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Author Samsung Galaxy Alpha is official
Bonovox
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Posted: 2014-08-14 00:44
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Yes it is down to software and how optimization works for battery life. The Galaxy S3 stock battery 2,100mAh was terrible and even the extended 3,000mAh battery doesn't do that well so it can be down to optimization. Sony and HTC have managed to get battery life and software optimization sorted as many say the Z2 and HTC One M8 have great battery life. But for a phone with a 720p screen the battery is still too small with all that power under the hood
Phone?? What phone??
cu015170
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Posted: 2014-08-14 01:20
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Well, like I said, at least is user replaceable by the looks of it, which is a big plus. The iPhone 6 and the z3 compact will most likely have sealed batteries.

Its a good looking device for sure.. they've done a good job
Tsepz_GP
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Posted: 2014-08-14 01:25
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The battery is certainly small for even for 2012 standards where we crossed into +2000mAh territory, that is also my biggest concern on this phone, but when you consider what sort of consumer they are after with the Alpha, they won't be very heavy users like us, the battery life won't be earth shattering but it should handle a day.
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aussieland1
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Posted: 2014-08-14 08:27
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The thing is that the cpu is also a octa core which means that the power under the hood is only used for heavy stuff for lighter tasks the A7 cpu's are used
And the other thing to rememeber is like tsepz said most people are not power/heavy users like Bono so there is every chance that the battery should be fine. Also in regards to GS3 that had a 2012 cpu (40 nm if i am correct) the current cpu's (28 nm and less) are definetely more power eficient

Btw speaking of ios iphone 5 had a terrible battery life after the upgrade to ios 7 -which is not the case with the iphone 5s . That proves as well that the newer technology is more poser efficient
[ This Message was edited by: aussieland1 on 2014-08-14 07:32 ]
Tsepz_GP
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Posted: 2014-08-14 09:04
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To further add to your point Aussie, the Galaxy Alpha's CPU has been unveiled, it's a whole new Exynos5430 built on Samsungs 20nm process, not even 28nm so it's even more power efficient than any other chip currently available, that could explain why Samsung went with a smaller battery.

Samsung unveils the 20nm octa-core Exynos 5430 processor


Samsung made the Galaxy Alpha official yesterday, and apart from being the first metallic Android smartphone from the Korean manufacturer, the Galaxy Alpha is also the first to be powered by Samsung’s Exynos 5430 SoC. Today, Samsung has released details on its new mobile processor. As expected, the Exynos 5430 is an octa-core chip (with four Cortex-A15 cores clocked at 1.8 GHz, four Cortex-A7 cores clocked at 1.3 GHz, and the Mali T628MP6 GPU), but it’s distinct from existing Exynos chips as it is the first to be built on Samsung’s new 20nm process, which the company says offers up to 25 percent less power consumption compared to SoCs built on a 28nm process while not compromising on performance.

The Exynos 5430 also supports big.LITTLE HMP (Heterogeneous Multi-Processing) processing – in simple terms, this means that all the eight cores of the processor can be active at the same time, and can also be individually turned on and off as and when required. Furthermore, the Exynos 5430 supports display resolutions of WQHD (2560×1440) and WQXGA (2560×1600) – the Galaxy Alpha might have an average resolution of 1280×720, but it looks like Samsung’s newest Exynos chip won’t be left wanting for power on high-resolution devices (it’s too bad the Galaxy Tab S is powered by the older Exynos 5420, resulting in a somewhat laggy experience.)

Samsung hasn’t published full specifications of the latest Exynos chipset, though you can hit up the source link for all the official details that are available as of now. Before someone asks, we should point out that the upcoming Galaxy Note 4 will be powered by the Exynos 5433 processor, and the Exynos 5430 will likely be reserved for devices that fall a tad below Samsung’s flagship phones and tablets.

SamMobile

All this just makes me more excited for the Note 4, this means it's Exynos chipset will be very efficient compared to what's currently available as most other manufacturers are either stuck with the Snapdragon 801 or 805 for their devices being announced at IFA.
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cu015170
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Posted: 2014-08-14 09:23
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^ That's awesome.. is it the first phone to use the 20nm ?

That should bring down the power drain from the CPU quite a bit so 1800mah might be perfectly fine for most people.
[ This Message was edited by: cu015170 on 2014-08-14 08:24 ]
rikken
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Posted: 2014-08-14 10:36
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Hopefully Sammy knows what they're doing and that means we might have come to a point where smaller batteries give the same batterytime that we are used to from larger batteries.

Looking forward to the full review from GSMarena
XperiaJunkie
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Posted: 2014-08-14 11:02
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Here is another review of the Galaxy Alpha I found it on the rumours page. They claim the device nothing special for the price tag.

