Samsung meets the needs of everyone, even those who want to be in his hands a device a bit ‘more valuable than the usual plastic material used on all its smartphones. Hence the Samsung Galaxy Alpha , the first device of the Korean company to adopt, albeit in a small way, a bit ‘of aluminum, a material that goes on the market for several generations many smartphone competition.
Let’s see more in detail in our Samsung Galaxy Alpha Review .
Video Review of Samsung Galaxy Alpha
Hardware & amp; Ergonomics
The Samsung Galaxy Alpha is very similar to the internal components, the most recent companions: Galaxy S5, S5 Galaxy Mini and Galaxy Note 4 to name a few. Also on this device are in fact technical performance along with the now typical additional sensors to detect the imprints and measure your heart rate.
It certainly can not deny that Samsung has privileged the care of the design in this device, nor attention to the materials: the boards are made entirely of aluminum as well as the volume buttons and power on / off; corners bend towards the long sides remain, however, projections and then coming back with a clean cut. This small detail, at first glance useless and uncomfortable, instead gives personality to the device and does not affect the ergonomics.
The back is made of plastic as usual Samsung, but the feeling is different to the touch than that of the Galaxy S5 and actually gives the impression of being premium .
On the front there is a glass with certification Gorilla Glass against bumps and scratches while on the back a removable polycarbonate shell covered by a semi-rubbery layer that provides quite a good grip and is pleasant to the touch.
The smartphone does not have particularly high dimensions then, since we are talking of 132.4 x 65.5 x 6.7 mm. Samsung Galaxy Alpha also appears to be very light with a weight of 115 grams. The ergonomics is on the whole very good and is easy to use the Samsung Galaxy Alpha with one hand.
The display has a diagonal equal to 4.7 inches and uses a Super AMOLED panel with HD resolution (1280 × 720 ) can offer excellent visibility both under the sun from different angles, always offering a smooth and brilliant visual quality. The heart of Samsung Galaxy Alpha is composed of an octa-core Samsung Exynos processor 5 (quad-core Cortex A15 1.8 GHz quad-core Cortex A7 + 1.3 GHz), a Mali-T628 GPU MP6, 2 GB of memory RAM and 32GB of internal memory is not expandable.
The photographic industry is made up of a 12 megapixel rear main camera with LED flash capable of recording video up to 4K, and a 2.1 megapixel front camera.
On the connectivity, Galaxy Alpha supports all GSM with EDGE connections to LTE, WiFi 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac, Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, WiFi Direct, DLNA, while for geolocation GLONASS , GPS and Beidou. There are also various typical light sensors, proximity, accelerometer, gyroscope and digital compass.
Overall a well harmonized hardware that offers high performance combined with a compact and general ergonomics of the device particularly good. The only sore point is the battery, which has a capacity of only 1860 mAh.
Display, Audio & amp; Multimedia
Samsung produces display of excellent workmanship and this Samsung Galaxy Alpha presents a panel of quality. The diagonal measurement of 4.7 inches, and for those who do not like phablet, this smartphone can be nicely sized and suitable for use with one hand. The display has a HD resolution (ie 1280 × 720), not particularly high but sufficient to ensure good visibility, coupled with an equally excellent viewing angle, provides a visual experience really high.
On board the Samsung Galaxy Alpha installed a single speaker, but positioned on the underside of the device. This allows the sound to come out more clearly, even when the smartphone is placed on a flat surface, with obvious advantages of audibility of sounds coming from your smartphone (not only music but also for ringtones and notifications).
Overall, therefore, the media experience is very good. Of course, we do not have a large display as with many other devices, however this can also be an advantage: the dimensions are smaller and do not need a high resolution – with negative repercussions on the battery – to offer a pixel density high, which usually improves the user experience.
Camera
The fund photo of Samsung Galaxy Alpha is composed of two sensors: one frontal 2 megapixel, with functionality “improves face” for clicking fast self-portraits, and a rear one (which is, then, the main sensor) 12 megapixel, flanked by an LED flash and capable of recording video up to 4K resolution (Ultra-HD, 3840 × 2160).
The quality of the photos and video is quite good, especially if the room is well lit photographed. At night or in low light, however, the images tend to have more noise image, which is still the norm than any smartphone in this range.
Here are some test shots.
Battery & amp; Autonomy
The battery of Samsung Galaxy Alpha is one of those members who have not received special attention and autonomy appears to be the weak point of this smartphone, despite the size and resolution of the screen contained. The battery capacity is 1850 mAh, allowing an average use of about 13-14 hours total with 2 ½ hours of display actually turned on.
At the time when you go to use more intensively the smartphone autonomy is drastically reduced, with the need to recharge before it arrived in the evening. The only solution, if you are halfway through the day with little battery, you activate a power saving mode that provides a few more hours during the day. There are different modes, including a more extreme that brings the screen to display the images in black and white.
In this regard, it is not clear how a screen in black and white can help the autonomy to improve: considering that AMOLED panels consume more when playing white, why use that color when you want to save battery? This is one of the many dilemmas regarding the choices of Samsung in the field of battery and battery for this device.
Software
On the software this Galaxy Alpha does not have anything different from the recent Samsung Galaxy S5. It presents, in fact, all the features of the software top of the range – Biometric fingerprint sensor included. The only difference you may notice is that the graphics on the lockscreen: the animation has remained unchanged, while the graphical effects have been modified and are combined well to pattern the front of the device.
Among the most important are app :
- Samsung Apps : a market application created by Samsung and an alternative to the Google Play Store
- S Health : application to monitor our health and physical activity, compatible with all accessories Smart Gear
- S Voice : The voice assistant Samsung
- Smart Remote : excellent application that uses the infrared transmitter to control the television. You can also look at what programs are broadcast or will be aired later on over to see a selection of the recommended programs based on the preferences
- Waze : third-party application that acts as a browser
- ChatOn : a kind of WhatsApp in Samsung brand
- Flipboard : application of integrated news also in the launcher ( accessible by a swipe after the last screen to the left in the home). The news is, well, always at your fingertips with the function MyMagazine
Among the options are, finally, the usual settings to enable the features of interaction of movement as the scrolling intelligent to do the scrolling on a screen simply by tilting the head or smartphone; the clever break to stop the video when you look away from your smartphone, or even the ‘ Air View to see thumbnails of the items by simply bringing your finger on the screen without touching it . A special form is then dedicated to fingerprints to activate various functions: unlocking the screen with the imprint or enabling payments through PayPal always the impression.
The software runs very smoothly, not we noticed the large and obvious lag or interface or in the transition from one application to another.
In conclusion
Samsung Galaxy Alpha is, in our opinion, the most beautiful smartphone that Samsung has ever made from the point of view of design. The aluminum is not present on the totality of the device but to see well-finished edges gives the device a certain charm and a sense of honor. In addition, the dimensions are fairly small and as a result the ergonomics are good and use your smartphone with one hand is easy.
Overall, it is, therefore, an excellent smartphone, whose only flaw is the battery is not particularly large (albeit removable) that can give you more of a headache to those who make a particularly intensive use of the smartphone.
GliStockisti Thank you for providing this sample for review. Samsung Galaxy Alpha can be found on their website at the price of 499 euro 32GB version in dark blue.
| Ergonomics | 8.8 |
| Hardware | 9 |
| Material | 9 |
| Display | 9 |
| Camera | 8.3 |
| Audio | 8 |
| Battery | 6.8 |
| Software | 9 |
| Quality / Price | 8 |
| User Experience | 9 |
| Final grade |
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