Samsung Galaxy Alpha Review

Samsung has realized that a competitor was required to be present in the market around the same time as the launch of the iPhone 6, with competing features, to stop its customers from moving over to iPhone, as well as to attract iPhone users towards itself. With the Samsung Alpha, Samsung has come out with a premium smartphone, which has brought aluminum back in the design game for Samsung, optimized for easy usage while being portable at the same time. Samsung Alpha is powered by the Exynos chipset instead of the standard Snapdragon chipset being used more widely, though the Exynos has been tailor made to use the power to give the best performance possible.

The size that Samsung has come out with is 4.7 inches, which is also the one being targeted by the iPhone 6 and the successor to the Xperia Z1 Compact, and this is a good news. The camera is also a 12MP snapper going for 16:9 size and 2160p picture quality.

The overall design has us hoping that Samsung makes a similar design revamp on all the future releases and not just to limit the modifications to the Alpha only.

The additional power in terms of the octacore processor, and the fingerprint scanner coming into play yet again with integration towards PayPal also implemented are both pluses for the Alpha. However, the 1,860mAh battery may be one of the key elements that may be used against the Alpha, though the Exynos chipset used requires lesser energy levels, going for only 20nm as compared to the 28nm Snapdragon, and this, coupled with the Cortex-A7 will be more efficient in power consumption and we may feel that it may still be suitable to power up the Alpha. Another surprise is the plastic back panel in the aluminum styled smartphone, which combine to reduce the overall look of the Alpha, however the weight of the Alpha is still very less as compared to the competition, and at the same time is lesser in thickness too. The metallic sides of the Alpha make it look a bit premium.

While unboxing the Samsung Galaxy Alpha, you will get everything inside the retail box that you need to get started with this phone.

• Samsung Galaxy Alpha handset
• Standard 1,860mAh Battery
• An A/C adapter
• MicroUSB cable connector for A/C adapter for charging
• Earphones

The display on the Galaxy Alpha has been taken up to 4.7 inches, with Super AMOLED standing at 312ppi at 720p resolution, the first in the Galaxy range to go to 4.7 inches. As is becoming the norm, the display has excellent viewing angles, takes up lesser power and has improved sunlight legibility and accuracy in colors. While the near 300ppi display may seem to some as not sufficient, it still is reasonably good, so much so that there are no imperfections visible to the naked eye. With the display being slightly on the brighter side as compared to the Galaxy S5 mini, and nearing the brightness of the Galaxy S5, it does land a bit short outdoors, though the black levels are just perfect, making for a great contrast ratio. The sunlight test gives the Alpha one of the best scores that we have seen, while the iPhone 5S indicated that Apple will be battling it out in this area.

The color rendering is done classically, though color saturation preferences are different for different users, and this can be adjusted using the Screen mode. The slider in the notification area also allows for brightness management, and can be set for automatic too, which adjusts the screen brightness as per the image being displayed. The Smart Stay is present, which keeps the screen unlocked as long as it is being viewed. These options are both good for the battery.

Samsung has managed to make an effort which is commendable to improve the design of the Galaxy Alpha – the design seems somewhat close to the Galaxy S5 mini, though the bezels at the top and bottom are reduced in size, while also being slimmer. The overall look is further enhanced by the metal chassis, with the front and back covered by glass and plastic respectively.

The metal sides on the Alpha are further segmented by thin plastic lines, which might draw comparison with iPhone designs. The corners are flared up somewhat, which in turn is actually better for the grip – this is reminiscent of the Galaxy S5 Active. The back uses the similar dotter pattern of the Galaxy S5, although here the plastic is more plastic-like and doesn’t resemble leather. The quality of the plastic is not premium, but still, the thickness is impressive, easily becoming the slimmest Galaxy device to date. This is also surprising, given that the screen size is 4.7 inches, and being the slimmest in a range is great, especially given the light weight of it all. This all makes for an interesting competition with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. One way that Samsung has managed to reduce the weight has been by reducing the battery, though we feel it is a poor option, given that the replaceable battery is a paltry 1,860mAh as compared to the recent releases, though it remains to be seen if the battery can fully support the Alpha.

