While many mobile fans are involved in the process of comparing the iPhone 4S with the Samsung Galaxy SII, we shall leave these high-end smartphones aside, and start comparing two mid-range smartphones. Let us start the Samsung Galaxy Ace vs HTC Explorer battle.

Design

The design of the smartphone is one of those important features on which we pay attention when buying a device. As you notice the HTC Explorer has no unique design, it is similar to all those HTC smartphones, while the Samsung Galaxy Ace has comes with a design which reminds of an iPhone. The design of the Samsung Galaxy Ace is simple but sophisticated at the same time. This “Dressed for Success” smartphone (this way it is called on Samsung’s official website) is a real beauty and is perfect for professional life.

As you notice the front part of this Android smartphone is a glossy black affair. It comes with a 3.4inch capacitive touchscreen the resolution of which is 320 x 480 pixels. Going down, below the screen you will see two soft-keys which lightened up when touching the device. In the center there is a rectangular bezel. On the left of the smartphone you will see the volume buttons, on the rightos located a microSD card slot, the power on/off button. And as for the 3.5mm headphone jack and USB port, you will find them on the up top of the smartphone. On the back side of the device you will find its 5Mp camera with autofocus and LED flash. The dimensions of the Samsung Galaxy Ace are as follows: 112.4 x 59.9 x 11.5 mm and the weight is 113 g, which means that the smartphone is very comfortable in use.

Now let’s see the design of the HCT Explorer. I should mention that when comparing it with the Samsung Galaxy Ace you will notice that the latter is bulky. The HTC Explorer has rounded edges, which makes the smartphone seem more circle. On the whole, the HTC explorer comes with a 3.2-inch touchscreen, but thanks to its rounded top and bottom sides the screen seems to be larger.

Going down to display you will see 4 sensitive Android buttons. On the back there is a 3.15 MP camera, which is not that amazing one. Besides, the back of the smartphone is a bit modest, which shows that HTC was not that excited when producing the HTC Explorer. It seems like all the products carrying the name Explorer will succeed. Anyway, on the sides of the HTC Explorer there is a 3.5mm headphone jack, micro-USB port, the power button and volume button. The dimensions of the smartphone are 102.8×57.2×12.9mm and it weighs 108 grams.

Hardware

The Samsung Galaxy Ace is packed with a 3.5-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen with resolution of 320 x 480 pixels and it is made of Gorilla Glass, a 5MP camera with autofocus and LED flash that is capable of recording QVGA videos at 15fps, a 800 MHz ARM 11 processor with Adreno 200 GPU a standard 1350 mAh battery, 158MB of internal memory that can be expanded via microSD card slot and so on. As for connectivity, it supports Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 2.1 and ensures up to 7.2Mbps speed in HSDPA network.

As for the HTC Explorer it is based on a 600MHz processor and is packed with 512MB of ROM and 512MB of RAM. The smartphone sports a 1230mAh battery, which provides up to 7.5 hours of talk time and 445 hours in standby mode. Among its connectivity settings is Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 3.0 and 3G.

The internal memory is 90BM, which can be expended up to 32GB via microSD card.

Display

The Samsung Galaxy Ace’s display will not get your pulse racing. Anyways, let’s see what it is. The Samsung Galaxy Ace features a 3.5-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen display the resolution of which is 320 x 480 pixels. The other features of the display include Gorilla Glass, multi-touch input and an accelerometer sensor. Sometimes the screen of the smartphone can become a little cramped, but for many users it’s not a problem.

And now let us focus on the display of the HTC Explorer. May be here it will succeed, who knows, sometimes miracles happen.

The HTC Explorer has a 3.2-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen with resolution of 320×480 pixels. The pixels density is 180 ppi. The display supports 256K colors and Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate. There is also a Proximity sensor for auto turn-off. You will also notice the presence of the HTC Sense UI v3.5 and Touch-sensitive controls.

Cameras

The Samsung Galaxy Ace comes with a 5MP and features digital zoom. It is capable to record video at a resolution of 320×240 pixels. Unfortunately ,no HD is present, which makes the video recording weaker. But the camera is good enough you know, it captures pretty decent photos and has many features such as autofocus, a range of shooting modes including continuous and panorama plus and other photo effects.

The HTC Explorer features a 3MP camera which is again weak, but the taken photos can be shared in the web immediately. Sometimes they seem grainy, but let’s remember that the cameras on all the smartphones are not for taking a professional photoshoot. All those who want to take amazing photos, would better to have camcorders by their hands. As for the video capturing, the HTC Explorer records videos at 480p only.

Software

When Samsung Galaxy Ace was launched a year ago, Android 2.2 Froyo was leading the top of the mobile operating systems. There were not that many smartphones running the version of Google’s platform. Anyways, the Galaxy Ace was the phone that came with a complete specs list and Froyo has its worthy place in it. Unlike its previous version, Éclair, this one was easier in use and offered more customization options. All in all, Google always supported Android’s open-sourced nature. Froyo wasn’t an exception and users were able to change everything in it, however they wanted. For the Samsung Galaxy Ace this process is easier due to TouchWizard, which doesn’t add anything more that Android doesn’t already offer.

Though Froyo was the most popular version of Android, for one time, Google never stops and after launching Android 2.3 Gingerbread Froyo yielded its positions. The first variant of Gingerbread showed what long term goals this platform has.  The next updates were more and more improved and offered better performance. The last one from this list is Android 2.3.5, which should become the most welcomed version of Android but as you know, Google launched Ice Cream Sandwich that blew all geeks’ mind. Anyways, the HTC Explorer runs THIS platform with HTC Sense 3.5, i.e. the Taiwanese company has powered probably its weakest smartphone with the latest software achievements.

Prices

The HTC Explorer comes at a price tag of $307. Sometimes many mobile fans buy a smartphone taking into consideration only the price. In this case HTC has given a good price to its smartphone, as many customers have the wish to enjoy Gingerbread and HTC Sense 3.5 UI.

The Samsung Galaxy Ace is sold for $349. No words, it is an ideal price for such a smartphone with so many useful features and specs. For making a better choice you should look through Galaxy Ace Deals, as now the smartphone is offered by many retailers at different prices.
Anyways, it’s up to you to decide, which one is better, and which one you will choose.

Conclusion

Both handsets are classified as a mid-range smartphones running Android, but they are quite different. I wouldn’t say which one is better, because it’s matter of taste, but I am sure both devices have a number of satellites. On the other hand, each of them is a good representative of their companies, and looking at the Galaxy Ace or at the Explorer, we understand what a handset we are dealing with.

Besides all the similarities, these handsets have a real difference–they have been launched different times. So if for a consumer it is a selling point, it’ll be better to look ta their launch dates.