Samsung Galaxy Alpha – a welcome (in the words of the most high-profile Internet grumblers) firstborn company with metal housing. Concurrently, he is also the thinnest smartphone Samsung and one of the thinnest on the market at the time. Although the technical characteristics of the model can not be called the most advanced and cost it firmly among the top three (the most expensive smartphones Samsung). What else, besides his model looks interesting Galaxy Alpha, you will learn from this review.
What is it
The next flagship smartphone Samsung in 2014. Remarkable for its ultra-compact size (thickness of only 6.7 mm) and the presence of metal chassis components – fringing at the edges and the volume keys and lock screen. The device has a diagonal of 4.7 inches, that is a compromise between their flagship smartphone and mini-versions (similar to iPhone 6, leaks about the size of which were known before the announcement of the Galaxy Alpha). Thus its size it should satisfy fans and “blade”, and admirers modest diagonals.
What it is interesting
Samsung Galaxy Alpha – one of the most productive smartphone Samsung, and one of the most “fast” models on the market. This was achieved thanks to the display with HD-resolution (ie less than in FullHD Galaxy S5 and QHD in Galaxy Note 4), 2 GB of RAM and productive eight-processor (architecture big.LITTLE) processor Exynos 5 Octa 5430. The smartphone has a low battery by modern standards, capacity (1860 mAh), but this disadvantage is partially offset by the processor feature – it is powered by a 20-nm process technology, which means better energy efficiency compared to other modern mobile processors. Valuable qualities Samsung Galaxy Alpha, besides housing, high performance and Android 4.4.4 from the “box” is a strong camera and the ability to quickly charge.
What good body
Often describing his new items manufacturers strongly overpraise their main advantages. In the case of the Galaxy Alpha to praise the cabinet is virtually impossible. It is compact iPhone 6 (which is also the screen 4.7 inches), HTC One Mini 2 (screen 4.5 inches), thinner Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini, much less than the Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S5 and only comparable to the Huawei Ascend P6. Unlike Galaxy S5 and small versions, the protection from dust, moisture, this model no.
Even the metal casing is made so as to enhance the potential weaknesses, but does not take up unnecessary space. Note the bending and thickening in the microUSB-socket.
The speaker is lonely, yes loud and quality. And it does not close his hand.
The back of the body remaining plastic cover is flush with the frame.
The very plastic deserves a lot of compliments. Firstly, to him fantastically nice touch. Secondly, it is practical – not scratched and does not collect fingerprints, non-slip. Thirdly, it has an interesting pattern on the back side as …
… and on the front. Yes, this little crosses. Why crosses – is unclear, but still much better than “band-aid” Galaxy S5 and fun “skin” Galaxy Note 3.
For the sake of audio jacks metal edging also had to slightly expand and camera lens sticks out and does (but on a horizontal surface at a slight angle it should not scratch).
Housing cover, though subtle, but no flex under your fingers.
The battery is tiny, thinner than Galaxy S5 Mini. SIM-card format supported nano, a memory card slot, and not at all.
A features – rougher than the flagship Samsung first half of 2014. Compare this with the next Galaxy K Zoom.
What’s on the front panel – front camera, light sensor and proximity, the navigation unit is not changed.
In terms of design and quality of housing Galaxy Alpha – Best on Android, that comes out of the pen of Samsung. And in general, one of the nicest smartphones this year on the market. But while people who generally do not like the design of this manufacturer of smartphones, this model does not seem pretty. Because all the “rethinking of design” in Galaxy Alpha remained within traditsiotsionnogo brand book for Android-devices Samsung.
How to screen him?
The smartphone is equipped with 4.7-inch screen Super AMOLED with all the consequences – flashy colors, deep blacks. The pixel density is 312 dpi. C the one hand this is sufficient to ensure that the pixels are not visible to the eye. On the other – less than the time flagships screen resolution best way affects the performance of the device.
Screen Galaxy Alpha has excellent oleophobic coating, which can be determined not only the study of the characteristics of plaques, but the naked eye. Display brightness is more than enough to work with your smartphone on a sunny day. Auto adjust backlight works like a clock. In the display settings, you can enable increased sensitivity to support the work with gloves as well – choose one of the color modes. By default, the adaptive (it must adapt to the color of the environment).
