Samsung Galaxy Alpha A7: More Than Just a Big Screen and Good Looks

By Don Reisinger

Samsung has decided to follow Apple’s lead with the Galaxy Alpha A7 and opt for a 5.5-inch display. It appears that 5.5 inches is the new desired size for flagship smartphones. The iPhone 6 Plus comes with a screen that size, as does the LG G Flex 2. Now that the Galaxy Alpha A7 has followed that lead, it appears we shouldn’t expect to see too many 6-inch screens this year.

Samsung is getting serious about power. The company announced that the Galaxy Alpha A7 will come with two quad-core processors. For some markets, customers will find the MSM-made Quad chips running at 1.5GHz and 1GHz, respectively. In other markets, Samsung will ship its own Exynos line of chipsets, boasting 1.8GHz and 1.3GHz clock speeds, respectively. Either way, there will be eight cores of processing power being pumped through the handset.

Customers looking for a solid photography solution could find a winner in the Galaxy Alpha A7. The rear-facing camera comes in at 13 megapixels and has auto-focus and an LED flash. The front-facing camera features 5 megapixels, making it a standout in a space that’s dominated by smartphones with front-facing cameras that can only muster around 2 megapixels of resolution.

Selfies were big in 2014 and are now a selling point in smartphones in 2015. Samsung announced that its Galaxy Alpha A7 smartphone will come with a wide selfie feature, allowing users to take snapshots of themselves from a wide angle. In addition, the device comes with a rear-selfie feature, letting users snap photos of themselves with the higher-end rear-facing cameras as well.

One of the features of Galaxy Alpha A7 that Samsung is promoting is its thin design. The company says that the smartphone is just 6.3mm thick, making it slightly thinner than the iPhone 6 Plus, which measures 7.1mm in thickness. Despite having the same screen size, the Alpha A7 is also lightweight at 141 grams. Apple’s handset weighs 172 grams.

Surprisingly, Samsung opted against including the latest Android distribution, Lollipop, in the Galaxy Alpha A7. Instead, the company says the smartphone will ship with Android 4.4 (KitKat). While that’s not necessarily a bad thing, those hoping for a smartphone that runs the latest and greatest Android software will need to look elsewhere.

Storage issues could be a concern for those looking at the Galaxy Alpha A7. According to Samsung, the device will ship with 16GB of onboard storage, and there will be no options for 32GB or even 64GB. Instead, Samsung says users can pick up a microSD card with a capacity of up to 64GB to add to the 16GB of onboard storage.

One of the major selling points for the LG G Flex 2 is that it comes with a curved screen that puts the microphone closer to the user’s mouth. While Samsung’s handset doesn’t do that, the device offers a noise-cancellation feature called “Always Clear Voice Auto Control” that, according to Samsung, dulls the noise in the surrounding environment. Whether one option is better than the other remains to be seen.

Samsung has been making a strong push in the security space with its Knox platform. So it’s perhaps no surprise that Samsung is promoting the security features in the Galaxy Alpha A7. The Galaxy Alpha A7 ships with a Private mode that the company claims adds an extra layer of security atop files and documents to limit their exposure to outside threats. It’s not clear how well it achieves that goal, but it’s at least nice to see.

The era of color is not yet over. Many handset makers are delivering products that come in several different colors, and the Galaxy Alpha A7 is by no means different. Samsung says its smartphone will ship in Pearl White, Midnight Black and Champagne Gold. Samsung has in the past offered other colors for its smartphones, but for now it appears that it’s content to stick with white, black and gold.