Recently, Samsung released a quartet of Android handsets for pretty much every Android lover wishing for a low- to mid-range smartphone. The most prominent of the four – the Samsung GALAXY Ace GT-S5830 has the familiar candybar styling with a large menu button and two capacitive ones that give it a typical Samsung look. With a screen sized at the healthy 3.5 inches, but with a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels, which just screams run-of-the-mill, it still looks miles ahead of the rest in the quartet where resolution gets pixelized to plain ugly. Don't expect anything extraordinary from the 800 MHz Qualcomm processor – it gets the job done without breaking the benchmarks. Actually, the Ace fits perfectly in the mid-range segment, so perfectly that it might even outdo the LG Optimus One in sales if Samsung prices the Ace accordingly.
But before we jump into more details about the Android experience, let's take a close look at the design of the Samsung GALAXY Ace.
Design:
The key word here is glossy plastic. Nothing surprising from Samsung, but we could still sigh and wish for something a bit more classy. The glossy plastic body has shapes actually resembling both the Galaxy S and the iPhone 4 together in a weird way, and while it is a fingerprint magnet, there is some allure to it because of that resemblance. Add to that the light feel of the device weighing slightly less than 4 ounces along with its average dimensions of 4.43 x 2.36 x 0.45 inches and you have a compelling mid-range phone.
You can compare the Samsung GALAXY Ace with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.
The 3.5-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen (with multitouch support) boasts 16 million colors with a pretty average resolution of 320 x 480, but just the size of it ups the game in mid-range smartphones. Colors are vivid, but naturally, not as deep as on a Super AMOLED display. Sunlight legibility could be an issue – in one of the rare sunny days in winter we took the Ace for a walk and struggled to make out objects under direct sunlight. But all of this is expected for a mid-range device and we can overlook those flaws as minor.
Just like the other three handsets Samsung released, the GALAXY Ace has a microSD card slot on the side allowing for hot swap of memory cards. It supports up to 32GB of memory for your precious data and is nicely protected with a lid. The volume rocker on the left hand side feels comfortable to press, while the right side holds the power button. The top part of the Ace houses the microUSB slot used to charge the handset. It is also protected with a lid.
A mid-range device is a mid-range device, which means that a 5-megapixel camera is a nice addition, especially if we count its LED flash and autofocusing capabilities. You will find the camera on the back, which also holds the speakerphone grill and having said that we can now jump to what really matters – Android Froyo and its performance.
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