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Samsung Galaxy Alpha review

While Apple is being praised and mocked in unequal measure for launching the "bigger than bigger" iPhone 6 with a 4.7-inch display and the even bigger iPhone 6 Plus - is that a reversing beep I can hear? - Samsung has performed an about-turn of its own with the launch of the Galaxy Alpha.


This is the first Samsung smartphone I can remember using that values attractive design ahead of spec list box-ticking. Whilst its not the finished article, it marks a welcome departure in an exciting new direction for the company.

Its also arguably the most balanced and comfortable-to-use premium phone Samsung has made since the Samsung Galaxy S2.

Make no mistake though - this is unknown, risky territory for Samsung. Starting from £549.99 SIM-free, the Samsung Galaxy Alpha is priced like a flagship phone, but its technically out-specced by the Samsung Galaxy S5.

Really, though, this simply reframes the age-old iOS vs Android argument with none of the platform bias - what makes a premium phone premium?

Design

Lets get the obvious comment out of the way early doors. The Samsung Galaxy Alpha looks a lot like an iPhone.

While its clearly been released to pre-empt the launch of the iPhone 6, though, the Alphas design is pure iPhone 4. Its got a very familiar flat-edged aluminium rim with that same nick-inviting chamfered edge. Even the machined speaker grid on the bottom edge is reminiscent of Apples seminal phone.

Of course, the fact that Samsung has borrowed some ideas from Apple is far less noteworthy than the fact that it has finally adopted metal into its design process. Given how well the company has done with its first attempt, I have to ask: what took you so long, Samsung?

This is a lovely phone to hold. It sits in one hand delightfully. As someone with larger-than-average hands, I can just about stretch my thumb to each corner of the 4.7-inch display without needing the shuffle the handset around in my hands.

Thats facilitated by a nice thin bezel and the Galaxy Alphas super-thin body. At 6.7mm, its not the thinnest phone in the world, but its up there. Its also 0.2mm thinner than the similarly proportioned iPhone 6.

Like Apples new iPhone, Samsung has positioned the Galaxy Alphas power button on the top right-hand edge of the phone, so you can reach it easily with thumb or finger. The volume rocker is on the opposite edge, if a little higher up. Both have a satisfying click to them.

Its when you look closely at these side buttons that you realise the Galaxy Alphas metal rim isnt quite as unoriginal as it first seems. Theres a subtle outward curve just before you reach the top and bottom edges, which is both nice to look at and offers a useful niche to tuck your little finger into.

You know youre definitely dealing with a Samsung phone when you turn it over - and were not just talking about the Samsung logo or the centrally-mounted, square-rimmed, slightly protruding camera unit.

The Galaxy Alphas dalliance with metal extends only to its outer rim. The rear of the device is the same kind of soft-touch polycarbonate as weve seen before.

Its one of the least objectionable uses for the material yet, though. Perhaps its the fact that Samsung has done away with that awful faux-stitching effect, or the fact that its framed by elegant metal rather than ugly shiny plastic. I dont know, but in this case Samsungs use of plastic is as notable and restrained as its use of metal.

The decision not to opt for an all-metal body has led to a number of other benefits. It makes the Alpha easy to grip and handle, it allows for a removable battery, and it makes the phone remarkably light.

At 115 grams, its 14 grams lighter than the iPhone 6. In fact, its only 3 grams heavier than the 4-inch iPhone 5S. No, it doesnt quite feel as premium as either, but its nowhere near as far off as Samsungs earlier efforts.

And this introduces one of the most contentious specs of the Samsung Galaxy Alpha - its display. As Ive already mentioned, this is a 4.7-inch screen, which kind of bucks the trend for recent high-end Android devices. The HTC One M8, the Google Nexus 5, the Sony Xperia Z2, and yes, the Samsung Galaxy S5, have all busted through the 5-inch barrier.

