Gadgetory

if you've been following samsung smartphones for the past couple years odds are this is what you expect to see generally inoffensive plastic handheld with a huge screen trimmed with fake metal and imitation leather what you don't expect necessarily is this a smaller thinner squared-off smartphone with real metal sides and a real sense of style i'm michael fisher with pocket now and this is Samsung Galaxy s5 vs samsung galaxy alpha our Galaxy alpha review device comes to us from the folks at 28 mobile if you find yourself watching this comparison or our forthcoming review and suddenly salivating for a Galaxy alpha of your own head on over to 28 mobile comm and tell them PocketNow sent you like we touched on in the intro the hardware here is significantly different on the inside and out now as longtime viewers might know I'm usually a form over function guy so I was instantly enamored with the galaxy alpha when I took it out of the box in the hand it's unlike any Samsung phone that's come before with the aluminum band giving it a rock-solid rigidity that the rounded galaxy s5 lacks the Alpha is also easier to grip thanks to its almost gummy backplate which features a more reserved stipple pattern than its larger sibling does it's also smaller in almost every dimension which is a refreshing change of pace the sharp beveled edges make it a little less comfortable to hold and talk on but to me the aesthetic improvements more than make up for that the galaxy s5 just doesn't say anything with its design while the Alpha really stands out on a tabletop the Galaxy s5s advantages emerge when you look at its raw capability the screen isn't just bigger it's higher resolution to making its pentile sub pixel arrangement less apparent around back the battery is much larger on the s5 and the rubber gasket on the battery door reminds us that the higher-end phone is also water-resistant not so on the Alpha from little stuff like the IR port and USB 3.0 to bigger pluses like the microSD card the s5 has the Alpha solidly beat it is the flagship after all and it shows that's true in the software to an extent though this particular video is throwing two different processors against one another Samsung's Exynos 5 octa in the Alpha versus the Snapdragon 801 in the s5 now both of these phones actually ship in both configurations depending on market so aside from reminding me that I prefer the snappier Snapdragon for day-to-day responsiveness this portion of the comparison isn't worth much elsewhere in the software the Alpha sticks close to the s5 despite the smaller display which makes typing a bit more cramped on the Alpha you've still got the option to do two screen multitasking with multi window my favourite advantage of Samsung's otherwise heavy interface and features like the photo editing studio showcase the company's efforts to get a little more user-friendly which can be seen on each phone in short if you're used to Samsung software there are no surprises on either of these the 12 megapixel camera on the Galaxy alpha is a small step down in resolution from the 16 megapixel shooter on the galaxy s5 but output is remarkably similar at first glance and after some resizing you might even think these cameras were identical look a little closer you start to see the higher saturation from the galaxy s5 which produces some of the most vibrant colors of any smartphone camera we've ever tested whether you prefer to the s5s supercharged colors or the alphas more muted output is up to you but the s5 does enjoy the higher resolution and it also seems to produce sharper shots on the whole when the color overload isn't washing out the fine details that is video shows more the same outdoors you can see the s5s tendency to produce cooler richer colors while in dimmer indoor settings the level of digital noise and the rolling shutter distortion is about equal the s5s wandering focus is annoying and thankfully the Alpha doesn't seem to suffer quite as badly from that particular melody if the Galaxy alpha has one big disadvantage relative to the s5 its battery life while I was able to get about 5 hours of screen on time per day from the galaxy s5 I can barely manage half that with the Galaxy alpha that should come as little surprise given the huge capacity disparity here fortunately this version of the Alpha for SK Telecom came with two batteries as many South Korean phones do but you won't get the same treatment here in the States on AT&T so you might have to rely on ultra power saving mode to get your home at night if you're buying based on battery life the s5 is definitely the way to go here but if you're more concerned about speakerphone quality admittedly it's not everyone's first thought but if you take a lot of hands-free calls or you play a lot of games without headphones the bottom firing driver on the Alpha is much more logically placed than the rear mounted speaker on the s5 it's slightly tinnier but about as loud finally there's phone calling as we said above the s5 is the more comfortable device to talk on thanks to its softer plastic edges but the alphas smaller more pocketable footprint makes it feel well more like a phone call quality seemed about equal in our testing meaning decidedly average but keep in mind our alpha is a non-us review device your experience on an AT&T version may differ take all those distinctions toss them in a blender and the upshot is this this is a choice between functionality and cosmetics the Galaxy s5 is the more fully featured the more rough-and-tumble the longer-lasting it's the phone you get if you don't want to worry about a case the galaxy alpha is the more portable and by far I think the better-looking with its superior fit and finish that we've seen echoed already on the new Galaxy Note 4 the Alpha also feels much more like the future of Samsung design so get the galaxy s5 if you want to be able to do more but get the Galaxy alpha along with the spare battery if you want to look a lot better doing it once again our review unit comes to us from 28 mobile comm pay them a visit if you want a Galaxy alpha of your own the link is down in the description and please tell them PocketNow sent you stay tuned for our full review of the galaxy alpha at pocketnow.com and check out our galaxy s5 coverage here on the tube if you haven't already till next time this has been michael fisher captain two phones on twitter reminding you that not all small phones are inferior ones thanks for watching we'll see you next time you