The Alpha is very impressive if you count some things out

Dec 17, 2014 16:01 GMT  ·  By

Over the years Samsung released countless smartphones in various form factors and configurations, but one of the constant critiques the Korean tech giant has seen is that even its highest-end handsets seem cheap.

Take the Samsung Galaxy S5, which was released at MWC 2014 back in February. The handset is a top-tier smartphone, boasting a spacious full HD display, a powerful quad-core processor and a lot of other awesome feats.

But like all good things, this model comes with a major flaw. It’s made entirely of plastic, and while this aspect shouldn't necessarily deter you from picking up the product, it won't feel like the premium device it's supposed to be.

Well, after bathing in plastic waters for a very long time, Samsung seems to have finally complied with customers’ requests and rolled out a smartphone especially designed for the hard-to-please users.

The Galaxy Alpha is the first handset taking advantage of metal in its construction to come out under the Samsung umbrella. And if looks aren't enough for you, Sammy has bundled the device with some pretty awesome specs, which we’re going to talk about in a few.

Design

Let’s face it, metal is the reason everybody is fretting about the Galaxy Alpha, and without it we’d all be like “Meh, here comes another Samsung phone.”

But the Galaxy Alpha absconds from the all-plastic design of the Galax S5, by adding a luxurious metal frame. Before you say anything, the back panel is still made of plastic, but since metal has been thrown in the soup, the overall effect has been greatly improved.

The Galaxy Alpha is very easy to hold in hand (which is also due to its winning 4.7-inch form factor), and unlike the Galaxy S5, it won’t flex in hand when pressure is applied.

The back frame has a nice rubberized, dotted pattern which allows you to get a firm grip of the phone, preventing accidental slips.

However, looking at the Galaxy Alpha from far away you might not notice the metal frame, which becomes apparent once you get up close and personal and feel your way through every aspect of the phone.

When you look at the Galaxy Alpha, you automatically think iPhone 5S. The two phones are quite similar in design and the Galaxy Alpha’s compact form factor makes it quite easy to navigate through the menus and options by virtue of using only one hand (even if you have smaller hands!)

I might have grown attached to its size because I have smaller hands, but if you're not part of the tiny limb tribe, you might be less impressed with Alpha's compactness.

Samsung Galaxy Alpha vs Galaxy S5
Samsung Galaxy Alpha vs Galaxy S5

The handset measures 132 x 65 x 6.7 mm / 5.1 x 2.5 x 0.26 inches, and while the phone is not the slimmest one in the bunch (no way it can beat Vivo X5 Max' anorexic 4.77 mm / 0.18 inches frame), it’s very light coming in at just 115 g / 0.25 lbs. This means the handset is just a tad heavier than the iPhone 5S that breaks the scale at 112 g / 0.24 lbs.

Moving on, you’ll notice the bezel going around the display is quite slim on the left and right. The home button – which looks exactly like the one sitting on the Galaxy S5 – takes advantage of a metal trim.

And as is the case of Samsung’s flagship, it bundles a fingerprint scanner, a technology originally introduced with the Galaxy S5.

Around the edges Samsung has placed solid metal buttons that feel incredibly clicky. On the left we find the volume rocker, while on the opposite side lives the power button, arranged in a position that will make it easier for you to activate them while holding the phone.

At the bottom lies a micro USB 2.0 port plus the speaker grill, while the top has a 3.5mm audio jack.

On the back resides the 12MP main camera, plus the heart rate sensor I’m going to tell you more about in one of the upcoming sections.

All I’ve just told you is great and peachy, but there are a few setbacks. Compared to the Galaxy S5, the Galaxy Alpha is no longer water resistant, so be careful how you handle it around beverages or if you take it out with you to the pool.

Another negative aspect is that you won’t find a microSD card slot onboard, which is not a deadly sin in itself, but if you’re used to having more storage on your handset, this will probably bother you.

Display and Camera

The Samsung Galaxy Alpha is a 4.7-inch handset that offers 720HD screen (1280 x 720 pixel resolution). While the form factor seems to be quite perfect for a smaller phone like this one, the display fails to impress as much.

Since the Galaxy Alpha appears to be aiming for the premium smartphone niche, it’s quite inexplicable why Samsung chose to offer such a low resolution, which is no match for the Galaxy S5’s full HD display.

This gives me the impression that Samsung was being ambivalent when designing the phone – is the Galaxy Alpha premium or semi-premium, this is the question.

Samsung utilizes an Super AMOLED (improved version of AMOLED) panel taking advantage of a PenTile array, which delivers crisp images. Albeit offering an overall honorable viewing experience (also thanks to the 312ppi), I noticed the edges don’t always enjoy the sort of clarity you’d expect to see form such a phone.

As for the AMOLED thing, you either hate it or love it. As usual, when it comes to Samsung phones enjoying AMOLED technology, the colors might be considered over the top by some. However, good old Sammy does offer you the option of switching to a more natural screen tone if blatant colors aren't really your thing.