Indeed, the Alpha feels like a blast from the past, going back to the time of the Nexus 4, the HTC One X, and the Samsung Galaxy S3. More pertinently, and as already discussed, this is the size adopted by Apple for its iPhone 6.

The result is that youll probably find the Galaxy Alpha either slightly smaller or slightly bigger than youre used to. My view? Like Goldilocks and the middle-sized bed, this one feels just right. It offers a clear view of HD video, games and most web pages without sacrificing portability or one-handed usability.

Perhaps even more contentious is the Samsung Galaxy Alphas display resolution. Its only ("only") 720p.

Complaints about this lower resolution are valid - particularly given the Galaxy Alphas premium price - but only up to a point. Yes, other Android phones have hit the considerably sharper 1080p resolution standard in recent times, but the vast majority of these have been larger 5-inch displays.

In fact, if were talking mainstream phones, only 2013s HTC One M7 really springs to mind as offering a 4.7-inch 1080p display.

In a sub-5-inch screen like this one, 720p feels perfectly adequate. Thats not to say that you definitely wont notice the difference in sharpness between the Galaxy Alpha and (for example) the Galaxy S5. But as it is, using the phone in isolation, the Alphas display is plenty sharp enough.

Indeed, with Samsungs expert - and still relatively unique - use of Super AMOLED technology, the Galaxy Alphas picture positively pops from the screen. Colours are rich and contrast levels are exemplary, while you wont be experiencing inky blacks of this kind on any LCD panel.

It still lends some icons and images a slightly false, gaudy appearance, but once youre attuned to it (or once youve tuned it to your liking) other displays can look a little drab by comparison.

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Samsung Galaxy Alpha key features

Many would argue that the Samsung Galaxy Alphas defining feature is its stunning looks, and that may well be the case. Indeed, even Samsung itself claims that the focus is on "smart aesthetics and a compact frame" here.

But dont let that fool you into thinking that the Alpha skimps on interesting features. Not all of them are entirely successful, but theyre here.

For one thing, the Finger Scanner from the Samsung Galaxy S5 has made its way into the Alpha. Think of it as Samsungs version of Apples Touch ID, only not as good.

Like Apples solution, you can use your finger or thumbprint to access your locked phone from sleep. You can also use it to input registered website passwords, once youve fed the initial details in.

This is all well and good, but the reason Touch ID works is that its simple to initiate - just press your finger onto the home key - and it works the vast majority of the time.

Samsungs solution requires you to steadily swipe your finger from the bottom of the screen over the lozenge-shaped home key in a very specific way. Once youve perfected the technique, it works more often than not, which isnt often enough. These factors combine to make it a bit of a pain to use, and after toying with it I switched it off pretty quickly.

Fitness features

Another of the special features to have made its way into the Galaxy Alpha is a heart rate monitor. Combined with the S Health app, it lets you monitor how your heart is doing over a period of time.

This too was present in the Samsung Galaxy S5, and once again it works in much the same way. Theres a little optical reader right where the camera flash is, on the back of the device. Enter the heart rate monitor section of the S Health app and hold your finger up against the reader, and youll soon have a seemingly accurate reading.

Of course, its a pretty specific function that only certain fitness fanatics will consistently use. For the rest, its a bit of a gimmick.

Still, S Health has other functions beyond reading your heart rate. In fact, its a one-stop shop for all things health and fitness related.

You can track your calorie intake, and start an exercise routine based on running, walking, cycling or hiking. This will employ the phones GPS and music-playing system to send you on your merry way, tracking the distance covered and calories burned along the way.

The feature youll most probably encounter the most in general use is the pedometer. Once set up, youll get a constant reading of the steps youve taken during the day on your lock screen, as well as updates on your progress towards a preset goal.

I was suspicious of how accurate this was given the high number of steps that it registered during a day of my inherently sedentary job. Besides, working towards a set number of steps seems a little arbitrary. But perhaps if youre semi-serious about getting fitter and dont plan to splash out on a dedicated fitness tracker, this may be of interest.

