The Galaxy Alpha accompanies the Galaxy S5 at the top of Samsung’s line-up. The 4.7-inch device is a smaller alternative to their popular flagship, designed for people who place form at the top of their priority list. It’s also an experiment with metal, to see just how well it fits into the rest of a typical Samsung design.
The choice to focus on design has left the Alpha with slightly downgraded specs compared to the S5. You do get a powerful Snapdragon 801 or Exynos 5 Octa SoC with 2 GB of RAM, but the 12-megapixel camera, 720p display resolution and 1,860 mAh (7.17 Wh) battery are all weaker on paper than its bigger brother. Is the hardware trade-off worth it to gain the part-metal design?
While it’s not the first time I’ve used a metal-clad handset from Samsung, the Alpha’s design is a massive step up from similar smartphones Samsung has released over the past three years. Premium materials deserve to be integrated into a device that costs more than $600, and that’s exactly what Samsung has finally realized: cheap plastic just doesn’t cut it anymore.