The front of the Alpha is covered with glass (Samsung didn’t mention which glass it was) and under this, other than the screen, the remaining front is covered with the same dotted patterned plastic as the back for a consistent look. The standard layout of the earpiece surrounded by the 2MP 1080p front snapper and sensors, as well as the notification light at the top of the display and the Home key with the capacitive keys for app switching and back below the display is in play. The Home key has the finger print reader present too just like the Galaxy S5, and is certified by PapPay, can enable the Private mode, where sensitive files and data can be kept for secure use only. At the back is the 12MP 2160p main snapper slightly protruding from the cover, with the LED flash and the heart rate monitor next to it.

The back panel is removable, with the replaceable battery underneath, along with the nanoSIM slot, though we are missing the microSD slot since the memory is not expandable, and users just get the 32GB internal memory.

The top of the Alpha has the 2.5mm audio jack, exposed, while the bottom has the microUSB 2.0 port, a microphone and loudspeaker grille. The IR blaster is missing though, as is the water resistance feature, which we feel will be soon coming to the Galaxy range. The metal sides contain the Power key on the right and volume rocker on the left, though both are a bit slimmer than our liking. There is no barometer or humidity sensor provided.

The Samsung Galaxy Alpha comes with Android 4.4.4 KitKat, with the enhanced TouchWiz running support.

The Alpha can be locked with a fingerprint, and can be made to recognize up to three separate fingerprint scans, and even if all of these scans fail, the phone has, as a backup, the option for a password, so you are almost never locked out.

Samsung has added a display similar to the BlinkFeed from HTC and has labeled this My Magazine, which is supported by Flipboard at the backend, and actually works almost the same the neat display with easy to use functions along with the option to directly share stuff from here to social networks make it very frequently used. To access other regular home screens, with options for widgets, folders, shortcuts etc. the My Magazine app can be disabled.

The notification area has multiple toggles (which can be expanded too), with the S Finder and Quick Connect buttons just under these with a slider for brightness control following, while underneath all this is the actual notifications section, where all notifications can be displayed. A new feature labeled Recommended apps includes shortcuts to some relevant apps, when an accessory like headphones plugged in.

The Galaxy Alpha can manage the icons, and the app switcher is the standard one, as available in the Galaxy S5. The multitasking option using multi-windows is also available as was present in the other Galaxy smartphone releases like the Galaxy S5 – using this, two apps can be run in parallel, in two different windows, side by side however, this time around these windows cannot be resized. If there are two apps that can be correlated together, they can be launched together using a shortcut. The multi-window option currently is supported by only a select few apps, but this list is growing rapidly, and many such apps can now be found on the Play Store. Samsung has provided an option labeled Toolbox, basically a floating icon, clicking which will open a menu listing the most common apps, from which any app listed can be accessed.

As mentioned earlier, there is a Private mode present in the Alpha, which can secure all kinds of data, and can be accessed using fingerprint scans only (three different finger scans can be stored). The files secured in this area will only be visible once in this mode, else completely hidden. There are other lesser secure options like the pattern and PIN locks too for availability. Users can have both the less secure or unsecure (swipe to open) option as well as the Private mode. The fingerprint sensor has been PayPal certified, and hence can be used for transactions from third party too, quite unlike the current iPhone fingerprint reader, which only works for Apple transactions.

The battery saving has two modes – the first option to turn the display to monochrome and limit processor performance, and hence its power consumption, and has the option to block background data too. The second one, labeled Ultra Power Saving mode, works in addition to the first mode mentioned above, and in addition, cuts the power of all but the basic smartphone features, and changes the homescreen to a simple display with the basic 6 shortcuts to save power. The Safety Assistance feature is on board similar to the Galaxy S5, and works the same as well.

