Class 12

WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot

Bluetooth: v3.0 with A2DP 

USB: microUSB v2.0

Pros and Cons of the Samsung Wave 525 

The Pros: Let's starts with the obvious.

Budget Smartphone:

After tariff fluctuations, the Samsung Wave 525 is priced between Rs. 6, 497 to 7, 900 approximately (please see your dealer; price may depend on tax provinces). Any Smartphone at that price is irresistible, don’t you think? No wonder the model is one of the best selling Samsung wave models.

India price for Samsung Wave 525 (GT-S5253): Rs. 6,497 to Rs. 7900 (depends on tax provinces). The US price is approximately $ 115.9 to $ 140.9

User-Friendliness: 

A huge 'pro' of the phone is its usability. I have used Sony Ericsson and Nokia phones as well and being a huge fan of Sony Ericsson to boot, I was a bit reluctant to buy the 525. However, a rush through the specs convinced me that I should try it.

And so, months later I now say that I still haven't come across any 'Smartphone' that is as user-friendly, easy and convenient as the Samsung 525 (notice how I emphasize the context with the profuse synonyms!). In fact, almost every Samsung 525 user would give you that. The interface is easy to navigate; the settings are almost 'instructional' and one needn’t have to go to Google every time.

Battery: 

The Samsung 525 comes with a Standard Li-Ion 1200 mAh battery. Although Samsung says the battery lasts “up to 1200 h” of standby and up to 14 h of talk-time; it seem to go on forever. I mean I use Facebook, YouTube (yes, there is an inbuilt YouTube app in the phone) and even listen to music and text friends for hours, it is generally after more than a day or two days that I charge the phone. The battery is a hard worker, I tell you.

That was some of the ‘pros’ of the Samsung 525. There are many but for the sake of clarity by focusing only on the main features people look for in a phone, I mentioned only a few.

Here are some of the cons now.

Pros and Cons of the Samsung Wave 525

Cons:

Apps Issues: Alright, let’s start with the issues of functionality. The Samsung 525 has the most incompetent –almost useless – YouTube and Facebook utility ever. You can’t use the Facebook app unless you enjoy seeing the same old feeds and updates on your profile. 

Confused? Well, let me explain: For some very strange reason, the info on my FB profile is always same! Example: There are 5 friend requests and 5 new mails. Guess what? When I log in later, the same 5 friend requests and the same 5 emails would be showing on the notifications bar – although I have already accepted the requests or read/replied the mails! In fact even as I write this article, the same updates are showing! 

The YouTube app is more or less the same: I have yet to complete watching a Youtube video from my Samsung 525 because it takes ages to load – that too only if you have strong wi-fi; the GPRS is useless for YouTube streaming. Even if a video manages to load; it won’t be full but in erratic and sporadic spates. This means the images are all broken up or pixilated and the audio sounds like a sound a jobless, bored individual would be making by scratching a brick wall with sandpaper! Months alter I haven’t figure out the Facebook and YouTube app in my phone. I have stopped using it actually. The other inbuilt apps including Gmail and Twitter work very fine.  

The system: OS Bada

Some of the best (and almost all) of the apps in the market today are Android, or Windows- based. iPhones use iOS and the more budget so-called “basic” phones make do with Java or Symbian.   Well, I don’t know much about the technological concepts that have come to define services for end-users. Yet I do know that platforms such as Android, iOS and Windows are gradually laying the miles on Bada OS.  The Samsung 525’s operating system is Bada OS. The Bada operating system is slowly going to land up in the waste bin. In an age of Androids and Windows, the Bada OS seems so outdated. 

One of the best examples about the future of the OS Bad is this: you won’t find for your phone some of the world’s most popular phone apps, say, Swift, Angry Birds, UC Browser or even Whatapps. If you do find one of them, they would most probably be poor versions of the real deals. Apps today run mostly on Android - because the market demands it. Perhaps that is the reason why even on the Samsung Apps Store, I could finds very few apps for my Bada OS baby. 

In very simple terms, Bada OS is also the poor small-brother of iOS, Windows or Android in terms of evolving users' needs in functionality, access and utility.

Thank you for reading