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Samsung To Discontinue Galaxy Alpha For Cheaper Galaxy A5

Posted by samzenpus on from the end-of-the-line dept.

An anonymous reader writes that Samsung is giving up on their Galaxy Alpha smartphones. "Samsung will reportedly stop producing the metal-clad Galaxy Alpha early next year, and instead position the Galaxy A5 smartphone as its replacement. According to a report, with the launch of Galaxy A5 in South Korea - which can be as early as mid-January and as late as early February - Samsung will phase out production of the Galaxy Alpha once the current inventory of materials is exhausted for the smartphone, reported Korean publication ET News on Friday."

7 of 47 comments (clear)

  1. Galaxy Alpha - We Hardly Knew Ye by Tailhook · · Score: 2

    The Alpha only recently became available in the US, and it certainly had my eye, being not phablet sized but still a "flagship" class phone and very well built. I'd have been happy to pay the price, but I passed, for one simple reason:

    TouchWiz.

    No thanks Samsung. Not having it. Your TouchWiz crapped up A5 can sod off as well.

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    Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
    1. Re: Galaxy Alpha - We Hardly Knew Ye by Threni · · Score: 2

      Get a Sony Z3 from a retailer who doesn't add network crap to it (IE carphone warehouse in the UK). Samsung are their own worse enemy. Great phones but ruined with dreadful UIs and a poor android upgrade record. They look destined to repeat all HTCs mistakes!

    2. Re: Galaxy Alpha - We Hardly Knew Ye by CastrTroy · · Score: 2

      Updates are my biggest problem with Android. I'm due for a new phone in a couple months and I would really like to go with Android because it fits all my needs in everything except the updates department. With the way Apple handles things, you can be reasonably sure you'll get updates for a couple years. With Android it's hit and miss depending on the handset you get, and sometimes depending on your carrier. I got burned on the last phone I bought where it never received any updates after I bought it. I tried running Cyanogen on it but even thought they said that it worked, I could never get it to boot. I really don't want to go with iPhone because they only have a couple models and they are all higher priced than what I'm willing to pay for a cell phone. At this point even Windows phone looks like it has a better update record than Android. I'm seriously considering not getting an Android phone, or just going with the cheapest one I can find so that if it doesn't get any updates and can get a new low end phone every year to keep in step with updates.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    3. Re:Galaxy Alpha - We Hardly Knew Ye by Grishnakh · · Score: 2

      Yeah, but the other problem is that I'm pissed that HTC stopped bothering with updates to this phone almost as soon as I got it, and it's been steadily getting slower and slower, and is almost unusable now. Why would I want to reward a company that doesn't do any after-the-sale support with more business?

    4. Re: Galaxy Alpha - We Hardly Knew Ye by FictionPimp · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'm waiting for the jeans market to catch up and make pockets big enough to carry the Nexus 6, then I'll look at the phone.

    5. Re: Galaxy Alpha - We Hardly Knew Ye by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Your waist size hasn't cought up yet. Let me prescribe you some super-sized meals.

  2. Whatever... by rodrigoandrade · · Score: 2

    I'll take a plastic phone over a metalic one any day. Plastic is lighter, doesn't bend permanently (hello, iPhone 6 Plus), doesn't scratch as easily as metal, a damaged back cover is cheap to replace, etc.

    Having said that, it's nice to see Samsung dropping one of its 943329658 SKUs for a change. Choice is great, sure, but too many choices is bad and confusing for most.