Samsung to discontinue Galaxy Alpha for cheaper A5: Report

Samsung is set to ditch the Galaxy Alpha in early 2015 - one of the company’s best-looking smartphones yet. The Galaxy Alpha , which flaunts a metallic frame and a slim design, was launched in September this year. According to ET News Samsung will stop manufacturing the Galaxy Alpha as soon as its exhausts the materials used in manufacturing the device that are currently in its inventory. In place of the Alpha, Samsung will launch the Galaxy A5 , which comes with a similar design but with rather modest specifications. The Galaxy A5 packs a 1.2GHz quad-core processor paired with 2GB RAM, along with 16GB of built-in storage. On the other hand, the Galaxy Alpha has a quad-core processor clocked at 1.8GHz and a quad-core 1.3GHz processor, working in HMP mode, so all eight cores can run simultaneously. The phone packs in 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal memory, though there’s no micro SD card slot. Though Galaxy Alpha created a lot of buzz, it failed to sway the premium smartphone segment, thanks to cheaper, yet powerful smartphones such as the Huawei Ascend Mate 7 and the Motorola Moto X. The Galaxy A5 will be priced at around 400,000 won (around Rs 23,000) with an aim to woo the mid-end smartphone market. This is more than Rs 10,000 lower than what the Galaxy Alpha costs right now. The report states that the Galaxy A5 will launch in its home country, South Korea, by the end of February before setting foot in other countries.