The recently-announced Samsung Galaxy Alpha smartphone with a metal frame is ready to hit AT&T, set to launch on Friday, Sept. 26.

Samsung has long been criticized for its love of plastic, as even its highest-end devices came with polycarbonate casings even when rival OEMs were launching more premium handsets with metal designs.

For what seemed like ages, Samsung was rumored to finally ditch its plastic bond and go for a full-metal design in a more premium smartphone, which was expected to be the Galaxy Alpha.

As it turns out, however, the new Galaxy Alpha does indeed sport a more premium look and feel, but instead of the rumored all-metal design it just has a metal frame. Nevertheless, the handset looks and feels better than many other Samsung smartphones, and it drew plenty of attention due to its new design.

While Expansys had already started selling the Samsung Galaxy Alpha in the U.S., carrier AT&T has now announced that it will officially sell the smartphone starting on Friday, Sept. 26. AT&T will sell the Galaxy Alpha exclusively, both online and in retail stores, and will offer the handset both on contract and with its Next program.

"We are excited to offer you yet another industry leading smartphone with the announcement of the Galaxy Alpha on the nation's most reliable 4G LTE network, covering more than 300 million Americans," Jeff Bradley, senior vice president of Devices at AT&T, touted in the press release. "The Samsung Galaxy Alpha marries sleek, premium design with all of the great features and Samsung technology that you have come to expect from a Galaxy product."

As a reminder, the Samsung Galaxy Alpha comes with a 5-inch HD display with 720p resolution, a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor clocked at 2.5GHz, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage capacity, a 12-megapixel rear camera, and a 1,860 mAh battery, among the highlights. On the software side, the handset runs Android 4.4 KitKat.

The Samsung Galaxy Alpha will cost $199.99 when agreeing to sign a two-year contract with AT&T, $25.55 per month for 24 months with AT&T Next 18, or $30.65 per month for 20 months with AT&T Next 12. Those who would like to purchase the handset outright, meanwhile, will have to shell out $612.99. For more detais, check out the product page on AT&T's website at this link.