For those who want to know more
Our research colorimeter showed that the brightness of the white box in Model Samsung Galaxy Alpha is 352.5 cd / m 2 . Black – 0 (as in all AMOLED). Display infinitely contrast. Used in the Galaxy Alpha matrix demonstrates gamut Adobe RGB, which pulls on the excess, as for comfortable perception of the screen of the mobile device enough sRGB, it’s not a monitor for graphics work. Color temperature and ΔE value is far from ideal, as it usually happens in mobile devices, the blue color dominates over the others, due to what the image looks cooler than it is. In general – the screen calibration is the same as in most flagship smartphones on the market.
How often have to charge?
As often as Galaxy S5. If you use a smartphone intensively (and thus afford to 8 hours of sleep), read a lot of books with him, and the news, use the GPS, to connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi or 2G, is about three times in two days. With an average load – every day. For a smartphone with a large and bright display and also funny battery capacity is a good result. But by the standards of the smartphone for the 9 th. USD – funny. All because a beautiful slim body large battery would not climbed.
In addition to the question of how often it is necessary to charge the smartphone, and the important question is how quickly it happens. Even when using the charger of unknown origin smartphone very smartly makes its energy supplies – a full cycle takes just over an hour. In the Galaxy Note 3 and in the tablet Samsung Galaxy Note PRO 12.2 for faster charging unused connector microUSB 3.0, which never caught on. Here the usual microUSB.
What he performance?
The speed and smoothness of the interface Galaxy Alpha bypasses their tribesmen. Smartphone cope with any challenge that may arise in modern Android-based device, and will satisfy any mobile gamer. Although if you do not compare the raw numbers of benchmarks, and the living experience of the smooth interface, the Cubs lineup of Sony Xperia Z3 still nimble turning over.
For those who want to know more
Galaxy Alpha is equipped with eight cores proprietary Samsung – Exynos 5 Octa 5430 (architecture big.LITTLE, four core 1.8 GHz Cortex-A15 for “heavy” tasks and four core 1.3 GHz Cortex-A7 for tasks that do not require high performance) Its performance is comparable to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801, that is one of the best at the time of the model. And given that the screen of the smartphone has only HD-resolution and all excess. The amount of RAM – 2 GB, which is, in principle, also missing from his head even to this voracious monster as TouchWiz. Tellingly, even intense heat (in the model are heated mainly metal ends, although the device is thin enough that there were fears that under load it will burn your fingers), Galaxy Alpha does not fall in prostration.
What is interesting interface?
We have written about the interface Samsung top smartphone on Android 4.4. I do not want to repeat. The more that the difference between the TouchWiz for Android 4.4.2 and 4.4.4 is only in the layout settings menu. There is no fancy dropdown lists with cloud icons – all settings are like sardines in a bank in the same list. The advantage of Android (and in my opinion, a valuable advantage over Windows Phone) is that all options are initially grouped logically to an untrained user is not lost. Here and there – not grouped grouped, is still not lost. As for the rest – it’s our old friend TouchWiz, bright and colorful, tricky as spaceship. Someone loves him in the stands, someone hates for the abundance of options, but with him, as with the design of smart phones Samsung. If he initially did not like, no metal thin handsome Galaxy Alpha, made by the same canons, does not seem attractive. If you have been to the liking of the prerequisites, the minor cosmetic changes just do not repel.
For those who want to know more
Our full-length project with Samsung Galaxy S5. Here you can get detailed information about the possibilities of the interface.
How good is the camera?
Samsung and LG, equip their smartphones better camera segment. Regardless of the number of megapixels (for example, in the chamber of their Galaxy Alpha 12 and not 16 as in the cells of other flagships of the company). In addition to permission from the flagship for the worse camera Alpha differs shooting speed – 0.3 seconds here and does not smell. The picture is taken quickly, the camera quickly focuses, but not as much as it is able Galaxy S5 and HTC One (M8). Interface from model to model in the last couple of years is not changed. He is comfortable enough in itself, especially for the “Dummies” contains a number of ready mode (panorama, dual camera, a “virtual tour”, “beautiful face”), true HDR mode slid in a setting that is unusual. On the Quick settings moved to shooting mode with selective focus (the same function lets you change the focus to the ready-made images). Samsung moved away from an abundance of preset modes and the most frikovskie sent in your application store – and the user is not confused by his appearance, and give another reason to have some curiosity photographers Account Samsung Apps, if they have not already. The camera interface is as follows.
