Samsung Galaxy Alpha - BLTN

Hot on the heels of the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact's BLTN (Better Late Than Never) review, comes another BLTN review of another compact smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy Alpha. Other than just being a compact smartphone that doesn't compromise too much on specifications, the aptly named Galaxy Alpha also marked a new beginning for Samsung Galaxy devices as a whole. Which is why I think it deserves a post of its own.

alpha | noun al·pha \ˈal-fə\
  : the first letter of the Greek alphabet
  : something that is first 

Shortly after its announcement, I wrote down some of my thoughts on the device. It was titled "Samsung Galaxy Alpha: The Sign of Better Things to Come?", and almost a year later, I am happy to say that most of what I had hoped would happen, did happen, or at least progressed in the right direction. With the exception of the part where I said that hopefully the Galaxy Alpha was a sign of smaller flagship devices to come from Samsung, but I'll get back to that later.

Since then, we have seen huge improvements from Samsung when it comes to build quality. Samsung's UI has been getting better with each iteration as well, to a point where I actually don't mind using it anymore. In that sense, the Galaxy Alpha truly was the first of its kind. In a time where Samsung's flagship device was still made of a plastic frame, with a chrome finishing that peeled off with use, the Galaxy Alpha with its metal clad body showed the World that Samsung was capable of producing a premium device as well.

The Alpha was actually first in a few other aspects as well. The Exynos 5430 octa-core CPU was the one of the first 20nm smartphone SoC to be shipped (with the other being Apple's A8 chip), and the Galaxy Alpha was also one of the first phone to utilise Corning's new Gorilla Glass 4. Once you look at various aspect of the device, you see that the name Alpha, is a truly fitting one.

But what about the device itself? Is it actually any good? After almost a year since it was announced, I finally got my hands on one, and would like to share some of my thoughts on the device.

The front of the Galaxy Alpha is what you would expect from a Samsung device. At the top, there is a call speaker grill with a single line of dots, and a Samsung logo underneath it. The frame around the screen has a + pattern much like the back cover of the device. Towards the bottom, you have your home button which doubles as a fingerprint sensor as well, more on that later.

The back cover actually has a really nice texture to it, and is slightly grippy. Again, very similar looking to what we are used to from Samsung. Remove the back cover, and you will find a 1,860 mAh removable battery, along with a Nano-SIM card slot. The omission of a MicroSD card slot was a little peculiar considering most Samsung devices at that time had them.

The frame of the phone is where the magic is at. Instead of a plastic frame with a chrome paint that is prone to peeling off with use (think S4, S4, Note 3), the frame of the phone is now made of a a matte finished metal with chamfered edges. At the four corners, there are subtle curves on the side of the device, and around the micro-USB port. On the bottom, you have precision drilled speaker grills as well. Even the volume and power button seems to be nicely crafted too, with a consistent design with the phone itself, which again, is a nice minor detail that we are just not expecting out of a Samsung device.

Another thing I love about the Alpha, is the display. Before you go "What?!, hear me out. Yes, it is a 4.7-inches 720 x 1280 pixels Super AMOLED display. But for a screen this size, it is more than sufficient enough to ensure a good viewing experience. The display is vibrant much like most AMOLED panels, and the blacks are deep. The display brightness can go low enough for comfortable viewing in a dark room, and is able to go bright enough to be viewed outdoors too. The best thing about a 4.7-inches display, is that the physical size of the phone can be really compact.

Powering the phone is an octa-core Exynos 5430 CPU clocked at 1.8 GHz, ARM Mali-T628 MP6 GPU, 2GB of RAM, and 32GB of internal storage. As mentioned earlier, this is one of the first few phones that actually shipped with a 20nm smartphone SoC. In an era where Qualcomm pretty much dominated the mobile chipset space, the use of Exynos chipset was definitely an interesting choice. But after spending a good amount of time with the Alpha (and the Galaxy S6), I have to say they are starting to grow on me.

The chipset has great performance all round, and handled most that I threw at it with ease. The occasional stutter and pauses around the phone, are probably more down to Samsung's TouchWiz UI rather than the phone's lack of power. Not to mention a huge bonus of the Exynos chipset is the use of Wolfson's DAC, which results in better sound quality if you have a decent pair of earphones.

