Samsung broke the mold when it announced the Galaxy Alpha last month, the first smartphone in the company's portfolio to ditch the familiar plastic chassis in favor of a metallic frame. Samsung said the phone would be offered in the US this month and today, they revealed pricing and availability.

AT&T will be the exclusive carrier for the Galaxy Alpha in the US. It'll be priced at $612.99 with no annual commitment or $199.99 with a two-year service agreement. Alternately, buyers can finance the smartphone through AT&T's Next program.

Customers that opt to use the Next program will pay zero down (only tax is due at the time of sale) and equal monthly installments that are added to their monthly wireless bill. For the Galaxy Alpha, expect to pay an additional $25.55 for 24 months with Next 18 or $30.65 for 20 months with Next 12.

The Galaxy Alpha is no doubt a premium handset in terms of aesthetics but it lacks many of the premium features and specifications found in Samsung's flagship smartphones. Instead, it's probably best classified as a high-end, mid-range offering.

It'll ship with a 4.7-inch display operating at 1,280 x 720. Under the hood is a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 SoC clocked at 2.5GHz, 2GB of RAM and up to 32GB of internal storage. There's also a 12-megapixel rear camera and a 2.1-megaixel front-facing shooter along for the ride. It'll be pre-loaded with Android 4.4.4 Kitkat out of the box.

Look for the Galaxy Alpha to launch this Friday, September 26, in black, white and gold color schemes online and at AT&T retail stores.