Even then, though, there are superior Android fitness applications out there on the Google Play Store, such as Adidas MiCoach and Runkeeper.

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4K video

Well discuss the Samsung Galaxy Alphas camera in general terms in the appropriate section, but I should mention here that its capable of recording 4K video.

Yes, this is another feature that can also be found on the Samsung Galaxy S5, but the Samsung Galaxy Alpha isnt competing with that. Its competing directly with the iPhone 6, and the iPhone 6 doesnt do 4K.

Of course, watching UHD video back on the phone itself doesnt reveal much. Youll only really see the benefit if you have a 4K TV or monitor, although the footage I shot and played back on my 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display (which has a 2,880 x 1,800 resolution) looked plenty smooth enough.
Again, this isnt really a feature that many people will need, and its highly questionable whether taking 4K video on a smartphone is worth the extra storage space overhead - particularly here on the Galaxy Alpha, which doesnt have expandable storage.

That latter point is a slightly odd one. Yes, the Samsung Galaxy Alpha has a moderately generous 32GB of internal storage as standard. But why is there no microSD slot?

The Alpha is supposed to be a direct iPhone 6 rival (Apples phones never come with expandable storage), but given that the Alphas rear panel is removable, why not include a microSD slot?

Was space really that limited?

Samsung Galaxy Alpha interface

Those hoping for a classy software overhaul from Samsung to match its hardware efforts are in for a disappointment. You get the same cluttered, dated-looking TouchWiz UI layered on top of Googles Android OS - this time Android 4.4.4 KitKat.

As always, I forced myself to live with the default Samsung UI throughout the review period, resisting the temptation to streamline the experience by downloading Google Now Launcher or Apex Launcher, as I would with my own Android phones.

Nowadays, doing so is no longer a sure fire way to get me riled up. Using a modern Samsung phone like the Galaxy Alpha with its default factory settings is pretty okay. Not great, but not bad.

That might sound like damning with faint praise, but it isnt meant to be. Samsung has undoubtedly made improvements in its software design over the past year or so, and this is the best and most intuitive Samsung UI yet.

The latest iteration gives you a main homescreen with a useful and surprisingly understated weather and time widget taking up the top third, with a Google Now box leaving space for four of your favourite app icons.

Along the bottom you can squeeze in your four main-use apps alongside an app tray shortcut.

Its not so dissimilar to stock Android, really. Slide left, however, and you dont get the Google Now screen as you do in the excellent Google Now Launcher (thats accessed by pressing and holding the Home key here). Rather, you get Samsungs My Magazine news story collator, which is a result of the companys team-up with Flipboard.

My Magazine looks quite nice, but its not particularly well executed. It feels sluggish, taking an age to load up a limited range of content. Youre much better served just booting up the Flipboard app itself and getting to precisely the content youre interested in.

Menus and settings

Elsewhere, Samsungs notification menus are gradually getting more functional, but seemingly not much more attractive. Theyre presented in a slightly uninspiring range of blue tones, but the circular function toggles are crisp enough.

Having said that, the latest settings menu is simply too spread out for its own good, with the large coloured circular markers too tough to distinguish from one another at a glance.

You can see what Samsung was attempting - to prevent that familiar information overload feeling you get with most modern smartphone settings menus. But this alternative approach makes it even trickier to find the function you want, because the odds are itll be several swipes away from where you are, and not necessarily in a logical location.

On the plus side, I like how Samsung has started dotting thoughtful shortcuts throughout its interface. Bring down the notification menu and youll find a dedicated S Finder button, which lets you carry out a system-wide search.

Type in a name, for example, and itll search your chosen messaging app (Hangouts or Messages), your contacts, your email app, any stored files containing that name (including images and videos), and even Chromes search history. It wont, however, search your Gmail app, which is a bit of a pain.

Anyway, S Finder is a nice thing to have to hand, as is a Quick Connect option for sharing content to local devices.

Another minor touch I appreciated along these same lines was when I switched on Flight mode when turning in for the night. When you wake the phone next, theres the option to turn Flight mode off, right there on the lock screen.

