I'm fed up with the growing size of modern smartphones, and really miss the good old days of sub 5" displays. Someone recently pointed out that the Galaxy Alpha was one of the last 4.7" phones that tried to be somewhat "premium" rather than watered down minis. I have to say, the Alpha does appear to check off a lot of my boxes re: what I'm looking for, but I have 2 somewhat major concerns:
1) Support seems nearly non-existent, with last official firmware ending at 5.0.
2) BATTERY APPEARS TINY. I mean, ridiculously small- even my last 4" phones had 2000+mah batteries. I used to carry spares for my Galaxy S4, and that was easily 50% more than the OEM on this thing.
I could deal with #1, 5.0 isn't that bad and I see there's some Cyanogen love up in here somewhere. The second issue is more concerning to me- I see there is a kit to extend the battery with a larger capacity cell and back, but I'm not sure if that's just a "good-enough" solution if you already owned the phone, or if it really is reliable enough to use going into this from the start. What do you guys think? Is there anything else perhaps I should be considering?
Elegant piece of hardware. Reliability, screen quality, weight, speed etc. all great... It's a great phone, but i you like AOSP / Cyanogenmod and/or hate Touchwiz, you'll have to deal with call quality anda camera problems when you install ROMs.
Battery is not an issue for me. Maybe because the resolution is 720p "only".
Light weight is a major plus for me. 115 grams!!!
Hi,
I've bought mine from a eBay seller from China. Paid US $195.00 for it. Quite happy as i was looking to buy a Alpha from some time. Charcoal Black. Indeed the battery lasts a bit quickly, but after i changed some settings, it holds almost for a day. Managed to buy the 2500 mAh battery + extended battery cover Samsung kit from a Estonian online store a few days ago. Totally happy now
(PS: Regarding the Samsung support, the Alpha may get Marshmallow, but it will be the last device to receive it, maybe around December 2016, early 2017...)
Hey Dishe,
I won't talk about the specs, just my personal experience.
I have my Alpha for over a year now and it's still snappy and satisfies all my needs. Because of it's elegant design, and the fact that it's a pretty rare phone, people think it's a new model. I like that the screen is 4.7" because I can use with one hand and don't even feel it in my pocket.
The only thing that bugs me a little is the small 1800 mah battery. Now my battery is pretty old and on moderate usage it can make it through the day, but When I'm heavy on maps, youtube and games I have to charge it twice, so powerbank is a must. You can flash duki994's kernel and undervolt the cpu to lower the power consumption, I'm planning on doing that.
I think this is still the best small android out there and to me it feels more premium than new flagship phones.
@RaceJay can you pm me with that estonian website where you got the 2500 mah battery kit?
yeah i have mine for 2 years .. iam fully satisfied .. as all people here the battery is the problem .. but guess what happened ,, 2 days ago i bought 3 batteries from a store .. i opened 3 alpha phones and bought 3 original batteries , i dont care what will this guy do .. but as a pro in android and samsung phone iam sure 100% original .. 3 batt fro 90$ and now iam using one and playing doom 3 on medium graphics it lasts 3 hours .. without any heating problems ..i took 2 batteries for me and one for my gf ...
yeah its worth buying ,, iam not like idiot people who buy every year a phone and they dont know what is the meaning of phone and os .. just for showing off .. i have 2 galaxy alpha phones one is doing my job and the other i left it for any accidental issues ... w.r.t roms .. xda forum has many roms and kernels so its not necessary to find a popular phone other alpha ... i have every thing .. tchaw
Wondering the same. But I heard the CM ROMs aren't very stable.
Yes, very good phone.
Can you give me the link with the info about MM for Alpha? Where you have seen it?
You could consider the xperia z5 compact or x compact. Batteries are non removable but I heard they could have 5+ SOT easily. Only thing is that they are quite ugly.
Related
My Contract is Due up, And looking for a new Phone,
Currently on the HTC Desire,
And this phone keeps showing up every time i search.
Apart from the Specs how are you guys finding the phone.
From Development Point:
Day to day user? Battery life and performance?
And does the Camera live upto 8mp, Its position on the back looks like it can be easily scratched?
