Galaxy Ace

The Samsung Galaxy Ace is still being touted as a top smartphone years after its launch, so we've updated our review accordingly. Should you consider it at all despite it's super-budget price tag?
Once a bit player on the smartphone scene, famed more for questionable construction than standout handsets, Samsung has turned a corner in recent years, establishing itself as a genuine player on the pocket phone front and producing some of the most desirable handsets on the market.
Following on from the success of the high-end Samsung Galaxy S and Samsung Galaxy S2, the Korean tech behemoth expanded its range of intergalactic-named mobile phones, with the Samsung Galaxy Ace touching down last year as a mid-level handset.
Tasked with raising the expectations of what is possible from a wallet-friendly smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy Ace, which also flies under the flag of the Samsung GT-S5830, has since spawned a sub-series of its own, with the Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 also landing on the market.
Now cheaper than the likes of the 3.7-inch ClearBlack AMOLED display-packing, Windows Phone 7.5-powered Nokia Lumia 710, the Samsung Galaxy Ace remains in an area of the market flooded with competition such as the full QWERTY keyboard-touting BlackBerry Curve 9300 and the Android 2.3-powered, 8MP camera-hosting Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray.
Many of today's high-end smartphones are following in the footsteps of the iPhone by being made available in an eye-catching white hue a few months after the original standard black model lands.
Samsung, with the Galaxy Ace, has killed two birds with one proverbial stone by offering the device with a pair of interchangeable back panels that take us back to the days of the Nokia 3330.

While not quite matching the rest of the "onyx black" smartphone in terms of colour, aesthetics aside, the packaged black rear panel offers a more user-friendly feel in the hand than its smooth, glossed white counterpart, with the diamond-cut uneven surface offering a certain amount of grip.