The samsung galaxy ace is the cheaper version of the samsung galaxy s. Visually apart from being slightly thicker, it is very similar to the iphone 4s with its 3.5inch touchscreen. It has a five megapixel camera with a flash (which can be turned on or off) The quality of the pictures is really good and you can change the camera settings to suit you. The quality of the camcorder however is not as good with a maximum of only 640x480p, it does the job though.
The samsung galaxy ace runs on a 800mhz single core processor, which although not as good as some of the newer smart phones it still does the job and it does it well.
When I bought my Samsung galaxy ace just over a year ago (round about November 2011) it cost me £250 but I did pay more as it was sim free (open to any network). Now the average price is between £100 - £150 which I think is a good price as it is a decent phone.
The samsung galaxy ace comes with 2 covers, the black one it comes in which is diamond cut and has a rubbery feel/look to it which makes it easy to hold/grip. Then there is a white cover included in the box which is just shiny plastic and when you put it on it looks a bit odd because the rest of the phone is black so it doesn't match. I personally have always stuck with the original black case.
There are 4 buttons on The galaxy ace, on the left at the top you have your volume up and down buttons. On the right at the top you have your power on/off button(which can also be set as the 'end call' button). Then in the middle on the bottom of the phone is your home screen button which does as it says, takes you back to the home screen. There is a standard 3.5mm jack on the top left for earphones and a covered micro usb port in the middle which is where you also plug your charger in.
It is hard for me to say how tough the Galaxy ace is against general wear and tear as I have always kept mine in a case being the clumsy so and so that I am. I have however heard from others that it is fairly durable.
It runs on Android gingerbread 2.3 and I have found it to be quick, responsive and easy to use, there is a thing built in called ' swype' so when writing a word, instead if tapping each letter individually you can just swipe your finger across the letters you want to use and voila there's your word! Also you can sayvaloud what you wish to write and it will type it out for you and I was pleasantly surprised at how accurate the voice recognition is (it even does swear words! lol!
Overall I would say that the Samsung galaxy ace is a good value for money smart phone that will do everything you want it to and more.
There is one small problem I would like to mention. I thought it was just my phone originally but my friend has since had the same problem. Sometimes when I receive a call, the phone will freeze so that although it continues to ring, I cannot swipe right to answer the call or left to reject it and I cant even turn the phone off with the power button. The ringtone song just carries on playing and playing until I pop the battery out and reset the phone completely. I would be interested in knowing if anyone else has had this problem.
Apart from that a really good phone.