Galaxy Alpa Review

The Good The Samsung Galaxy Alpha's metal frame makes it the most luxurious feeling Galaxy phone to date. Its more compact size makes it comfortable to use, it has loads of power and its camera is great.

The Bad It has a disappointingly low-resolution screen, which is a particular shame given the extremely high price of the phone. It loses the waterproofing of the S5 and there's no microSD card slot for expanding the storage either.

The Bottom Line If you love the high-end tech Samsung crams into its phones but hate the plastic bodies, the Galaxy Alpha may well be the phone for you. Its processor and camera perform brilliantly, while its compact 4.7-inch size makes it very comfortable to hold and use in one hand. Its low-resolution display is a big letdown, though, especially when you consider the high price of the phone, which does take the shine off an otherwise brilliant phone.

The Samsung Galaxy S5 has everything you'd demand from a top-end phone -- a stunning full-HD display, powerful quad-core processor and an awesome camera. It's constructed entirely out of plastic however, which often draws criticism for feeling cheap, particularly when compared to the all metalHTC One M8 or the glass-and-aluminium Sony Xperia Z3.

The Galaxy Alpha is Samsung's way of shutting up those moaners by packing an octa-core or quad-core processor, the latest Android KitKat software and a great camera -- not to mention the heart-rate and fingerprint scanners lifted from the S5 -- into a compact, 4.7-inch body with a luxurious metal frame.

It's the first time we've seen metal on one of Samsung's Galaxy phones, and the mobile giant says it's the first example of a new design philosophy, so you can expect similar materials to be used in future phones.

The Alpha doesn't come cheap, though. In the UK, its £550, SIM-free, direct-from-Samsung cost is roughly the same price as the Galaxy S5. In the US, AT&T will sell it to you for $200 on-contract, and a little over $600 off-contract through various installment plans spread out over 24 months.

Design

The metal design is the reason to be excited about the Galaxy Alpha. It feels like a very different level of device to the Galaxy S5. While the S5 feels rather plasticky to hold -- and in fact will creak a little when you squeeze it -- the Alpha feels satisfyingly solid and luxurious. Although the back panel is still plastic, it has no gap between it and the chassis, meaning there's no flex when you press it, which helps it feel like it's a one-piece design.

I was instantly struck by the difference in the feel of quality between the two devices, but the degree to which you feel it will depend on what you're used to. I have been using the S5 as my main device since it launched, so the solid-metal feeling of the Alpha was a big shift. CNET's UK director of content, Jason Jenkins, being used to the all-metal, solid chassis of the iPhone 5S, was less impressed, remarking that it does feel "a bit nicer," but that it still "looks like another Galaxy phone." I suggest going for a hands-on in a shop to make up your own mind.

It's true that the Alpha's design doesn't differ much from the S5's. It has a metal edge, sure, but you will need to get up close with the phone to really see that -- from a distance, it could just be shiny plastic like you'll find on the S5. The back panel has a similar rubberised, dotted pattern too, and the Samsung logo and silver-edged home button are identical on both phones.

Once you do get up close, however, the differences are more obvious. The corners of the metal edge have been milled away, leaving a shiny edge, speaker holes have been neatly drilled in the bottom, and the metal dips in slight on the sides between the corners. I definitely feel it has a more premium and professional aesthetic than the S5. It's unquestionably a phone you need to physically hold to fully appreciate, however.

It's physically quite a bit smaller, measuring 132mm long and 65m wide. I found it very comfortable to hold in one hand -- thanks also to its slim 6.7mm thickness -- and was able to reach across the whole screen with my thumb, which I struggle to do on the S5 without having to shift the phone's position in my hand. Its 115g weight also helps it sit unnoticed in your pocket.

The downside of the metal, however, is that the Galaxy Alpha has lost the water resistance you'll get from the S5. That means you'll need to be as careful around drinks, the bath, and in the rain as ever. You also won't find a microSD card slot -- although I doubt that's because of the choice of build materials. It's annoying not being able to expand the storage, but the phone does at least come with 32GB of space as standard.

Display

The Alpha's display is for me the most disappointing aspect of the phone. It has a 1,280x720-pixel resolution, which is a step down from the full HD of the S5 and way below the 2K screens we're starting to see knocking around. While 2K would absolutely be overkill, I'd like to have seen a 1,080p display. The HTC One's 4.7-inch display had a full-HD resolution which made everything extremely crisp and it's a shame not to see similar on the Alpha, particularly given the high price.

It actually has a pixel density of 312 pixels per inch, which is lower even than the midrange Galaxy S5 Mini's 326ppi screen. Although icons and text are far from fuzzy, the edges lack the sort of crisp clarity I'd hope to see from a phone at this price. It really is a shame that Samsung didn't plump for a higher resolution panel.

On the plus side, the screen is very bright and has extremely rich colours, which helps make Netflix shows or YouTube clips of kittens look vivid, and you can change screen modes if you prefer a more natural screen tone.

Android KitKat software

The latest Android 4.4.4 KitKat software comes as standard on the Alpha (I'd expect nothing less at this price) which Samsung has given the same TouchWiz skin as you'll get on the S5. I'm not too keen on Samsung's interface, mostly because it makes everything far too complicated.

Almost every aspect of the phone can be tweaked which, while great for techy types, does mean that the settings menu is so vast it's easy to be overwhelmed and can be difficult to find that one setting you need in a hurry. Samsung also loads on its own web browser, calendar, app store, and email client, which sit alongside Google's versions of all those things. Having multiple versions of the same feature can make it tough to know which one you should be using, especially if you're new to Android. This isn't a phone for beginners.

It does come with some handy features, like Private Mode, which lets you protect files behind a password or fingerprint security measure -- I'd use the former as the fingerprint recognition can be hit and miss, although the Alpha's seemed more reliable than the S5's. You'll also find Samsung's health tracker S Health which will track your footsteps and, using the sensor on the back, your heart rate.

Processor and battery performance

In the UK, the Alpha packs in an octa-core processor. That's eight cores in total, but it's actually made up of two quad-core processors -- one clocked at 1.3GHz for basic tasks and one clocked at 1.8GHz for when more power is required.

Although at no point does it use all eight cores for monster power, it's still an extremely capable phone. It achieved 4,350 on the Geekbench benchmark test and 23,729 on Quadrant, putting it marginally above both the Galaxy S5 and LG G3.