The Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018) is one of Samsung’s latest models within their range. But it comes with a lengthy list of similarities with the Galaxy S8 such as their Super AMOLED Infinity Display, Samsung Experience interface and 3,000 mAh battery. However, the performance is not the same and neither is the processor or camera.

Check out here how to unlock your Samsung Galaxy A8 2018

• Design

While the Samsung Galaxy A8 looks similar to the Galaxy S8, there are a lot of differences too. The Galaxy A8 has much bigger bezels which sadly ruins the look of the edge-to-edge design. Simply, the Galaxy A8 just does not look as good as on the Galaxy S8 and feels much bigger. It is only a fraction wider and slightly thicker, but you really do notice.

• Materials

The Samsung Galaxy A8 has been made out of glass and metal. The glass on the phone is Corning’s Gorilla Glass 5, which is the latest and most durable within the phones series.

While glass may look nice, it is not exactly practical for a phone as it can shatter.

The Galaxy A8 has been given IP68 certification for its water resistance, which means that it can be carried for a short dive into water and last up to 30 minutes within depths of up to 5 feet.

• Fingerprint Scanner Position

One of the biggest changes for this Samsung model is the fingerprint scanner. It has an odd placement of being on the back of the phone, near the camera. The fingerprint scanner is also not very fast like other phones on the market.

• Display

This Samsung Galaxy A8 model features a 5.6 inch Super AMOLED display which offers amazing colours. Samsung call this their “Infinity Display”.

• Specifications and Performance

The colour representation on the Galaxy A8 is not as good as it is on the Galaxy S8 at all. The A8 has colder whites and the colours overall are not balanced properly, which throws the look off. But with it being a Super AMOLED display, you have a choice of different colour modes that you would like which can be done in ‘Settings’.

With this model and a lot of Samsungs newer models, this one has the Always-on Display feature which is incredibly handy. However, it does take some additional battery power.

• Interface and Functionality

The Galaxy A8 appears to be better optimized in terms of software and it works a lot faster than the Galaxy S8 too, as well as having a more powerful processor. But the A8 runs on Android 7 Nougat, which is a shame for a phone that has been released in 2018.

• Processor, Performance and Memory

The Galaxy A8 is powered by Samsung Exynos 7885 chip. This Exynos 7885 chip has been built on the modern 14nm LPP FinFET manufacturing process.

The phone has 2x powerful Cortex A73 CPU cores which run up to 2.2GHz and 6x efficient Cortex A53 cores that are running at up to 1.6GHz.

While the phone has a good performance level, it is certainly nothing special or ground breaking and the 32GB of storage is not enough for a phone of this price.

• Camera

The Galaxy A8 features a 16-megapixel rear camera with optical stabilization and an f/1.7 lens. The front camera is a dual camera system with a 16-megapixel and 8-megapixel which creates DSLR effect photos.

You can also swipe up and down in the camera app to switch between cameras. In addition, swiping left will open up the filters and swiping right will bring up the shooting modes.

You are able to use the zoom by dragging the white shutter button up and down with ease. However, the video is cropped slightly which is a shame.

• Image Quality

If you are taking photos in very good light, there are not many differences between the Galaxy A8 and Galaxy S8, but it is still very noticeable. It will slightly overexpose the images in terms of highlights and burn the highlights completely.

The Galaxy A8 also has artificial over-sharpening. Overall, this difference is not huge, but it is very noticeable to those who take notice.

• Video

The Galaxy A8 is only able to record 1080p video at just 30 frames per second, when most of its rivals are doing 4K video with so much more detail. This has got to be one of the weakest points of the camera, however the quality of video does not come out too bad at all.

• Sound Quality

In terms of sound, it is average quality – not great but not bad either. It may lack a bit of depth, but it is far from disappointing.

• Battery Life

There will never be any problems getting through a day on the same charge and the charging times is excellent. However, do not be surprised if you need to charge mid-way through the day.

• Conclusion

The Samsung Galaxy A8 is selling at the same price as the OnePlus 5T, however it is not as well performed. Because of this, the A8 feels overpriced for what you get in comparison.

However, the Samsung Experience interface has a bunch of brilliant functions and the Super AMOLED screen has perfect vivid colours.

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