Samsung Wave 2 is the next wave of Bada in hands-on photos

Android this, iPhone that... why does mobile-phone news always have to be about smart phones? As high-end features trickle down, even lower-end phones are starting to look like smart phones -- if you squint a bit. Take the Samsung Wave 2 as a f'instance.

The Wave 2 is the sequel to the original Wave. It has a large, 3.7-inch touchscreen. It connects to the Web for browsing, watching videos and sending emails. It has Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth 3.0 connectivity. It plays music, takes photos and records high-definition film clips. It even downloads apps.

See? That sounds like a pretty smart phone, for a phone that isn't a smart phone. If you see what we mean.

The camera has a 5-megapixel resolution, and boasts an LED flash and autofocus. It also shoots 720p videos. Inside, the Wave harbours a 1GHz processor. The phone packs 2GB of memory, which is expandable to 32GB with a microSD card.

The original Wave was the first phone to use Samsung's Bada operating system. The Wave 2 also uses the pun-friendly Bada OS.

We played with the Wave 2 at phone fest Mobile World Congress, where we noticed it's a smidgen bigger than its predecessor, but the differences pretty much stop there. We'd go so far as to say that, if you're considering upgrading to the Wave 2 from the original Wave, it's probably not worth it.

If you consider the Wave 2 as a clever phone without a smart-phone price tag, however, you'll find it has plenty to recommend it. Bada may not be as established as Android or Apple's iOS platform, but it's still slick.

The Wave 2 is in shops now. Click through our photo gallery to ride the Wave.