Samsung Galaxy Ace
Product Type: Samsung Smartphone
Newest Review: ... phone due to my terrible memory however I have tried this twice on the Galaxy Ace and for some reason it doesn't alert me of remind... more
Samsung Galaxy Not So Ace!
Samsung Galaxy Ace
Member Name: loulou22
Product:
Samsung Galaxy Ace
Date: 19/01/13
Rating:
Advantages: Works for calls & texts. Looks good. Wifi.
Disadvantages: Crashes. Small internal memory.
Samsung Galaxy Ace GT5830
Back in August 2012 my old phone decided it was time for us to go our separate ways and died on me. The phone in question was my Samsung Tocco Lite, I had had the phone for around 2 and a half years and up until the day the touch screen stopped working I had had no problems and because of this I decided to have a Samsung phone again.
As my phone broke two days before I was due to fly home to Birmingham for my mums wedding I decided to wait and buy one while I was back over as at least I would be able to ask any questions and read any information I needed to know... I've lived in Poland for over a year and the language is still a mystery to me no matter how hard I try! So upon my arrival back in the UK I headed to my local O2 and Orange shops to do a bit of price comparisons on the Samsung Galaxy Ace, I knew I wanted this phone as I had read a lot of positive reviews on both Ciao and Dooyoo so now I just needed to find it at a suitable price. I wasn't too bothered about which network provider I had as I was intending on having the phone unlocked to be compatible with my Polish SIM card.
Orange or O2?
At the time I was making my purchase the Orange shop in Sutton Coldfield were selling the black version of the Galaxy Ace for £149 or the Galaxy Ace 2 for £189 where as in the O2 shop I was given a choice of the Galaxy Ace in Silver, Black, Blue, Pink or Purple for £119 or the Galaxy Ace 2 for £179. I think it is clear to say the Galaxy Ace in purple was the clear winner for me and I happily purchased my new phone along with few accessories including the much needed screen protector as there wasn't one included with the phone, well, not a plain one! I could have kept the one with the huge android logo on it but I decided against it.
In The Box
When I bought my phone it was in a much smaller box than I expected and this box contained the phone itself, one battery, 2 back covers for the phone, one purple and one black, a UK 3 pin wall charger, a 2GB micro SD memory card and an SD memory card adapter. Although I put the 2GB micro SD card on eBay as I already had an 8GB one I could use instead.
Operating System
The Samsung Galaxy Ace is an Android phone and while I'm not really into the tech side of things these days I can see from a quick check that the operating system is Android 2.3.6. Personally I have no idea what this means but I think it is OK and it seems to suit the apps which I want to use.
Touch Me!
The Galaxy Ace is a Smartphone with a full touch screen. There is only one 'normal' button on the phone which is the home button, this is located at the bottom of the screen and if you press this button it will quit whatever you are doing and return you to your home screen. I find this to be quite handy if I am in a rush and want to quit things quickly before putting my phone in my pocket.
Call Me Maybe?
Obviously the main purpose of a phone, no matter how many fancy apps we have, is to be able to make phone calls and making a phone call is really simple, you just need to tap the icon for your contacts, scroll and find the person you want to call and then choose call from the list of options which also include the option to email or send a text to your contact.
Answering a call isn't so easy, or at least to begin with it isn't so easy. When the phone has an incoming call you will have two options displayed on the screen along with the callers ID. There is a green phone and a red one, to answer the call you need to press your finger on the green phone and slide it across to the right and to reject the call choose the red one and slide it to the left. This sounds easy and I suppose it is really but I have found when I am in a hurry or searching my bag for my phone I often cut people off or answer the call without intending to.
On the front of the phone there is what looks like a camera, however this is actually the proximity sensors so the phone can detect how close to your ear it is and illuminate itself and activate the in call features when you move it away from you.
I find the reception quality of the phone to be OK most of the time, however there have been a couple of occasions where I have checked my phone as it was unusually quiet and when I looked there was a symbol which indicates no service or emergency calls only, this has happened both at home and out and about in places where I know that I usually have no problems, this is a rare occurrence though and until it happens regularly I'm not complaining... too much! I find that turning the phone on and off again seems to fix the problem. I have so far used this phone in various locations in the UK as well as here in Poland, Spain and Czech Republic all with no problems.
Text Me!
Sending a text is also pretty easy once you are used to the touch screen, I found a little patience needed at times. There are a couple of input methods to typing a text, the one I find easiest is the QWERTY Keypad layout on the screen as I am so used to typing on my laptop that it is 2nd nature to use this style on my phone too although at times I do find that the parts to touch to get the letters are quite small and sometimes if I am trying to type one handed I often press the wrong letter, but I still prefer this over the traditional phone keypad style. There is also an option to use voice control to type your message where you simply need to speak to the phone and it will recognise the words and put them in a message. I have used this a few times but with my slight Birmingham accent I find that it doesn't always come up with the correct words.