I should mention here that the Samsung Galaxy Alpha is the first smartphone (along with the Note 4) that takes advantage of Corning's Gorilla Glass 4 technology.

As for the panel itself, it’s quite responsive and I didn't notice any annoying lag between prompting an action and the actual onset of it.

What’s even better is that the Alpha bundles a high sensitivity touchscreen mode that allows you to even work the display with your gloves on – a nice feature especially for people living in countries where winter hits hard.

Speaking of which, the gloves-on mode will surely come in handy if you happen to like taking pictures even if it’s freezing outside. And with the winter holidays coming, you’ll find yourself in that position soon enough, won’t you?

The Galaxy Alpha takes advantage of two cameras: the main one, of the 12MP CMOS with ISOCELL variety paired with an f/2.2 lens with a 35mm-equivalent focal length of about 31mm, plus the 2.1MP frontal-facing camera.

It features a native 16:9 aspect ratio like the Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy S5 do, although they take advantage of an improved 16MP shooter.

Even if the sensor downgrade might prove to be a big disappointment to some, that doesn't mean the handset isn't capable of capturing some pretty amazing pictures. And the HDR feature – that helps you make out the most of lower light situations and was borrowed from the Galaxy S5 – makes sure this happens.

As is customary with Samsung products, the company has added a slew of photo-enhancing functions and effects to help you transform your shots into masterpieces. For starters, there are plenty of shooting modes to choose from, including Auto, Beauty Face, Panorama or Dual Camera.

Moreover, you get to take advantage of things like Burst shoots, Picture stabilization, Face detection, Selective focus and so on.

The picture samples you see below have been taken at 4608 x 2592 (16:9) and you can see that in some cases the details are quite grainy. In natural lightning conditions, however, things are much, much better.

The Galaxy Alpha also comes with the Studio app pre-installed, which helps you adjust and edit your images, creating collages and what not. It also has a video clip studio and video trimmer feature.

Speaking of which, the Galaxy Alpha bundles the same video recording feats as with the Galaxy S5 does. This means you’ll be able to shoot 4K Ultra video at 30fps, smooth motion 1080p at 60fps and even slow motion 720p at 120fps.

Menu and Software

The Galaxy Alpha runs Android 4.4.4 KitKat with Samsung’s customary TouchWiz skin added on top. So if you’ve ever used a Samsung phone, you’ll easily find your way on the Galaxy Alpha.

Sure, Android 5.0 Lollipop has just been launched and is currently rolling out for a bunch of devices. But according to recent information, the Galaxy Alpha will also be getting the sweet Lollipop treatment soon enough, in early 2015 to be more exact.

Like with most Samsung phones, the device comes with a bunch of pre-installed pieces of software like browser, calendar, app store and email client.

Furthermore, Samsung offers a plethora of features onboard of the Galaxy Alpha, which will let you tweak every single aspect of the interface. So the Alpha is certainly a great phone for customization fans.

But for the beginner users, the Galaxy Alpha might prove to be a little confusing, as they will suddenly be confronted with an avalanche of features, most of which they will never end up using.

The TouchWiz interface on the Galaxy Alpha has been made to look nicer than previous iterations did, but Samsung still hasn't found a way to integrate the UI with many stock Android items. Therefore, you’ll get a less cohesive feel than, let’s say, iOS.

The home screen is what one would normally expect with a 4 x 4 grid of icons, but it should be pointed out that My Magazine has been shifted to the left of the home screen panel, which is a nice new feat. Until now, you had to press the home button on the home pane to get to it.

Samsung Galaxy Alpha showing Google apps
Samsung Galaxy Alpha showing Google apps

The lock screen somehow manages to squeeze in information regarding weather, fitness and your music playback controls, without making it look tedious.

The notification pane continues to feature a scrolling panel of quick toggles at the top plus quick brightness controls, links to S Finder (local phone search which was also offered on the Galaxy S) and Quick Connect (a tool allowing you to share Alpha content with nearby devices).

The Galaxy Alpha bundles a heart rate sensor working in concert with the S Health app. Using the application you’ll be able to do things like measuring your heart rate or set certain health-related goals (like walking a certain number of km / miles).

The heart rate sensor is located on the back of the phone, next to the main camera, and to start measuring you’ll have to place your finger on top of it. However, getting the operation right on your first try is pretty difficult because you’ll need to watch the amount of pressure you place on the surface.

S Health also lets you input certain data in, like daily calories intake, so the app can calculate the levels of activity you need throughout the day to stay healthy.

The worst part is that S Health (and S Voice for that matter) must be updated through Samsung Apps, and in order to do so, you will need to enable installations from unknown sources in your device settings. Why Samsung will go about doing this is a bit puzzling as it hinders the normal flow of things.

Like the Galaxy S5, the Settings Screen on the Galaxy Alpha is ridiculously packed with all kinds of settings. You can just keep scrolling and scrolling and it doesn't seem to end.

