Samsung Ace SPH-i325
Average Ratings
would make a good skeet piegon....
I had this phone for about 7 months before i sucked it up and bought a used phone off a friend. It had frequent freezing issues, never did what you really wanted it to, and the screen light wouldn't go off unless you locked your keys (even then it sometimes wouldn't). Granted SOME of this was fixed with the software update they had but not all. Looking past all of that madness the layout sucked. The keys are oddly shaped and smallish. They become hard to use after normal use for some reason instead of "breaking in" it seems to be harder to text and such with it after using it. If you are wanting a smart phone with Sprint I highly recommend a Blackberry vs. Win Mo. This phone is crap.
Its ok for light users; not a powerhouse smartphone
The ACE's design is pretty nice. Its extremely light and fits nicely into your hand. Unless you have huge fingers texting is easy and its also very easy to text even w/ just one hand. If I had to compare it to another device I'd say it is better than the Q but not as good as the Q2. If you talk on your phone for an hour + a day or use multimedia features your DEFINITELY going to need to buy an extended battery for this device. I upgraded from the Mogul to this and obviously it doesnt have as many features as the Mogul, but I knew that going in. I've decided to exchange it for a Q 9c. Also, the MOTO Q9c is $100 cheaper and has a better camera and can handle 2gb more of external memory...
Pros:
-Form factor (weight,size).
-Price $100 after rebate
-Apps run smooth and no noticable lag
-Stereo Bluetooth
-Full keypad thats easy to text with w/ average hands (not for the big fingered people out there)
Cons:
-Battery life isnt good
-Only 2gb external memory (most smartphones today can handle 4gb)
-1.3 mp camera (most now have 2.0)
-GPS not enabled yet
-When I ran Sprint TV the volume was very low and I could hardly hear it.
*Honestly for the price if you dont mind having a larger phone thats heavier, the Q2 might be a better choice. ($100 cheaper 2)
So far so good
I've had the phone almost 2 years and will say its been decent.Unfortunately the phone just died the other day RIP:( getting the Intrepid as a replacement
Cons: Video to upload is capped at 1Mb and usually files are larger than that.
Searching through the menus can get a little tricky when navigating and the menu layout could be more user friendly. Oh and the camera can be better too
Pro's: Battery life is good but extremely short if your on the internet a lot.
Overall the phone has done what its suppossed to do so if your expecting decent performance and not a lot of bells and whistles then this will be fine for your use.
A Letdown
I have had this phone for over a year now and it's been a disappointment from almost day one.
A few factors that bring this low rating:
A) pick up the phone and go to the software store on the phone, look at the dimly lit 16bit text characters that describe the $9.99 pac man game you can get for free on the iPhone then scroll down to the description of the next half baked app that's completely featureless in 16bit text glory with no icons, pictures or screen-shots to size up your purchase. Compared to android and iphone OS app stores you will wonder how this brick wasn't something they quit selling and supporting 5 years ago. Well I'm half right.
B) Navigation on the phone is enough to make you want to throw it over a lake and see how many times it skips before it plunges to the bottom where it will serve a better purpose than it ever did as a phone. Getting around the menus and the poorly developed main screen, you wonder if anyone was actually paying attention when they created this phone.
C) Battery life is, well... Just keep it plugged in all the time.
D) There are no letters to coorespond with numbers if you get say an 800 number that you need to figure out how to call like 1800-posphon. Unless you remember each letter that goes on each number from another phone you are out of luck.
E) There is laughable support for the phone, updates to fix issues are few and far between.
F) You have to use a proprietary headphone to listen to music or anything else on the phones. The phone did include headphones that were just awful however any phone that requires you to have proprietary headphones these days isn't even worth considering.
G) It freezes and locks up periodically. It has been better since the last update which took forever to get.
H) when you pull up a contact you can not text them immediately, you have to "open" the contact then scroll down to the text option, open that up then you can finally sms them.
I) Winblows mobile... nuff said.
Not easy to replace after 2 years
PROs: Does almost everything you would want in a phone for a low price.
CONs: Starting to show its age.
I wanted a phone that would do as much as I could do for the money. The Ace fits that.
I upgraded the phone from Windows Mobile 6.0 to 6.1 which added GPS, Word and Excel editing, Messenger, and Windows Live among other additions. It also has the ability to install many other programs like Google Maps, YouTube, Skyfire, and Bing. Another feature that was improved was Messenger-like text messages. A new home screen gives you "Sliding Panels" which shows more information on the screen in a much more readable and usable format. You can even play music and view thumbnails of pictures while still in the Home screen. One of the best features is the ability to add larger (16G) memory cards beyond the original 2G limit. Since I have a data plan, I upgraded to the extended battery to get better performance. The speed of Internet is not bad with a good signal. My Bluetooth headphones sound great when playing music on the Media Player. I even have some movies stored on the memory card when I get really bored. Calls are clear and loud. The 1.2 MP camera is dated but is good in a pinch. The Sprint Navigation takes a while to initially find traffic info but works fine after getting started. Even though the processor was good in its day, it seems slower by todays standards. It could use more ram which would probably help the speed. I keep it on and charged 24/7 but like most phones these days, with advanced features, its a good idea to restart the phone about once a week.
Its a very solid phone and very compact for what it can do. The only thing that I would want to add is Wifi capability. I believe the Ace II now has that.
It does have a sim card for international use be I just use it to backup my address book.
Overall, I still like my Ace. Better than my son's Exclaim or my wife's Blackberry.
Since WM6.1 update, this is a pretty GOOD phone!
Since the operating system was updated to the Windows Mobile 6.1 software, I like this phone a LOT, and recommend it to anyone who wants a smartphone but not an entertainment center. I don't play games, so I don't know how well it would work for that. It works great for my needs: work and data maintenance.