Quite Alarming!
The other area of the phone I use on a daily basis is the Alarms section. I have the alarm set on the loudest setting and this is plenty loud enough to wake me, especially when I choose the Rooster crowing to wake me up! There is certainly no ignoring this alarm and often the first words of the day are "I'm gonna kill the chicken". There is also the snooze option which will make the alarm sound every 10 minutes, or more frequently if you prefer.
Smile for the Camera... But not for the Video!
The camera on the Galaxy Ace is actually really good; it can be set at 5 megapixels if required although I have mine set to 1.3 at the moment and this seems to be more than adequate for the amount I use it as I usually use my normal camera for my photos. The phone also has the possibility to record video with the camera, however recently the video doesn't seem to record for me unless I switch the phone off and on again which is really annoying as by the time I have done this the moment I wanted to record has often passed.
The camera has a lovely bright flash, it is possibly capable of blinding you if you look directly at it, it certainly causes those coloured dots in front of your eyes, not good for the person in the photo but it does make for a nice clear photo in the darker situations. The flash can also be used with the recording option, when the recording option works of course!
Apps, Apps and More Apps... Sort of!
Apps... love them or hate them Android phones support the use of apps and the Galaxy Ace is indeed an Android phone. When I first got the phone the apps were one of the things I was rather excited about and spent the first few days downloading a large selection of apps, all of the free versions of course! Unfortunately the problem with this was that the internal memory of the phone is quite small and a lot of apps require the phones internal memory rather than the memory card and even those which can be saved on the memory card seem to save their data on the internal memory. Once the internal memory is low you will have a constant notification displayed on the phone to inform you of this. Failure to rectify the memory shortage will eventually result in not being able to update apps or even receive text messages as these are also sorted on the internal memory.
Another complaint I have in the apps department is that the phone comes with quite a few apps already built in and they cannot be deleted even if you never use them and I'm sure they would free up a lot of space if I could get rid of them! These include things like the Think Free Office which allows you to read documents in PDF or Word on your phone rather than your PC, I can see how this would be useful for a lot of people but for me it is pretty useless. Another one which annoys me is the Samsung Hub, O2 Priority and Social Hub apps, I have never used these and probably never will but yet I have to keep them as the options menu doesn't allow them to be deleted.
But, enough moaning about the apps, lets talk about the good apps which work with this phone. So, first of all we have the usual Facebook and Twitter apps, so far for me these seem to work pretty well although I have noticed Facebook seems to take up a lot of space on the internal memory.
Another favourite of mine is eBay and I find it really easy to list items from my phone and the eBay notifications to my phone are fab. The app I use more than anything is Whatsapp, for those of you who don't know, Whatsapp is a messaging app which allows you to message other Whatsapp users using the Wifi connection or your internet data allowance. I think this is fantastic as it is a great free way for me to keep in touch with my family and friends back home without having to pay for costly messages or log onto Facebook every 5 minutes.
In the past I have downloaded some games but they all seemed to take up a lot of my valuable internal memory space and I found I could only have one or two at a time and currently I don't have any.
Finally, one last bad points of apps, a lot of the apps seem to crash and quit a lot, I'm not sure if this is a problem with the apps themselves or a fault of the phone but I would lean more towards the phone as I often find I am scrolling through my contacts list and it will suddenly quit and return to my home screen, this is really frustrating and often makes me feel like screaming!
Wifi, GPS and Other Info
The Galaxy Ace is Wifi compatible and for me this is my main form of connecting to the internet with this phone. To set up a wifi connection is simple, the wifi option can be found in the settings menu, the phone automatically scans for networks and you simply need to choose the one you want and after entering any security code the phone will connect and also remember the connection as well as automatically re-connect to it when you are within range.
The phone also has GPS which until recently I had left switched off, however I recently downloaded an app which works with the maps feature and therefore requires GPS to be switched on. The GPS isn't really that accurate in my experience and often shows me as being a couple of streets away from where I actually am.
Bluetooth is also a standard feature of the phone however I have only used it a couple of times. Those times I have used it I had no problems and it was probably the easiest feature of the phone!
Charging Time
The battery life on this phone is also not so good, I use my phone almost constantly and as a result of this I have to charge the battery most nights which compared to my old Samsung is terrible, I can only think this high battery usage is due to the operating system and the wifi connection.
Overall
When I first got this phone I loved it and was so excited to finally be joining the world of apps, however coming up to 6 months later and after reading a lot of positive things about this phone prior to buying it I feel that this phone is more of a disappointment than anything. I wont be buying a new phone just yet as I am determined to get my moneys worth from this one. Looks wise I think this phone is pretty good looking and I love the fact that I have the purple version.
