Looking to get a little more use out of your Galaxy S5’s battery? Samsung’s flagship smartphone will reportedly offer 21 hours of “talk time” on a single charge, but when you have half a dozen or more processes running in the background, it rarely reaches this amount. The good news is that you can significantly extend the Galaxy S5’s battery life by making a few simple changes to your device. Lower The Brightness Bold, brightly colored display screens are pleasing to the eyes, but they can drain your device’s battery. To reduce the brightness on your Galaxy S5, access the notifications bar and uncheck the box next to auto brightness. Next, slide the brightness bar down to a lower setting. Disable GPS Arguably, one of the biggest battery-draining functions on smartphones, including the Galaxy S5, is GPS. Don’t get me wrong, GPS is great when you need road directions or when you’re lost in the woods, but leaving this feature on any other time is a huge waste of energy. To disable it, tap Settings > Location > and move the switch at the top of the screen to the off position. Disable WiFi Of course, disabling the WiFi on…

If you’re holding out for the Galaxy Alpha, you may be in luck, because sources reveal Samsung is planning to launch the variant this week. The Galaxy Alpha, previous dubbed the Galaxy F and Galaxy Prime, will boast an entirely new body design (see photo above). Normally, Samsung aims for a sleek, thin design with rounded corners — a standard among major smartphone manufacturers. The Galaxy Alpha takes a different approach, however, as it’s noticeably thicker with squared-off corners. Even so, reports suggest the Galaxy Alpha is still thinner than the Apple iPhone 5S, striking another win for Samsung in its battle against Apple. Leaked photos of the Galaxy Alpha also reveal a new material used in the design of its body. The current Galaxy S5 launch-edition features an all-plastic body, which is both lightweight and durable. However, critics claim the all-plastic body is somewhat cheap and doesn’t coincide with Samsung’s objective of producing cutting-edge smartphones and mobile devices. Will the Galaxy Alpha use an all-metal body instead? Based on the leaked photos, it appears it will use at least some metal parts in its body (possibly aluminum?). Whether or not it’s an all-metal body, however, remains to be seen….