The Alpha also has the Easy mode, which was first introduced in the Galaxy S5, which displays a bunch of large icons, and a step counter on the screen, and is favorable to be used when outdoors, especially jogging. The Galaxy Alpha has picked up the Smart screen options of the Air View, and the Smart Scroll, Smart Stay, Smart Pause and Smart Play options from the previous Galaxy series smartphones.

Samsung Galaxy Alpha has the S Voice present with the Google Now assistant also there for assistance. The S Voice is meant only for audio commands, like playing music, dictating text, opening apps, adding reminders, event scheduling, memo creation, alarm setting etc. and for responses to any questions asked. The Google Now assistant though, can pull information from the Google, like the routine, searches, email and other information, and informs updates on interests. It includes updates regarding traffic on regular routes, sports, news, weather forecasts etc. and supports voice. The Google Now has a home screen widget now, for quicker and easier access.

The My Files app displays files in a categorized manner, allowing bulk actions like copy, delete, rename, and transferred as well as zipping multiple files.

Samsung has come out, like always, with the stock Android browser available in support of the standard Google Chrome browser – both of these support the multi-window option, while only the stock browser enables Air view, Smart Scroll and Smart Stay. Both have identical feature list, and work the same as already described in the Galaxy S5, providing multi-tabs, tab switching, incognito modes, voice input, among others. One feature that could be included to Chrome is the Reading mode, which changes the layout of the browser window making the display easier for reading effortlessly.

The Samsung Galaxy Alpha does not have any Office files viewer as was the case in the Galaxy S5, though Polaris Office 5 is present and can be downloaded free from Samsung Apps, and allows for both view and edit capabilities. The document editing suite from Google is also very solid, and may be looked at as a backup to Polaris.

A commonly required app is the Find my mobile, allowing remote access to the device for reset and device lock if device is lost, and locating it on a map. The phone can even send out a message once a new SIM is inserted into it. A backup function is present in this app to keep phone logs, messages, and other settings on the cloud.

The S Health app has been improved to identify burnt calories, and heart rate monitor data management. External devices with ANT+ or Bluetooth 4.0 LE can be connected for a much better reading.

Google Maps, and Navigation have their standard assuring presence on the Galaxy Alpha too, pinpointing locations using the GPS / GLONASS receiver. The app now features audio instructions, and public transport feature can be very helpful in many situations.

Samsung Galaxy Alpha has used the improvements in its call quality and reception made in the Samsung Galaxy S5, and delivers a very loud and clear audio quality, though background noise was present but not too much to cause a disturbance.

The dialer for the phone has the generic Samsung touch, and even has options for video call. The listing of calls from any specific contact, all the calls and messages from a single contact, as well as the much needed call blocking option, and the block feature has been detailed into a much larger section. The call block, alarm block, and the Allowed list is the same as that present in the Galaxy S5.

The phonebook and messaging are the same high powered apps that are generic to Samsung, though Samsung has added to the strength of the Messaging app. The message sending can be delayed for up to 30 seconds, so that messages can be cancelled before they are sent. Messages can be scheduled to be sent at later times too, and the spam protection has now been built into the app, so that messages that have some specific text or are coming from specific numbers, can be blocked out, and there is a Safe mode option, which disables all clickable links in the messages.

The two email clients, one for Gmail and the other for other email addresses configuration is available with the Alpha, which includes all the basic options.

Samsung has upgraded its keyboard, and swype is also present – a row specified for numbers has been introduced to add to the comfort level.

The gallery for the Samsung Alpha enables DLNA, along with Facebook, Picasa and Dropbox, along with the option to sync via Wi-Fi only – the sorting options are the standard, and tagging can be done with contacts from the contact list. The pinch zoom on gallery can increase and reduce the thumbnails size, and batch operations can be done on multiple images, which includes image assignment to events among other actions. The Quick Connect button scans for all possible options via which file transfer can be done with devices in close proximity, and this includes DLNA and Wi-Fi Direct. The gallery allows image editing, and the recently added Studio option allows options ranging from the very basics in image editing to managing collages and onwards to video trimming and others too – allowing for post processing too.

