Rogers has finally joined the other Canadian carriers – Bell, Virgin and TELUS – in launching the Samsung Galaxy Alpha. Rogers is selling it for a higher rate than some of the competition at $179.99 on a two-year contract or $699.99 off-contract. Bell has the Galaxy Alpha for $179, Virgin is charging $149 and TELUS wants $180 for the Alpha. The Samsung Galaxy Alpha came out after the disappointing Galaxy S5 sales – customers want some metal on their smartphone and yet the Galaxy S5 was all-plastic as it had always been. Samsung came out with the Galaxy Alpha to kind of test the waters and see how customers would react to their new design…turns out that customers liked it a lot, although they thought it was a little too expensive for the specifications.
The Galaxy Alpha sports a premium design with an all-metal frame that is slightly curved and sculptured at the four corners – this was done to help strengthen and protect it should you drop the device. It really gives it a premium look and feel and it would be right at home in an executive boardroom or at the country club, although techies would like the way it looks, they would be underwhelmed by the specifications. It comes with a great size screen – 4.7-inches – but is only an HD display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels with 312 pixels-per-inch (PPI). It does have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor clocked at 2.5GHz – the same one found in the Galaxy S5 – and has 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage.
The Galaxy Alpha comes with a 12MP main camera with auto-focus and LED flash…the front-facing camera (FFC) has a 2.1MP sensor for selfies and video chatting. A small 1860mAh battery powers the Galaxy Alpha, which is running Android 4.4.4 KitKat out-of-the-box. It measures 132.4 mm x 65.5 mm x 6.7 mm and weighs in at 115 grams. It also comes with a fingerprint sensor and something called Private Mode – the Galaxy Alpha will create a private folder to store your most private data files, and it uses the fingerprint scanner to allow you access. Samsung also included the heart rate sensor and their Ultra Power Saving Mode (UPSM). Please hit us up on our Google+ Page and let us know if you will be picking up a Samsung Galaxy Alpha…as always, we would love to hear from you.