Ok, this is my 3rd review on the Samsung Wave that finally hit the market a few days ago.

Cool things I found out but will probably be more easy to find when you have the manual for this phone:
  • on an incoming phone call, just lay the device on the display and the ringtone will be muted. It does not send your caller to the mailbox, just mutes the tone
  • to sync your Google Account with the phone, don't use "Google" as Account-Type, use "Exchange" and do the following:
    • Enter username and password (the user name here must be the full email address like "yourname@googlemail.com"
    • domain can be left blank
    • put "m.google.com" as URL and I recommend using SSL
    • You can select the data that should be synced (contacts, calendar, emails etc.) but unfortunately you can only sync your main Google calendar

I also just downloaded Samsung Kies (v1.5.0) to test it with my Wave. Make sure you have the set the USB-Connection to "Samsung Kies" on the device. To do so, press the center button to get into your apps, select "setting" and go to "connections". At the very bottom of the list it says USB where you can select several types to use with the phone. Select "Samsung Kies" here. Open Kies and connect your device, it should be recognized immediately ... it took around 5 seconds. (I assume you have installed all necessary device drivers on your computer before)

Now, Kies main functionality is to copy phone data to your computer. It comes with some additional tools like a video-editor, but does not combine the download function for it. So the way to go to edit a video you took with your Wave would be:

  • download all videos from phone to PC
  • open video-editor
  • select video that was stored on PC
The usability could be better here I think.

What I really like because I haven't seen it before is the Samsung App Store in Kies.You can download apps from the Store via Kies and install them from there to your device. That is really a very nice feature. Currently I only found less then 200 apps in the store but I predict that there will be a lot more coming soon. (I won't get my MetricCalc-App ready before my vacation, but I think it should be in the market in 5 to 6 weeks)

Another thing is the phone book and calendar sync. You can store (or backup) all your data to you computer and also sync with Outlook via Kies. That is nice, but: I have synced my Google Contacts via the previously explained method using the Exchange-Account-Connector and my phone book really has a bunch of contacts now ... Kies doesn't see them. Kies only knows about contacts directly stored on the phone .. why is that? It would have been more then awesome to have full access, unfortunately that is not the case.

There are also some additional applications in Kies like a music player and photo-editor so it kind of looks like a very light version of a mac with some applications. I have no opinion whether this is good or bad. With Kies you can also use your device as internet connection which I think is a great feature too. We all know that the Wave already comes with an integrated AccessPoint which can be used for tethering with WiFi, but hey, there are still laptops out there that don't have a WiFi connection, so USB does the job.

I hope this post answers some questions I had in comments lately.

19 Responses to “3rd review on Samsung Wave S8500”

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Andrey

Juni 14th, 2010 - 18:01

Dear Sir, I have bought Wave phone and do have some problems with synchronization of calendar events with MS Exchange. One problem is that events names are cut, as if the field for the name is limited to certain number of characters. Second problems – events created in the phone do not show up in Outlook. All my entries are in Russian, maybe this causes the problem? I will appreciate your opinion, Sir.

TheSmile

Juni 18th, 2010 - 08:18

Hello Andrey,

unfortunately I only had beta versions of the Wave OS on my phone which all didn’t work with the Exchange sync. Therefore I couldn’t test this feature. I’ll do as soon as I have the phone with the official OS release (I don’t have it yet) and check it.
On the caledar problem: Did you put your calendar entries into the exchange calendar or the default phone calendar? The Wave seperates all connected calendars and you might have put your entries in the wrong one. Please check on that an let me know.

Regards,
Norbert

Salim

Juli 3rd, 2010 - 02:05

Hi,
I have purchased Samsung Wave. It seems good in terms of its features but it is very usless phone when it comes to Kies. The software is not recognizing the device at all what ever settings you change. Once following the steps of selecting USB service and connecting the device, it appears on the phone’s screen( PC connection only available in idle. Please close all applications). Amazingly, non of the applications are open at that moment!!!