SGS II = WIN
Well your obviously going to get a biast opinion on here mate but straight up no bullsh*t this is definitely the best there is no doubts about it, you need to read up a good bit on here though to get the best from the SGSII but 100% recommended.
I came from the desire too and the difference is night and day. The desire got to a point where the latest roms just wouldn't run smooth enough. Ive had the camera lense exposed from the day i got the phone (first day of release in the UK) and have not got 1 scratch on it. Im wondering if its gorilla glass too because its pretty scratch proof.
Heres a camera sample anyway. Touch focus on the rose.
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/3387/20110603152504.jpg
Edit : oh crap I hit the thanks button. fat fingers and touch screens don't mix. Have that one on me
Nexus prime is close, at this point is worth to wait. But if you are in hurry...s2 is pure gold
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
Other than SGS2, any other phone that also have HDMI and USB Host? Droid 3 looks good but too bad it don't have USB HOST.
The phone works VERY well.
If you throw cpu-intensive stuff at it like moviewatching, 3d-gaming or lots of network-activity it will go low on battery pretty fast. Like every other powerful smartphone, you will need to reharge at least once a day...unless its in your pocket all day ofcourse.
Be aware that the phone is pretty large compared to the desire, and it is something you will notice right away. You will also notice how incredibly thin and lightweight it is. After using my SGS2 for while I realized that I felt it was actually TOO thin and weighed too little. on top of that the size to me is a little over the top. I appparently like a phone to be a bit heavier and thicker for me to handle it better (insert sexual pun here ) I bought myself a nice rubbercase, which has provided a better feel to the phone in my opinion, and im really happy about it. The rather large size I can live with, but my next phone definately not have a screen larger than 4".
I suggest you go to a store and ask to try the SGS2 out for yourself. It really is amazing how thin and light that phone is. It is built ok, but ofcourse all the lightweight plastic will be more prone to damage than other types of material.
Well i spent my time having a good look around,
And decided to go with this, Thanks guys.
Some good features like Mhl micro usb to hdmi
and High Performance, Better Battery, Great Display.
And of course custom ROMS, Should be picking this up tomorrow, So expect to see me in this neck of the woods
Well I had the HTC Desire and loved it, a month ago I changed to an Xperia Arc, and I liked that to.. its a lovely design and runs pretty well, but I had a few issues with it - it would take a random amount of time to boot, and sometimes I would get lag on the phone switching between apps or menu's.. what tempted me with the Arc also was the price.. and i thought battery life would be better on the single core phone. I got the S2 on friday and the battery is better on the s2 and it really is fast.. no slowdown anywhere.. the batter is also lasting me the day, whereas with the desire and the Arc to a lesser extent i would have to top up during the day at work... so far am very happy with the s2.. other bonus is the bult in memory, - I've added a 16gb micro sd card and have lots of space now for media..
Thats good to know, One of my Issues with Desire was battery life,
but managed to deal with it,
So am used to the 1 charge a day job the internal 16GB memory is a massive plus aswell, Again the Desire was some what painful messing around with memory.
Good phone!
I originally choose it over the HTC Sensation because of the better camera and battery. The camera rules indeed! But the battery life seems to be not that great(1 day vs 2 days on my old HTC HD2), but I think this is mainly because of some issues in samsung's drivers. Also, there's no stable version of CM7 for it jet, the one I tried crashed instandly. So just give it time, I sure it will do 3 days eventually.
I'm currently testing the Hyperdroid rom with surgen(or something) and just updated my Modem so I can't really tell how the battery life is now.
Main thing is though, it's so freakishly fast that you can't really see any difference in the custom roms or even the original rom. Also overclocking to 1.6 ghz doesn't make a difference.
Great phone spoiled by a lot of morons using it .
jje
I decided to go with the Alpha (Exynos) rather than the Nexus 6 for two reasons. First, having had a Note 2 and then a few phones later an LG3, I am tired of having a big phone, especially since I use a tablet to browse on the train. Second, I have always been jealous of the iPhone crowd having such nice looking phones.
The Alpha is the nicest Android phone to hold that I have ever had, and I have owned a few....
The pictures don't do it credit. The screen is simply beautiful. The metal feels fantastic. The whole feel is, to use a cliché, premium.
