Samsung Galaxy Alpha US Release Kicks Off, Unofficially, With Hefty Price Tag

Samsung's U.S. launch for the Galaxy Alpha has kicked off - unofficially, that is.

GSMArena reports that online retailer Expansys is now offering the smartphone with shipment to the United States. The new metal smartphone from Sammy is listed with a $699.99 price tag (factory unlocked) with color options of black, gold, and blue. The device packs 32GB of internal memory and the Exynos chipset.

As the publication notes, Samsung has not announced an official release schedule for the Alpha, with its focus right now on the launch of the new Galaxy Note 4.

The device's impending arrival in Canada - Bell Mobility and Virgin Mobile are expected to get it first - does suggest, however, that the Alpha is close to its official release date announcement in the US., where it will face heavy competition this fall from the recently-unveiled 4.7-inch iPhone 6.

The South Korean tech giant has also released a new advertisement for the recently-unveiled smartphone, putting a focus on the people who will live up to the device's premium name - in this case a DJ, designer and stylist.

The creative veers from Samsung's usual strategy according to Cheil Worldwide, which worked with the smartphone maker for the Nicolas Winding Refn ("Drive," "Only God Forgives") directed video.

"We wanted to create something new, something that isn't 'Samsung' as you know it," Wain Choi, global ECD at Cheil Worldwide told The Drum. "For this, we wanted to turn our video into a graphical piece of art that every Alpha person would relate to."

The Alpha packs a 4.7-inch, 1280 x 720 Super AMOLED display, either a 1.8GHz octa-core or 2.5GHz quad-core processor depending on your region, 2GB of RAM, 4G LTE and a 12-megapixel camera on its front.

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