• Review: Samsung Galaxy Ace

    Review: Samsung Galaxy Ace

    Chandrakant 'ck' Isi, Jun 27, 2011 1917 hrs IST

    An Android with a lost identity.

    Multitasking; 5 megapixel camera; 3.5" screen, 800 MHz CPU

    Uninspiring design; No Flash support; Lacklustre media performance

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Samsung Galaxy Ace
MRP: Rs 15,945
Street Price: Rs 15,200 Source 1, Source 2

Samsung, a noodle-producing company in the year 1938, became a successful wool producer post the Korean War. Later, it left a mark in businesses such as insurance, securities, and retail, before entering the black-and-white TV market. Today, this TV giant also produces memory chips, hard drives, and laptops, along with numerous other consumer electronics products. It is also the world s second largest mobile producer after Nokia. Seriously, its tagline should have been Jack of all trades .


Getting to the point, here is the review of the Samsung Galaxy Ace. Why so late, you ask. Well, the phone didn't create an impact at the time of its release, but seeing the large number of review requests, we finally decided get it done.


Design And Specs


The retail package contains a phone, charger, headset, and a micro-USB data cable. The headset looks and feels cheap, and it s not what you d expect at this price tag. The phone has a "typical" Samsung design scheme. If you ve been keeping track of Samsung s touch catalogue, you must have noticed that its phones all look identical, with a few minor changes here and there. Makes you wonder if Samsung's design team is plain dumb or just underpaid (like us). Have a look at the image to get an idea what I m talking about. Out of these phones, you can also try to guess the Galaxy Ace, to win... well, nothing.

Review: Samsung Galaxy Ace





The Ace measures 112.4 mm (h) x 59.9 mm (w) x 11.5 mm (d). The body is too plastic, including the silver-coloured rim. It features a 3.5" screen, which is slightly bigger when compared to its fellow mid-range Androids. Below the screen are three keys, namely Menu, Home, and Back. The first and last are actually capacitive keys that are only visible when backlit. However, the light turns off in around 5 seconds, which can be frustrating for new users. I guess Samsung wants to hide these keys most of the time to make its device look like an iPhone.

Review: Samsung Galaxy Ace




Here are some shots of the phone from several angles.

Review: Samsung Galaxy Ace




The back has a nice textured pattern that provides a superior grip over this 113 gramme device.

Review: Samsung Galaxy Ace





Samsung phones always look good on paper, and this one is no exception. The Ace is powered by a Qualcomm MSM7227, which is also to be found in the LG Optimus One. However, Samsung has clocked it at 800 MHz, giving it more power. This ARM 11 CPU has an Adreno 200 GPU for company. For connectivity, it features Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v2.1, and GPS. You can't expect an HDMI-out in Android phones at this price range, but at least TV-out would have been a good addition.


Display


The 3.5" TFT LCD screen can display up to 320x480 pixels. The display size gives it an edge over the LG Optimus One and HTC Wildfire S. However, the screen looks odd because of an unusual height-to-width ratio. The screen is reasonably bright, but colours look lifeless. It offers decent viewing angles, but its reflective glass spoils the experience. Needless to say, the screen quality degrades further in broad daylight.