As mentioned earlier, the Home button actually doubles as a finger print sensor as well much like on the Galaxy S5. Instead of using a touch-based sensor like on the iPhone 5S, the Alpha uses a swipe sensor. Which would be okay too if it worked well, but unfortunately it doesn't. Most of the time, it takes a few, very deliberate swipes before it is able to recognise my print, sometimes more.

I tried to capture a video of the sensor in action here, but it ended up working great. Unfortunately that was a one-off occurrence, and most of the time it doesn't work well enough for me to have it turned on.

While the 720p display is probably pretty battery friendly, but it is hard to look past that tiny 1,860mAh battery. The phone lasts me on average from morning till late evening on moderate use, often needing a boost to get it to last till I go to bed and plug it in. But I did get a spare battery to go along with it just in case. If you want to, there is actually an official extended battery kit that comes with a 2,500 mAh battery, and a thicker back case to accommodate the bigger battery as well. But you lose the slimness of the phone of course.

When it comes to the software, Samsung doesn't really have a great track record. While it does look like TouchWiz has been pared down a little, it still feels a little overbearing. Pretty much every part of the UI has been touched by Samsung, and not all in a good way. It still has a bit too much additional features and add-ons in my opinion, some useful, some not so much. Thankfully you are able to disable or turn off a lot of them. I do see some stutter and pauses around the UI, but I think most of them are down to TouchWiz rather than the hardware itself.

That said, with some tweaking, it is still something that I could live with on a daily basis without the need to slap on a different launcher. Some of the software enhancements like "Power Saving Mode" for example, are actually really useful too. Of course, I would have preferred if it were closer to stock Android.

On the rear you have a f/2.2, 12 MP camera, which from what I understand is Samsung's own ISOCELL sensor. On paper that seems pretty underwhelming but in practise, it is actually a pretty decent camera.

In daylight, images looks vibrant, sharp, and has good image processing. Dynamic range is a decent too. Auto-focus is quick too since the camera has PDAF (phase-detection autofocus), and capture speeds are fast too. My small gripe is that I am so used to the brilliant auto mode on the Galaxy S6 selecting HDR mode automatically, that I found having to turn it on manually a little troublesome.

In lowlight/night, it's decent, but not amazing. They looked a little too grainy for my liking, but certainly still usable. The f/2.2 lens while decent, isn't the fastest. The camera doesn't have OIS, but has Samsung's own Digital image stabilisation technology which works surprisingly well. I have not found myself desperately needing OIS even in low light.

The weakest point of the camera would probably be the camera UI to me. It just seems a little too complicated and overwhelming with the way they lay out all the options.

While the camera isn't as good as the Galaxy S6, or the Galaxy Note 4, it is still an extremely capable shooter. Samsung has always been decent with their camera quality, and the Galaxy Alpha is no different here.

Full resolutions shots here for comparison: Galaxy Alpha, Xperia Z3 Compact

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The Galaxy Alpha actually really surprised me. I wanted to try this phone for a while now, and I was expecting a nicely designed phone that wouldn't be as nice to use on a daily basis. What I found was a nice all-round device, in a package that is compact, yet packed with top end specifications and features.

The phone has its compromises, but nothing I would consider to be a deal breaker. The phone's battery is a little tiny by today's standard, but the chipset is actually surprisingly efficient, and the phone lasted longer than I expected it would. The speakers are a little soft, but has decent quality. TouchWiz can be a little overbearing, but can be toned-down with some customisations.

It is a phone that I actually really enjoyed using. At this point I can't help but compare it to the Xperia Z3 Compact. While I think that the Xperia Z3 Compact has better specifications, namely when it comes to battery life, the rest of the aspects of the phone are very comparable. In some aspects, I actually prefer the Galaxy Alpha over the Xperia Z3 Compact. I personally would have a hard time choosing between the 2 of them as well. But that isn't really my point here.

My point is that, if you are in the market looking for an Android-powered flagship device that has a compact form factor, there aren't really much choices out there. While the Alpha is in that category, it isn't a product that will likely be refreshed anytime soon. It is sort of a showcase after all.

Unless of course the rumoured Galaxy S6 Mini will forgo the usual watered-down specifications of "Minis" of old, and take up the mantle of the Galaxy Alpha that is... and boy do I hope it will...