I recently had the chance to upgrade my cell phone. As we are all aware, there are plenty of choices on the market… iPhones, Blackberries and more.
I previously had a Palm Treo 700wx which is a Windows Mobile based smartphone. The Treo was a nice phone, but a little big and was running Windows Mobile 5, one version behind the current Mobile 6 version of the phone operating system.
The phone I ended up choosing was the Samsung ACE (or Samsung i325, a Windows Mobile 6 phone.
Upon opening the box, I was pleased with the weight and thinness of the phone – less than 1/2″ thick and only 4 ounces in weight.
There has been a lot of buzz about this phone because it is Sprint's first GSM capable phone, meaning it can be used outside of the United States by purchasing a pre-paid SIM card for the country you are visiting.
The screen of the phone is nice and bright and clear, and easily viewable in all but the brightest sunshine. The best part of this phone, in my opinion, is the keyboard. As someone who has jumped head-first into text messaging, this keyboard is nearly perfect. The shape of the keys make it easy to quickly type and reduce keyboarding errors… something important for me as I have large fingers.
The phone has a 1.3 megapixel camera which takes decent pictures, but as with most phones, nothing great. Additionally, you can also use the camera as a camcorder and take movies.
Battery life has been great. I went from having to charge my Treo every day to going 2 – 3 days between charges with the ACE. The phone offers stereo Bluetooth capability, so those with Bluetooth headphones can listen to their music wirelessly with the ACE.
The phone is definitely slower than the Treo, which can make it a little frustrating when looking up someone in my contact list or opening the web browser. Some of the other "cons" include that the built-in GPS has apparently been disabled by Sprint.
Overall, I would give the phone a score 3.5 out of 5. Enabled GPS, a faster processor are a couple things I would like to see to make this a great phone.
-----