On the first day, I did a lot of remote desktop access and playing on the internet. It got very hot. Much hotter than the LG G3. Battery didn't last the day. What was worrying was that I if I used it for a short while, it got very hot very quickly.
On my second day, I turned battery saving on but only to limit the CPU (ie I left screen normal and location on). Totally different phone. Doesn't get hot at all and battery life much better ( I didn't have enough screen time to say I tested it properly - 83% from 9am to 9pm with minimal use).
Slowing the CPU made no difference to the ui. No lag and apps work fine.
As far as Touchwiz is concerned, it is OK. I have owned most of the Nexus phones and flashed many Cyanogen Roms and if I had a choice I would have preferred a GPE phone. However, once you get past the OCD about stopping all the Samsung bloatware draining the phone, you realize the ui is fine and you concentrate on the apps rather than the launcher. I switched off all the Samsung bells and whistles too....and there are a few!
I am waiting for the wireless charging back cover to arrive. Once I have that, I might disable the battery saving and see how it goes but on the other hand, I might just leave it on. I don't play games on my phone so I don't need a Ferrari engine to surf the internet or read my emails. And the heat it generated before can't be good for the phone or the battery.
All in all, very happy with the phone. I get a kick out of just holding it and looking at that screen... Sad! As a guy who changes phones every 3 to 4 months, I can give this phone a huge compliment: this is the first phone I really don't want to replace since my HTC HD2.
Update: After having used the phone for a few days, I am happy to report that the battery life is more than adequate. Starting at 7am, using 4G mobile hotspot for an hour, checking and responding to emails and making about three to four calls, I still have around 60 to 70% battery by 9pm.
I have the same situation and i pick alpha over any flagship fone for same reason Iike yours. Now Im waiting for spare batteries to be available in amazon or e abay, so I just swap the batteries if I run out... Instant 100% charge
you just say whats in my heart , i got many phones and they were awesome last one was the beast LG G3 and i was hating samsung phone due to many apps that included with UI touchwize but then when i saw galaxy alpha everything changed in my mind and i bring one as to be my long last phone to use each day , really smooth device even using battery saving mode and fits great in hand , you will love it more each day you will use it
I'm loving the look and feel of this phone I'll probably keep this one for awhile. I was upgrading from the nexus devices every year but the nexus 6 was a bit too big for me and I prefer the form factor of 4.7 inch phones.
It sems that we cant open ART in Developer option on Alpha,only Note 4 have this possability for now
And how is Your experience with galaxy Alfa and how it compare to Galaxy S5?
I just got an AT&T Alpha for $352.65 from eBay, which is supposed to be new but I think the seller lied (the home button has quite a number of scratches) but no big deal. I have to say I love this phone the most out of all the phones I've ever owned (iPhone 3G, 3GS, 5S, HTC EVO 4G, EVO 3D, S3, Note 2, Note 3, Note 4, Moto X). It's because of the look and build - very handsome and attractive, the size - I think it hits the perfect sweet spot of size for me, removable battery, and reasonably fast performance. I can now stop wanting to change my phone for a long while. Samsung should have continued with the Alpha and keep improving on it.
My first impressions :
1. Excellent design and feel
2. Powerful with 0 lag!!!
3. Very good screen ( super amoled in HD resolution is great for 4.7 inches )
4.Very good camera
5.Very good deep sleep of the battery
It's the first time i can't find something negative to tell about a smartphone. :good: Keep in mind that i don't play heavy games or surf the web a lot, so the small capacity of the battery is something that will not affect my opinion about Alpha.
Great work Samsung I was a hater all these years. Now i love you
Wow, sounds like a few of us are the same, I had the LG G3 but sold it. Probably the worst phone I've ever used, laggy, bad battery life and terrible camera. Planning on ordering an Alpha in the next few days, $300 brand new isn't bad. Can't wait!
Edit: its $260 new on eBay!
YOu know what I like about the ALpha is it square design, the ohter Galaxy devices are more rounded off and I think looks more childish instead this Samsung device looks more professional for my taste also it lays better in the hands wish it was a little bit smaller in the wide and it would have been perfect but then again I got woman hands ... I'm really happy with this phone except the finger scan kinda sucks, bcz it works half ass ...