Samsung is well aware of the brain-block this huge Settings Screen might cause, so it included a handy search option. Even so, the tech giant should probably start thinking on a different design altogether.

Anyway, in the setting section you’ll find that you can basically change anything ranging from screen mode, adding screen mirroring, one-handed operation features, blocking mode that rejects calls and disables notification, Private Mode and so on.

The Galaxy Alpha also offers a way to multi-task. The Multi-window feature allows you to run two apps in two separate and resizable “windows.” However, this feat comes handier on a tablet like the Samsung Galaxy NotePRO with a 12.2-inch display.

A feature we have seen make a debut with the Galaxy 5S is the Toolbox, and now you can find it on the Galaxy Alpha as well. The Toobox is basically a floating circle you can tap on to reveal a list of your favorite five apps.

Even so, no all Galaxy S5-specific software found its way into the Alpha. For example, the Alpha doesn't bundle the Galaxy S5’s hand-waving Air Gestures.

Power & Performance

Computing-wise, Samsung offers two models of the Galaxy Alpha, one running the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 SoC and the other its own Exynos 5 Octa 5430 SoC. Both models are fitted with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage (without the possibility of expanding).

Our test unit came bundled with the more exciting octa-core chip, which represents an upgrade on the Exynos 5422 used in the Galaxy S5. It’s also a 32-bit platform.

The 5430 boasts four ARM Cortex-A15 CPU cores at 1.8GHz, combined with four Cortex-A7 CPU cores clocked at 1.3GHz in a big.LITTLE configuration with global task scheduling.

And the chip proves to be capable of sustaining all activity onboard with the outermost ease. We ran a few benchmarks on it, and as you can see in the gallery below, the results are pretty incredible. AnTuTu’s verdict was that the Galaxy Alpha is a “Wow! Monster” scoring a massive 49,663 points.

Thus the Galaxy Alpha sits above smartphones such as Samsung Galaxy Note 4, OnePlus One and HTC One M8.

The Galaxy Alpha can handle pretty much all you throw at it. This includes running demanding games which have no problem loading and running smoothly even after 30 minutes deep into playing.

So you basically shouldn't have any problems doing whatever you need to do with your handset, as this is a quick, responsive device you won’t want to throw away in anger because it stutters uncontrollably.

Connectivity and Communication

The Galaxy Alpha is a 4G LTE device which is said to allow for theoretical speeds of 150Mbps down and 50Mb up.

Furthermore, Samsung’s first metal phone comes equipped with 2x2 MIMO 802.11ac Wi-Fi that can support download speeds as high as 436Mbps, if you have a compatible router that is.

The handset also takes advantage of a GPS with Glonass, Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC.

The Galaxy Alpha only accepts nanoSIM cards, so you’ll need to take the battery out in order to insert yours.

Battery

The Alpha has a removable battery of the 7.17 Wh (1,860 mAh battery at 3.85V) capacity, which is smaller than the one found of the Galaxy S5.

Samsung clearly had to sacrifice battery life in order to produce a slim and sleek handset like Alpha. Even if we’re talking about a small-screen form factor, lower resolution and increased SoC efficiency (still the chip inside is a powerful one), Samsung couldn't salvage battery life.

Therefore, you’ll notice the battery life fading out with each minute you spend browsing, playing games and using the camera, so you’ll have to quickly pop in for a re-charge. Knowing you have a powerful device on your hand and not being able to use whenever you want to can become frustrating fast.


The Good

The Galaxy Alpha is Samsung’s first attempt at making a premium smartphone actually deserving this title and we should applaud its endeavor.

Granted, the handset is not entirely made out of metal and continues to have the same plastic back we’re so familiar with.

The smartphone also packs a compact form factor that makes it easy for you to hold and use. Not to mention it bundles a powerful chip and handles itself beautifully even while performing advanced tasks.

The Bad

For such a high-end smartphone, we would have expected a better screen resolution. A microSD card for memory expansion would have been nice. In addition, the skimpy battery life will put a damper on the overall experience, because you'll always have to worry about being in the vicinity of a power outlet.

Conclusion

The Samsung Galaxy Alpha looks good and feels good. However Samsung has already shown us it can do better than this. The Korean tech giant has introduced the A series (with A3 and A5 models) which are two extremely tight handsets coming with all-metal bods.

However, even if the Alpha has a lot of positive aspects to it, the fact that its pricing revolves around the €599 ($745) margin won’t appeal to a lot of consumers. Yes, it’s cheaper than the Galaxy S5, but even so we’re still well into high-end territory.

But if you have some money to spend and don’t mind the absence of a microSD card and the lower resolution, the Galaxy Alpha has all you need.

Our Rating

looks 4
build 4
speed 4
battery 3
calls 4
camera 2
video 3
apps 3
screen 3
signal3

final rating 4

Samsung Galaxy Alpha (70 Images)

Samsung Galaxy Alpha frontal image with box
Samsung Galaxy Alpha's home buttonSamsung Galaxy Alpha upper close-up
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