Introduction
The original Galaxy Ace S5830 did well for Samsung in the midrange. And, as we all know by this point, midrange droids are a force to be reckoned with, especially among users looking to move up from dumbphones without breaking the bank. Now, exactly a year later, the S7500 Ace Plus enters the fray looking to build on the success of the original.
Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus official photos
Samsung S7500 Galaxy Ace Plus official photos
It seems that Samsung has taken note of the major drawbacks found in its initial Ace offering, and provided improvements in many key areas, most notably a more robust processor and larger internal storage.
And while it is an improvement per se, VGA video recording @ 30 fps is nothing to write home about, considering the original Ace had that fixed via a software update. Now that Samsung upped the processor to 1Ghz. That being said, the Ace Plus offers a spec sheet that we would write home about, if, you know, we didn't have cell phones and such.
Take a look:
Key features
- Quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G support
- 7.2 Mbps HSDPA support
- 3.65" 16M-color TFT LCD capacitive touchscreen of HVGA (320 x 480 pixels) resolution
- 1 GHz ARM Cortex A5 processor, Adreno 200 GPU, Qualcomm MSM7227A chipset; 512MB of RAM available to the user
- Android OS v2.3 (Gingerbread) with TouchWiz 4.0 UI customization
- Swype text input
- 5 MP autofocus camera with LED flash; geotagging, smile detection3 GB of internal storage, microSD slot
- Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and DLNA
- GPS with A-GPS connectivity; Digital compass
- microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v3.0
- Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
- FM radio with RDS
- Document editor
- File manager preinstalled
- Samsung Apps brings a few nice apps for free
- Accelerometer and proximity sensor
Main disadvantages
- VGA video recording @30fps is nothing special
- No secondary camera
- No shutter key
- Average loudspeaker performance
- No ambient light sensor
- No DivX/Xvid video support out of the box
While there were no blatantly poor areas in which the original Galaxy Ace needed to be improved upon (besides the camera, of course), the updated processor, internal storage, RAM and slightly larger screen make the Ace Plus feel-and perform-like an upgrade.
Samsung S7500 Galaxy Ace Plus live shots
Android has seen many improvements since the Froyo 2.2 version originally found on the first Ace, and while it's no Ice Cream Sandwich, Gingerbread 2.3.6 runs absolutely glitch-free on the Ace Plus.
Coming up is our traditional hardware tour, where we look at the Galaxy Ace S7500 in detail.
The unremarkable retail package
Inside the box you'll find the manual alongside a microUSB cable and A/C adapter. Unlike the original Galaxy Ace S5830, there's no complimentary 2 GB microSD card in the bundle, but then again it's not as badly needed. The Ace Plus has 3GB of internal storage, which is enough to get you going. The original had the dismal 158 MB.
The Galaxy Ace Plus S7500 retail package
Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus S7500 360-degree spin
The Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus measures 114.5 x 62.5 x 11.2 mm and the all-plastic handset weighs 115 grams, which are virtually the same dimensions as the original Ace.
The edges are curved, which makes the phone appear slimmer, and the build-quality is good.
Samsung Galaxy Ace next to the Galaxy S
Design and build quality
The front of the device features the slightly larger screen, 3.65 inches compared to 3.5 to be exact, which forces the minutely larger overall dimensions. Not that the extra millimeter here and there makes any noticeable difference. The increased screen real estate mostly comes at the expense of the bezel.
Unfortunately, the bigger screen features the same HVGA (320x480) resolution, which makes for a slightly lower ppi ratio than the Ace.
Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus
The Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus S7500 has an average LCD screen. The brightness and contrast are okay, but the colors are quite dull. Viewing angles are far from perfect and sunlight legibility leaves a lot to be desired.
As far as touchscreen sensitivity goes we have no complaints - the screen is responsive enough but not overly so (a feature that can be annoying since it often results in unwanted taps).
A HVGA capacitive display is a good compromise between features and price
Above the display, there is the proximity sensor, which blends well with the surrounding surface. There's no ambient light sensor though, so the display brightness cannot be adjusted automatically.
Below the display there's an arrangement of three keys, typical for Samsung. The hardware home key is central, with two capacitive buttons on either side - Menu and Back. The latter two are only visible when backlit - with the backlighting off, they disappear.
The proximity sensor • The three Android keys rest below the display
On the left side of the Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus S7500 there's the lanyard eyelet and the volume rocker. The volume rocker is quite thin, but prominent just enough to use comfortably.
The Power/Lock key is on the right (as it is on many Samsung phones), which makes it accessible with both the thumb of the right hand or the index finger of the left, depending on which hand you're holding it with. This positioning can be uncomfortable for some though.
Unlike the Ace S5830, the microSD slot is no longer side-mounted, but is instead under the battery cover.
The volume rocker on the left • Power/Lock combo key on the right
On the top side of the phone is the 3.5mm standard audio jack, as well as the small crevice for removing the back panel.
The 3.5mm jack is on top
The bottom of the phone features the USB port and the mic pinhole. The microUSB port is used for both data and charging.
The microUSB port located on the bottom
The back of the Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus has changed since the early version we used in our pre-release preview and we like the new look and feel better. The new back panel takes after the original Galaxy S with a subtle chin. The textured pattern, which is pleasant to touch, we last saw in the Galaxy S Advance.
Unlike the original panel from our preview, it is also practically impervious to fingerprints.