The music player on the Galaxy Alpha is packed with features, and can play a lot of formats, and music categorization is easy. DLNA is enabled here too, and the Music Square and Sound Alive, which came in with the Galaxy S5 are both active here as well.

The video player also has DLNA access, as well as chapter view for video play to skip. Subtitle search is present, and can be automatically, or alternately, manually loaded to the video. Codec support, like the Samsung Galaxy S5, is not too good though, so users will have to install codecs for proper and issue free video play. The Sound Alive feature is actively involved here too. The video player has the option to play audio on Bluetooth devices, and managing the brightness and video speed too.

Samsung Galaxy Alpha has great audio quality for output, with perfect audio when connected to external amplifiers. Even when connected with headphones, the little bit of crosstalk that creeps in does not harm the audio too much and the crisp output is still intact.

Samsung has taken out a couple of flavors for its most recent release, the Galaxy Alpha. The first of these is with the Exynos 5 Octa 5430 chipset, while the other contains the Snapdragon 801, which is due to be out soon too. The Exynos chipset contains four Cortex-A15 cores clocking in at 1.8GHz and four Cortex-A7 cores clocking in at 1.3 GHz. The chipset contains a hexacore Mali-T628 MP6 GPU which is the latest available, and 2GB RAM is on display.

The Android 4.4.4 KitKat present on the Alpha, alongside the TouchWiz, disables the ART runtime even though the ART is the quickest runtime on display and debuted with the KitKat only. With the sort of combination put on display by the Alpha, the majority of smartphones which feature the Snapdragon 400 series are already out of the running, and only the recently released few competitors being powered by the Snapdragon 800 and 801 remain in contention.

The basic chipset testing proves that the Galaxy Alpha is very close to the Oppo Find 7, the leader in terms of performance for single core performance, while the multicore performance of the Alpha is unmatched. Even the Mali-T628 is a consistent performer, and the Adreno 330 and Adreno 320 sets are outperformed by a mile. Still, we have to keep in mind that the display is 720p and not 1080p on the Alpha.

The JavaScript engine on the Galaxy Alpha is also a smooth and efficient worker, and is one of the reasons why the Galaxy Alpha is among the top in terms of browsing, though we tested on the stock browser instead of Chrome – maybe the Alpha would have performed even better on Chrome.

The Samsung Galaxy Alpha comes out with topping performance in many areas, and with the Exynos chipset coupled with the Mali GPU, it seems to be a winner. Still, with the chipset working full-time and with metal sides, the casing can get heated sometimes, so you will have to be a bit careful still, that does not mean that the Alpha is any lesser attractive.

Samsung Galaxy Alpha brings forward a 12MP main snapper, carrying a 16:9 ratio, with widescreen snapping at its best. The camera can snap up images at 4608 x 2592, and has autofocus, touch focus, face and smile detection, as well as the other generic features.

The camera UI has been pulled directly from the Samsung Galaxy S5, with the recorder, snapper, and mode switcher being on the right, while the settings are on the left side. All the modes from the Galaxy S5 are also present here. The Virtual tour, Panorama, Dual Camera, Selective Focus, Shot & more, and Beauty face are all here.

Images captured by the Samsung snapper are impressive with low noise, abundant fine detail, and reduction in oversharpening means that images are still a bit oversaturated and pretty sharp, but mainly very accurate.

The camera sometimes has some issues with shadows like underexposing, but HDR covers up for it by brightening the areas where there are shadows while also reducing the brightness. The Panorama shots are very detailed and high res, with 60MP shots being taken, and almost seamless stitching on most occasions. The Panoramas can now be taken horizontally as well as vertically, and both are equally good.

