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samven582

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 2, 2009
753
66
I'm thinking about getting this phone. Does anybody have any experience with it?
 

MRU

macrumors Penryn
Aug 23, 2005
25,368
8,948
a better place
Yes :) I had a thread here about it. Great little handset whose performance is excellent (the Exynos model anyway).

I'd get 4 hours screen on time and battery would last me all day. Benchmarks were around 48,500 on Antutu putting it in same ballpark as the Note 4.

Mine was unbranded and unlocked and came with no bloatware and minimal Samsung extras, meaning it was able to handle multitasking better than the S5 I replaced it for.

Despite 720p screen I thought it was a good screen and better in direct sunlight than the S5 too.

Camera is excellent on it. As good as Note 4 & S5 I'm normal circumstances.

No hesitations recommending the phone other than the caveat of Samsung seemingly abandoning it and putting it EOL already.
 

samven582

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 2, 2009
753
66
Yes :) I had a thread here about it. Great little handset whose performance is excellent (the Exynos model anyway).

I'd get 4 hours screen on time and battery would last me all day. Benchmarks were around 48,500 on Antutu putting it in same ballpark as the Note 4.

Mine was unbranded and unlocked and came with no bloatware and minimal Samsung extras, meaning it was able to handle multitasking better than the S5 I replaced it for.

Despite 720p screen I thought it was a good screen and better in direct sunlight than the S5 too.

Camera is excellent on it. As good as Note 4 & S5 I'm normal circumstances.

No hesitations recommending the phone other than the caveat of Samsung seemingly abandoning it and putting it EOL already.

Will Samsung update this 5.0?
 

MRU

macrumors Penryn
Aug 23, 2005
25,368
8,948
a better place
Yes there is a leaked image of the Alpha running 5.0.1 on Sammobile so we can assume it will at least get lollipop.. After that, who knows.
 

MRU

macrumors Penryn
Aug 23, 2005
25,368
8,948
a better place
Radio / Cellular reception was just as good as the Note 3, Moto X 2013, HTC M8 (two of them), Galaxy S5 (two of them), Lumia 1520, Lumia 1020, Lumia 930, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, IPhone 6+, Moto X 2014 all of which I owned last year....
 

MRU

macrumors Penryn
Aug 23, 2005
25,368
8,948
a better place
As I stated, I never experienced any issues with cellular reception and this is from first hand experience, not via proxy info.
 

AppleRobert

macrumors 603
Nov 12, 2012
5,726
1,132
http://www.phonearena.com/phones/compare/Samsung-Galaxy-Alpha,Samsung-Galaxy-S6/phones/8618,8997

I have no experience whatsoever with the chip that is coming with the S6, I am really interested in trying a smartphone with it. Best Buy or other retail locations in the US only have the Snapdragon unless I do an online order.

Is it fair to get a reasonable idea what the S6 might be like given the Aplha with that chip albeit of slightly lesser punch?

I know of concern with Qhd display devices being overheating, battery life, and
why put it on a smartphone with a screen size of the S6 to begin with?
 

MRU

macrumors Penryn
Aug 23, 2005
25,368
8,948
a better place
http://www.phonearena.com/phones/compare/Samsung-Galaxy-Alpha,Samsung-Galaxy-S6/phones/8618,8997

I have no experience whatsoever with the chip that is coming with the S6, I am really interested in trying a smartphone with it. Best Buy or other retail locations in the US only have the Snapdragon unless I do an online order.

Is it fair to get a reasonable idea what the S6 might be like given the Aplha with that chip albeit of slightly lesser punch?

I know of concern with Qhd display devices being overheating, battery life, and
why put it on a smartphone with a screen size of the S6 to begin with?



The Alpha variant isn't 64bit. Speaking of performance however the phone flew through everything I could throw at it. It scored 48,000 - 50,000 on Antutu benchmarks and that was reflected in the performance.

Also unlike the S5 it didn't have any problems with refreshing content from background despite it having same ram as the S5.

Also I routinely managed to eek out a full day use and 4 hours of screen on time with only a 1800mah battery.

All of which means that the exynos on the S6 is likely to be an excellent chipset despite driving a higher resolution display, the bigger battery (850mah bigger) should help drive it to better than the Alpha's already decent score.
 
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