McGahon

Juli 10th, 2010 - 19:17

Same as Salim, Kies won’t recognise my Wave, then says device not supported ny Kies. Will not accept USB driver. ????

pewu

Juli 14th, 2010 - 22:38

Thanks for the description how to sync with google! works really fine-

Mahesh

Juli 30th, 2010 - 10:12

@Salim, press the menu button for 3 seconds from the home page screen. You will see the open apps and then you can close these. It should solve you open apps issue.

Andy

Juli 31st, 2010 - 15:22

@ Salim, McGahon. Shut down your phone. With KIES running on your computer, connect the USB cable to the phone then start it up again, input the PIN and Kies will recognize the Wave. You’ll see its icon show up on the Kies screen in the top right-hand corner along with the memory card, if you have one.
The thing for me is that it will transfer pics and vids OK but won’t synchronize my contacts. If anyone knows how to get that working…

samsungwave owner

August 2nd, 2010 - 03:05

Thanks for the superior article, so I have been a samsung person for approximately 5 years now, and I recently upgraded from a samsung omnia i910 to the Samsung Wave and thus far I’m loving it! (I do leave out a few features of my omnia even though) I am from Halifax Nova Scotia in Canada, I was originaly going to attend it out for the galaxy s to reach on the bell network however decided to buy the wave instead and keep myself $400.

Ntinosg

August 6th, 2010 - 23:07

I own wave as well and Kies (my winXP more precise) does not recognize my phone.
It says MTP device cannot install. Any solution.My Kies is the latest.

melanie

August 13th, 2010 - 09:50

Hi, can you pls tell me how to sync Outlook calendar and contacts with the Wave? My sister just bought one and I’m trying to help her and can’t see anything on the manual I downloaded, thanks

TheSmile

August 13th, 2010 - 09:58

Hi melanie,

I think Samsung Kies should do the job. Install Kies on the computer, hook up your phone with Kies and click on ‘phone book’. There is a button “Outlook Sync” where you can sync your contacts. Same should work with the calendar.
Kies might have been shipped on CD with your device, if not you can download it here:
get Kies
Select the Wave-Device and you will get to the download page.

Regards,
Norbert

Alex

August 13th, 2010 - 15:11

I use Kies to syn my MS outlook Calendar.
But it always shows 0% when KIES read my outlook calendar file.
Anyone has similar experience?

I am really grateful if anyone can help me solve this problem.

Thanks
Alex

sonia

September 2nd, 2010 - 22:38

thank u very much! your post was very helpful to sync my ical. i was getting desperate.. now i ll try toconfigure the param from the busy hour and these things.. i m new in gmail too. thanks!! sonia, from spain

Alan

Oktober 19th, 2010 - 17:41

Hi

I failed to set the USB-Connection to “Samsung Kies” on the device. I have now smashed the screen and have to send it away for new phone under guarantee.
Is there any way of getting addresses which are not on the sim as at present Kies only connects to the external memory?

Alan

TheSmile

Oktober 20th, 2010 - 14:33

Hi Alan,

you need to install your Wave device as MTP Device (using appropriate USB-Drivers from Samsung). After that Kies can grab almost all data from your phone including Contacts from SIM and internal storage, SMS, calendar, pictures etc. Unfortunately Kies does not support downloading contacts or calendar from other Accounts e.g. Google-Account that you link with your device.

Regards,
Norbert

Pat

November 24th, 2010 - 01:05

Hello, when I try to use Kies to sync with Outlook, by selecting the Calendar icon, I get a message that says my device is not supported, referring to my device as: GT-S8500M. Any idea why? Is this a slightly different model?

Darryll

Dezember 8th, 2010 - 11:10

Samsung Wave won’t synch with Outlook. I have exactly the same problem as Pat (above) and have asked all the official Samsung help sites who acknowledge the problem but say I must live with it. I am in the process of looking for a genuine smart phone now as I can’t work without synching my emails. Does anyone have a solution …. my last attempt ?

Jo

Dezember 14th, 2010 - 07:17

I have same problems to sync my wave with the outlook, from the help desk of the provider I found that rthere is a limit of 200 entrie in the calander???

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