It has all you need with cash left over
At almost half the price of a Galaxy S8, Samsung’s new A8 smartphone is a top buy for the average user, writes Blayne Slabbert.
Samsung probably won’t like hearing this, but its new mid-range smartphone is a better buy for most people than its flagship device.
The Galaxy A8 is a great phone that offers nearly all of the features of a top-end device but for nearly half the price ($799) of its flashier sibling, the Galaxy S8 ($1299) which will soon be replaced by the S9 ($1399).
Despite all the features available, most people just want their phones to take good photos, run apps quickly, to have a nice design and a good quality screen.
The A8, which was quietly released a few weeks ago in New Zealand, easily does this.
Design
At first glance, the A8 looks like a Galaxy S8. It has the same highquality finish and attention to detail.
It has a 5.6-inch screen but because of slim bezels and a tall ratio (18.5:9 - the same as the S8), it doesn’t look or feel that big and weighs 172g which means it easily fits in pockets or purses.
The A8 also has an OLED screen (similar to but not as good as the one on the S8) which offers crisper, brighter images than standard LED displays found on most phones.
You’ll notice a significant improvement if you’re upgrading from an older device.
It comes in black or gold and there’s also an A8+ model that has a 6-inch screen.
The camera
There’s a lot going on with the cameras on the A8 but in short, it can take great photos in good light.
High-end cameras, like those found on the S8, excel in low light and tricky conditions.
However, for most people, the A8 will be all they need.
It has a 16MP rear camera and two on the front. The second front camera is used for depth perception to allow blurred backgrounds when taking a selfie.
The A8 also offers several gimmicky features such as food mode and beauty effect.
I doubt anyone will use these but they may be fun to play with.
Other features
Unfortunately, the A8 only runs Android 7.1.1 and not the latest Android 8, which was released last year.
Most of the changes were behind the scenes, with faster start-up times and apps will load quicker. However, some of the features, including making it easier to fill forms or log in to websites, improved the user experience.
Smartphones should really be sold with the latest software. Hopefully, Samsung will update it soon.
One other thing to note is that it only has 32GB of storage which will fill up fast if you take a lot of videos or like to download music and movies. However, you can expand its memory to 256GB by using an SD card.
It does lack a few other high-end features such as 4K video recording but it makes up for that by having a 3.5mm headphone jack, a feature that is becoming rarer as the digital world moves to wireless tech.
It also has a fingerprint reader instead of face recognition found on higher-end phones. I wouldn’t worry about this as fingerprints are just as secure and sometimes more convenient to use than the latest tech.
One feature I’m beginning to like more on phones is fast charging. The A8 can get four hours of use in just 10 minutes of charging.
Alternatives
The mid-range market is getting quite crowded which is great as it gives you a lot of choices.
Oppo, a company from China, has recently released several phones in New Zealand including the 5.5-inch A77 ($529) which looks like an iPhone.
Huawei’s P10 ($799) is also worth a look.
Verdict
Unless you are a power user who loves, or needs, the latest tech features, then phones such as the A8 are the best buy.
The A8 offers the quality that Samsung phones are known for but without spending too much.
This phone would suit the average user who is looking to upgrade their phone. If your device is more than three years old, you’ll notice a big improvement in performance and picture quality from the camera.
However, you do miss out on some of the latest tech, such as wireless charging, animated emojis and face recognition, though I doubt many people will miss these features.
As more smartphones creep over the $1000 price threshold, it’s good to see a device that offers everything you need for less than that.