But I'm on a big dillema now I received an email they gonna fix my Sony Z3 compact when I put in water but the sleeves werent closed off enough ... Anyway I don't know wich device I will keep now, I loved my Xperia bcz it fitted me better to the hand except it's little thicker and it's kinda plastic also the sound sucks ... Now the alpha dropped with 100 euros I can't ask as much as I wanted anymore don't know how much the Xperia dropped mean while ... I'm leaning more towards the Xperia bcz it's more compact to my woman hands But I love the design of the ALpha Really difficult choices to make also the price of selling the device will come in mind with this ...
Hello,
I am thinking of buying a new phone for my dad. I already have the HAM2 and I have been really satisfied with it particularly its battery life. I have never had to worry about my phone's battery draining which used to be a huge burden.
I'm aware that 1+1 has specs that are superior to the HAM2 and all that come just at the additional cost of $50.
Here are the things I would like to know about the 1+1 before I commit myself :
1. Battery Life - The 1+1 comes with a 3100mAh battery while the HAM2 comes with a 3900mAh. I'm not a heavy phone user. I usually charge my HAM2 every 4 days. Using proportionality, the 3100mAh battery should last for 3 days if the 3900mAh lasts for 4 days. But, obviously, I didn't take into account that the 1+1 has a 2.5GHz processor (compared to the 1.6GHz) and also a higher resolution which might further lower the battery life.
2. Heating - I used to own a samsung S3 own and I could used it to fry an egg. That was how hot it used to get. I've never had any heating issues with the HAM2 even when its compared to the far more expensive S5.
Has anyone here used the 1+1 and can comment on the two points above and also any other reason why I should buy the HAM2 instead of the 1+1?
medwatt said:
Hello,
I am thinking of buying a new phone for my dad. I already have the HAM2 and I have been really satisfied with it particularly its battery life. I have never had to worry about my phone's battery draining which used to be a huge burden.
I'm aware that 1+1 has specs that are superior to the HAM2 and all that come just at the additional cost of $50.
Here are the things I would like to know about the 1+1 before I commit myself :
1. Battery Life - The 1+1 comes with a 3100mAh battery while the HAM2 comes with a 3900mAh. I'm not a heavy phone user. I usually charge my HAM2 every 4 days. Using proportionality, the 3100mAh battery should last for 3 days if the 3900mAh lasts for 4 days. But, obviously, I didn't take into account that the 1+1 has a 2.5GHz processor (compared to the 1.6GHz) and also a higher resolution which might further lower the battery life.
2. Heating - I used to own a samsung S3 own and I could used it to fry an egg. That was how hot it used to get. I've never had any heating issues with the HAM2 even when its compared to the far more expensive S5.
Has anyone here used the 1+1 and can comment on the two points above and also any other reason why I should buy the HAM2 instead of the 1+1?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Had both, kept the Ham2, sold the One. NOTHING wrong with it, but I had the Ham2 for over a week before I finally got the invite for the One (first week of July). I wasn't sure if I would like the "low specs" of the Ham2, but, it's solid performance, the bigger screen and that awesome battery life won me over. My OnePlus also had the "yellow screen" issue, which I resolved myself by a combination of a UV light and running it from time to time. Sold it to one of my best friends and she absolutely loves it. I came to the conclusion that you don't need a high end device to have a good experience. Couple a great screen, a good processors and an incredible battery, win win. I've had no issues running any app on my device, but I'm not into 3D games or any games, just apps that I use for work. Either device will work for you. Depending on the age of your father, he might prefer the larger screen and size of the Ham2, but on the other hand, as you know, it's a BEAST, and might prefer the smaller size of the OnePlus. Either way, it's a win win.
Lol, my dad was tempted to buy a HAM2 but bought a 1+1 on one of its "no invite necessary" days.
Generic answer, but it all comes down to what he wants. The 1+1 is a great phone at a great price making it great value, although it has a smaller screen (which may be a plus) and battery. The HAM2 is probably the best of its kind, save for the Nexus 6, but its battery destroys everything else out there.
