For a smartphone that has a reasonable amount of features for a fair price, the Samsung Galaxy Ace offers users a decent option. It comes with an FM radio, a digital player, and a digital camera that are all rather useful. The 3.5 inch touchscreen is centered in the middle, but it is a bit small when compared to the overall size of the phone. Offering HVGA resolution and access to the social hub that Samsung has set up to provide news updates, this “cousin” of the primary Galaxy phones takes a minimalistic approach that could pay off big for your today.
How Is the Performance of the Samsung Galaxy Ace?
This smartphone is designed to provide users with just enough power to have a smooth operating experience. It starts with the 800 MHz processor that provides relatively quick web browsing and some limited multitasking. Although the Galaxy Ace isn’t going to compare to the quad core processors that can be found in premium phones today, it is good enough to accomplish most jobs. Users will be able to download apps when they wish, share content with their friends quickly, and thanks to the Wi-Fi, even do that outside of its data plan.
The touchscreen is a TFT capacitive Gorilla Glass screen that offers users a 165 PPI pixel density. There is support for 16 million colors, so the quality of the image is decent enough. Images just aren’t as crisp as some users might expect with a modern smartphone. It runs on Android’s Gingerbread operating system.
The Swype technology that has been included with the virtual keyboard allows for faster texting and document composition once users get used to the system. By connecting the pattern of keyboard hits, the interface attempts to determine what you’re saying without lifting your finger from the screen. When combined with the predictive inputs, the experience is fairly accurate, even if finger placement isn’t 100% accurate.
A final advantage in using the Samsung Galaxy Ace is the inclusion of ThinkFree straight out-of-the-box. This gives users the opportunity to create, modify, or read Microsoft Office documents, spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations. If you’ve got a PowerPoint presentation to give in an hour and need to alter it, the Galaxy Ace is going to allow that to happen.
How Do the Specs of the Samsung Galaxy Ace Compare?
The 5 MP camera is a point of contention for those who use this smartphone. Although using the camera is relatively easy to do, the imaging qualities of the images that are taken are somewhat lackluster. Video recording only occurs in 480p, which means it falls behind the capabilities of other smartphones that are at lower price points.
On the other hand, users won’t have to fall for the temptation of having a different colored phone introduced to them after they purchase the stock model of this one. That’s because the Galaxy Ace comes with a pair of back panels that are interchangeable so that the look of the phone can be changed. The visual aesthetics of the phone itself are reasonably appealing, although the blocky menu button in the central button is a bit oversized when compared to the touchscreen that is a bit undersized.
The button placement is a bit of an issue with this phone. If the touchscreen were 4 inches instead of 3.5 inches, the button placement would be reduced just a little and placed a little lower on the phone. This would prevent many of the accidental button pushes that tend to happen when trying to take a call with this phone. Most people will wind up holding the phone in such a way that the sleep button is depressed, further adding to a learning curve that could be quite frustrating.
What About Its Battery and Other Features?
The Samsung Galaxy Ace has been equipped with a reasonably strong lithium-ion battery that has a 1350 mAh rating. In practical terms, it means that this phone has about 6 hours of talk time on a single charge if connected to a 3G network. Using an Edge or 2G network will about double the amount of talk time that users will receive. Standby times are about 400 hours on a 3G network or about 600 hours for a 2G network.
This phone is GPS equipped and offers Bluetooth and a stereo FM radio with RDS as well. It plays most multimedia files, so it can double as an MP3 player if desired. Connected to a charger or computer with the mUSB v2.0 port and save your data by connecting to Wi-Fi.
The memory and internal storage of the phone, however, are minimal at best. It has just 278 MB of RAM, so some of the latest apps aren’t going to run very well on the Galaxy Ace. There’s only 158 MB of internal storage as well, but the mSD slot recognizes up to 32 GB of external storage. A 2 GB external storage card is included with the purchase of the phone.
What the Verdict on the Samsung Galaxy Ace?
The Galaxy Ace is designed to be an affordable alternative in the Galaxy series of smartphones. Affordable is the key word here as the options and features are definitely downgraded, even from mobile phones of other brands at this price point. If you are partial to the Samsung brand and want an entry level smartphone, then the Galaxy Ace is a viable option to consider. The document and photo editing capabilities are nice to have on hand, even if the video recording is only at 480p in total.
It’s a good first smartphone or backup phone in case the primary mobile phone goes missing or needs to be replaced for some reason. It has just enough features to be useful and a fairly affordable price. Is it the best phone at this price point? That’s something that each shopper will need to determine on their own because the Samsung Galaxy Ace is designed to meet specific niche needs.