Leaked Photos Show Samsung Adding More Metal To Its Mobile Phone Lineup With The Galaxy Alpha

Samsung Electronics Co. (KRX: 005930) is adding some more metal to its mobile phone lineup, if new leaked photos of the coming Galaxy Alpha are to be believed.

The rumored Samsung Galaxy Alpha is expected to launch in August and has been elusive for some time, but a recent photo leak shows a device similar to the Samsung Galaxy S5 in design, but with a prominent metal trim around the edges.

Tech website SamMobile shared images of the device on Wednesday, comparing it to the Samsung Galaxy S5. The Galaxy Alpha has a perforated back panel made of plastic, similar to the Galaxy S5; however, its metal trim is supposedly made of aluminum.

Sources told SamMobile that while the device is targeted at the mid-range market, it may have a number of high-end specifications. It will likely include 32GB of internal storage, which may not support external microSD storage. It may also include a Finger Scanner, similar to the Galaxy S5.

It is still believed that the Samsung Galaxy Alpha will include a 4.7-inch 720p resolution Super AMOLED display and a Samsung Exynos 5 Octa or Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset. The device may also be 6-mm thick (about 0.24 inch), similar to the recently released Samsung Galaxy Tab S tablet, which has a thickness comparable to a stack of five credit cards.

A Vietnamese tech blog also shared images of the Galaxy Alpha, which suggest there will be a model of the device that supports LTE-A mobile data speed of 150 megabits per second.

Recent reports indicate that the Samsung Galaxy Alpha may be in limited supply and available only in South Korea. This is supposedly due to Samsung having limited access to metal suppliers with the capacity to produce enough units for a major launch. Korean news outlets detail that rival Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: APPL) already working with prominent Taiwanese metal suppliers like Foxconn and Castek Holdings has left Samsung to negotiate with Chinese suppliers that can supposedly produce only about one million metal casings per month.

Many prior reports have suggested that Samsung had plans to make a device mostly out of metal in order to compete with the Apple’s iPhone and the HTC One flagships by HTC Corp. (TPE: 2498), but the Samsung Galaxy Alpha appears to be much different than what was expected. Image leaks from June show a Samsung device supposedly with a back cover made of metal. However, SamMobile notes that leaked Galaxy Alpha might be a prototype model and not a final design, so the Galaxy Alpha may continue to be elusive until its official release.