I had the 1+1 for 4 months before getting the HAM2. I needed to move off the one plus because my company uses airwatch for corporate email and it didnt like cyanogen at all. Even though the one plus wasnt rooted... it showed up as compromised because of cyanogen. so I went looking and got the HAM2. I love it... and people ask me all the time if I wish i could still use the one plus. Answer: no... the screen size and battery life of the HAM2 is awesome... I dont need 1080p resolution either.. i dont even notice it. the HAM2 does everything i need it to do including playing some games.
Just my $.02
I owned a G2 from August 14 to Feb 15. I enjoyed it but mainly ran custom roms. Now after 2 years and lots of other phones I have another G2 in my life. So some thoughts on it:
The screen is still good even in the era of 2k AMOLED.
It still sets a high bar for screen to bezel ratio. It is a lot more compact than my Honor 8 that has the same size screen.
I flashed the latest Lollipop stock ROM and it runs fine. The SD800 was a fine SoC and it can handle most things.
However the black G2 is still a shiny sweaty fingerprint magnet. It doesn't feel premium in anyway.
Should I keep it? I think I might as it is a decent spare phone to have kicking about.
Sent from my LG-D802 using Tapatalk
Sounds like the only thing you dont like is the "fingerprint magnet". If it bothers you that much then sure change it.
I've had mine since 2014 and im keeping it. Still enjoying its performance, battery life, features (double tap to wake/sleep & rear keys) and overall size.
zizuka said:
Sounds like the only thing you dont like is the "fingerprint magnet". If it bothers you that much then sure change it.
I've had mine since 2014 and im keeping it. Still enjoying its performance, battery life, features (double tap to wake/sleep & rear keys) and overall size.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The one thing I miss from a "modern" phone is a fingerprint sensor. I love the back buttons though, I enjoyed them in the G3 G4 as well
Sent from my LG-D802 using Tapatalk
I had a g2 for about and year and broke it's screen and sold it broken. I tried other phones after that mainly xiaomi's and they were great, but 2 weeks ago I found a cheap G2 that was in new condition and for 70$ I bought it. After so many phones this one is my favourite and was always my favourite. It is a very good phone and is as good as the mid ranged phones from these days.
The only thing that it will need is a new battery and is good to go. Even tho it is a 3 year old phone I can get through the day with one charge and 3 h SOT mid usage.
With a new battery it will be at least 25% better. I love this phone and for the price you can't get anything near it
I keep using it over 3 years. I replaced the battery with a no brand name. I could keep it till its death, if there was an option to add a sdcard. It doesn't obviously, so I will substitute it, till I have free space no more.
If possible : I wish it was possible to replace the sim slot with a hybrid slot. This kind of mod would give at least another year of life to this phone, by adding a sdcard storage.
I've been using this model since it's release date and its still super solid. I've gone through 2 G2 and its so nice because they are only around $100 to replace them if I need to for whatever reason. good battery life and screen are still great on this phone. running apps and general browsing doesn't really feel much slower than other phones.
The only thing is the 32gb onboard memory runs out quick and no sd card. What i did to get around is have a otg usb key chain to keep extra files on if I need it. not the most elegant solution but the usb drive is so small its barely protrudes from the phone when plugged in. I replaced the battery and SOT times are 4+ hours no problem.
I will keep this phone for a long while or until maybe SD 900 platform comes around. I've also become used to the back buttons and I wish other phones would have it as well.
I love this phone so much that I actually own 4 of them. My wife and I have them and I bought two spares that I use to play with (custom ROMs and theme testing) and as backups in case either of ours break. The only thing that will drive me away from this phone is when new ROM support stops. If it ever gets to the point where developer stop supporting the device, then I will move on. Until then, it's G2 for me.
This is a good phone for the money.
Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk
anything that sony got wrong, from build quality to processor overheating. i am interested in buying my first sony smartphone, so would like to see if its a wise investment.
like with any other product today, it really depends what you are after. In absolute terms, there's no device that should score more than 6/10 if you really go nip ticking around every single detail.
With that said, I really hate holes in the screen, so reason #1, then I really like SD card, not because I need 3TB of storage but because I keep all the stuff that I need on SD and if phone breaks it is an easy solution. So that's #2.
The main complaint seem to be overheating, but that happens with recording/taking pictures. Not sure, never happened to me because I don't care about cameras on phone. Every one in the last 5 years is decent enough for casual photo and every single one sucks in comparison to a proper camera for half the price.
