Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus unveiled

The Samsung Galaxy Ace has been on the market for almost a year and it has recently been announced that an update is on the way to attract more budget-oriented users.

The Galaxy Ace Plus improves upon a number of areas, including the display, software and processor.

The original Galaxy Ace featured an 800MHz chip combined with a 3.5 inch display and version 2.2 of Android when it arrived back in February 2011.

The Galaxy Ace Plus ups the ante with a 1GHz processor, Android 2.3 and a 3.65 inch display. The resolution of the screen is still stuck at 480x320, which seems a little low in an age when high def displays are starting to make an appearance, but it should be adequate for this mid range model.

If you flip the Galaxy Ace Plus over to check out the camera, you will see that it comes with a five megapixel sensor and a single LED to act as the flash. Bluetooth, 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity are all onboard and you get a 3GB allocation of storage space as standard, with the option to expand this further with a microSD memory card as you see fit.

Samsung has tinkered with the Android 2.3 interface using the TouchWiz UI and so the Galaxy Ace Plus will be easy to interact with and should offer a good selection of social networking and organisational tools for you to manipulate from the various homescreens.

The original Galaxy Ace can still be bought in the UK at a price point of £170 and so the Galaxy Ace Plus will probably be selling for only a fraction more, given its modest updates.

The simple black design of the Galaxy Ace Plus is in keeping with the rest of the Galaxy family, although it lacks the flare or thinness of Samsung's flagship handset, the Galaxy SII.

If the Galaxy Ace Plus is a little pricy for your liking, then the Galaxy Y is Samsung's next best budget option. Coming into the market at around £100 a pop, it features an 830Mhz processor, Android 2.3 and a two megapixel camera, along with a three inch screen.

The display's resolution is 320x240 which is not that significant but on a handset of this size should be more than adequate to make images look clear and text seem readable, provided you are willing to do a lot of zooming in and out on web pages.

On the other end of the scale, the Samsung Galaxy W acts as a good midpoint between the Galaxy Ace Plus and the Galaxy SII. Its 3.7 inch screen and 1.4GHz processor make it larger and faster than its cheaper alternatives and the five megapixel camera benefits from the ability to record high definition video clips in 720p, which is a competitive feature that many users will want to see onboard their new handset.

Samsung's iterative, blanket approach to the smartphone market is exemplified by the Galaxy range and the new Galaxy Ace Plus should be a worthy addition.