SAMSUNG's First Metal phone announced ! (Galaxy Alpha)

Samsung officially announced  the Galaxy Alpha. The rumoured metal-clad smartphone has been a long time coming, but it’s finally here.

Coming to the specs, the Galaxy Alpha features a 4.7-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1,280 x 720 pixels. While we would have expected at least full HD on its first metal flagship, the display hits the sweet spot in terms of size. It's also quite slim, measuring 7mm around the waist, and tipping the scales at a mere 115g.

The smartphone runs Android 4.4.4 KitKat, overlaid with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI. Several of Samsung’s popular software features, such as Ultra Power Saving Mode and Private Modehave made its way to the Galaxy Alpha. The device even incorporates the fingerprint sensor, seen on the Galaxy S5 (review) and Galaxy Tab S (review). 

Purring under the hood is an octa-core processor (presumably the Exynos 5 Octa), made up of two quad-core clusters, clocked at 1.8GHz and 1.3GHz. For memory, the smartphone gets 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. While Samsung usually packs in a microSD card for expansion, the Galaxy Alpha gets fixed, albeit generous, internal storage.

In the photography department, the handset is endowed with a 12MP shooter at the rear, and a 2.1MP snapper in the front. The cameras offer several features, such as Beauty Face, Dual Camera, Selective Focus, Shot & More, Virtual Tour, HDR and Panorama. The primary camera can even shoot 4K

videos(3,840 x 2,160) at 30fps.

The battery on board is an 1,860mAh unit. For connectivity, the smartphone offers LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and USB 2.0.

The Galaxy Alpha will go on sale in early September in several markets. Samsung hasn’t announced pricing yet, and we expect it will vary by region. 

Even though the Galaxy Alpha marks an important first step towards the brand's adoption of metal, we can’t help but notice how even the timing of the launch coincides with the expected release date of the 4.7-inch iPhone 6, which will presumably be unveiled on September 9th.  The size, straight lines and chamfered edges all scream iPhone too, and it appears Samsung wants to take on its long-standing rival head on with this one.