Samsung has officially announced its first metal phone in a very long time: the Samsung Galaxy Alpha. Normally, Samsung goes all-out in the specs department and puts all the pieces in a plastic case – but the Galaxy Alpha is all about design over specs.
Or, as I like to call it, the Samsung Galaxy Oh Crap.
It’s a good thing Touchwiz doesn’t look much like iOS anymore, because that just screams iPhone knockoff to me.
Maybe they’re just trying to steal from Xaomi now?
No, apple we we’re trying to rip *you* off but the rip off of you. And isn’t the enemy of your enemy your friend, friend?
Maybe if we ever evolve different kinds of hands, this will allow for a better design space. It is hard *not* to rip someone off now.
Actually, it happened the other way.
iOS 7 got its looks from (the best parts of) TouchWiz / Nature UX.
I guess we might find out soon, but I’m skeptical there are many people who have been buying Samsung while waiting for a larger iPhone. My feeling is that most people who want an iPhone have one (or won’t buy one because of price – no changes coming there), so I don’t expect to see Samsung hurting much from competition with Apple
To the extent that Samsung has a problem, I think it’s mainly the disappearance of the middle price range since a $250 phone is doing what $400 phone could do a year or so ago. Mass production is driving down costs faster than R&D produces better products, and that eats into Samsung’s profit margins.
There’s increased competition at the low-end as well, and Samsung will lose some ground there, but they’re much more aggressive about slashing prices than, say, Sony or LG, so I don’t think Samsung is going to be one of those, like many Japanese electronics giants, or the Americans before them, who get complacent and fail to compete on price.
Edited 2014-08-14 21:30 UTC
I doubt that anyone will be making much money selling phones within a couple of years. By 2020 a very capable smart phone will probably cost $20 from a vending machine.
Sooner than that, if FirefoxOS continues to improve. It’s going to end up being the Symbian of this generation; not quite “smartphone” by the usual standards, but more than enough for most people’s basic smartphone needs.
Symbian was a very capable OS for it’s time. It’s Achilles heel was the horrible API & UI.
The API went out of it’s way to make things difficult for programmers, and the UI was very clunky compared to, at that time just debuted, iPhone.
They tried to address both of these issue, but the solutions were still a matter ‘too little, too late’.
They had brought in a semi-Posix API (branded OpenC++ or something) and ported over Python, both of which would have been familiar to programmers on other platforms. They tried to improve the UI with the 5800 ‘Tube’ phone.
But without programmers and users, the platform dropped off the face of the earth.
Edited 2014-08-18 14:19 UTC
I don’t really care if the phone is metal or plastic. However, I think this phone might have a few advantages over the S5:
– It has 32gb of internal storage, which is a HUGE step up. Although it lacks the SD card, I wouldn’t have to worry about trying to move apps over once the paltry 16gb has filled up, and I don’t store a lot of shit on my phone anyway.
– Personally, I think a 720 screen is perfectly adequate on a phone, and will probably mean the battery will last longer. And if the battery is replaceable, this thing is going to rock
– If it’s not waterproof, that means it’ll probably be a lot thinner and lighter, like the S4 was.
I wish they would’ve left off the fingerprint scanner and heartrate monitor and put another gig of RAM in there. Touchwiz could definitely use it.
So, because I know somebody will probably ask, what about the M8? With as much shit as I’ve talked about the M7, I actually liked the M8, but the lack of a multi-color LED is a deal-breaker. No Lightflow = no sale
OR
http://www.tiptopelectronics.co.uk/htc-one-e8-grey.html?gclid=CKuMg…
(just wish the One E8 [with 13MP ‘normal’ camera] was available in some of the more traditional sales channels here in the UK) .might just have to take a punt on the above or with ebay.
Toss up between the above, and making do with a Moto G 4G until one of the ridiculously speedy looking Snapdragon 810 phones hit in a year or so
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7925/qualcomms-snapdragon-808810-20nm…
Or am I dreaming. Will they make into phones?? or just tablets ?
I came across this when I was browsing Amazon earlier, they are heavily promoting it on the US site:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KQ0HF20/
It’s an 8 core 5 inch screen device for $200 unlocked. If I were in the market for a new Android device, the Samsung wouldn’t even be on my radar thanks to seeing this.
Edited 2014-08-15 03:04 UTC
looks nice but the 1GB ram is likely the biggest problem with it. also looks like bluetooth is unreliable which is nogo for me since my cheapy 2014 kia soul base model has bluetooth and i use it heavily with my galaxy s4.
Is “only” 1GB RAM an issue on Android phones? It seems like that’s a lot of memory, and I thought each version of Android has had better memory management than the last.
As for Bluetooth, I saw one review that claimed issues with it. That could very well be an issue with the phone’s design, or it could be a lemon for that one user. My wife uses a Motorola Photon Q, and I also have one that I don’t use anymore (we keep mine in a drawer as a “backup” for hers if she ever breaks it). Hers has zero issues with Bluetooth, whereas mine would never stay connected to the stereo in my car no matter what. Since hers works and mine doesn’t, all I know for sure is that my specific phone is faulty; I’m not going to say the entire Photon line has Bluetooth issues based on an isolated case.
Still, you may be right; it’s a relatively unknown company with a new but not top-tier product at an unbelievable price, so who knows. Much like the Baofeng UV-5R amateur radio transceiver I got for $50 on Amazon. It’s a very capable HT, but it does suffer from cost-cutting design in a few areas. If I’d spent $400 on a Yaesu or Kenwood I’d have zero issues, but I’d also have a ton of red in my budget. I can live with minor annoyances when it’s that much money involved.
Personally, I feel it still kind of is. Android L is supposed to bring a lot of improvements in this area, but with KitKat and earlier 1GB just feels slightly too little. With Android L 1GB RAM would/should be enough, so once these cheap phones start shipping with it things should look up.
I do not want to burst your bubble, but the same promises were made for KitKat (4.4) too, and see how well that worked out (besides being able to get it to _somewhat_ run on 512MB devices)…..
It isn’t.
On a S3, the Google software, Samsung “improved experience” and operator services already take around 600 MB for themselves. Stuff you cannot remove unless you root your device, what most normal consumers will never do.
So you are left with 400 MB, which is still plenty if you take care of cleaning background applications every now and then. But it is still tight, given that many developers think they are targeting desktops.
The closer you get to stock android the less of an issue it is. Anything samsung and i would say you need 2GB RAM, however my Moto G only had 1GB, is very close to stock and runs very quickly, very stable too, the nexus devices i have used seem pretty quick as well.
2GB would be a nice have but it’s really based on the crap a OEM decides to stick on it.
MTK equipped phones (like this one) use a very lightweight near stock version of Android. They are surprisingly fast and responsive. My MTK powered Huawei Y330 runs smoothly on only 512MB of RAM.
Generally, phones based on MediaTek chipsets seem to be great deals. And they often are dual-SIM, just like this one.
Bummer, Samsung was the only brand name smartphone maker that was consistently offering SD expansion across their product line. Now they’re starting to drop it. And I imagine the removable battery will also be, um, removed in future models. So we’ll end up with a next gen $1000 phone that is 2mm thick and has a 100mA non-removable battery.
please gods tell me it *doesn’t* come with an amoled display..