New Samsung Galaxy A8 and A8+ deliver a near-S8 experience

published 19 December 2017

Samsung has officially announced its new Galaxy A8 and Galaxy A8+ for 2018 and they’re packing in some serious specs for the price.

Despite being a mid-level phone priced at €499 for the Galaxy A8 (2018) and €599 for the Galaxy A8+ (2018), they manage to offer Samsung’s stunning Infinity Display and plenty more.

Both the Galaxy A8 and A8+ feature the glass build of the S8 for a super premium finish as well as IP68 water resistance. They also offer 5.6-inch and 6-inch Super AMOLED Infinity Displays with 1080 x 2220 resolution in that now familiar 18:5:9 aspect ratio.

Powering the handsets are octa-core Exynos chips running at 2.2 GHz and backed with 4GB of RAM or 6GB in the case of the A8+. The handsets sport 32GB and 64GB of internal storage with microSD expansion to 256GB and batteries at 3000 mAh and 3500 mAh respectively for the A8 and A8+. They also pack in USB-C, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac and A-GPS.

The cameras are where the A8 and A8+ save on budget, meaning you don’t get the 1.4 micron 12 megapixel snapper of the flagship S8. Rather there is a 16 megapixel single camera with f/1.7 lens that supports video digital image stabilisation plus Live Focus for better background blurring Bokeh effect in photos. On the front you do get a dual camera for selfies packing 16 megapixel f/1.9 and 8 megapixel f/1.9 lenses.

Both the Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018) and the Samsung Galaxy A8+ (2018) will be released in January 2018 priced at €499 and €599 respectively which converts to about £440 and £528. A release for outside of Europe has not been mentioned at this stage.

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Luke is a former freelance writer for T3 with over two decades of experience covering tech, science and health. Among many others Luke wrote about health tech, software and apps, VPNs, TV, audio, smart home, antivirus, broadband, smartphones, cars and plenty more. In his free time, Luke used to climb mountains, swim outside and contort his body into silly positions while breathing as calmly as possible.