Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830 review: Ace in the hole

The Samsung Galaxy Ace can get far with a name like this but it isn’t going any further than its comfortable midrange spot. The Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830 is a feline droid – the black cat in Samsung’s Android portfolio.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G support
• 7.2 Mbps HSDPA support
• 3.5" 16M-color TFT LCD capacitive touchscreen of HVGA (320 x 480 pixels) resolution
• 800MHz ARM 11 processor, Adreno 200 GPU, Qualcomm MSM7227 chipset; 278MB of RAM available to the user
• Android OS v2.2 (Froyo) with TouchWiz 3.0 UI customization
• Swype text input
• 5 MP autofocus camera with LED flash; Geo-tagging, face and smile detection
• QVGA@15fps video
• microSD slot (up to 32GB, 2GB in box)
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b, g, n and DLNA
• GPS with A-GPS connectivity; Digital compass
• microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v2.1
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• DNSe sound enhancement
• FM radio with RDS
• Document editor
• File manager preinstalled
• Samsung Apps brings a few nice apps for free
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor

The phone is pretty compact and we especially like the new rubbery textured back. There’s nothing to worry about in terms of ergonomics or pocketability, but those decidedly iPhone-ish looks are a bit questionable.