The coolest thing about the Sprint ACE is
WHAT’S HOT
that it's the first dual-mode Windows Mobile
smartphone available. That means it supports both
CDMA and GSM/GPRS networks, which can come in very
handy if you travel a lot. The ACE also has Bluetooth 2.0,
CPU, 128MB Flash, 64MB RAM, Windows Mobile
6 Standard,
a 2.3" QVGA screen,
GSM900/1800, CMDA800/1900, EVDO Rev. 0 and a
1.2Mp camera. For even more specification, check out PDAdb.net.
(all images link to higher resolution)
|
Device
|
Size (inches)
|
Weight (grams | ounces)
|
|
4.44" x 2.47" x 0.52"
|
132 | 4.65
|
|
|
4.44" x 2.27" x 0.63"
|
156 | 5.61
|
|
|
4.74" x 2.63" x 0.43"
|
157 | 5.53
|
|
|
4.33" x 2.09" x 0.59"
|
117 | 4.12
|
|
|
4.66" x 2.48" x 0.47"
|
130 | 4.58
|
|
|
4.56" x 2.33" x 0.67"
|
188 | 6.63
|
|
|
4.64" x 2.36" x 0.48"
|
129 | 4.55
|
|
|
3.96" x 2.34" x 0.67"
|
133 | 4.76
|
|
|
4.68" x 2.44" x 0.67"
|
188 | 6.63
|
|
|
4.58" x 2.42" x 0.47"
|
120 | 4.20
|
|
|
4.56" x 2.33" x 0.65"
|
178 | 6.28
|
|
|
3.92" x 2.41" x 0.60"
|
137 | 4.83
|
|
|
4.24" x 2.09" x 0.53"
|
117 | 4.12
|
|
|
4.17" x 2.00" x 0.85"
|
151 | 5.34
|
|
|
4.41" x 2.24" x 0.49"
|
122 | 4.30
|
|
|
4.57" x 1.70" x 0.64"
|
140 | 4.94
|
|
|
4.88" x 2.44" x 0.53"
|
130 | 4.56
|
|
|
4.21" x 2.20" x 0.55"
|
120 | 4.20
|
|
|
4.53" x 2.47" x 0.47"
|
146 | 5.15
|
|
|
4.63" x 2.19" x 0.67"
|
158 | 5.57
|
|
|
4.35" x 2.07" x 0.67"
|
158 | 5.57
|
|
|
4.56" x 2.41" x 0.51"
|
125 | 4.41
|
|
|
4.44" x 2.36" x 0.55"
|
133 | 4.69
|
|
|
4.01" x 1.98" x 0.55"
|
124 | 4.37
|
|
|
8.28" x 4.67" x 1.08"
|
640 | 22.5
|
|
|
4.48" x 2.52" x 0.59"
|
154 | 5.43
|
|
|
4.17" x 2.38" x 0.68"
|
147 | 5.18
|
|
|
4.01" x 2.00" x 0.71"
|
165 | 5.82
|
|
|
4.41" x 2.24" x 0.49"
|
122 | 4.30
|
|
|
4.41" x 2.28" x 0.73"
|
140 | 4.94
|
|
|
4.01" x 2.00" x 0.45"
|
110 | 3.88
|
|
|
4.56" x 2.36" x 0.70"
|
200 | 7.05
|
|
|
4.30" x 2.40" x 0.60"
|
120 | 4.23
|
|
|
4.20" x 2.30" x 0.60"
|
136 | 4.79
|
|
|
3.70" x 2.30" x 0.60"
|
126 | 4.44
|
|
|
4.48" x 2.39" x 0.51"
|
116 | 4.09
|
|
|
4.60" x 2.60" x 0.50"
|
134 | 4.70
|
|
|
4.10" x 2.10" x 0.60"
|
150 | 5.30
|
|
|
4.40" x 2.32" x 0.75"
|
190 | 6.70
|
The Sprint ACE comes with a USB sync
WHAT’S IN
THE BOX
cable, AC adapter with 2 extra country adapters,
stereo headphones, software CD, manual, Email setup
guide, Getting Started guide, SprintSpeed pamphlet,
warranty information, and a phone recycling
envelope.
