Should I get this phone?

[Sandstormer]

Hi, I'm new here, and I'm getting a new phone soon. I'm thinking about getting the Samsung Galaxy Ace, it would be my first Android phone. I'm probably gonna go with Koodo, but they don't have alot of phones, although the Ace does seem pretty good.

There are just a few things that are bothering me, and I figure you guys would be able to help me out:

- Is battery life a problem? I'll be texting mostly, with a bit of calling, and a bit of wifi. I don't want it dying on me during the day, but I don't really mind charging it every night (as long as charging doesn't take too long).

- Is it a big issue that the phone can't run Adobe Flash? I wouldn't use the internet TOO much on my phone, but would I still be able to download and play games off the Marketplace?

- Is the small internal memory a problem? I heard that you can move apps to an SD card, but I'll probably only have a 4 GB SD card. About how large is an app?

- Does data have to be enabled for picture/video messages? Or can they be sent over wifi?

- Is the phone reliable? Has anyone had to send it in for repairs? Does it crash? I have a friend with an LG Shine Plus, and his messaging app always crashes, causing all his messages to be lost. Let me know of any problem you have encountered.

I realize it is not going to be an absolutely amazing phone, since its only $200, but I don't want to regret buying it, since I'll be using it for at least two years. Thanks.

 

[Pittoreski]

Hola, I bought this phone from Koodo about 2 weeks ago so I'll let you know what I've learned about it.

1) I highly doubt you're gonna have to recharge the phone during the day, I charge it every night and I usually have about 40-50% left. You can download apps like JuiceDefender that will help you to reduce the battery draining.

2) So far, every app and game I downloaded was perfectly working.

3) Yes, you can move your apps to your SD card so it shouldn't be a problem at all. E.G. Facebook app is 5.82 MB, Gmail 3.18 MB, Youtube 3.35 MB. My largent app is Google maps with 9.18 MB.

4) As far as I know, you cannot use your WiFi to send image/video by text. Maybe an application can do that for you, there are some WiFI SMS apps.

5) I had to get a new phone because I tried to flash my Ace to gingerbread 2.3.5 and my SIM card went crazy and I could make one single call only once I rebooted the phone. I'm pretty sure this is due to the SIM card needing a custom firmware by Koodo. Also, Samsung Kies doesn't support updating for Ace from Koodo so I have absolutely no idea if Koodo is going to release a custom firmware for 2.3.5 so we can update it.

So far, I think it's worth every penny I've spent, the price is definitely fair.


Best of luck!

 

[Sandstormer]

Thanks

I'll be getting the phone in a few weeks.

 

[Yashraj]

I wouldn't really recommend this phone, 2 major reasons:
-Battery life is pathetic, if you are going to have apps like facebook, gmail, anti-virus, it's since will drain your mobile's battery, on top of that, even music affects the battery.
-Internal memory IS a big problem! You have around 158 MB as internal memory, which is quite low! Most of the app will go in SD but you don't want to uninstall a few apps to accommodate a new one. Secondly, your txt messages, contacts and everything is stored in phone memory, which further reduces space available.
-Ace is my first android too! When I was buying it, it's hardware and features were enough for me, but now after few months of buying it, I am somewhat repenting, so you should start will a better mobile, probably htc incredible? or incredible S?

 

[Pittoreski]

I wouldn't really recommend this phone, 2 major reasons:
-Battery life is pathetic, if you are going to have apps like facebook, gmail, anti-virus, it's since will drain your mobile's battery, on top of that, even music affects the battery.
-Internal memory IS a big problem! You have around 158 MB as internal memory, which is quite low! Most of the app will go in SD but you don't want to uninstall a few apps to accommodate a new one. Secondly, your txt messages, contacts and everything is stored in phone memory, which further reduces space available.
-Ace is my first android too! When I was buying it, it's hardware and features were enough for me, but now after few months of buying it, I am somewhat repenting, so you should start will a better mobile, probably htc incredible? or incredible S?

I think it's kind of normal that "even music affects the battery" so I have absolutely no idea why you're using this as an argument. Go buy a better battery if you want to use it as a music player.

You can force-install apps in the SD card, there's even a guide here explaining how to do it. Also, you can save your contacts in your SIM but I have no idea why you would do this, text messages and contacts take almost no space.

You get a phone equivalent to what you paid for. If you can and want invest more on a phone and you think it's gonna be worth it then go ahead but this phone is definitely more than needed to complete most of your daily tasks.

 

[Brizzler]

Great phone for the money.

Get a spare battery if you're concerned as they're about

 

[Sandstormer]

Thanks for clearing up that one negative post. I forgot to mention that I'll be using my phone partially as a music player. How long do you think it could play music for before having to recharge?