Gadgetory

on a tabletop it may look like just another Samsung but pick it up turn it over in your hand and suddenly you understand that it's beginning of the alphabet name implies a fresh start the Galaxy alpha may not be a total rethinking of the company's design direction but it's fit and finish alone make it the flagship we wish the galaxy s5 had been I'm Michael Fisher with PocketNow and this is our video review of the Samsung Galaxy alpha this review device comes to us courtesy of the folks at 28 Mobile a global retailer specializing in unlocked smartphones if you want a Galaxy alpha of your very own do what we did visit 28 mobile comm and tell them PocketNow sent you holding the Galaxy alpha is key to understanding it only then does the cool aluminum side rail register its sharp chamfered edge and subtle antenna inlays recalling Apple's iPhone 5 in all the good ways at just over six and a half millimeters thick it doesn't take much weight for this little device to seem substantial so it's hundred and fifteen grams filled just right in the hand the back cover is broken up by a divot pattern that's more understated here than on other devices the pits are much smaller than on the s5 and here there are tiny crosses instead of golf ball dimples done up in a soft touch paint job whose gummy finish helps the phone stick to the fingers and though it looks seamless stick a fingernail into that tiny groove alongside the camera and the cover pops right off proving that beautiful design and removable batteries aren't always mutually exclusive under the cover you'll find a few of the sacrifices Samsung is made to get the Alpha to its pocket-friendly dimensions yes the battery is removable but its capacity is puny compared to most modern flagships also while Samsung was still able to make room for a heart rate sensor it opted not to include microSD expansion the on-board 32 gigs is all you get on the plus side the older micro SIM slot has been upgraded to the more modern nano SIM standard and the speakerphone has been relocated to the phone's bottom edge with the galaxy alpha Samsung joins the likes of Sony and blackberry in offering top-tier specs on a midsize phone depending on region it ships with either Samsung's Exynos 5 octa or Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 we have the Exynos here both offer two gigs of ram and all the radios you'd expect for their given region sadly for couch potatoes there's no IR port for remote control but samsung's fingerprint scanner remains built-in to the home button even though it works better here than it did on the s5 we're still not the biggest fans of its swipe-based operation the office most polarizing compromise is probably its display at 4.7 inches with very narrow bezels it's perfectly sized for the phone's smaller chassis and its Super AMOLED technology affords all the Raven blacks and brilliant colors we've come to expect the reason it might lose points in some eyes is it's 720p resolution which is lower than most other flagships but just as we said of last year's Moto X there's no real point in packing more pixels into a 4.7 inch footprint this is a high enough pixel density for most folks and a higher resolution would only serve to degrade the alphas already impaired endurance more on this in a second the Galaxy alpha ships with Android 4.4.4 painted over with a thick coat of Samsung's third-party interface we've given the company's software plenty of coverage in previous reviews so for a full length look at Samsung's UI will direct you to our various galaxy s5 reviews from back in the spring now what differences do exist on the Alpha are driven primarily by that screen size the quirks are more tolerable just by virtue of being able to dart around with a thumb more quickly on this smaller screen the innumerable toggles and the notification shade are more accessible and multi-window remains one of our favorite parts of the Samsung experience other upsides run the gamut from major to tiny the settings menu for example is just as confusing as ever but being able to search for exactly what you're hunting for is a really nice convenience speed demons will still probably want to run a custom ROM or at least another launcher on the Alpha a significant part of this experience is spent weight for the multitasking ribbon to appear for apps to restore from standby for the clunky my magazine app to load every time you accidentally swipe into it we've even found ourselves waiting for the keyboard a few times despite the fact that we replaced Samsung's with Google's almost immediately some of these issues might be due to the Exynos processor on our review device its benchmark dominance notwithstanding we've often found Samsung's silicon inferior to Qualcomm zon a day to day level and sometimes when you're not waiting you're wincing at the continuous pop-up prompts at the