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Discussion Board
(45) Comments
viraj shah
,mumbai, on Feb 01, 2012 12:01 PM
galaxy ace has a very poor battery life.......the internal memory is also very low,we cant install much apps with this memory it also has a poor sensor as compare to wave 2 and 3......
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Rohit Rajak
,PUNE, on Jan 10, 2012 09:07 AM
Hi, I am using Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830 from Last one month and observed its Battery backup is very poor even it is having Li-ion 1350 mAH but it can’t play a MP3 music more than one Hour it will consume more then 50% battery in that and 10min GPRS usage 10 min game play the total battery will lost with in 2 and a half hour kindly suggest or if you are going to buy this model just think one more time.
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Krishna Joshi
,Pune, on Jan 03, 2012 01:51 PM
Have baught it six months back and there after no looking back... great touch experience with Samsung series... Camera qaulity is also good.. Only drawback I felt is the internal memory... with just 181 MB of internal memory, not much can be installed on it... Overall Awesome phone... And best price in Pune city can be found at: www.wic.co.in
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Sridhar.Narayan
,Bangalore, Karnataka India, on Nov 07, 2011 04:50 PM
Crab, Useless phone when compared to earlier versions of Samsung galaxy 3 and 7. The reason behind this is “samsung galaxy ace has been flawed with many problems. Despite 800 MHz p5MP snapper with LED flash,rocessor it works slowly. Battery dry up very fast because very small Li-Ion 1350 mAh needs twice charging in a day. 5MP snapper with LED flash looks very normal nothing special other than specification given in ads. Hangs and restart are frequent. It cannot play video files like .avi and many others formats. It won’t support many android applications. I suggest not to buy such idiot phone. Android 2.2 (Froyo) operating system halts performance. Others suggest for update to gingerbread But it has not yield any results.
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sunil
,Jammu, on Jun 29, 2011 03:44 PM
With Defy's rate under 15.5 K, it's a steal. I held the Ace in my hand at samsung store and it looked cheap chinese phone.. Optimus 1 has great professional feeling and display is amaizing (and yes..you can overclock the LG O1 to 800 MHz as well)... Now coming to Defy.. what a phone it is.. The resolution is same as we get in 25K phones..the processor is fast and the swype worked like a dream.. in terms of camera quality as well.. LG and Defy are better.. so guys i would suggest to go for defy if you have a budget of ACE else..LG O1 is still the best value for it's price
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Vaibhav
,Delhi, on Jun 29, 2011 09:58 PM
All the phones in 10k-15k price range are rubbish against Spice MI-410 which has 1Ghz snapdragon processor with adreno 205gpu. it has hdmi out and at 4.1 inches the largest screen of the lot. A gingerbread upgrade is already released for it by cherry mobiles and with its camera it can shoot hd videos as well. Else buy a samsung galaxy 3 from letsbuy fo 7.5k and use the voucher 'RCOMLB1' for a discount of another grand making the total price come down to 6.5 k. Samsung has already released its froyo upgrade. Using this device from last september. Was the best phone then under 18k easily beating sony ericsson x10 mini and wildfire. As well as the resolution goes all the sites have written crap about it. Its bright and colourful. And it is also supported by xda like o1 and ace.
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P K Das
,Hyderabad, on Oct 26, 2011 04:39 PM
I have purchased Galaxy Ace. How the lost identity could be helpful for the user.
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Rupesh
,Mumbai, on Jul 06, 2011 09:01 PM
I am using this phone since last 1 month now.. and i would say its a great phone... i bought it for 14.5k... i think phone looks awesome and feels great in hand.. upgraded to Gingerbread 2.3.4 via custom rom and after that it has become even better... according to me the phone looks far better than LG O1 or Defy... this phone has better display (Gorilla Glass) and better camera as compared to O1 and Defy... before buying the phone i actually compared all three of them... So i would really recommend this phone to any one who is looking for an entry level Android phone... just upgrade it to 2.3.4 gingerbread..
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Y.K.Pradhan
,gangtok, on Jul 06, 2011 11:28 PM
i am also.using this phone for about a month now. . and i think its the best phone in this price range. .i want to know. is it possible to upgrade to gingerbread version and if so how ? also i believe samsung has not officially launched the gingerbread version. .
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rahul
,noida, on Jul 08, 2011 11:40 AM
