Review: Samsung's Galaxy Alpha becomes the brand's first metal

Samsung



It's about time.


For everything Samsung has done right in recent years, for all the strides the company's made in dominating the Android market challenging ever-powerful Apple, let's face it: Galaxy phones have always been made of plastic. The frames on those phones have looked good, sure, but they've never had the solidity of the unibody HTC OneM8, never had the smooth, slightly weighty metal feel of an iPhone.


But that's exactly what Samsung changes with the Galaxy Alpha. The quiet September release just before October's pending Galaxy Note storm is Samsung's first phone built with a metal body, a seeming direct answer to everyone who's criticized the ever-so-slight creaky feel of everything else from Samsung.


It's Samsung's latest attempt at something outside its norm, less about competing with Apple and more about satisfying a select few fans. While other companies stick to a few mainstream products a year, Samsung has spent the past few years happily churning out experiments, serving the fitness communities (the S4 Active), camera enthusiasts (S4 Zoom), and strange people who want absolutely mammoth phones (remember the Galaxy Mega?) since last year.


Here, it's providing something with style, and it gets the job done. While not a perfect phone by any means (especially not by Samsung's sky-high standards), it should satisfy anyone who desperately wants - or needs - a tougher frame. There are tradeoffs for sure, but none that you wouldn't experience with any other metal-framed phone.


The core product is, by and large, everything you've come to expect from Samsung. Available for $200 on-contract through AT&T, the Alpha is driven by Android KitKat, so you get Samsung's latest operating system, a fluid, steady Android performance.


A 2.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor powers the experience, and it's fast enough to keep everything snappy. The phone never chugged along when I was using it, even in some serious Riptide gaming sessions; if you're using this phone for basic tasks, such as web browsing and emailing, you'll barely present a challenge.


Not that you're buying the Alpha for its performance. The phone is plenty capable, but you're here for that frame, and that frame is plenty impressive. The overall design of this smartphone is strictly Samsung, with volume rockers and power button and headphone jack all exactly where you'd expect them.


But there's that slightly cold steel feel to the outside edges of the Alpha, thanks to that metal frame. This is a phone that feels far more sturdy and premium than the Galaxy S5, and, in its gold iteration, the golden hue is quite eye-catching. The removable back of the phone remains plastic, but even that has less give to it than an S5's back, and you'll see fewer gaps along the back. The golden hue continues onto the rubberized back, and at a glance, the phone almost looks like a unibody device even though it is not.


Overall, it's an elegant look. It's not nearly as dazzling as anything from HTC or Apple, but the Alpha looks good, standing out from among the Samsung pack with its sculpted, sanded edges. A solid 12-megapixel camera completes the package, and while it's not as powerful as the 16-megapixel camera equipped on the Galaxy S5, it still takes effective shots. Fact of the matter is, most smartphone cameras these days do take solid shots, and it's taking more and more to truly make your camera stand out.


It's a shame, then, that this phone steps down in several respects, when compared to the S5. There is no microSD card slot, so you'll lack the ability to expand your memory with this phone, and there are no infrared capabilities, so you won't be changing TV channels with this phone.


The phone also loses its waterproof qualities. To anyone converting over from, say, Apple or HTC or Nokia, this is hardly a big deal, but if you're a Samsung fan simply looking for a more premium look, you're losing the freedom and confidence that puddles - or even a dunk in your sink - will never be an issue.


The biggest disappointment, however, is the screen.


Oh, it still looks good, and colors still pop and it's still impressively bright. But unlike the S5, this is not a full-HD panel; it's 1,280x720. The Alpha's slightly smaller size - it's a 4.7-inch screen - makes that passable, and things don't look bad by any means, but neither photos nor text truly pops on this phone. It's an adequate efficient display, and one that sucks less power from the slightly smaller battery in the Alpha. But it's not a screen that will blow you away.


The end result is a solid offering from Samsung, even if it's not some amazing leap forward. Then again, this phone isn't meant to be a leap forward; like the S4 Zoom and S4 Active before it, it's meant to appeal to and capture a smaller audience that was looking for something different.


And in this regard, you must give Samsung credit. They continue to give people choices, creating a bevy of products so that everyone can find something that strikes their fancy. In some ways, it's a risky strategy, since not everything - maybe not even the Alpha - will pan out.


But it's admirable. And in the case of the Alpha, for a select few who want a more premium feel from a Samsung device, it's about time.


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