Samsung Galaxy Ace is a Moderately Priced Midrange Smartphone

The popularity and success of the Galaxy S smartphone has led Samsung to extend the series into the lower end of the market to acquire more mass appeal. Released alongside three other mid-range Galaxy handsets including the Mini, Fit and Gio, the Galaxy Ace seeks to replicate the popular design and experience found on the bestselling Android phone of all time (Galaxy S).

A phone like the Galaxy S comes crammed with all the latest technology which inevitably makes the device expensive and so any drive to produce a more affordable version is going to result in some streamlining. Fortunately for the Galaxy Ace this is achieved without dispensing with the essential features such as 3G or Wi-Fi.

Physically the Ace has a similar appearance to the iPhone 4 with a sleek rectilinear design, but like all other Galaxy handsets this one comes running Google Android. Android Froyo is on board with Samsung's TouchWiz interface that provides some excellent social networking support for sites like Facebook and Twitter.

The Ace also comes with excellent messaging options including threaded SMS and email. With Wi-Fi and 3G both available you can also make use of many other great online features such as YouTube and Adobe Flash content. The Android OS also provides many of Google's top features including Gmail and Google Maps.

The Ace also features an excellent 5 megapixel camera that comes with an LED flash and features such as geo-tagging. With Facebook and Picasa support you can also upload images to share online and the Ace comes with video recording support at QVGA quality.

While providing excellent online entertainment features the Ace also comes with a media player featuring excellent playback support for music and video. An FM radio is included for additional musical benefit and the Ace can provide you with up to 32GB of storage with microSD, with a 2GB microSD card included with the phone.

The Galaxy Ace also comes with support for many games and apps from Android Market. These can be a great way to whittle away the time on a boring commute and can also greatly extend the phones overall functionality.

With a 3.5" capacitive screen the Ace provides good visual quality and multitouch input gestures. Gorilla Glass in use to protect the screen from scratches and the TouchWiz interface comes with Swype for easier text input. The 3.5" screen is smaller than many high end smartphones that are now pushing 4.3" and this serves to make the Ace a much more portable device.

The Galaxy Ace offers some excellent entertainment and messaging features and is an excellent affordable alternative to its more high profile cousin the Galaxy S. While the Ace is certainly more affordable it has managed to achieve this without dispensing with many of the features that people have now come to expect from touch sensitive smartphones. There is excellent support for social networking and the Ace is also an excellent device for enjoying the web while on the move.