hey can u tell me how to upgrade it to gingerbread
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Rupesh
,Mumbai, on Jul 09, 2011 04:21 PM
@ Hajik check out the Androidadvices.com forums.. it gives the clear stes to upgrade to gingerbread version and also gives the link to download the gingerbread files setup.. @ Y.K.Pradhan i read few forums and found that gingerbread version was launched officially in UK.. and files are from UK. initially the beta version was rolled out to the testers which was gingerbread 2.3.3 and later on officially rolled out as 2.3.4.. i am currenity on 2.3.4 and its better then 2.2 Froyo..
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Praveen
,Chennai, on Jul 11, 2011 10:59 AM
Hi i have been using phone for past week. I would like to know couple of basic things. How we would forward a text message in the phone ? And also How to reduce the number of home screens ? I know these r basic ques...but still i wud like to know...i am havin hard time doin the same....
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Bala
,Bangalore, on Aug 03, 2011 03:22 PM
How to upgrade it to 2.3.4 gingerbread? can you please suggest....
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Kaushik
,Bangalore, on Jun 27, 2011 08:26 PM
I did mini hands-on on the SGA from two people and was reasonably satisfied with it. It is not a perfect phone and maybe a price drop is warranted now (although the Moto Defy is at 2.1 with a possible upgrade to 2.2 available). But overall, at this price, it is a good option. I also tried a HTC wildfire S and I was quite impressed with that although the text input was not so snappy in my opinion (600MHz vs 800 MHz of the SGA). But looks wise, HTC takes the cake. In fact, I'm waiting for a price drop of the HTC myself. May not happen but then the Xperia mini-series is coming soon. Maybe Motorola will bring something nice to this range.
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surjeet singh
,udaipur, on Aug 31, 2011 02:25 PM
plese tell me the sumsung galaxy Ace plone is best or not for general uses and i use first time full touch screen mobile. pls give me answered.
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S M
,MUmbai, on Jun 28, 2011 07:10 PM
'Well, the phone didn't create an impact at the time of its release, but seeing the large number of review requests, we finally decided get it done.' Really What BS. It sells like hot cakes. Check out with the retailers.
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saniya
,chandigarh, on Oct 10, 2011 08:33 PM
Hello i am Planing to buy samsung galaxy ace .. bt recently heard that the battery life isnt good Please comment !!
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vaibhav kulkarn
,osmanabad, on Oct 02, 2011 01:47 PM
pls.tell me drawbacks of the galaxy ace i want to buy this phone.rly
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Techsavy
,Mumbai, on Sep 30, 2011 04:31 AM
(1)Samsung Ace does not have Flash support..So what are the disadvantage of it??? (2)And it also do not have JAVA App.since it's thorough 3rd party Application.. Please do let me clear about this two points. I'm Planning to buy it. And howzzz it overall performance in market???
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Rajesh Poddar
,MUMBAI, on Aug 22, 2011 03:04 PM
Dear all, i have shortlisted to buy Samsung Galaxy Ace, please confirm that this phone has PUSH EMAIL facility as the main purpose of my buying the phone is Push Email. Also i am told that the price is around 14K Rs. Also which one is better Samsung Galaxy ace or LG Optimus black ? Your reply will be of great help to me. Thanks CA Rajesh Poddar
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jagdish
,surat, on Aug 11, 2011 11:16 AM
I am using this phone since 5 month, This is awesome phone, I recommend to people looking phone in this price, I will give this phone 4/5 rating.
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vedant
,delhi, on Aug 09, 2011 06:30 PM
hi...i have this phone for about last 3 months and i must say that this a amazing phone..loaded with great features....very easy to net surfing and swype feature is simply awesome,i.e within a second you can type your word and sound is also very good...whatever others say..i am very proud to own this phone and i recommend this phone to every person seeking mobile in this range...
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Sam
,Gurgaon, on Jun 27, 2011 09:28 PM
LG Optimus One, even in spite of being around 4 grands cheaper, is no less compared to Samsung Galaxy Ace. 512 MB of RAM as against 278 MB of RAM 1500 mAh battery as compared to 1350 mAh battery Same Adreno 200 GPU Same ARM 11 CPU So, one cannot really say that "Specs-wise, the Ace scores over the LG Optimus One" Yes, the Samsung Galaxy Ace does score over in some points; It has a slightly bigger screen than the Optimus One, a better 5MP snapper with LED flash, higher CPU clock speed, Gorilla Glass etc. But I still think that the LG Optimus One is till date the best value for money entry-level Android smarthphone Disclaimer: I own an LG Optimus One!
