Samsung Galaxy Alpha

Review in pictures

The #1 gadget research website in India

2

First they frame me

The Alpha is the first Galaxy smartphone from Samsung to use metalFeatures a metal frame that makes it look like the Apple iPhoneScreams premium in a way no other mainstream Galaxy smartphone has done in the recent past Thanks to its 4.7-inch screen, slim bezels and svelte profile, the Alpha is very compact and great for one-handed use

DESIGN

Elegant looks

The metal frame adds to the Galaxy Alpha’s premium feel and elegant looksSubtle chequered pattern at the rearThe rear panel is removable and gives access to the replaceable battery and the nano-SIM slot

DESIGN

Screen test

The 4.7-inch screen offers a resolution of 1,280 x 720 pixels resulting into a pixel density of 312ppiThe 720p screen resolution seems low for a premium device like thisHowever, the Super AMOLED display on the Alpha is bright and vivid and we didn’t really have any issues with it while using the device as a daily driverIt doesn’t score as high as IPS displays when it comes to colour accuracy and viewing angles, but graphics and text look quite sharp and legibility under direct sunlight is fine tooDisplay settings include a glove mode and various screen modes to let you tweak the output as per your liking

DISPLAY

Shooting shenanigans

The Samsung Galaxy Alpha offers a 12-meg primary shooter capable of 4K video recording, along with a rather mundane 2.1-megapixel front shooterThe shooting modes available cover Beauty face, Shot & more, Panorama, Virtual tour, and Dual camera, and you can download a few othersOther features such as HDR Burst mode and Selective focus are there too, and you can also make use of a bunch of live filtersYou can also tweak settings like ISO, white balance and exposure

CAMERA

Pleasing results, overall

The image quality is extremely pleasing overall, especially when shot in daylight The autofocus speeds are quite fast, but the same can’t be said for the capture speeds and sometimes, this can result in blurry shots if the subjects are in motionThe camera’s low-light imaging prowess isn’t too impressive, and it tends to churn out noisy results when there isn’t enough light

CAMERA

Sunlight

Low Light

Touch the wiz

The Alpha runs Samsung’s Touchwiz UI atop Android KitKat 4.4.4As usual, you get features like the Flipboard-powered news aggregator dubbed My Magazine, along with Multi Window and a tweaked notification shade with quick settingsLoads of other features crammed in, including a handy Download booster, an Easy mode, Private mode and Direct callThere’s an Air View feature that gives you thumbnail previews of content such as images, videos and calendar evens in S Planner when you hover you finger a little above the screen without touching itBattery saving modes include the Ultra Power Saving mode

USER INTERFACE

Frills galore

The fingerprint scanner and heart rate monitor we saw on the Galaxy S5 have made their way to the Alpha tooSetting up the fingerprint scanner on the Alpha isn’t as problematic as on the S5, and the feature works fairly well. We would still like to see some more improvements thoughThe heart rate monitor at the rear is tough to locate by feel, but does its job

USER INTERFACE

Testing out its mettle

Powering the show is an Exynos 5 Octa 5430 SoC which utilises a pair of quad-core clusters clocked at 1.8GHz and 1.3GHz. These are mated to 2GB of RAM There’s 32GB of non-expandable storage, out of which about 25GB is available to use. USB OTG is supported, along with support for Indian 4G bandsThe Alpha proved to be an able performer and rolled over anything we threw at it – including multitasking and graphics-intensive games like Asphalt 8

PERFORMANCE

The battery keeps up

The 1,860mAh battery doesn’t seem to great on paperGave us 10 and a half hours of run time in our video playback test, but the battery life isn’t as good in real lifeCan last about a day with light to medium usage

PERFORMANCE

At a glance…

4.7-inch, 1,280 x 720 pixel IPS display (312ppi)Exynos 5 Octa 5430 processor (quad-core 1.8GHz and quad-core 1.3GHz)2GB RAM, 32GB storage (non-expandable)12-megapixel primary camera, 2.1MP frontUSB OTG, 4G, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0, A-GPS, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, NFCAndroid KitKat 4.4.4 with Touchwiz1,860mAh batteryFingerprint scanner, heart rate monitor

Pros and Cons

Elegant looks and metal-reinforced buildCompact size great for one-handed useSmooth performanceLoaded with features

720p screenNon-expandable storagePricey

Pricing & Verdict

“The Samsung Galaxy Alpha is one of the best phones the brand has outed yet. Apart from its low-res screen and non-expandable storage, it’s difficult to find fault with it. Sure, the camera is scared of darkness and the battery life is average, but if you can afford it, it’s worth considering if you need a compact daily driver that doesn’t skimp on power or features.”

Price: Rs 39,990