Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus S7500 preview: First look

Introduction

Keen to place a contender in every nook and cranny of the smartphone market, Samsung are bringing the Galaxy Ace Plus on as a substitute for their midrange Galaxy Ace. Boasting a slightly bigger screen and a faster processor, the Galaxy Ace Plus could just be the right stepping stone for those coming from a dumbphone. It should be a relatively inexpensive upgrade of an entry-level droid too.

Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus official shots

Samsung have gone the extra mile with the Galaxy Ace Plus, treating it to Gingerbread 2.3.6 and the latest version of their TouchWiz UI for a more refined experience. There's been a boost to performance too. One thing that Samsung knew they needed to address was the poor video recording on the original Galaxy Ace. VGA @ 30 fps may sound like a waste of a 1GHz processor, but at least it's something, considering the predecessor had to make do with the miserable QVGA @ 15 fps. Here's what else the Galaxy Ace Plus has to offer.

Samsung I9001 Galaxy Ace Plus at a glance:

• General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 900/2100 MHz, HSDPA 7.2 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps
• Form factor: Touchscreen bar
• Dimensions: 114.5 x 62.5 x 11.2 mm, 115 g
• Display: 3.65" 16M-color HVGA (320 x 480 pixels) TFT capacitive touchscreen
• CPU: 1 GHz Scorpion processor, Qualcomm S1
• GPU: Adreno 200 GPU
• RAM: 512 MB
• OS: Android 2.3.6 (Gingerbread)
• Memory: 3 GB of inbuilt storage, microSD card slot (up to 32 GB)
• Camera: 5 megapixel auto-focus, face and smile detection; VGA (640 x 480) video recording at 30fps
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, stereo Bluetooth 3.0, standard microUSB port,GPS receiver with A-GPS, 3.5mm audio jack, stereo FM radio with RDS, TV out
• Misc: TouchWiz 4.0 UI, built-in accelerometer, multi-touch input, proximity sensor, Swype text input

The Galaxy Ace Plus seems to be covering all its bases as a sensible midrange smartphone. It's not that the original Galaxy Ace has raised the bar too high, but it feels like Samsung fixed most of what needed fixing.

The Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus at HQ

We should be looking at an updated package that's well within the budget limits of the original. Our first encounter with the Galaxy Ace Plus S7500 begins with a hardware checkup right after the break.