Now, build quality seems great, but it's been just 2 months. XZ2 I had for 4 years and that was a tank so if this one is that good than no complaints.
Also. I could list 20 features that ppl will argue about and I find them completely irrelevant. I paid for the undamaged screen and SD card slot first, the rest I could get for 1/3 of the price of mark IV. Screen I could get on some gaming phone or under display camera one but those don't have SD. And many chinese phones still have USB 2 so.......
I agree with nearly everything @kinggo2 wrote, I don't really dislike holes in the screen. But I must say Sony has done well to get rid of those massive bezels of the past. The phone did heat up a bit when I started using it. It
seems to have learnt my usage case and doesn't heat up as much. I love the fact that it does have a sdcard slot and a headphone jack. I also just store stuff on a card and move the card when I get a new phone. The only thing I miss is an FM radio which I still listen to. I can get around this by streaming. My Z5 Premium and Z2 are still good and work. That said, the price is high. I justified it by saying it was a good deal because I got a free set of WH-1000XM4 cans with the phone. Phones are a depreciating asset, but if you don't like the price, see whether the 5 IV suits you. And yes, I would recommend it.
I'd recommend buying it over the exynos S22+....laggy, overrated phone...the Xperia is smooth as silk in comparison
Now, No, see these threads :
Xperia overheating problem
Hello. I am following user experiences with this phone and lately i have saw that many people have started to complain about its overheating thing. I have almost bought this phone recently but after i saw that this is maybe not i software issue...
forum.xda-developers.com
How long can you film with VideoPro before autostop[Yellow Triangle Overheat]?
Hi, I have been fighting with my carrier who provided me my Xperia I.V in a pack (Altice) , because of the disfunctional Photo/video parts , since june : after a few manipulations on the settings for video or photo , the yellow triangle already...
forum.xda-developers.com
invasion13 said:
Now, No, see these threads :
Xperia overheating problem
Hello. I am following user experiences with this phone and lately i have saw that many people have started to complain about its overheating thing. I have almost bought this phone recently but after i saw that this is maybe not i software issue...
forum.xda-developers.com
How long can you film with VideoPro before autostop[Yellow Triangle Overheat]?
Hi, I have been fighting with my carrier who provided me my Xperia I.V in a pack (Altice) , because of the disfunctional Photo/video parts , since june : after a few manipulations on the settings for video or photo , the yellow triangle already...
forum.xda-developers.com
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so what is the culprit ? the processor ?
Fytdyh said:
so what is the culprit ? the processor ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Processor known to heat , case design, and software optimization i guess
So.. I agree with @kinggo2 .. My 2 cents :
All the reviews that weigh battery life / charging speed high are irrelevant to me. As long as no phone can do a week, I am perfectly happy with phones that last a full day on average - which the sony does. I also charge the phone at night - so I dont really care about charging speed. By the way, I had an Asus ROG 5 and while the charging speed was spectacular, the battery capacity degraded rapidly and after 6 months, I could barely use it for 1/2 a day. Many studies show that frequently charging your phone at high wattages reduces battery life.
No other phone has 12GB RAM, 512GB Storage, 4K display, expandable storage, dual sim, close to stock android skin, good camera hardware, 3.5mm jack, front display without camera cutouts - and all that packaged in a sleek 185mg, IP68, matte glass back body that is so much easier to grasp - and I really hate curved displays, which thankfully sony has decided not to do.
If you don't like the default camera app, you can download Gcam for free, and get really awesome single click night photos (low light photos are probably the only area that I concede that the default camera app's basic mode is really bad - everything else is not really that perceptible IMHO)
On principle, I don't buy Apple or Samsung phones. I feel they unfairly enter into deals with the carriers (atleast in the US) to ensure that they remain the dominant manufacturers. It is unfair to the consumers that in the US, it is very hard to get a Xiaomi, POCO, ASUS, Motorola phone and even if you do, connectivity is very poor and 5G will probably not work. Even Sony had to delay US launch probably because they had to put in a different modem. I don't like being bullied by Apple and its fanbase into being forced to use iMessage, AirDrop and Facetime. Lock-in strategies are bad for consumers in general and is a major road-block to innovation.