The 5MP camera lens is centrally placed near the top of the back panel, along with the LED flash. Just like in the original Ace, the lens is exposed and vulnerable to scratches so you'll have to take care not to damage it.
The smudge-resistant back panel and 5MP camera
The back also features the loudspeaker grille, which has a small nub that keeps the speaker from getting muffled when you place the phone down on a level surface.
Underneath the battery cover is the SIM card slot and the battery. This is also where you can access the microSD slot. Located on the right edge of the phone, it's perfectly hot-swappable. On 2G networks, the 1300 mAh battery is quoted at 670 hours of standby (420 h in 3G) and up to 11 hours of talk time (7 h 20 min in 3G).
From this view, the microSD card slot is located on the lower left of the phone
All things considered, the hardware package keeps its target audience in mind; a consumer who may be upgrading from a feature phone or an entry-level smartphone, who wouldn't pay a fortune, but doesn't want to scrape the bottom of the barrel either.
Taken by itself, the addition of a slightly bigger screen is a moot point. On one hand, 3.6 inches at HVGA is hardly the best there is. The pixel density is below average, which makes the UI look somewhat grainy at times. On the other hand, the low resolution puts no strain on the processor and helps to increase performance. And as we said at the beginning, the 1 GHz processor runs the software without skipping a beat.
Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus in the hand
Up next is our tour of the Android-powered TouchWiz-skinned Galaxy Ace Plus.
Android topped with TouchWiz 4.0 UI
The Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus runs Gingerbread 2.3.6 with the most recent TouchWiz 4.0 launcher. The visually rich experience and added functionality should be no news for loyal Samsung users. Of course, the company's high-end phones are moving on to Ice Cream Sandwich but the Ace Plus has nothing to be ashamed of in terms of speed and reponse.
The redesigned lockscreen of the Ace Plus has the usual integration of missed events with shortcuts to the relevant apps.
The lockscreen can be removed by swiping in any direction
The homescreen accommodates tons of widgets with lots of functionality. You can have up to 7 homescreens. A pinch on any homescreen zooms out to an aggregate view of all homescreen panes, which can be rearranged, deleted or added.
Widgets, shortcuts or folders are pulled onto the homescreen from a taskbar at the bottom of the screen once you enter edit mode (press and hold on an empty spot or do Menu > Add).
The Galaxy Ace Plus's homescreen • Editing the homescreen
The numbered dots that identify the homescreen panes serve as a scroll bar too. A press and hold on the dots lets you scroll sideways through the resized images of the available homescreen panes in one short go rather than with several swipes.
Scrolling between homescreens looks great
The app launcher is very similar to the homescreen - you can create folders to go with your shortcuts and you can add, remove and rearrange pages just like you would homescreens.
If you prefer, you can choose List view instead of the default Grid view.
The app launcher • Creating a new folder • Rearranging pages in the app launcher • List view
In typical TouchWiz fashion, there are four shortcuts docked at the bottom of the screen that are visible both on the homescreen and in the app launcher. You can swap the first three with different ones (by default the shortcuts are Phone, Contacts, Messaging). The rightmost is the app drawer/home shortcut used to toggle between the apps menu and the homescreen, so it makes sense to always keep it in the same place.
With the Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus you get a standard Android task switcher but with one modification - it has a button to launch a task manager.
The custom task manager which Samsung have preinstalled offers a lot of functionality. It also comes with a handy widget which shows you the number of active applications right on your homescreen.
The task manager and its widget
Most of the time, Android does really well when it comes to managing apps by itself (in fact, some claim that using a task manager is detrimental to the performance of a phone), so you would only need the task manager to occasionally kill a buggy app.
Performance
The Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus runs on a single-core 1 GHz Snapdragon S1 processor with the older Adreno 200 GPU and has 512 MB worth of RAM.
Impressed with the speedy response of the phone, we ran a couple of benchmarks.
Most of them reflect the low-to-mid-range position of the Galaxy S Plus, but we'll say it again - the handset was a nice surprise in terms of general speed.
Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus benchmarks
The Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus is very responsive and runs the OS glitch-free. HD video is too much to ask of course and the poor codec support is another downside of the Qualcomm chipset.
Social phonebook
The phonebook has a wide range of features and practically unlimited storage capacity.
There are options to filter contacts that have phone numbers, show/hide some of the groups you've created (including groups from social networks) and change the sorting (by first or last name).
The Galaxy Ace Plus phonebook
The phonebook offers the Quick contacts feature, which lets you tap the contact photo for a popup menu with shortcuts to call, text, or email. The TouchWiz-specific swiping gesture is here too - swipe a contact right to make a call and left to compose a message.
Quick contacts • Swiping is a neat gesture for calling and texting
There are many info fields that you can assign to each contact, but it still remains perfectly organized. You have all types listed (numbers, email addresses, etc) and there's a plus sign on the right to add another item of that type. Pressing the minus sign under it deletes the unneeded field.
Editing a contact's details
Of course, the real flexibility of the phonebook becomes apparent when you sign into your Facebook or LinkedIn account. After syncing, the phonebook will automatically merge your contacts (you can do it manually too).
The contact info screen is tabbed. The first two tabs are pretty standard - one displays the person's contact information, while the other stores call and message history. The third and fourth tabs handle the social stuff - status updates and the contact's online galleries.
Viewing a contact's details • check out the SNS integration
Weirdly, only Facebook and LinkedIn contacts can be synced with the phonebook - we usually see Twitter contacts in here too.