Overall I will give the Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 out of 5 stars. It is suitable for the basic requirements of a phone, i.e. making calls and sending texts. It takes decent photos, although the video doesn't seem to work well on my handset. Most of the time it is reliable for connecting to the internet but its battery life, small internal memory and the occasions it crashes really let the phone down.
Thanks for reading :)
Back in August 2012 my old phone decided it was time for us to go our separate ways and died on me. The phone in question was my Samsung Tocco Lite, I had had the phone for around 2 and a half years and up until the day the touch screen stopped working I had had no problems and because of this I decided to have a Samsung phone again.
As my phone broke two days before I was due to fly home to Birmingham for my mums wedding I decided to wait and buy one while I was back over as at least I would be able to ask any questions and read any information I needed to know... I've lived in Poland for over a year and the language is still a mystery to me no matter how hard I try! So upon my arrival back in the UK I headed to my local O2 and Orange shops to do a bit of price comparisons on the Samsung Galaxy Ace, I knew I wanted this phone as I had read a lot of positive reviews on both Ciao and Dooyoo so now I just needed to find it at a suitable price. I wasn't too bothered about which network provider I had as I was intending on having the phone unlocked to be compatible with my Polish SIM card.
Orange or O2?
At the time I was making my purchase the Orange shop in Sutton Coldfield were selling the black version of the Galaxy Ace for £149 or the Galaxy Ace 2 for £189 where as in the O2 shop I was given a choice of the Galaxy Ace in Silver, Black, Blue, Pink or Purple for £119 or the Galaxy Ace 2 for £179. I think it is clear to say the Galaxy Ace in purple was the clear winner for me and I happily purchased my new phone along with few accessories including the much needed screen protector as there wasn't one included with the phone, well, not a plain one! I could have kept the one with the huge android logo on it but I decided against it.
In The Box
When I bought my phone it was in a much smaller box than I expected and this box contained the phone itself, one battery, 2 back covers for the phone, one purple and one black, a UK 3 pin wall charger, a 2GB micro SD memory card and an SD memory card adapter. Although I put the 2GB micro SD card on eBay as I already had an 8GB one I could use instead.
Operating System
The Samsung Galaxy Ace is an Android phone and while I'm not really into the tech side of things these days I can see from a quick check that the operating system is Android 2.3.6. Personally I have no idea what this means but I think it is OK and it seems to suit the apps which I want to use.
Touch Me!
The Galaxy Ace is a Smartphone with a full touch screen. There is only one 'normal' button on the phone which is the home button, this is located at the bottom of the screen and if you press this button it will quit whatever you are doing and return you to your home screen. I find this to be quite handy if I am in a rush and want to quit things quickly before putting my phone in my pocket.
Call Me Maybe?
Obviously the main purpose of a phone, no matter how many fancy apps we have, is to be able to make phone calls and making a phone call is really simple, you just need to tap the icon for your contacts, scroll and find the person you want to call and then choose call from the list of options which also include the option to email or send a text to your contact.
Answering a call isn't so easy, or at least to begin with it isn't so easy. When the phone has an incoming call you will have two options displayed on the screen along with the callers ID. There is a green phone and a red one, to answer the call you need to press your finger on the green phone and slide it across to the right and to reject the call choose the red one and slide it to the left. This sounds easy and I suppose it is really but I have found when I am in a hurry or searching my bag for my phone I often cut people off or answer the call without intending to.
On the front of the phone there is what looks like a camera, however this is actually the proximity sensors so the phone can detect how close to your ear it is and illuminate itself and activate the in call features when you move it away from you.
I find the reception quality of the phone to be OK most of the time, however there have been a couple of occasions where I have checked my phone as it was unusually quiet and when I looked there was a symbol which indicates no service or emergency calls only, this has happened both at home and out and about in places where I know that I usually have no problems, this is a rare occurrence though and until it happens regularly I'm not complaining... too much! I find that turning the phone on and off again seems to fix the problem. I have so far used this phone in various locations in the UK as well as here in Poland, Spain and Czech Republic all with no problems.
Text Me!
Sending a text is also pretty easy once you are used to the touch screen, I found a little patience needed at times. There are a couple of input methods to typing a text, the one I find easiest is the QWERTY Keypad layout on the screen as I am so used to typing on my laptop that it is 2nd nature to use this style on my phone too although at times I do find that the parts to touch to get the letters are quite small and sometimes if I am trying to type one handed I often press the wrong letter, but I still prefer this over the traditional phone keypad style. There is also an option to use voice control to type your message where you simply need to speak to the phone and it will recognise the words and put them in a message. I have used this a few times but with my slight Birmingham accent I find that it doesn't always come up with the correct words.
Quite Alarming!
