Samsung Galaxy Alpha With 4.7-Inch Display and Metal Frame Launched

Samsung took the wraps off its latest Galaxy smartphone, the Galaxy Alpha. The South Korean electronics giant is calling the Galaxy Alpha"the evolution of Galaxy Design", touting its "metal frame, elegantly curved corners, and a tactile soft back cover".

The South Korean manufacturer has announced that the Galaxy Alpha will be globally released sequentially starting September in over 150 countries, but the company did not officialy reveal the pricing of the device. However, a report pegged the off-contract price of the device at $689 (approximately Rs. 42,250).

Samsung says the newly-unveiled Galaxy Alpha with metal frame is built using "sophisticated and compact construction techniques." The Galaxy Alpha was previously previewed by the company at a yachting event in Moscow.

The Samsung Galaxy Alpha runs the latest Android 4.4.4 KitKat out-of-the-box. It features a 4.7-inch HD (720x1280 pixels) Super AMOLED display. The handset sports a sleek profile with dimensions 132.4x65.5x6.7mm and weighs 115 grams.

Much like recently released high-end smartphones - LG G3 Cat.6, LG G3 A, and Samsung Galaxy S5 LTE-A - the Samsung Galaxy Alpha also comes with the LTE Cat.6 support denoting LTE-A speeds of up to 300Mbps (peak download rates).

The Galaxy Alpha is powered by an octa-core chipset, most probably Samsung's Exynos SoC, with quad-core 1.8GHz and quad-core 1.3GHz. The smartphone also comes in a quad-core variant with a clock speed of 2.5GHz, presumably the Snapdragon 805 SoC the other LTE-A smartphones are carrying.

Considering that Samsung launched the octa-core variant of the Galaxy S5 in India, we can expect the company to announce the octa-core variant of the Galaxy Alpha, and may bring the LTE-A version later.

There is 2GB of RAM and 32GB inbuilt storage, which is non-expandable. The Galaxy Alpha sports a 12-megapixel rear camera and also includes 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera. It packs an 1860mAh battery.

Apart from LTE, other connectivity options include Micro-USB, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPRS/EDGE, 3G, and NFC. The Galaxy Alpha, much like the flagship Galaxy S5, comes with fingerprint scanner.

The company notes that the Galaxy Alpha at launch will be available in Charcoal Black, Dazzling White, Frosted Gold, Sleek Silver, and Scuba Blue colour variants.