Its seemingly small touches like this that make a smartphone pleasant to use rather than gimmicky biometric readers or finicky gesture controls (which are still here, if you really want them). Samsung seems to be waking up to this fact, which can only be a good thing.

Samsung Galaxy Alpha performance and battery

Another reason the Samsung Galaxy Alpha is so pleasant to use, and probably why Im finding the TouchWiz UI so easy to live with, is that everything simply flies on it.

This is one speedy, responsive smartphone. Navigating through the Android menus is super smooth, with nary a glimmer of a stutter.

Besides Samsungs software optimisation, thats partly thanks to the speedy Exynos 5 Octa SoC thats running most versions of the phone. Samsungs own chip, which switches between four low-power processor cores for light tasks and four supercharged ones for heavier tasks, is quite the performer.

Whats more, with fewer pixels to push around than, say, the Samsung Galaxy S5, there are even more processor resources free at any one time. Thats born out with our usual GeekBench 3 benchmark test.

An average multi-core score of 3,132 pitches the Alphas performance level slightly ahead of the Galaxy S5, which managed 2,909 in our test.

There still arent enough top-performing compact phones like the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact for my liking. Heres another to add to add to that tiny pile.

Battery

For a phone that favours a slim, compact design above all else, battery life was always going to be a concern. Indeed, the Samsung Galaxy Alphas 1,860mAh battery seems a little slight by modern standards. Compare it to the Galaxy S5 and its 2,800mAh battery, and it looks alarmingly small - regardless of its less demanding display.

Sure enough, the Alpha only just lasted through a full day of moderate usage, and required a nightly charge. Introduce a little gaming and HD video watching, and the percentage plummeted.

Of course, that in itself is not unusual for a modern high-end smartphone. Our regular battery test, which involves running a 90 minute 720p video with the display cranked up to full brightness, left 84 percent left in the tank, which isnt bad by any means.

Thats the same level of performance as the Galaxy S5 and the iPhone 5S, and is well ahead of the HTC One M8.

This being a Samsung phone, you also get the benefits of Ultra power saving mode. This is way more extreme than your average power saving mode, switching the display to greyscale, providing a simplified homescreen, restricting app usage to the bare essentials, cutting mobile data when the screen turns off, and limiting connectivity.

Its so bare bones that it wouldnt even let me take a screen grab for this section.

The result, though, is that your usage time will increase dramatically. I sat and watched as the stated battery percentage ticked up by 10 percent, such is the modes miraculous restorative power. Its perfect for those emergency situations when youre low on juice and far way from a charger, though at this point its worth remembering that your £550 smartphone is essentially less useful than a 10-year-old feature phone.

Samsung Galaxy Alpha - The essentials

This is a Samsung phone, which means that its very strong at simply making and receiving calls. While I was concerned at the relatively low and erratic signal strength that often appeared in the notification bar on my test unit, that didnt seem to reflect on the call quality in those locations.

In fact, call quality was of a consistently high standard during my time with the phone - clear, crisp, and plenty loud enough.

Samsungs Contacts menu and related Phone app may not be the prettiest around, but theyre powerful and effective. Going to a contact brings up all of the ways in which youre connected, including any installed third party communication apps like WhatsApp.

You also get a little reminder of the last time you spoke to someone when you call them up, which is particularly handy for those business calls.

Messaging

In terms of messaging, you get the now typical choice between Samsungs own Messages app and Googles Hangouts app.

As with making calls, Samsungs messaging app is a little ugly but deeply functional. I particularly like the ability to add "priority senders" to the top row of the app, giving you quick access to those few contacts that you message all the time.

Meanwhile, using the volume buttons in the Samsung Messages app performs the rather unusual - but strangely appealing - function of increasing the size of the fonts, so you can quickly squeeze more messages in or make them easier to read.

