Samsung Galaxy Ace Duos review: Pocket rockets

Decent 5MP camera

The Samsung Galaxy Ace Duos comes with a 5MP camera and is able to capture photos at a maximum resolution of 2560 x 1920 pixels. The lack of an actual shutter key is a clear sign that photography isn't taken too seriously.

The camera interface looks familiar with two shortcut bars on each side of the viewfinder. On the right you get the still camera / camcorder switch, virtual shutter key and the gallery shortcut (which is a thumbnail of the last photo taken).

The camera interface

On the left you get the scene and shooting mode buttons, as well as the exposure slider and the settings button.

The sample photos we took are well above average in quality. Images have impressively low noise levels, and while the dynamic range wasn't great, colors come out good (if a little faded) and there's plenty of detail.

In certain situations where there was movement at medium range the image would get skewed slightly, but for the most part that was a rare occurrence.

Photo quality comparison

The Samsung Galaxy Ace Duos can be measured against other 5MP cameraphones in our Photo Compare Tool. The tool's page will give you enough info on how to use it and what to look for.

Samsung Galaxy Ace Duos in our Photo Compare Tool

VGA video recording is better than nothing

The video camera interface is identical to the still camera. You get the same customizable panel on the left with four shortcuts.

The video camera interface

According to Samsung, the Galaxy Ace Duos can shoot 640 x 480 video at 30fps in MP4 format. Our camera samples revealed that it hovers around 25fps. Either way, VGA quality is far from impressive these days, with more and more devices able to do 720p.

The videos are smooth but the level of detail isn't impressive. Colors are okay and so is the focus in the video. The Ace Duos records mono sound with a bitrate of 96Kbps, and we found it to be a little quiet. Check out the sample we uploaded to YouTube:

And here's an untouched VGA@25fps sample (5.7MB) taken straight from the phone.