Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018) Review

 The 3-Minute Samsung Galaxy A8 Review

Great Performance in an Affordable Package

By Graeme Messina | September 26, 2018

The Specifics:

Features & Design: 4/5 ● Performance: 4/5 ● Value: 4/5 ● Sound Quality 4/5

The Best:

This is an IP 68 rated smartphone that is water and dust resistant, making it the perfect phone to carry with you as your daily driver. It has both front and rear dual camera setups for super selfies and perfect photos, as well as a super AMOLED Infinity Display. This makes the phone a pleasure to looks at, and bright enough to use in outdoor environments.  

The Bugs:

As with most mid ranged offerings in this segment of the market, the Samsung Galaxy A8’s camera could be better. As it stands, low light pictures look a little noisy, even though we have a massive 16MP image sensor in this unit. There is no 4K video recording either, which, while not necessarily a deal breaker at this point, consumers are becoming more demanding when it comes to video resolutions.

Is it for you?

This phone is really good looking and well made, with it wide screen and high quality materials. The water resistance is especially well done, making this a phone for almost all weather conditions. While this is certainly not a flagship device like the Samsung Galaxy S8 was, or the S9is currently, it still gets the job done. There is an Octa-Core CPU which is 2 x Cortex A73s, as well as 6 Cortex A53s, clocked at 2.2 and 1.6GHz respectively.

Meet the Samsung Galaxy A8

If you are after a mid-ranged smartphone that won’t break the bank, then the Samsung Galaxy A8 could be the device for you, if you are a Samsung fan. Granted, there are similarly spec’d phones out there on the market – some even better than this device, for less money. However, there are not many manufacturers out there that are as refined as Samsung is, both in terms of quality and product development.

What we like

The dual selfie camera setup is a nice touch, and is aimed at the new generation Instagrammers and social media users that simply have to have the highest quality cameras for their online endeavours. The rear facing camera is no slouch either, coming in with a respectable 16MP dual camera setup as well.

The phone is loaded with an Octa core CPU setup, 4GB of system RAM, and a Mali-G71 GPU. This means that the phone will have some staying power for quite a while, as these specs are in line with most other manufacturer’s mid ranged products. The phone has NFC, a fingerprint sensor, an FM radio and USB type C connectors.

What we don’t like

The cameras are slightly disappointing in a few scenarios, such as low light photo shooting situations. The lack of 4K video recording is also disappointing, and feels like the phone could definitely handle it from a hardware perspective.

Samsung has installed a respectable 3000mAh battery in this device, but it is worth noting that Samsung’s competitors are installing batteries that have much tougher capacities, and are starting to become the norm. The normal gripe about all glass designs still applies here, making it a fingerprint and smudge magnet.

Should you buy it?

This is a great phone if you are a casual social media user with good expectations for a selfie camera. The dual setup selfie camera will make your next profile picture look that much better, provided you are using a decent light source. For the money, this is a decent buy, and should last the average user well into the future before they will need to consider an upgrade.