Samsung Galaxy Alpha review: Galaxy reboot

Utilitarian Samsung has finally put on their premium hat to produce a device with more refined looks and manageable size to match the upcoming iPhone 6. An Android super mini and an iPhone 6 competitor, the Alpha puts aluminum back in Samsung's design mix and is optimized for portability rather than massive screen size.


The Galaxy Alpha we are reviewing is based on the company's latest Exynos chipset, tailored to its needs, rather than using the ubiquitous Snapdragon. There's been talk of a Snapdragon-powered version but so far the details are vague.
The screen size hits right where the new iPhone and the Xperia Z1 Compact successor are supposedly aiming at - a more manageable 4.7-inch diagonal.
The Alpha comes with a unique camera with a 12MP 16:9 sensor and 2160p video capture.
Many things about the Galaxy Alpha make us wish it starts a new trend in Samsung design but the practical, mass-market genes of the company are still plainly visible in the Alpha's design.

Key features

• Metal frame, 6.7mm slim, 115g of weight
• LTE connectivity (Cat. 6, 300Mbps downlink)
• 4.7" 1280 x 720 Super AMOLED display with 312 ppi pixel density
• Android OS v4.4 KitKat with TouchWiz UI
• Octa-core processor (1.3 GHz Cortex-A7 + 1.8GHz Cortex-A15), Exynos 5 Octa 5430 chipset, Mali-T628MP6 GPU, 2GB of RAM
• Optional quad-core processor (2.5GHz Krait 400), Snapdragon 801 chipset, Adreno 330 GPU, 2GB of RAM for a yet to be confirmed regional version
• Cortex-A5 based Seiren audio co-processor (Exynos model only)
• 12MP camera with LED flash, 2.1MP front-facing camera, 2160p video recording
• 32GB of built-in storage
• Fingerprint scanner with PayPal payments support and private mode access
• Heart-rate monitor
• Motion and gesture control, Air view
• 1,860mAh battery