First Impression:

Supports: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 2G network coverage, HSDPA 900/2100 3G network coverage, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps and UMTS 900/2100 MHz.

Form Factor: Bar with touchscreen.

Dimensions: 114.5mm x 62.5mm x 11.2mm, weight – 115g.

Display: TFT Capacitive Touchscreen with 16M colours, size – 3.65” with 320 x 480 pixels (158 ppi pixel densities).

UI: TouchWiz 4.0.

CPU: 1 GHz Scorpion processor, Qualcomm S1

GPU: Adreno 200 GPU

RAM: 512MB

OS: Android 2.3.6 (Gingerbread)

Memory: 3GB internal memory storage and microSD card slot up to 32GB.

Camera: 5MP camera with autofocus, face and smile detection. Video facility with VGA (640 x 480) video recording at 30fps is also available.

Connectivity: Wi-Fi b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, standard microUSB port, stereo Bluetooth 3.0,  GPS receiver with A-GPS, stereo FM radio with RDS, 3.5mm audio jack, TV out are the available connectors.

Battery: Standard Li-ion 1300mAh battery.

Other Features: Built-in accelerometer, multi-touch input, proximity sensor, Swype text input.

Summary:

Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus is the substitute for the midrange Galaxy Ace and it is slightly better than the Galaxy Ace with faster processor, great design and some additional features.

Preview:

Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus with slightly bigger screen and a faster processor is substitute to Samsung’s Galaxy Ace. Galaxy Ace Plus is expected to make its first market debut in February, 2012 in UK at a price tag of £249.99 followed by the launch in other nations. A glance at its features announced by the company in early January, 2012 reveals that this smartphone is relatively inexpensive upgrade model of an entry-level droid.  So, we decided to go through all the offerings by Galaxy Ace Plus.

Design:

This smartphone is a standard touchscreen bar phone with rounded edges and a single hardware button below the LCD screen. The face of the mobile   comprises of HVGA 320 x 480 pixel resolution touchscreen of 3.65 inches.  The screen quality is compromised one even though the display is bright and has good sensitivity. The design is neat from the front with the earpiece and proximity sensor next to the earpiece and Home button towards the bottom.

The textured back of the phone has 5MP camera with a loudspeaker and a flash. The right side of the handset features the power/lock button, while the left side has the volume adjustment button and a lanyard eyelet. The top sports 3.5mm headphone jack, while the bottom has a microphone pin hole along with the microUSB port. The phone is stylish and well built.

Features & Usability:

The phone runs Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread with the latest TouchWiz 4.0. The user interface is uncluttered and very easy to use. The phone features proximity, accelerometer and compass sensors. It also includes Adobe Flash and HTML Browser along with SMS thread view, E-mail, RSS, MMS Push Mail, IM, GPS and stereo FM Radio.  All the other important features are listed above which are quite impressive. The phone is excellent in use too. The best example is the standard Android Gallery, which automatically locates the images and the videos irrespective of their original storage location. The video player and the music player are great apps to be used and makes watching movies or listening to music very entertaining. The proper review of these apps will only be made available after the phone gets launched.

Multimedia & Performance:

The 5MP camera with LED flash can capture photos at maximum 2560 x 1920 pixels of resolution. The interface of the camera is expected to be same as that of the previous galaxy. The camera is a decent performer, if not very impressive. The VGA recording of the camera with 720p is better than the original Ace. The web browsing is as good as with the previous galaxy, mainly due to similar kind of interface. Overall, the Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus is a good package with slightly better features and performance.

Expected Impact:

This smartphone is expected to be a good device without the Android 4.0. This phone is expected to be a perfect smartphone substitute for the midrange Galaxy Ace.