Samsung Galaxy Alpha price and release date: cheaper than an S5
Samsung took the stage today, and announced its long-awaited metal handset, the Galaxy Alpha. Well, metal is an overstatement here, as just the frame, side rim, home key and camera lens bordering are made out of the hard stuff, but it's still a more premium development, compared to the usual plasticky contraptions the company churns out.
In any case, besides the unorthodox for Samsung design, the Galaxy Alpha is decked-out in the specs department, too, featuring powerful Exynos or Snapdragon processors with LTE Cat. 6 cellular modems, allowing up to 300 Mbps download speeds - if your carrier is up to those, of course. A hearty 12 MP camera is placed on the back, and 2 GB of RAM, as well as 32 GB of storage round up the pretty offering. About the only disappointment is the 1860 mAh battery, but the screen is with HD resolution, so this juicer might turn out to be enough for a decent battery life.
How much will it cost, though, and when will the Galaxy Alpha be available? Well, it turns out that the rumors about the release date being in September turned out to be true. The Galaxy Alpha will go up for preorder in Russia this Friday, August 15th, and will be launched on September 12th for the equivalent of $690, which is a sixth cheaper than the Galaxy S5 there. This is Russia we are talking about, though, and popular smartphones tend to be rather expensive at launch there, so in Europe and the US we can reasonably expect the Galaxy Alpha to pop up for a tad below the 600 USD or EUR mark, barring any carrier subsidies. Of course, that doesn't preclude the good ol' UK retailers to put it up for preorder at the hefty 500 pounds sterling price tag, but we all know how things on the island country go when it comes to electronics pricing.
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