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Kaushik
,Bangalore, on Jun 28, 2011 12:07 PM
Hi Sam, thanks for the info. What are your negative experiences with LG O1? Does it really have a lag (as reported) for a medium user?
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Shubham
,New Delhi, on Jun 28, 2011 12:23 PM
Bigger screen is not a plus of Ace over O1. Because it has same HVGA resolution with a bigger screen that makes screen look ever more grainier than O1. If you observe them side by side you will know that O1's screen has much better colors.
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hajik
,hajik, on Jun 28, 2011 04:36 PM
i have been using Optimus one..since last 6 months, ..and really love it.. and considering the review.. i don't think except LED flash ...ace has anything better to offer... shockingly ace has no divx/xvid support..while optimus has
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Siddhanth
,Kolkata, on Jun 28, 2011 04:52 PM
Unless you drop your phone very often, Gorilla Glass is not very important. Sure, it helps, but its certainly not a necessity. Scratching glass requires a lot more effort than you think, and doesn't usually happen inside ones pocket. The touchbug however is very prominent in games like NFS Shift, where you have to tap the screen for braking. Still, with the proper OS updates, and the custom roms on XDA, its pretty neat for its price. Ace does not have the same dev support that the O1 enjoys, and as much as the extra 200MHz helps, its not worth the extra premium. Until last month, this was the only phone at 15K, so it was selling, but now with the defy and the nexus one at 15.5k and the original desire at 16.5k, it has become overpriced. The very moment that it touches 10K (thats probably when it will be discontinued), the sales will increase and stock will be cleared. Anyone wanting an android, hold off your purchases for a few months, as the 15K market will be flooded with the 1GHz single cores, and dual cores will go into the 25-30k segment. The same thing happened when 1Ghz first came into the market. The galaxy S was priced at 30K, and now it is just 21K. Manufacturers charge a premium for nothing. The OS is open source, and the amount they pay to devs for developing the hideous TouchWiz, which hasn't changed much since the Samsung Star cant be much. you will find Chinese Tablets, with 1GHz processors at 10-12K. I saw one using a tegra 2 at 13K. Their profit in this is almost 100%.
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Sam
,Gurgaon, on Jun 28, 2011 10:11 PM
@Kaushik Well the phone can get a bit laggy sometimes if your a running some heavy applications but overall I find it acceptable being a low to medium user myself. I have not found any other negatives in the phone till now except for the battery life which is common for every Android phone. With medium usage, the battery does not last for more than one and a half day. But if you are planning to run some heavy apps and do some multitasking as well, I would suggest you to spend some extra money and go for a phone with a better CPU. I am sure you will be able to find a Android smartphone that suits your needs with so many choices out there.
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Kaushik
,Bangalore, on Jun 30, 2011 01:16 PM
Thanks, Sam. I will be a medium user. I have decided on Android (at least 2.2) to be the next platform of mobile I'll buy. My budget has been decided at 15k. So, I do have the following options: 1. HTC wildfire S - only concern is 600MHz processor. And typing is not very smooth IMO. 2. Moto Defy - Heard complaints of instability with 2.2 upgrade. Otherwise, reported to be an excellent phone. 3. SE Xperia Mini - likely to be in the 15k bracket. Will have to wait for this to release first. The mini pro is likely to be outside my budget. 4. Samsung G Ace - I am extremely unimpressed with the looks although I've tested it and it's a good phone. Will wait it out for a couple of months because I'm expecting the 2X-cores to bring down the single core prices a bit. So, say the HTC WS comes down to 11k, I'll buy it. Or if I hear of a stable Defy at 2.2, I'll take that. Also heard about Spice MI410 - not sure how much to trust an Indian company in this field although the initial review video i saw was excellent. There are also issues with the phone being recognised by Android.
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Rupesh
,Mumbai, on Jul 06, 2011 10:00 PM