For videos, Samsung Galaxy Alpha records in 2160p at 30fps (at 48Mbps), and 1080p at 30 (at 17Mbps) and 60fps(at 28Mbps) the 15fps slo-mo option for 720p, saving videos in MP4 files. The audio is stored at 256Kbps. There is a max video length of 4 minutes for 2160p videos, and this mode disables Dual Camera, HDR, effects, and snapping images during recording.

The quality of the video is very nice, with a lot of detail and no noise, while the compression does remove detail in some places. The colors are oversaturated here too, but this is the only such aspect, otherwise there are no flaws that we could see. The 1080p images are very close too, though the quality does go down a bit due to lesser pixel count. Touch focus is present, and can be switched to autofocus.

Samsung Galaxy Alpha has a huge bunch of connectivity features, with the basics including GSM, 3G and 4G connectivity present. The 3G has HSPA 42Mbps down and 5.76Mbps up, while the 4G using the LTE-A Cat 6, increases this to 300Mbps and 50Mbps respectively.

Alpha also has MIMO antenna, along with the dual-band, using double the speed of the regular Wi-Fi connectivity – all Wi-Fi standards are supported, as is Miracast and Wi-Fi Direct. Download Booster allows for simultaneous use of networks, using for example Wi-Fi and LTE to download, though it would not be used too much we fear.

Support for Bluetooth 4.0 and ANT+ is available with both being power efficient, and can connect with wireless accessories, while NFC is available too.

The microUSB 2.0 port is mainly used for connectivity with computer as well as charging, and also is OTG enabled, so that thumb drives can be connected directly. The TV out port, either MHL or SlimPort, would have been awesome, though without that too, the connectivity options are plenty.

Samsung Galaxy Alpha has come out with a 1,860mAh battery, which was, a minor shock to us, considering Samsung actually raised the display size (our testing for now has been on the Exynos set only). The Alpha has an endurance rating equal to the iPhone 5S, that of 52 hours, though it could have been increased to be close to the Xperia Z1 Compact, among others. The talk time of 13 hours is good, though the browsing and video play, both achieving 8 hours, is not too good, given that the competition is starting to focus on this aspect too. Still, the battery should be sufficient for one day of heavy use, and if used properly, it can last anywhere between a day and two.

Apart from its improved user experience, and the other enhancements the Samsung Galaxy Alpha has available, it does come with some shortcomings which are listed below:

• Battery may be lacking for many users used to the large battery packs
• The design could still be enhanced by reducing the amount of plastic involved
• Storage cannot be expanded
• TV-Out is missing
• Water resistance is not present

Samsung has come out with the Galaxy Alpha as an improved competitor to the latest iPhone 6, and the Alpha is surely a bright and pleasing addition to the line up. Still, the plastic back and the keys will affluence the Alpha, while another opportunity missed could be the water resistance feature and a larger battery – Sony will be gunning for both of these.

Still, we can look at the effort put in by Samsung into the Galaxy Alpha. The metallic frame is also an enhancing and pleasing improvement, while using the home made chipset is a bold step. The screen is pretty good too, while the audio quality is very pleasing, while the camera and video recording are also exceptional.

TouchWiz UI enhances the user experience, on the same lines as the Galaxy S5, like the Smart features as the Smart stay, Smart pause, Smart scroll, and Smart rotation, the multi-window, Air features, Direct Call, Smart Alert and Blocking options.

The music player has enhancement options like Music square, Smart Volume, Adapt Sound and the Private mode enables securing content. The additional power saving modes are very helpful for users who may be out and about and may not have a power source for charging purposes. The propriety features and apps, enhanced camera options, all combine to make a challenging competitor ready to take on the competition.

Still, with the competition coming out in the market in the shape of iPhone and Xperia Z3 Compact, the features provided still may be a little bit insufficient. All we can say for certainty at this time is that the Samsung Galaxy Alpha has made an important stride from Samsung in the right direction, and has come at a point where such a release from Samsung was required to provide a stiff challenge to the coming releases.