This is everything you get in the
box.
The ACE arrives with an Attention
sticker that shows you where to hold the device for
optimal performance. It appears the antenna is at
the bottom, so you don't want to cover that with
your hand.
The hardware and dimensions are very
THE DEVICE
similar to the AT&T Blackjack. You'll see some
differences in the shape of the keys and hardware
buttons, but otherwise it's practically the same.
The ACE feels exactly like the
Samsung/ATT Blackjack I in your hand. It's a very
comfortable thickness, width, and weight that does
not feel huge when holding up to your head.
The keyboard is made of hard
plastic with wedge-shaped raised edges. It's not
difficult to use, but there are much nicer keyboards
out there. You've got two shortcut
keys on the bottom row for Messaging and Camera. I
sometimes get a little confused with the plACEment
of the Fn key. It's located where the Shift
key should be!
The left side of the ACE shows
volume control buttons as well as
the proprietary synchronization/audio/charging connector.
At the bottom is nothing but
plastic.
The right side has a back button,
a jog wheel (press in as "Action"), and a flap
covering a MicroSD slot.
The top end has a lanyard hole and
a power button.
On the back is the self-portrait
mirror, 1.3 Megapixel
camera, speaker
grill, and battery cover.
Notice the camera and speaker grill housing is
significantly raised away from the rest of the
device. This helps keep the thinness down elsewhere.
Beneath the battery cover is the
3.7V 1300mAh Lithium Ion battery as well as a GSM
SIM card slot. I tried putting a T-Mobile SIM in
here and switching to GSM mode, but it couldn't find
any networks. Supposedly it will work with other GSM
carriers abroad.
The MicroSD card has it's own slot
on the side of the device. The
slot is covered by a plastic flap, and it's very
easy to open with your fingernail.
When the device is completely shut
off and you plug in the charger, the screen comes on
and shows a neat animation indicating that it is
charging.
Here you'll see from left to right,
the Qtek 8500 Smartphone, HTC TyTN II, Sprint ACE, and Blackberry
8830.
Here you can see a
comparison of the thickness. On top is the Qtek 8500,
then the Sprint ACE, Blackberry 8830, and HTC TyTN
II.
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The Home screen on the ACE shows a little bit of customization. Sprint included their own background If you hold down the scroll wheel for more than There are a few special applications in the The Notepad application is a simple text editor. The Voice Notes application is here as well. The World Clock application lets you show the time An RSS reader is included for reading Really Simple There are some useful utilities in the "Accessories" The Smart Converter is great for converting The Tip Calculator might come in handy. If you A stop watch is also included. The "File Viewer" supports PDFs. The "International Usage" brings you to an HTML page The "Get OnDemand" icon begins an installation The "OnDemand" software gives you Activating the Sprint TV icon sends you to the It's kind of weird that Sprint wouldn't make its The Sprint TV application is very cool. It In order to get the internet access to work, you There's also a control panel where you can check the Sprint has customized the Home page in Internet The "Service Mode" application lets you switch The "Sprint Store" icon brings you to a web site in The ACE includes the generic The regular Microsoft Bluetooth stack is used on the ACE. You'll be happy to hear that Microsoft Voice Command The phone dialer screen that shows up when you press One major flaw with the phone The Windows Media Player skin also The 1.3 megapixel camera is as you would expect; not type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
I know if it’s by design, doesn’t let you see your notification icons, battery The ACE only supports bands: 900Mhz and 1800Mhz, so it won’t work on any The Samsung ACE can be purchased through the Sprint online store or brick-and-mortar stores While this is the first Windows Mobile
image and color scheme.
The row of small icons at the top represents
recently used applications, and does show some text to the right to indicate
what the selected icon represents. The "EV" icon at
the top means you have EVDO high speed internet
access and the cross-hairs circle icon means that
your location can be communicated to emergency
services personel.
three seconds, a "Quick Launcher" task manager
appears on the right side of the screen. You
can then use the scroll wheel to switch
applications. This is a great way to multitask since
you don't have to go back to the home screen in
order to switch to a different program.
Organizer folder.