http://mobile-review.com/review/samsung-galaxy-alpha-fl.shtml#s4
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XperiaJunkie
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Posted: 2014-08-14 13:32
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Great news on the CPU inside the Alpha, fingers crossed it is as good as Samsung say at being energy efficient and if it gets anywhere near 70 hours on GSM arena's battery test (the S5 scored 72 hours) then it is a massive victory for Samsung and the Alpha. In an ideal world however (possibly in the Note 4) we will see that CPU in phone with a massive battery and see how good it really is when faced with a much larger QHD display, that is something I can't wait to see as the Note 4 is and as always shaping up to be a real beast.
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badassmam
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Posted: 2014-08-14 13:35
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I agree but in these modern times, the Alpha will be taking loads of selfies and Instagram pics so I do think the battery will drain quickly because most of the power is used by the screen. Anyway, I'd like to see the next Note with this design language but with a different material on the back. I'm wondering how the rumoured Apple phablet will be in comparison since it'll be the first true Note competitor.
XperiaJunkie
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Posted: 2014-08-14 13:48
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@badassmam the only thing that worries now is why haven't Samsung released any specs regarding talk time, standby time, music and video playback every other phone I've known has released that info on launch of the phone. Could it be Samsung still have some tweaking to do to maximise the battery life before it release in September or maybe they'll just keep things hush hush and release them on the quiet ?
[ This Message was edited by: XperiaJunkie on 2014-08-14 12:48 ]
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Tsepz_GP
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Posted: 2014-08-14 15:08
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On 2014-08-14 13:48:04, XperiaJunkie wrote:
@badassmam the only thing that worries now is why haven't Samsung released any specs regarding talk time, standby time, music and video playback every other phone I've known has released that info on launch of the phone. Could it be Samsung still have some tweaking to do to maximise the battery life before it release in September or maybe they'll just keep things hush hush and release them on the quiet ?
[ This Message was edited by: XperiaJunkie on 2014-08-14 12:48 ]



Samsung almost always do last minute tweaks before a phone gets released, the most major one was when they announced the Galaxy S2 with a Dual-Core 1GHz CPU, a few weeks before release the CPU was upped to 1.2GHz. With the Galaxy S4 Samsung were mostly quiet about the CPU after announcement, until a week or so before release when they finally announced what regions would get which model CPU due to production problems with the Exynos 5410, etc etc... I'd also like to see how it performs battery wise with this new CPU.
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Tsepz_GP
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Posted: 2014-08-14 16:23
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I'm loving how self reliant Samsung are becoming from memory chips, CPUs, Dispalys, and more recently mobile cameras, the Alpha has been confirmed to be using a Samsung ISOCELL sensor:

Samsung Galaxy Alpha comes with ISOCELL sensor (plus more samples)


Yesterday, we showed you the first camera samples out of the 12-megapixel Samsung Galaxy Alpha camera, but we did not know much about the sensor. We are still trying to dig up more information on it, but Samsung has now confirmed that it’s using its own 12-megapixel CMOS image sensor with the ISOCELL technology and a native 16:9 aspect ratio.

ISOCELL is a technology that took years in development and it made a debut in the Samsung Galaxy S5 on a 16-megapixel Samsung sensor. Now, in the Galaxy Alpha we’re looking at some of the same features: ISOCELL (but on a 12-megapixel scale, and unknown sensor size) and phase-detection auto-focus.

In its official blog, Samsung promises that images taken on the Galaxy Alpha will come out “sharper than ever with natural colors.” Skipping the PR talk, though, we should say that ISOCELL brings a couple of important advantages over non-isolated photo cells used in traditional BSI sensors: first, crosstalk is reduced from 19% to 12.5% in ISOCELL, next, luminance signal to noise ratio improved from 150 lux to 105 lux, and finally, full well capacity increased from 5,000e- to 6,200e-.

So far, Samsung is not revealing much specifically about this 12-megapixel sensor, though. We’ve heard rumors that the Galaxy Note 4 might also feature a 12-megapixel ISOCELL camera (rumor says the Note 4 might have optical image stabilization, something that is not present on the Galaxy Alpha), so that is one possible reason why more information is not being released just yet. Good news is that the Note 4 is coming in just around three weeks, and - if all those whispers turn out true - we’ll learn more about this sensor soon.


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XperiaJunkie
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Posted: 2014-08-14 17:10
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GSMarena test the display on Galaxy Alpha
http://blog.gsmarena.com/testing-samsung-galaxy-alpha-display/
[ This Message was edited by: XperiaJunkie on 2014-08-14 16:21 ]
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XperiaJunkie
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Posted: 2014-08-14 19:03
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OK its my day off work and I'm board so what I've done is made a list of phones which have the same resolution and a quad core CPU and still currently available to buy but have a variance in screen size. I've used the GSM arena battery test as a yardstick.

Samsung S5 mini -2100mAh battery - 4.5" display - 72h rating
Samsung S3 - 2100mAh battery - 4.8" display - 50h rating
HTC One Mini 2 - 2110mAh - 4.5" display - battery 50h rating
Sony Xperia T2 Ultra - 3000mAh 6.0" display - battery 96h rating
Sony Xperia Z1C - 2300mAh - 4.3" display - battery 65h rating
Motorola Moto G - 2070mAh battery - 4.5" display - 54h rating

As you can see the performance in battery life is quite varied, I would expect the Galaxy Alpha to perform very similar to the S5 mini given the fact that the screen is a little brighter, 0.2" larger and the battery is a little bit smaller (240mAh less) but has a more energy efficient CPU. I know this is quite a vague way of guessing the battery life but if it falls short of the S5 mini I would call the battery life average at best considering the new superior CPU. All current flagships which the Alpha is should have very good battery life but I know Samsung will be marketing this for people who just wan't something that looks good and can take a good selfie and not really care much about battery performance.
[ This Message was edited by: XperiaJunkie on 2014-08-14 18:17 ]
I'm so happy 'cause today
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They're in my head
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