Samsung Galaxy Ace present

The Galaxy Ace sits below the flagship Galaxy S phone in Samsung's range of Android-powered smart phones and is a very nice-looking handset, with a excellent look and feel thanks to its high gloss end and metallic edging strip. The Galaxy Ace runs Android 2.2 (Froyo), which is the same as most current Android phones, although version 2.3 (Gingerbread) would have been the icing on the cake. As usual, Samsung have overlaid Android with their own institution user interface, TouchWiz 3.0, manufacture for a very user-friendly experience. TouchWiz adds some refinements to the raw Android experience, along with closer integration of contacts with public networking data.

The Lcd display on the Ace is a good size at 3.5 inches, which is suitable for this price point, although the similarly-priced Htc Desire has a larger 3.7 inch display. The screen resolution of 320 x 480 pixels is on the low side however.

Galaxy Price

The rest of the hardware on the Ace is decidedly mid-range too. The 800 Mhz processor is no slouch, but the 158Mb of onboard memory does limit the whole of apps that can be stored. The memory can be extensive up to 32Gb with a memory card, but we'd still like to have more memory embedded in the expedient itself. The 1350mAh battery is adequate, but Android phones absolutely eat battery power and it would have been nice to have seen a more qualified battery on board the Ace.

Nevertheless the Ace is a qualified phone with many great features, along with a music player, Fm radio with Rds, assisted Gps with Google Maps, plus way to the full range of apps from the Android Market. Connectivity ticks all the boxes, with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Usb and a 3.5mm headphone jack. There's fast Hsdpa internet way too on a 3G network. Web browsing is a pretty good experience, with the blend of a fast processor, fast data way and large screen working well together. Here once again though, the puny screen resolution does pose a challenge, with text being harder to read than on some other Android phones.

The Ace comes qualified with a high-end camera. With a 5 megapixel sensor, plus autofocus and Led flash, this is capable of taking good pictures, for a camera phone. It can also report high quality video, although not at Hd resolution.

The Ace is priced at nearby 20 Gbp per month on contract, manufacture it comparable with other Android phones such as the Htc Desire. Although it's a nice phone, we'd choose the Desire over the Ace, so it looks as if Htc may continue to dominate the mid-range Android phone store for the foreseeable future.

Samsung Galaxy Ace present