Samsung Galaxy Alpha on sale at Best Buy - week of 10/5

[tigerpierre]

The Samsung Galaxy Alpha is on sale at Best Buy this week for $99.99 with a two year contract!

 

[thoots]

Sure enough -- check it out:

Samsung Galaxy Alpha 4G Cell Phone SM-G850A - Best Buy

Of course, I just paid double that at my local AT&T store about a week ago....

 

[Phillip Pugh]

The alpha in gold is beautiful it's just the
Price is way out of proportion to everything else in its class went to auto store to maybe purchase it till I say that price lg has two phone with the same specs and there bought 300 dollars cheaper

Posted via Android Central App

 

[thoots]

I went to my local Best Buy this morning, and indeed, they had it on display in their cell phone section. At 99.99 for a two-year contract. Of course, in the phone section, they just have non-working display nonsense, and they really didn't even have a non-working example there -- they had some other phone above the display that described the phone and gave the price. They also had it in the Samsung area, though there the price shown was $149.99 for a two-year contract. Whatever the case, at least the one in the Samsung area was working, so you can go check it out and play with it to your heart's content.

After that, I went to the AT&T store where I bought mine for $199.99 a few days ago, and let them tell me to my face that they don't price-match anything at all, which is what I presumed would be the case. They certainly advised me that I could return mine for a refund (within their return period, which I think is 14 days, but don't quote me on that), which would cost me a $35 restocking fee. I'm not really that worried about the money all that much -- I'm just doing a bit of research so I could report about it here. Personally, I spent about a week getting my phone all set up, installing everything and tweaking everything, and I really don't think a $65 refund is worth doing all of that over again, so I'm staying put with my original AT&T phone.

So, that's how I understand things. I'm not sure if Best Buy has any color other than black, and I didn't see any cases for the Alpha in the store yet. My AT&T store does have the S View case available, which I picked up when I bought mine a week or so ago. I still haven't been able to find a battery for the Alpha either online or in any store, but I would definitely like to get one of those "battery charge kits" that include an extra battery with an external charger. Hopefully I'll be able to get one of those, some day.

 

[thoots]

Well, quick update about the battery -- I just checked ShopAndroid, and they have the battery now:

Samsung 1860mAh Standard Battery for Galaxy Alpha - Android Batteries - ShopAndroid

Just the battery, not the kit with the external charger, but that's the first time I've seen the battery online.

I'm debating about jumping on that right now -- one thing about the Alpha is that since the battery is "so small," it charges up very quickly. So, that sure reduces any need for the external charger....

 

[limitbreak09]

Can you update us about the battery life? And i emailed zerolemon if theyre gonna make one for alpha, and they said around december

Posted via Android Central App

 

[thoots]

Can you update us about the battery life?

Now that I've gotten past the first few days of installing apps and monkeying around with settings and all that rather constantly, I've been very happy with the battery life. With my old original Galaxy Note, I always charged it up in the evening, and then topped it off first thing in the morning, and I can't see changing that with the Alpha. And since the battery is so small, it really charges up in a relatively few minutes, so it's no hassle at all.

That said, I've never seen it go below about 70%, no matter what my usage has been. At this point, I can't really say if the battery life is better or worse than my old Note -- it certainly hasn't been markedly worse, by any means. So, the best I can say is that it's not really a whole lot different from my old Note's battery life, with the big difference being how the Alpha charges up quite a bit faster.

I did go ahead and order a second battery from ShopAndroid -- just like I did with my old Note, I like having a replacement battery tucked away. Again, I did that with my Note -- bought a second battery -- but I never, ever used it, never opened it up and charged it up. I've still got it sitting at the bottom of a drawer somewhere in the house. And hopefully it'll be just the same with the new Alpha battery, but again I just find it more comfortable to know that I've got a replacement battery should I ever need one.

 

[limitbreak09]

Thanks or the info! I do the same thing on my phones, I always buy 2 spare batteries and I keep cycling them, 1 for my phone then 1 is charging and 1 xtra. Because I hate waiting lol,.i want 100% right away..

Posted via Android Central App

 

[thoots]

Thanks or the info! I do the same thing on my phones, I always buy 2 spare batteries and I keep cycling them, 1 for my phone then 1 is charging and 1 xtra. Because I hate waiting lol,.i want 100% right away..

I haven't really timed anything as such, but it seems like the Alpha will go from, say, 80% to a full charge in about a half-hour or so -- really quite quickly. It charges far more quickly than my old Note or any tablet I've ever owned....