Samsung Ace SPH-i325 Review

<<<... For reasons unfathomable to me, Samsung chose to drop the BlackJack's easy press-and-hold system for getting access to special characters on the keyboard, instead going back to a function-key system. They also changed the keyboard keys, making them flatter, angled rather than curved, and flatter to the casing. I don't know why -- the original BlackJack had a great keyboard. The Ace's keyboard doesn't give up much to it on a tactile basis, but I just wonder why they decided to fix something that wasn't broken. Overall, I really like the Ace's design. Other than the minor camera bulge, it's very slim, it has a good keyboard, and the build quality is solid.

Operating System, Software, and Performance

The Ace runs Windows Mobile 6 Standard, and comes with a suite of software for Web browsing, exchanging email messages, working with Microsoft Office documents, and more. Besides the stock software, the Ace comes with the usual complement of Sprint applications such as Sprint TV, On Demand, and some apps for activating and tracking usage of the international roaming features of the device -- more on that later. Also preloaded is a copy of Microsoft Voice Command.

The Ace shifts from using the notably weak 200+ MHz OMAP processors found in the BlackJacks to a much more peppy 416 MHz Marvell XScale chip. It shows. Even routine tasks like scanning for music on Windows Media Player are distinctly faster, the camera display is smoother, and overall system response is noticeably improved. That's to say nothing of the value of the added speed in playing back video, or other high-drain tasks. I attempted to test this using something that typically chokes slower processors, the use of Bluetooth headphones. Unfortunately, all three of the Windows Mobile 6 Standard devices I have at the moment seem allergic to my Jensen WBT212s, repeatedly dropping the connection and refusing to play any audio through them. Guess it's time to upgrade to newer headphones. more >>>