Samsung Galaxy Ace review

The budget smartphone sector is one of the biggest growth areas in the mobile market, so it's no surprise to see Samsung plastering adverts for its latest budget model, the Samsung Galaxy Ace, all over the place. Sporting a 3.5in screen, 800MHz CPU and a fully-fledged version of Android, it has all the essentials but can it trump all before it?

The Ace's design certainly doesn't betray its budget leanings. It's nothing particularly new or innovative but the glossy front, silver sides and textured back are smart enough. In terms of build quality, there's a certain plasticky feel to it but when some high-end smartphones like Samsung's own Galaxy S II also have a rather lightweight plastic build, the difference isn't glaringly obvious.


Extra grip is provided by the textured back and it keeps fingerprints and scratches well covered up. Some may find the knobbly texture a bit peculiar at first but it's not actually uncomfortable once you're used to it. Indeed, combined with its slightly smaller form factor, the Ace makes for a rather easy-to-handle phone.

The button layout helps too. Like other recent Samsungs, the Galaxy Ace's power button is on the right edge where it falls easily under your thumb or finger, saving you having to stretch to the top of the device. Meanwhile on the left is the volume rocker, which has a reasonably light yet defined action so it’s easy to operate when the phone’s in your pocket.



Connectivity wise, the Ace gives up little to top-end devices with microUSB and headphone sockets on the top edge, and for storage there’s a microSD slot on the side. Both are covered, with the microUSB hidden behind a ridged plastic slider and the card slot by a softer plastic bung. You’ll get a 2GB card in the box, which is enough for plenty of apps and a few dozen albums. If you want to start loading you phone up with dozens of videos or hundreds albums, though, you’ll need to invest in a larger card as the 153MB of in-built storage won’t get you very far.



Like the Galaxy S II, the Galaxy Ace has just a single physical button on its front, which will take you back to the homescreen. Flanking it are touch buttons for Back and Menu, which disappear into the blackness of the bezel when the phone is powered down. This design apes Apple a little too obviously, but we do actually think it’s the best button layout for Android phones, especially as the Home button also activates the screen.

Speaking of the screen, it’s probably the first place this phone really starts to show its budget origins. The 3.5in size isn’t quite on the level of the 4in models sported by many of the most powerful smartphones but it’s perfectly adequate, indeed it’s the same size as the iPhone 4. However, it certainly isn’t the same when it comes to sharpness. With a resolution of just 320 x 480 pixels, it has a pixel density of just 164 pixels per inch compared to the iPhone’s 320ppi and the Galaxy S II’s 220ppi. The upshot is the Ace does look rather blocky. You can still read most text messages and emails easily enough but browsing the web can be a bit more tricky as you have to zoom in and out that much more.



Colours produced by the display are okay so pictures and videos don’t suffer too much in this regard but the extremes of dark and light detail are lost somewhat and viewing angles are fairly ropey. All told, it’s a display that gets the job done for core smartphone duties but it doesn’t bring an extra level of joy to browsing through your pics, playing games or watching video.

Not that you’ll want to be show off your videos shot with this phone’s camera all that often. Its QVGA (320 x 240) resolution is woefully low, as is the meagre 15fps framerate. As an emergency nice to have is all this qualifies as.

For pictures, the 5-megapixel snapper does the job, with LED flash and autofocus for sharp close-up shots. Results are very dependent on the amount of light available but you generally get by.