Description:

Design and screen

The Ace's screen was quick and responsive, but its 320x480-pixel resolution isn't as sharp as more expensive phones. It has literally half the pixel density of the iPhone 4 -- 165 pixels per inch, compared with the iPhone 4's 330ppi.

The screen is the LCD type, not the AMOLED type Samsung is becoming famous for. Nevertheless, it looked bright and vivid even under blindingly bright lights.

Perhaps thanks to its smallish screen, the Ace's battery life is insanely good. We easily squeezed two days of use out of the Ace without charging overnight, with Wi-Fi and GPS both turned on.

Android OS

The brains of the Ace is Google's mobile software, Android 2.2 Froyo. It's not quite on the cutting edge -- phones with version 2.3.3 are already arriving in shops. But 2.2 still has the best features of the Android operating system, so we don't think you'll miss the SIP calling and NFC support that's available on the newer versions.

The Ace sports Android's fantastic Web browser, which displays pages pretty much as they would look on a desktop PC. Unfortunately, with an 800MHz processor inside, the Ace isn't powerful enough to support Flash, so you won't get to play some videos and other Flash objects that pepper the Internet. At least there's a YouTube app to get your funny cat videos, but the BBC's iPlayer is a no-goer.

Price: €220.00