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Samsung Galaxy Alpha

M

mi7chy

2[H]4U
Joined
May 22, 2013
Messages
3,985
That's one nice looking phone and only 6.7mm! I like how the sides are contoured to prevent slippage. Apple should hire them to design the iPhone 7.

http://youtu.be/u8OZoyHvX78

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_alpha-review-1114.php
gsmarena_004.jpg


Back cover pattern is nicer than dimples and it's soft rubber (yes!):
samsung-galaxy-alpha-2.jpg


Only one looks like a Rolls Royce:
samsung-galaxy-alpha-hands-on-1-710x472.jpg


Review in Russian (use Google Translate):
http://hi-tech.**************/review/Samsung_GALAXY_Alpha-rev.html

Want to know:
- What kind of metal it's made out of and hope it's not cheap recycled aluminum
- Epic Citadel and Anomaly 2 benchmark results
- Battery life
- Capable of 4K video output
- 2x2 802.11ac or better
 
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720p screen...no thanks I've had one of those for the last 2 years already.
 
it makes sense from battery life standpoint and Exynos 5430 is 20nm so should be pretty efficient right?

p.s woah 5430 actually does have flagship performance
 
Kind of an odd observation to make about the design, given that it's basically a smaller, detuned Galaxy S5 with metal bezels that borrow heavily from the iPhone 5/5s. I'm intrigued by the Alpha, but let's not pretend it's a trendsetter here.
 
One of my daily carries is a 720p Note II 5.5" and it's just at the threshold of having the right resolution to screen size so at 4.7" it's fine. The positive trade offs are potentially better performance and longer battery life. Same way I feel about QHD being a waste for 5 to 6" and would prefer 1080p for better performance and battery life (LG G3 is a good example of an imbalanced product).
 
In my opinion it is just tiny bit too wide and tall, 4,5" screen would have been sweet spot. 32GB is not really enough for me without microsd slot. They made it too thin and thus the battery is pathetically small.

I'm looking forward to Lumia 830 and Z3 Compact.
 
Display that large will suck battery dry quite quickly. I have massive doubts about the battery life especially when compared to upcoming Z3 Compact (Z1 Compact has excellent battery life).
 
Not sure why Samsung would push out a phone with 2 year old specifications. Who is it competing with?
 
PeeWeePee said:
looks like pretty standard spec to me except for resolution
Click to expand...

It's not like phones run native 1080p or 1440p anyway (maybe some do? Not sure), samsung galaxy s4 for example scales from 360x640. Lumia 925 scales from 383x638. (only phones i had around to check).


The 720p of the alpha pixeldoubled with some edge smoothing would be the same exact resolution as the s4, actually (360x640). No more real estate on the screen, just different upscaling.
I suspect pixel doubling 360x640 to 720p might very well look exactly as good as tripling it to 1080p, since these resolutions are both so extreme for the size.

Edit: Looked it up, and all modern phones seem to scale from roughly the same resolutions ~360x640. Slightly higher for phablets.
 
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Morkai said:
It's not like phones run native 1080p or 1440p anyway (maybe some do? Not sure), samsung galaxy s4 for example scales from 360x640. Lumia 925 scales from 383x638. (only phones i had around to check).


The 720p of the alpha pixeldoubled with some edge smoothing would be the same exact resolution as the s4, actually (360x640). No more real estate on the screen, just different upscaling.
I suspect pixel doubling 360x640 to 720p might very well look exactly as good as tripling it to 1080p, since these resolutions are both so extreme for the size.

Edit: Looked it up, and all modern phones seem to scale from roughly the same resolutions ~360x640. Slightly higher for phablets.
Click to expand...

This seems all a bit beside the point. The Alpha's 720p still won't be as crisp as a 1080p screen at the same size. I don't actually have that much of a beef with it (I loved using the Moto X), but it'll be noticeable.
 
Does it come stock with Knox OS?

(Done with Samsung's lockdown crapware)

Looks nice physically though.
 
TheGamerZ said:
Not sure why Samsung would push out a phone with 2 year old specifications. Who is it competing with?
Click to expand...

This is a mid grade phone not really interesting from what I understand it is targeted at the Chinese market they are trying to make something cheaper or better balanced for that market in features and price.
 
rudy said:
This is a mid grade phone not really interesting from what I understand it is targeted at the Chinese market they are trying to make something cheaper or better balanced for that market in features and price.
Click to expand...

I thought this was the India phone that Samsung hired some big designer for?
 
It's designed to displace the iPhone 6 4.7". 1280x720 wins over 1136x640 plus it erases the iPhone's performance advantage of driving a lower resolution.
 
Morkai said:
It's not like phones run native 1080p or 1440p anyway (maybe some do? Not sure), samsung galaxy s4 for example scales from 360x640. Lumia 925 scales from 383x638. (only phones i had around to check).


The 720p of the alpha pixeldoubled with some edge smoothing would be the same exact resolution as the s4, actually (360x640). No more real estate on the screen, just different upscaling.
I suspect pixel doubling 360x640 to 720p might very well look exactly as good as tripling it to 1080p, since these resolutions are both so extreme for the size.

Edit: Looked it up, and all modern phones seem to scale from roughly the same resolutions ~360x640. Slightly higher for phablets.
Click to expand...

WTF are you talking about? Everything gets scaled (depending on dpi) but it will take full advantage of screen resolution. Games may not run at native resolution for performance reasons. Also web browser reported device width is not the same thing as display resolution.
 
Note: iOS 8 has buried code for a "3X" app scaling mode that's 1704x960, so there will be at least one new iPhone that has that resolution, if not higher. I wouldn't expect that 1136x640 resolution to hang around on any larger models.

And that's the problem the Galaxy Alpha has, even if it looks to be a nice phone in many ways. It's designed as a reaction to the existing iPhone, to the criticism that Galaxy phones look and feel cheap. Samsung has a history of reacting quickly to sales trends (see how quickly it replaced the Galaxy Gear), and it's no doubt worried after the iPhone 5s outsold the Galaxy S5 for at least some of the spring, despite being smaller and months older. This is an experiment to see if a concern for quality and aesthetics can trump Samsung's usual "specs are all that matters" approach.
 
4.7" iPhone 6 will likely continue to be 1136x640 judging by Samsung's confidence with releasing the Galaxy Alpha while the 5.5" iPhone 6 that's rumored to need a faster SoC to drive the higher but not-quite-there-1080p resolution.

As far as design, it's kind of funny actually to see Apple bastardize Samsung Note II and S3 pebble look while Samsung is showing how premium is done right without the signal degrading you're-holding-it-wrong metal back.

Samsung 2012 pebble look:
Samsung-Galaxy-Mega-6.3-vs-Galaxy-Note-II-009.jpg


Apple 2014 pebble look:
iphone6iphone5s.jpg
 
Apple 2012 pebble look, which the iPhone 6 is obviously derived from:
0.jpg
 
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