Of course, Googles Hangouts has its own allure. Its much more stylish and pleasant to look at and use, and it smartly integrates SMS messages with data-based chats. It also automatically pushes your favourite contacts to the top of the pile.

That being said, its one of those apps where you feel Google is still trying to hit upon the ideal layout and design, which doesnt always make for a fluid, intuitive experience. The current ones pretty good, though, so heres hoping Google runs with it.

Keyboard

Samsungs keyboard isnt particularly great, though. Once again, its functional rather than attractive, but it simply lacks the effortless appeal of something like SwiftKey or even Googles own Keyboard.

Whats more, if youre a regular comma user like me, youll have to touch and hold on the full stop key to bring up a menu and select it from there. That gets old pretty quickly.

The predictive word suggestion system works pretty well, though, and there is a slide-to-type option - but it needs to be activated from the keyboard settings menu.

Both of the aforementioned alternatives are available on the Google Play Store - Googles for free - and both feature a comma key and integrated swipe-typing, as well as a more attractive design. Download one of those instead, unless you like to have dedicated numerical keys.

Browser

Just like the choice of messaging app, Samsung continues to offer two web browser apps here on the Galaxy Alpha. Its still a decidedly messy state of affairs that you have both Googles Chrome and Samsungs own internet app available here - particularly to those ignorant of the differences.

Of course, Chrome will be the favourite of most for its unbeatable ability to sync up with the popular Chrome desktop browser. Having said that, Samsungs own internet browser isnt bad by any means. In fact, it has a couple of features that Chrome doesnt.

I really like the little magnifying glass effect that appears when you hold and drag on text, making copying and pasting sections of text a doddle. Dare I say its markedly better than Chromes fiddly text-selection function? Yes, I think I would.

Samsungs browser also has a Safari-like Reader option that renders desktop-based web sites in nice, simple, mobile-friendly text-only form. These can then be saved for later offline reading. Its not the best implementation of this feature, but at least its there and it works.

Both browsers are fast, though, and both seem eager to get out of your way and offer a full-screen web browsing experience. I just dont think its an ideal state of affairs to have them both here at once.

Camera

It might seem as if Samsung has compromised with the Samsung Galaxy Alphas 12-megapixel camera. After all, the Samsung Galaxy S5 has a 16-megapixel example.

That may well be the case, but the Galaxy Alpha still turns out some truly excellent images. Just as importantly, its a joy to handle. Not only is it fast to focus and snap, but you dont have to work hard or fiddle with settings to get decent results either - just point and shoot.

Of course, when you do delve into the Alphas camera settings, youll find plenty to play with. Ever-present on the main camera interface is a toggle for an accomplished HDR mode, for those high-contrast or shady images. You also get a selective focus mode that accentuates a close-up (50cm or less) object by blurring out the background.

The mode even lets you switch between focusing on the foreground or background after the picture has been taken. In truth, you can get a decent enough depth of focus effect in general use without needing to switch to this artificial method, which takes a little too much framing and a considerable amount of time to process.

Thats more a testament to the Alphas fine camera than it is a criticism of a gimmicky mode, though.

Elsewhere you get the same extras as the Galaxy S5 and others in the Samsung range, including Beauty face (for smoothing off those wrinkles and spots) and a streamlined Shot & more mode. The latter is where you can apply various effects and post-processing options such as Best photo, Best face, erasing unwanted objects and merging multiple shots into an action photo.

As with elsewhere in its TouchWiz UI, Samsung has cleaned up and simplified its camera UI significantly to the point where its actually quite intuitive to use.

As noted above, you also get 4K video recording here, which provides footage with four times the pixel count of 1080p Full HD. The Galaxy Alpha handles this without batting an eyelid, although you lose the ability to do extra things like taking still snaps while youre recording, so Samsung has understandably stuck with the more flexible 1080p mode as the default.

Media

Samsung devices are always highly capable media players, and the Galaxy Alpha isnt going to be the first phone to let the side down.