The other area of the phone I use on a daily basis is the Alarms section. I have the alarm set on the loudest setting and this is plenty loud enough to wake me, especially when I choose the Rooster crowing to wake me up! There is certainly no ignoring this alarm and often the first words of the day are "I'm gonna kill the chicken". There is also the snooze option which will make the alarm sound every 10 minutes, or more frequently if you prefer.
Smile for the Camera... But not for the Video!
The camera on the Galaxy Ace is actually really good; it can be set at 5 megapixels if required although I have mine set to 1.3 at the moment and this seems to be more than adequate for the amount I use it as I usually use my normal camera for my photos. The phone also has the possibility to record video with the camera, however recently the video doesn't seem to record for me unless I switch the phone off and on again which is really annoying as by the time I have done this the moment I wanted to record has often passed.
The camera has a lovely bright flash, it is possibly capable of blinding you if you look directly at it, it certainly causes those coloured dots in front of your eyes, not good for the person in the photo but it does make for a nice clear photo in the darker situations. The flash can also be used with the recording option, when the recording option works of course!
Apps, Apps and More Apps... Sort of!
Apps... love them or hate them Android phones support the use of apps and the Galaxy Ace is indeed an Android phone. When I first got the phone the apps were one of the things I was rather excited about and spent the first few days downloading a large selection of apps, all of the free versions of course! Unfortunately the problem with this was that the internal memory of the phone is quite small and a lot of apps require the phones internal memory rather than the memory card and even those which can be saved on the memory card seem to save their data on the internal memory. Once the internal memory is low you will have a constant notification displayed on the phone to inform you of this. Failure to rectify the memory shortage will eventually result in not being able to update apps or even receive text messages as these are also sorted on the internal memory.
Another complaint I have in the apps department is that the phone comes with quite a few apps already built in and they cannot be deleted even if you never use them and I'm sure they would free up a lot of space if I could get rid of them! These include things like the Think Free Office which allows you to read documents in PDF or Word on your phone rather than your PC, I can see how this would be useful for a lot of people but for me it is pretty useless. Another one which annoys me is the Samsung Hub, O2 Priority and Social Hub apps, I have never used these and probably never will but yet I have to keep them as the options menu doesn't allow them to be deleted.
But, enough moaning about the apps, lets talk about the good apps which work with this phone. So, first of all we have the usual Facebook and Twitter apps, so far for me these seem to work pretty well although I have noticed Facebook seems to take up a lot of space on the internal memory.
Another favourite of mine is eBay and I find it really easy to list items from my phone and the eBay notifications to my phone are fab. The app I use more than anything is Whatsapp, for those of you who don't know, Whatsapp is a messaging app which allows you to message other Whatsapp users using the Wifi connection or your internet data allowance. I think this is fantastic as it is a great free way for me to keep in touch with my family and friends back home without having to pay for costly messages or log onto Facebook every 5 minutes.
In the past I have downloaded some games but they all seemed to take up a lot of my valuable internal memory space and I found I could only have one or two at a time and currently I don't have any.
Finally, one last bad points of apps, a lot of the apps seem to crash and quit a lot, I'm not sure if this is a problem with the apps themselves or a fault of the phone but I would lean more towards the phone as I often find I am scrolling through my contacts list and it will suddenly quit and return to my home screen, this is really frustrating and often makes me feel like screaming!
Wifi, GPS and Other Info
The Galaxy Ace is Wifi compatible and for me this is my main form of connecting to the internet with this phone. To set up a wifi connection is simple, the wifi option can be found in the settings menu, the phone automatically scans for networks and you simply need to choose the one you want and after entering any security code the phone will connect and also remember the connection as well as automatically re-connect to it when you are within range.
The phone also has GPS which until recently I had left switched off, however I recently downloaded an app which works with the maps feature and therefore requires GPS to be switched on. The GPS isn't really that accurate in my experience and often shows me as being a couple of streets away from where I actually am.
Bluetooth is also a standard feature of the phone however I have only used it a couple of times. Those times I have used it I had no problems and it was probably the easiest feature of the phone!
Charging Time
The battery life on this phone is also not so good, I use my phone almost constantly and as a result of this I have to charge the battery most nights which compared to my old Samsung is terrible, I can only think this high battery usage is due to the operating system and the wifi connection.
Overall
When I first got this phone I loved it and was so excited to finally be joining the world of apps, however coming up to 6 months later and after reading a lot of positive things about this phone prior to buying it I feel that this phone is more of a disappointment than anything. I wont be buying a new phone just yet as I am determined to get my moneys worth from this one. Looks wise I think this phone is pretty good looking and I love the fact that I have the purple version.
Overall I will give the Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 out of 5 stars. It is suitable for the basic requirements of a phone, i.e. making calls and sending texts. It takes decent photos, although the video doesn't seem to work well on my handset. Most of the time it is reliable for connecting to the internet but its battery life, small internal memory and the occasions it crashes really let the phone down.
Thanks for reading :)
Summary: Not so Ace really!