It does not synchronize with Outlook Notes via
ActiveSync, but you can easily send notes via Email. 
in three different locations.
Syndication news feeds.
folder.
different types of units of measurement, including
currency.
just tip 20%, the math is easier to do in your head.
with notes about using the ACE internationally.
process for the OnDemand application.
access to a variety of very useful online
information. You can get access to news, sports,
weather, maps, directions, 411 search, TV Guide
listings, market news/portfolio, movie show times,
Dear Abby advice, horoscopes, radio, etc. The
user interfACE is a bit all-over-the-plACE, and you
have to select each icon before you can read what
it's for. The icons are also arranged in a 3×3 grid,
however the 3×3 number pad does not correspond to
shortcut access to these icons. That means you have
to use the D-pad to move to the one you want to
select, which can certainly slow things down.
Another downside is that you can't see your battery
level, signal strength, or notification icons since
this user interfACE removes the standard top title
bar.
internet to download a CAB file.
own phone recognize its Sprint TV application as
trusted.
gives you access to a number of streaming video
channels that you can watch of your Sprint Vision
high speed internet access account.
have to manually provision the device. It will
prompt you to do so the first time you launch an
application that requires internet access.
status of your "Vision" service.
Explorer. It gives you access to some useful links
related to the Samsung ACE as well as other mobile
sites for sports, news, and weather.
between Sprint CDMA and International GSM modes. The
device will reboot after you select a new mode. It
cannot detect and switch modes by itself. 
Internet Explorer where you can purchase and
download more applications for your device. There
isn't a real search feature, so it's not that easy
to find a specific application you might be looking
for. 
Wireless Manager which handles Phone and Bluetooth
radio power settings. 
is included.
the talk button (or start typing in numbers on the
home screen) immediately shows the list of
recent calls that you can easily select from. Sprint
has customized it a bit by including their own
branded title bar at the top. The title bar
also shows which three letters are associated with which
numbers on the keypad.
dialer on the Sprint ACE is when you type the letter
"E" which is also assigned to the number 1. As you
can see in the screen shot above, I've typed "E"
nine times, but it is not recognizing that letter at
all. It seems like the letter E on they
keyboard is a wild card that can represent any
letter. 
When you’re in a call, the screen shows the time
connected along with the caller’s photo, name and
number. The menu button gives you access to
pertinent commands like turning on speakerphone,
hands-free, hold, etc. Sprint did not
customize this screen, so it only shows the default
background color.
was not customized to match Sprint's color scheme
and home screen. 
very good. Click the image above for a full
resolution sample from the Samsung ACE's camera.
HELP SUPPORT
click down to questions on this page, the answers
will pertain to other phones. Samsung also has support pages dedicated to helping you with the
ACE.
BUGS AND WISHES
key is not recognized in the dialer program. I have
no idea how some one could miss this. I find it very
odd that Samsung or Sprint could have broken the E
key as well since other Windows Mobile phones don’t
have this problem.
but the Sprint OnDemand software
level, or signal strength. And since it’s Windows
Mobile 6, there’s no Office software. Other
major software related faults are the lack of an
Multimedia Messaging application, Instant Messenger
application, and Windows Live.
two GSM
1900Mhz, or 850Mhz GSM bands. It also
only supports GPRS on GSM networks, so you’ll get
severely slower internet access when in GSM mode.
PURCHASING
for $199
when you sign a new contract.
PROS
phone in North America
High Speed 3G EVDO internet access
streaming video content
Includes Microsoft Voice Command
CONS
Only
supports 900/1800 GSM bands
Only
supports GPRS on GSM bands
No GPS
No WiFi
"E" key is not recognized in the phone dialer
Does not
include Windows Live, MMS, Instant Messaging, or
Microsoft Office
Value
Ease
of Use 
Features
Overall
OVERALL IMPRESSION
phone to have dual mode CDMA and GSM capabilities,
the implementation is not very impressive. There's
no GPS or WiFi and the ACE lacks the style upgrades
of the Blackjack II. But if you're a Sprint user who
occasionally travels abroad and loves Windows Mobile
Standard, this is the phone for you.
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