Advantages of the camera Samsung Galaxy Alpha especially appreciate the fans take pictures indoors or in the dark, as well as fans of every kind of macro. Night shots are less noisy than could be performed even good camera smartphone, evening – almost no soap in the room colors come not as hopeless yellow when shooting objects near the camera focuses quickly and correctly. Well, of course in normal conditions it is also gorgeous. Examples photo in original resolution can be seen in a special gallery of Torbay.
A rivals who?
Thoughts on what devices are competitors of this model, brought me to a standstill. According to the characteristics – a Huawei Ascend P7, Alcatel One Touch Idol Alpha. But both can not boast the same camera, or competitive performance, nor close interface capabilities, no catchy name of the manufacturer. If you look in the direction of the flagships in the case of noble materials, the eye stumbles on HTC One (M8) or Sony Xperia Z2. But they are the same price and offer the user a high-end features (pardon ultrapikseli HTC One (M8), to you this is not true), and a more attractive autonomy. It turns out, Galaxy Alpha was alone with themselves and with their own members. C Galaxy S5 in the ground and a little – with Galaxy S5 Mini. With the first model in a comparable price tag. If the top-end device, the manufacturer offers to pay for redundant features, the Galaxy Alpha – for dimensions and materials. Someone thinks a rational price equalization unfair, but it seems that in the coming months (if not years) in the segment of mobile devices, which reached a ceiling of characteristics only and remain that sell beauty and style. Many announcements IFA 2014 revolves around this. Aesthetes will be plenty of space for debate on the Internet about the tastes.
The bottom line
Samsung Galaxy Alpha – a smartphone for those who are willing to pay for aesthetics and not for excess capacity. However, compared to the current flagship of Samsung noticeably (well, not really, even imperceptibly) was cut only slightly and the display resolution – its diagonal. All the rest – I’m talking about performance and price – from such a move will only benefit (and let me not sulk in the corner fans smartphones IP67 – you are still a minority). Against the background of the arms race, and partly because of course, the thought of having to lay out for the “beautiful” model of the same money as for “smart”, a little embarrassed. But given the fact that in terms of technology to producers there is nothing to spoil us, and the Alpha ultrakompatny body with full specifications drawn to exploit the engineers, the price of this model is not strongly poburchish. As on the battery – the other would not got here, and thanks to the energy efficient CPU behaves better than one would expect. If you are not from those who are willing to pay extra for a piece of metal or a smartphone for you autonomy above all, you will certainly not here. If you have small fingers and a big draw to the Q of things (well, and Samsung smartphones you consider attractive), then think, perhaps, Galaxy Alpha – this is for you.
4 reasons to buy Samsung Galaxy Alpha:
- and that’s all you’re waiting for a Samsung smartphone with metal ends;
- top-end performance;
- terrific compact and enviable ratio of usable space (ie the screen) to the size of the body;
- Screen supports work gloves.
2 reasons not to buy the Samsung Galaxy Alpha:
- high price;
- Low autonomy.
| Specifications Samsung Galaxy Alpha | |
|---|---|
| Operating System | Android 4.4. 4 |
| Sim-card | nanoSIM, one |
| Display | Super AMOLED, 4,7 inch, HD (312 ppi), support for work gloves |
| Case | Sizes 132x66x6,7 mm, weight 115 g |
| Processor | Exynos 5 Octa 5430, 4 core Cortex-A15 (1,8 GHz), 4 core Cortex-A7 (1,3 GHz), graphics Mali-T628 MP6 |
| RAM | 2 GB |
| Flash Memory | 32 GB |
| Camera | 12 MP, autofocus, video recording 1080p, flash, HDR-mode, the front camera of 2.1 MP |
| Wireless | Wi-Fi a / ac / b / g, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC |
| GPS | Yes |
| Battery | 1860 mAh |
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