lackluster out-of-box keyboard at the nature UX sound effects that stopped making sense a generation ago we'll look forward to Samsung's continued modernisation of its UI as it stands now on the Alpha it's mostly an impediment to an otherwise powerful smartphone the alphas camera is a 12 megapixel sensor with an LED flash phase detection autofocus and the feature-packed Samsung viewfinder that we've come to know and tolerate where the camera shines is in HDR mode which is so good at bringing out highlights in darkened areas that we've taken to leaving it on more often than not daylight photos showcase Samsung's preference for vibrant color and high contrast though as we demonstrated in a recent comparison the Alpha is less blatant about this than the galaxy s5 focus isn't always as fast as we'd like so some shots inevitably come out blurry and that only gets worse in low-light when the software stabilization kicks in to salvage every last Photon just like its predecessors the Alpha performs only adequately in near darkness it really prefers those brightly lit colourful scenes where samsung's affinity for high contrast and saturation can shine if you're a fan of selfies don't expect any miracles from the 2.1 megapixel front-facing camera even in great lighting its colors appear washed out plenty of digital noise very little dynamic range it's a selfie camera camcorder mode sticks to the same basic truths as before the persistent video trigger is great and we like how Samsung shows you how much storage you're eating up on a per second basis while you're shooting in well-lit scenes color is reproduced beautifully in 1080p the camera offers 4k mode as well if you're fancy but we wouldn't recommend shooting too much of that footage on a 32 gig phone the frame gets pretty shaky if you go without video stabilization there's plenty of noise and dimmer scenes but this is a fine video camera for most occasions otherwise the Galaxy alpha was never intended to cater to the performance buff but we've found it more than capable of handling our favorite smartphone stressing games on day 6 of our week-long review period we binge played asphalt 8 modern combat 5 and sky gamblers air supremacy until the battery was dead and the Galaxy alpha didn't skip a beat unfortunately it didn't take too long for the battery to go dead the 7 watt hour pack just isn't up to the task of lasting a full day of truly heavy use on one of those heavy days we blasted through three-quarters of one battery after only about 5 hours off the charger endurance improved marginally once we turned off Android wear but we never managed to get to 4 hours of screen on time our minimum threshold of acceptability thankfully the Galaxy alpha is a fast charger about an hour and 40 minutes from empty to full what's more our SK Telecom review unit came with a spare battery and a spare charger in the box something that we wish AT&T mirrored with its unit sadly it doesn't so if you're not averse to carrying a battery in your wallet or staying within range of a wall plug the Alpha could be the phone for you road warriors need not apply talking on the alpha isn't the most comfortable experience ever thanks to that beveled aluminum trim above the earpiece but it offers fine voice quality on AT&T in Greater Boston the speaker phones new position on the bottom edge of the phone is a little tough for gaming because it's easier to accidentally block the port with your finger and we wish it could be a little less tinny we'll forgive all that though because we're grateful it's no longer sequestered on the back cover like on every other Samsung phone the Galaxy alpha is available now for pre-order at AT&T for about the same price as the Galaxy s5 is it worth spending that kind of money given the sacrifices you'll be making and capability well as we said in our alpha versus s5 comparison if you're cosmetically inclined yes if not then not so much even if you're taken with its physical presence keep in mind that we're very likely looking at the future of Samsung design in the Alpha for now though the Galaxy alpha is the first really beautiful Samsung smartphone we wish the Galaxy s5 was more like it and we wish it hadn't taken Samsung so long to release it but it's here now and if you're someone who appreciates form at least as much as function the Galaxy alpha is worth serious consideration once again our review unit comes to us from 28 mobile where you can snag an unlock to galaxy alpha right now just visit 28 mobile comm and tell them PocketNow gave you the tip be sure to check out our written galaxy alpha review available at pocket now on October 3rd and linked in the description below and subscribe here on YouTube if you enjoyed this video till next time this has been michael fisher captain two phones on twitter wishing you a very glam autumn season thanks for watching we'll see you next time