Introducing Sheldon, my Samsung Galaxy Ace

I have been using my Samsung GT-S5830 (more commonly known as Galaxy Ace) for about a month now, and I am ready to write a review. I wasted my ticket and missed Switchfoot's concert when I bought this baby on the last day of April, and if that's not an indication of how much I wanted this phone then I don't know what is. In the three weeks I have had it, I am happy to say that my interest has not waned one bit.

The package contains the unit, earphones, 2gb micro-SD card, two CD installers, charger (which was stolen during the mugging incident), extra back cover in white, USB connector, and manual.

Before I got this phone I had used another Samsung phone - a Corby Delphi I named Aristotle which has already been bequeathed to my brother - so the "transition" was easy for me. I wanted to get a new phone as a birthday present to myself last month, and I originally planned to get a BlackBerry because the BlackBerry service sounds awesome as it will help sate my obsession with email :D What ultimately made me decide to get an Android phone instead were seeing my friend Ed's Samsung Galaxy Mini and the many reviews available on the Internet. I figured an Android smartphone will serve me better than a BlackBerry could.

And I'm right! Once you go Android, there's no going back. Ohmygosh, there are literally thousands of apps available in the Android Market, and I nerd-ify myself silly going over each one's descriptions and reviews! I'm nowhere halfway through yet, and it's okay because the prospect of discovering new fun apps always excites me ;D I'm telling ya, they did not name it a smartphone for no reason ;) Now, on to my review.

What I like:

This may be for vanity's sake only, but I liked that the package contains two back covers: one in textured black, one in smooth-finish white. I change the back cover depending on my mood :)

#britneyfanforever
I downloaded the photo from Helga's Tumblr :)

The 3.5" display provides clear and crisp resolution, and the touch-screen is very responsive. I was a bit hesitant about getting a "pure" touch-phone (also the reason why I got a Corby Delphi before which had both a touch-screen AND a QWERTY keypad) but my Ace put all my fears to rest. One touch was all it took, and I was hooked.

My Ace makes multi-tasking a breeze, thanks to its 800MHz processor. I can read eBooks, listen to music, text, send files via Bluetooth, browse the Android market, chat in WhatsApp and a host of other things without worrying my phone will crash on me. Talk about efficient.

I may not have much talent when it comes to singing, but I sure love listening to my favorite singers and bands belt it out. My Ace lets me do just that, and it even allows me to choose among different equalizer settings like normal, rock, jazz, classic, dance, pop, concert hall, wide, music clarity, bass enhancement, externalization, and my favorite, live.

This may be trivial to some, but I love that the micro-SD is hot-swappable. Transferring files via the memory card is so much easier when you don't have to turn the unit off to do so. Also, I love that aside from the charger, the package contains a USB connector that can be used to charge the phone's battery while it's connected to a computer. It was my life-saver when my bag was stolen with the charger in it as I didn't have the time to pop in to a store and buy another charger.

Now let me show you the apps I currently have in my phone:

All these were pre-installed except for Adobe Reader and the Antivirus :)

Meanwhile, I downloaded all these from the Android Market!
See what I mean about being enthusiastic? :D

I wanted to list down my favorite apps as well but I think I'll just do a separate feature on them some other time, seeing as how this post has become so long already :D

What I don't like:

Getting in touch with me has become a lot easier because I can be online via WiFi all the time (thus answering my obsessive need to check my email every couple of hours), but I don't know if that is always a good thing.

Because of the number of apps running in the background, the battery's juice drains like nobody's business; it has to be recharged every day! I have to invest in a spare battery or two soon, especially for times when I would have to to travel to some place where even charging batteries can be a luxury. (I don't know where and when that would be though, as I don't have any plans of joining Survivor anytime soon, and even then the cast-aways don't really have phones with them :p)

I also don't like how the apps rearrange themselves alphabetically every time I turn my phone off and on again. You see, I like my stuff organized accordingly. When it comes to the apps, I want them arranged depending on use (i.e. all photo-editors are grouped together, all games are grouped together, as well as the references and tools like Google Translate, Dictionary.com, Currency Converter, etc.) I just wish there's a way I can stop my phone from doing it each time I reboot it.

Those are the only things I don't like with my new phone, and even the first one doesn't sound like such a big deal. You can tell I am really smitten :) Oh, regarding its name, why Sheldon you ask? I named him after Sheldon Cooper, the role played by Jim Parsons in the super funny The Big Bang Theory. Smart, efficient and sassy, that's my Sheldon :)

Sheldon and my netbook Lady Fabrize getting along just fine :D

The Samsung Galaxy Ace cost me P17,999. See here and here for additional information about the unit and complete specs.

Do you also use an Android phone? What are your favorite apps? Please share them in the comments so I can check them out! Thank you! ♥