Samsung's affiliation to Android seems to have done wonders for its handset sales. The phone which kick-started the revolution was undoubtedly the Samsung Galaxy S. A year down the line and many smartphone launches later, Samsung announced three new phones in the Galaxy series. This week, we get our hands on the Samsung Galaxy Ace, the most high-end smartie of the lot.

Sizing it up

At first glance, the front of the phone reminds you a lot of Samsung's first-generation touch phones. A standard shiny black bezel encases the 3.5-inch TFT capacitive touch screen. At the bottom is a single rectangular button, which stands out quite jarringly compared to the delicately curved, chrome plated edges. Our doubts about an Apple-like Home button were put to rest when we turned on the phone, and two LED touch-sensitive buttons came to light on either side, for Menu and Return.

The left side of the phone has a volume rocker switch, and on the right you'll find the Power/Lock button and a micro SD card slot. The Power button conveniently comes within your natural grip while holding the phone. On top, you'll find a 3.5mm headphone jack and a mini USB charging and transfer slot with a retractable cover.

The back panel is dotted and rubberised, so you get a firm grip on the phone. A 5-meg camera with LED flash and a single speaker are the only adornments at the rear.

User Interface

When you unlock the phone, you are greeted by a home screen that discretely reminds you of the bada interface. However, Samsung should be commended for taking the effort to customise the interface, so it stands out from standard Android phones.

There are some features which are distinctly Android though. For one, you can have up to 7 customisable home screens, to which you can add shortcuts and widgets of your choice. There's also the standard notification panel on the top which displays time, connectivity options and alerts. The phone can be locked and unlocked using the Android sweep feature.

When it comes to Samsung's part, there's a 4-icon bar at the bottom for quick access to Call, Contacts, Messaging and Menu. These buttons have been customised, with a slightly ‘cartoony' design, which doesn't really suit the business-like exterior of the phone.

Pressing the Menu button will bring up your standard Android menu with all your apps. Except here, you swipe left and right instead of up and down to navigate through your Menu. The icons of many apps have also been customised, Samsung style.

The touch interface of the phone was outstanding, to say the least. It was extremely responsive, registering even the slightest touch. It's safe to say that it can be put on a par with the iPhone's screen, which should give you an idea of how good it is. It also supports multi-gesture, including pinch to zoom and double tap.

In the Galaxy Ace, Samsung uses its own keyboard – we couldn't find the option for an Android version anywhere on the phone. We found it extremely easy to type in portrait mode, since the keys were nicely spaced out. Galaxy S fans will be pleased to know that the Ace also supports Swype, which makes typing easier.

Messages are displayed as threads, and you can choose from a few skins to customise the layout like, ‘Sticky Note' or ‘Memo'.

Media

You get your standard smartphone media options with this phone. From Android's side, you get the Music and Video player. We played some MPEG-4 video clips to test the quality, and we got sharp and clear results. The only factor that doesn't work in Samsung's favour is the speaker, which isn't really suited to loudspeaker use. Even when we plugged in headphones we weren't too impressed, because the volume levels remained quite low. What we did like was the fact that we could adjust volume even when the phone was locked, using the toggle switch.

There's built-in FM Radio, which automatically scans and tunes in the available FM channels. Unlike a lot of older generation phones, the Ace itself functions as an antenna, so you don't have to plug in the Samsung headset from the box; you can just use your favourite pair and listen away.

The camera gave us some good results, especially in low light. There are also a number of scene modes you can choose from, so it's pretty advanced as far as mobile phone cameras go.

We downloaded the Facebook app from the Android market, but you can also download Social Hub from Samsung Apps, which integrates all your SNS and IM clients in one place.

We set up our Gmail account in one easy step. The phone supports push notifications, so you'll get alerts for any new emails in the inbox. If you have an alternative email account, you can use the dedicated email client to set it up. Once we logged into the Android market, we also downloaded the WhatsApp messenger service, which worked without a hitch. .

The phone comes pre-installed with ThinkFree Office, so you can edit Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents.

Performance

The phone is powered by an 800 MHz ARM 11 processor, and although Samsung could have charged it up and gone the whole hog with a 1 GHz one, we didn't feel like the performance was lacking in any way. To test the gaming graphics of the phone, we installed our favourite Angry Birds. Many tech geeks will tell you that Angry Birds needs at least a 1GHz processor to work without any lags, but we had no trouble with this phone. The smooth touch screen made it an even better experience

The accelerometer worked smoothly, and the proximity sensor was spot on. Battery life was better than average, it gives you about a day and a half on a full charge. This includes heavy talktime usage, browsing, social networking, watching videos and listening to music.

Our Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy Ace lives up to its name in every way. It's a good fit either as a business phone or for someone who wants it for heavy media use – which makes it almost universal in that aspect.

Love: Excellent touch screen, no lags in performance

Hate: Unflattering design

Rs 18,290

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