The Samsung Galaxy A8 is another premium handset that sports a big 5.7 inch super AMOLED screen and houses the Samsung Exynos Octa Core processor. This is a dual SIM smartphone with 4G LTE support and also comes with a 16MP AF primary camera with an f/1.9 aperture.
Galaxy A8 Unboxing
Inside the box you will find the Galaxy A8 smartphone, user guide, warranty card, premium quality earphone with extra ear plug caps, data cable, travel charger (5V ~ 2A) and SIM tray ejector pin. SAR Value : Head 0.100 W/kg.
Design and Display
Even though the Galaxy A8 might look like any other Samsung device the moment you hold it, it feels different. It is much slimmer and got a unique design that gives a very comfortable grip. A8 has got a full metal body with an excellent build quality and finishing. It is available in Gold and White color options.
The top and the bottom sides are slightly thicker when compared with the center. The left and the right side are not flat, in fact part of it is slightly bending inwards. Because of this design when you are holding the handset you do not feel anything sharper touching your skin.
A8 weight with non-removable battery is 154 grams and dimensions are 76.93mm x (over 154mm) x 6.26mm.
Power button is placed on the right side, volume rocker on the left and on the bottom side you will find the audio jack and micro USB port. There are dual mics for noise cancellation.
This is a dual SIM handset (SIM slots are on the left side below the volume rocker), SIM slot 1 is nano SIM and SIM slot 2 is hybrid SIM – you can either use a nano SIM or a micro SD card (128GB max supported). 4G works on both the SIM slots.
The Samsung Galaxy A8 sports a 5.7 inch super AMOLED screen with 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution. This screen does come with Corning Gorilla Glass protection but the same is not mentioned anywhere on the box. Colour reproduction, viewing angle and touch response is very good.
There is no LED notification and A8 is loaded with following sensors – Accelerometer, light, proximity and magnetic.
Memory, Storage and OS
The A8 is packed with 2GB RAM and 32GB ROM. On the first boot you will get about 25GB free internal storage space and about 673MB free RAM. OTG is supported and apps are getting installed by default on internal storage but there is an option to move some apps to external SD card.
The Samsung Galaxy A8 is running 32 Bit Android Lollipop version 5.1.1.
Performance and benchmark
The Galaxy A8 is using Samsung Exynos 5430 1.8GHz Octa Core processor (big.LITTLE chipset) – 4 x ARM 1.3GHz Cortex A7 and 4 x 1.8GHz Cortex A15. This is a 20nm 32 Bit hardware coupled with Mali T-628 GPU.
Performance is smooth, did not find any issues and though the handset does feel a little warm because of the metal body, the battery temperature is well under control.
Benchmark
| Benchmark App | Score |
| Quadrant | 24495 |
| Antutu (32 bit) | 1st – 47574 , 2nd – 36120 |
| Nenamark 2 | 59.4fps |
| Multi touch | 10 point |
Gaming
I installed the Asphalt 8, it got installed on the internal storage. By default it was set to high visual quality mode and it played extremely well in that mode. Hardware is very powerful and can play many high end games.
Camera
There is 16MP AF camera (with OIS) on the rear with LED flash support and a 5MP camera on the front. The camera quality is above average to excellent (in low light environment it does shoot good quality images), it comes with f/1.9 aperture that takes in more light and captures better quality image in any lighting conditions. Check the sample images and videos at the end of this review.
The handset can shoot FHD videos at 30fps. A8 is powerful and it can play 4K videos with ease.
Camera comes with auto, pro, panorama, HDR and Night modes plus there is an option to download more modes.
Others
Sound is loud and clear, no issues with in-call sound. Wi-Fi, GPS (got instant lock) and Bluetooth worked well.
I did not find the multi window option on this smartphone. The A8 like the other Samsung premium handsets also comes with touch ID based finger print scanner, accuracy is very good and processing is fast.
Battery
The A8 houses a 3050 mAh non-removable battery. Battery backup is average. It will last for almost a day with normal to moderate usage. But of heavy usage you will need to connect it to the charger sooner.
Users can also use the power saving mode and ultra power saving mode. You can expect about 5 to 6 hours of continuous moderate to heavy usage.
| Performance | Time | Battery drop % | Battery Max Temp |
| Benchmark | 13 Minutes | 4% | 34 degree |
| Gaming (Asphalt 8) | 23 Minutes | 9% | 35 degree |
| 4K movie play with full brightness + Wi-Fi on | 37 minutes | 10% | 35 degree |
| Wall Charge (on standby) | 2 hours 12 minutes | 13% to 100% (wall charge) | 34 degree |
Verdict
Galaxy A8 is the slimmest handset so far from Samsung. It’s all metal body, big super AMOLED screen with FHD resolution. A8 looks great and performs great. The primary as well as the secondary camera quality is excellent. Battery Backup is average and this handset supports 4G. The A8 gives you an overall premium experience and does come for a price.
Samsung Galaxy A8 is available for ₹32,500.
Image Gallery
Rear Camera Sample
Front Camera Sample
Samsung Galaxy A8 video review