Pros:
Form factor [if you like buttons]
GPS enabled, Sprint Navigation talks you door to door.
16gb microSDHC cards work flawlessly
MS Office Mobile included, w/ OneNote
International GSM card capable
Improved MS IE mobile browser
relatively quick performance
Bluetooth stereo sound good in car.
Crystal clear screen
Cons:
Need to press home key after booting up to clear some process I've never understood, then it's fine.
With GPS on, its battery doesn't last as long
1.3 mp camera [reality check, I carry a camera when I want to use a camera. I don't rely on a phone to do EVERYTHING under the sun]
Need to use taskmaster/Oxios Memory to clear running processes regularly
No Flash/Java enabled [standard for Windows Mobile Smartphones, I'm told].
Overall though, the only thing my wife's Moto Q9C has that I like better is wider/larger keys. but my fingers are fine on it. I am in love with my phone!
Better than Motorola Q9c and Palm Centro
Pros: design, weight, dual mode and battery life
Cons: dust under the screen
Recently I tried 3 different phones from Sprint (Palm Centro, Motorola Q9c and Samsung ACE) and finally stayed with the ACE. The Centro looks and feels cheap. Even so that Motorola Q9c also runs Window Mobile 6.0 but its speed is much slower than ACE. I really like the size of ACE, it is not too wide, not too narrow. It just feels great in your hand. I have had the ACE for one month now and did not have a single problem. I have great battery life with the light intensity setting at Level 2. No keyboard pressing delay which is often seen in Motorola Q9c. I am very satisfied with this phone. I do see some dust under the screen. Please post it if someone else also see this.
Great Phone, needs more support
I love this phone! I got a killer deal with Sprint, and was in the market for a smartphone, but there just wasn't a lot of information out there (only 3 reviews on this site at the time of my posting). I was debating between the Ace and the Palm Centro, and I am glad I went with the Ace. I love the scroll wheel, the speakerphone is pretty decent, and the camera looks alright on the phone display, however not so much when downloaded to a PC. I'm not a fan of touch screens, so this phone was perfect for me. Also, this is my first smart phone, and it was easy to use and figure out most of the functionality. I hope in reading this, I can answer some of the questions that you have, since I wasn't able to find the answers online. I took a chance, and am glad I did.
Although I'm not a huge fan of Windows anything, it does sync up nice and I can't complain too much. The email functionality is great, and once you figure out how to navigate between programs, it becomes a breeze to use as a professional communications tool. Internet Explorer sucks, yet another beef with Microsoft, but the EVDO connection through sprint is fast enough for my tastes (it IS a phone, after all). Don't kid yourself though, if you need lightning fast internet, you're better off with a WIFI connection (which this phone does NOT have). There was a bug with the calendar function, but Samsung's website has a fix already. The battery life isn't spectacular, but it gets the job done. Also, the USB cable that it ships with IS a charging cable, despite what the manual says.
solid phone
ill try to keep this short, but i can honestly say this is finally a solid windows based pda, with SURPRISINGLY .. GOOD BATTERY LIFE. I have owned the ppc-6700 and the mogul (ppc6800) and because i work in the wireless field ive also experienced other windows based pdas, and with the samsung ace i can honestly say compared to all other windows based pdas (with the exception of the treo 700wx)i have not delt with the typical windows based glitches:
1 intermittent to constant freezing
2 frequent soft resets on phone
3 active sync only working when it wants to
4 low volume with mp3 ringtones
5 low standby time with battery
to elaborate more on the battery life, i get 3 full days of standby time without alot of talking, using the internet and alot of texting. The only reason why im giving it 4.0 is because the sprint tv doesnt work well (which is probably my areas fault as we are not EVDO capable) and the fact that there is no sprint music store on it, which is an option i liked having. All i can say otherwise is that this is a solid phone from my experience.
Sprint's Hidden Gem, the Samsung Ace
Pro's
GPS with Google Maps
Narrow and Thin
SD card located externally
Scroll Wheel
Con's
No LED light indicator (though some like myself may actually like this)
I would rate the QWERTY to be good, but not great.
No Mini USB Charger
I have used the Samsung Ace for about a week now, and generally, it is one of the best phones I have had. The screen is noticeably smaller than the T-Mobile Dash, but since it holds the same resolution, the image looks crisper, and the ACE has a better back white light, so more brightness overall in the screen.
The GPS on the device works fine with Google Maps with no need to customize settings, but after you get a GPS Location, which takes between 15-60 seconds, it may take another 30 seconds before the map loads as the phone needs to reconnect to data.
Windows Mobile 6.1 is nice and the phone runs well though right out of the box. The only process I would recommend removing from the start up on the Samsung Ace is "Voice CommandâÂ.
Initially the battery life seems bad, but after a week, it seems alright. This phone, like other Samsung phones, doesn't show the exact percentage of battery, which can be annoying, especially while charging the phone.
As a phone, it seems the least buggy from any other Windows Mobile phone I've used. Making, receiving calls are easy, and sound quality is good while others can hear me well.
The QWERTY keyboard is good, but not great. The phone is quite narrow, which I like, but the keys are not as wide. So I would rate it 3 out of 4.
The phone only has Rev. 0. Using Pocket Internet Explorer, I donât think one can really tell the difference. I uploaded a one megabyte file in about 3 minutes.
As with the Moto Q9c, the phone can accumulate dust underneath the screen. I went with the Ace because too many people had to the q9c and the ace was not a common phone in my neck of the woods. Itâs nice to have a phone that not everyone and their mother has. Since 2002, I would say this is the best phone Iâve had.
