Samsung officially confirmed the metal-bodied Galaxy Alpha smartphone Wednesday, calling it the slimmest and lightest Galaxy phone.
Samsung,the Korean tech gian,t has responded to criticism and moved away from plastic in its latest smartphone. In an official blog post, Wednesday, Samsung announced Galaxy Alpha, the company's first metal-framed smartphone.
Samsung's decision to use a metal frame for its latest smartphone comes in response to losing ground in the smartphone market. The company was dethroned from its title as leader in China during the second quarter this year after Xiaomi took the first spot. But with its new metallic design, Samsung aims to regain its lost position.
"The Galaxy Alpha was built and designed based on the specific desires of the consumer market," JK Shin, CEO and Head of IT & Mobile Communication at Samsung, said in a statement. "With an entirely new appearance, the Galaxy Alpha focuses on both beauty and functionality combining a stunning metal frame and slim, light weight design with the same powerful hardware and features users expect from a flagship Galaxy mobile device."
The official confirmation comes after a series of leaks and speculations on the design and specifications of the device. Just last week, a U.K. retail site briefly listed Galaxy Alpha for pre-orders. The listing showed several details such as type of processor, pixels in the camera and more.
Samsung officially confirmed the Galaxy Alpha specs in its press release, which gives under-the-hood details. The Galaxy Alpha features a 4.7-inch Super AMOLED display with 1280x720 pixel resolution powered by Android 4.4.4 along with an Exynos processor with four ARM Cortex-A15 cores clocking speeds at 1.8GHz and four Cortex-A7 cores running at 1.3GHz.
The smartphone features a 12-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 2.1-megapixel shooter in the front. Other details include a 2GB and a non-expandable 32GB internal storage. This is the first time Samsung has excluded a microSD option in a smartphone. Samsung packed a 1,860mAh battery to power the low resolution smartphone.
Although, Samsung says it used metal for the Alpha, the back cover is still a perforated plastic cover as found in other Galaxy smartphones. But the company says Galaxy Alpha is one of the thinnest Galaxy smartphones at 7mm thickness, almost the same as iPhone 5S.
Available in Charcoal Black, Dazzling White, Frosted Gold, Sleek Silver, and Scuba Blue, Samsung Galaxy Alpha will be available next month. The United Kingdom retailer Clove has already put up the handset for pre-sale at £500 (US$850), PC World reported. Pricing details were not confirmed by Samsung.