I understand SAM that O1 has similar spec as compared to Ace... I was using LG Cookie Plus before using Ace and i m bored with LG making the phones with similar looks... i saw the looks of cookie plus and O1 as some what similar.. so i would not spend 10k to get Android OS insteadof Java one with same looks.. Also as u said the Ace has slightly bigger screen than the Optimus One, a better 5MP snapper with LED flash, higher CPU clock speed, Gorilla Glass etc.. if u look a these features they are the one who determine the which phone has best value for money.. i am a not a user who takes snaps frequestly.. when i do i want better picture quality which u wont get in O1... also if u overclock Ace it can reach 1GhZ and Gorilla glass is must to have as the screen gets scratches as the time passes... the cost of Ace has gone down to 13.5 to 14k now.. so at this price i believe Ace is a value for money..
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Y.K.Pradhan
,gangtok, on Jul 06, 2011 08:45 PM
hi! i have been using samsung galaxy ace for the past one month and so far the performance of the phone is top notch. i have not experienced any kind of lag from the phone while playing games or surfing. The multi tasking works with ease on this phone and it basically delivers what it says on the paper. The only problem with this phone was the ear phone which you get with this phone. The.earphone is huge and its pain in the ear and the sound quality decreases with the use of this supplied earphone. I didnt understand why the Samsung guys didnt supply a fitting earphone to match the price and reputation of the phone.
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Valancia
,Goa, on Jul 05, 2011 11:24 PM
hi...does the samsung galaxy ace have a photo editor, if not can i transfer it from the samsung kies installed on my pc? If yes hw do i do that
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Hemanth
,bangalore, on Jul 04, 2011 05:56 AM
Hi Can any one tel me, In this phone the sensing is not working properly, i buyed it 2 days back, Do i get the replacement, whats the warranty for this phone
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Susanta
,Hyderabad, on Jul 04, 2011 02:24 PM
Can you elaborate a little bit. What do you mean by sensing?
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Kritik
,Hyderabad, on Jun 29, 2011 12:01 AM
I have been Using this since 3 months.. pretty satisfied with the performance so far.. upgraded to Android 2.3 Ginger bread with a custom rom The scenario changes markedly with firmware upgrade. Screen looks brighter, better contrast and Best of all significantly improved battery life. If you plan to buy; Upgrade the firmware ASAP, it works best with 2.3 It is worth the money you pay for it. Does not feel plasticky like Galaxy S1 SLCD, Firm grip & faster response Overall OK phone
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Prash
,Bangalore, on Jun 29, 2011 11:43 AM
Hey Kritik can u please tell me where u upgraded to 2.3 from. I have been looking for one and couldnt find one... :)
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Anonymous
,TVM, on Jun 29, 2011 02:28 PM
For upgrade, goto AndroidAdvices.com ...you could locate!
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Manish Jeenwal
,New Delhi, on Jun 28, 2011 07:31 AM
gingerbread has released for this phone in a lot of regions especially europe...latest firmware being S5830XXKPH i.e. 2.3.4 and has improved camera focus and video recording bumped to 640x480 at 30fps.....LG optimus one cant match that
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Kaushik
,Bangalore, on Jun 28, 2011 12:02 PM
You're right. Where LGO1 gets it right is price. At around 10k, it's 5k cheaper. So, we can say that it's an entirely lower segment.
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Aks
,Pune, on Jun 28, 2011 06:22 PM
Any update on gingerbread update for indian users
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Ashish
,Delhi, on Jun 28, 2011 05:58 PM
galaxy s 20.5k htc desire z 17k htc desire 15.5k galaxy Ace 13.5k hence price of single core phones will come down to less than 15k in 3 months
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Rastogi
,Jodhpur, on Jun 28, 2011 05:50 PM
Latest prices~~~Optimus 2x 23.4k so buy it for a full dual core enjoyment
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Susanta
,Hyderabad, on Jun 28, 2011 03:49 PM
Too late and not a very good review either. GSMARENA has a far better review. Also the increase in 200Mhz shows a lot of difference in performance. LG Optimus one is worth its price and so is Galaxy Ace, but the lack of LED flash in LG is a turn down. Bigger screen of Ace, means low pdi, but it also means a bigger screen to watch videos, play games and bigger keyboard.
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Anonymous
,Chennai, on Jun 28, 2011 02:10 PM
Hi, Can you review Nokia C6-01
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Sir Gaga
,Mumbai, on Jun 28, 2011 08:52 AM
I disagree about the design. Apple also has a basic design with minor changes here and there and no one complains about it. The same goes for Audi, the same basic design for at least 20 years. Some people regard this as boring, but others call it "classic". Samsung adheres to the industrial design rule "form follows function" and I'm perfectly alright with that.
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