Samsung Galaxy A8 Review

Samsung introduced the A series at the start of 2015, the latest handset by Samsung is Galaxy A8. It has some very stunning specifications. Read the full review to know more details.

Description

The description of Samsung Galaxy A8 includes:

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 8939, Octa-core, 1500 MHz, ARM Cortex-A53 processor
• Android 5.1 operating system
• 2 GB RAM, 16/32 GB storage and an expansion slot for external memory
• 158mm length, 8mm width and 5.9mm thickness
• A screen of 7 inches and 1080 x 1920 pixels display resolution
• It weighs 151 g
• Price of £330/ $500

Build

• The design of Galaxy A8 is very nice and sophisticated.
• Physical material of the handset is metal.
• It fells durable and robust in hand.
• It has rounded corners.
• Measuring only 5.9mm it is the sleekest phone in the Galaxy series.
• Measuring 158mm in length it is very tall. It is difficult to hold in one hand.
• It is a little uncomfortable for the pockets.
• There is not much bezel above and below the screen.
• Beneath the screen there is a physical button for Home function, on the left and right there are touch button for multitasking and back functions.
• On the left edge there is a well sealed slot for Nano SIM and microSD card. Volume rocker button is also found on the same edge.
• Right edge holds a lone power button.
• A micro USB port and a 3.5mm headphone jack is found on the bottom edge.
• The back plate cannot be removed so the battery cannot be reached.
• It is available in three colours of white, black and gold.

Display

• The handset has a 5.7 inch Super AMOLED screen along with 1080 x 1920 pixels of display resolution.
• The pixel density is 386ppi.
• The colours are very bright and well calibrated. The saturation level is great. The screen is a pleasure to watch.
• The sub-pixels are a little less due to the Diamond Matrix arrangement.
• Text clarity is absolutely stunning.
• Web browsing, video viewing and eBook reading are not a problem.
• Minimum brightness is at 1 nits which is excellent.
• Maximum brightness is at 339 nits which is just average.

Camera

• There is a 16 megapixels camera at the back.
• On the front there is a 5 megapixel camera.
• Both the camera has a wide aperture of f/1.9 lens.
• On the rear there is dual LED flash.
• HD videos can be recorded.
• The colours of the images are bright and sharp while the images themselves are stunning.
• Indoor pictures are good.
• HDR mode is very useful in some cases.
• The feature of double clicking the home button to open the camera app is also present.
• There are a number of manual controls and features in the camera app.
• Beauty mode can help enhance the selfies but it can be turned off for realistic look.
• The front camera has a 120-degree view which is perfect for group selfies but you have to get the handset very close to your face for single person selfies.
• Videos can be recorded at 1080p.
• Video colours are sharp and the clarity is good.
• Videos lack stabilization and capture every tremor of hands.

Speakers & Microphone

• There is a speaker on the back. It is very loud.
• Sound quality is good.
• Microphone works perfectly.
• Call quality is awesome.

Performance

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 8939, Octa-core, 1500 MHz, ARM Cortex-A53 processor along with 2 GB RAM gives stunning performance.
• Multitasking and heavy games are pretty smooth.
• A few lags were noticed during daily usage.
• The apps which are used on a daily basis are a little slow.

Memory and battery

• The handset comes in two versions of built in memory; 16 GB and 32 GB.
• The 32 GB version has 23 GB of user available storage.
• The memory can be increased by the use of as microSD card.
• The 3050mAh non-removable battery is powerful.
• It will easily get you through the day and a half.
• Charging takes a lot of time.
• Constant screen on time was recorded to be 8 hours and 49 minutes.
• The stand by time of the battery is 12 days and 7 hours.
• Ultra power saving mode is very helpful, with it turned on the phone can last for several hours on a single digit battery.

Features

• The handset runs Android 5.1 operating system along with Samsung’s TouchWiz interface.
• The interface is sometimes a little slow and jerky.
• There is a theme store which has various themes to suite everyone’s needs.
• The features HSPA, HSUPA, GPRS, Wi-FI and Bluetooth are present.
• The handset offers a custom browser and a Chrome browser. Both the browsers are very efficient and fast. Web browsing is pretty smooth.
• The device supports 4G LTE.
• The standard features like dual band Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth 4.1 and NFC are present.

The box will include:

• Samsung Galaxy A8
• Charger
• Headphone
• microUSB cable
• SIM ejector tool
• Information manual

Verdict

On the whole Galaxy A8 is a very consistent and dependable handset. It is very difficult to find any faults; the design is good; it is tall slim and lightweight, processor is tiny bit slow, display is remarkable; colours contrast are impressive and the camera gives amazing shots. High end users will definitely like this addition to the android market.

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