While it still only has a single speaker (on the bottom of the handset), making for mono playback across all media, thats about the only thing thats lacking here. And besides, you should be using a decent set of headphones anyway.

Samsung bundles its own music player in here, as always, and its fine for those who simply want to drag and drop their existing MP3 collection the old fashioned way.

However, Googles Play Music - also bundled - is a much better choice for anything further. Not only does Google offer its own well-stocked MP3 store, but you can also sign up to a Spotify-like music subscription service and upload your existing tracks to the cloud.

Sound quality is just fine regardless of the service you choose. You also get a nice piece of full-screen album artwork for the lock screen music widget, alongside the expected control shortcuts.

You also get a smaller music widget in the notification menu. Speaking of which, whenever you plug in your headphones, youll be presented with a row of commonly associated app shortcuts within the drag-down menu. Its a nice touch.

Video playback is similarly accomplished. OK, so the Samsung Galaxy Alphas 720p display wont show off 1080p Full HD video in its full glory, but all of the HD footage we tested - through Google Play Movies & TV, YouTube, and the Netflix app - looked plenty sharp enough. Held next to a larger 1080p handset youll notice the difference in sharpness, but in isolation it looks great.

Thanks to that Super AMOLED technology, colours and blacks look particularly striking - theres a real sense of depth to movie content in particular.

Perhaps the strongest media-related area for the Samsung Galaxy Alpha is gaming. Almost everything we tried here positively flew, from complex 3D far like Dead Trigger 2 to vibrant 2D games like Badland (which feels like it was made to show off Super AMOLED technology).

This strong performance is doubtless thanks to that nippy Exynos 5 CPU and a 720p display that doesnt siphon too much of its power off for pushing extra pixels around. Anything that didnt fly during my time with the Alpha seemed to be down to a lack of optimisation on the game developers part - still not an uncommon state of affairs on Android, sadly.

Samsung Galaxy Alpha vs the competition

iPhone 6

The iPhone 6 is clearly the smartphone Samsung had in mind when it launched the Samsung Galaxy Alpha.

Its got the same-sized 4.7-inch display, a similarly slim metal-heavy design and a similar price point.

Samsung has the slight edge on size and weight, but the iPhone 6 retains Apples premium design edge with its all-metal construction. Wed also take Apples classy iOS 8 software over Samsungs slightly clunky TouchWiz UI any day.

After our full review of the iPhone, its definitely the superior phone in myriad ways, but this is Samsungs most focused attempt at taking on Apple directly in a single premium handset yet.

Sony Xperia Z3 Compact

The Sony Xperia Z3 Compact wasnt out at the time of writing this review. After Apples new handset, though, its clearly the most direct rival to the Galaxy Alpha.

Its got a similar 4.6-inch 720p display, and a similarly high-end Snapdragon 801 CPU powering it. In the Sony Xperia Z3 Compacts favour it has a tasty-looking 20.3-megapixel camera.

One thing the Xperia Z3 doesnt have is a classy metal design, but on the flip side its tough plastic shell means that its dust and water resistant. The Galaxy Alpha certainly isnt.

HTC One M7

You cant talk about premium metal Android phones without mentioning one of HTCs recent efforts.

While the HTC One M8 is the most recent and impressive effort, however, I feel that last years HTC One M7 - which is still being sold as new by HTC - is a more apt Galaxy Alpha competitor.

After all, it too has a premium metal design and a 4.7-inch display. In fact, the HTC One M7 arguably has the superior examples of both. Its body is ALL metal, and distinctive to boot (no raiding of the Apple design book here).

Meanwhile the One M7s display has a much higher 1080p resolution, not to mention a sub-£400 price tag for those prepared to shop around.

Of course, last years HTC flagship also has an older, less capable Snapdragon 600 CPU, which means its not as good a performer as the Alpha, nor is it as future-proof. Its 4-megapixel UltraPixel camera isnt as good an all-round snapper as the Alphas 12-megapixel unit, either.

Samsung Galaxy Alpha - Verdict