Samsung Galaxy A8+ Review: The Best Phone Under 35K?

With a lot of smartphone brands in the market, the latest technology trends like bezel-less display, dual camera and face unlock feature are easily accessible to the consumers at an affordable price. Samsung was very aggressive with their flagships and launched some amazing phones at high end price range.

When it comes to mid-range smartphones with flagship like features, Samsung didn’t had any phone for this segment. Now, Samsung has launched a new smartphone Samsung Galaxy A8+ to take on the likes of OnePlus 5T, Mi Mix 2, Honor View 10, and Nokia 8.   

Pros: Good battery life, Samsung’s flagship like premium design, Amazing Display, IP68 rated water and dust resistant

Cons: Slow face unlock, No Android Oreo, Bulky, No 4k video recording

Design and Display

Samsung Galaxy A8+ has inherited the design of the premium Note 8 and looks quite similar to it. The handset brings premium design traits like glass body, Infinity display, and curved glass of Samsung’s flagship handset.  

Samsung Galaxy A8+ has lesser bezels which mean there is no physical home button on the front and the fingerprint sensor is placed on the rear side, it is placed at the right spot and unlocks the phone in 0.3 seconds.

The phone’s back is made of glass which makes the handset beautiful and also prone to cracks. Which is why Samsung is offering a transparent rear cover inside the box. 

The front is occupied by the huge display with dual selfie camera and earpiece placed at the top. On the rear is the primary camera with LED flash on the side and fingerprint sensor below it.

There’s a 3.5mm audio jack at the bottom of the handset which major companies are ditching these days. The USB Type- C charging port and microphone are also placed at the bottom of the phone.

The handset has dedicated slots for dual-SIM (nano+nano) configuration.

The volume rockers are placed on the left side and below them is the SIM tray. The right side have power button a speaker grille which is a smart position for the speaker to be placed for.

On the top is the second SIM slot and MicroSD card slot.

The smartphone is considerably bulky and weighs 191 grams. This handset is not sleek and when compared to other phones in this category, A8+ is heavy. It measures 159.9 x 75.7 x 8.3mm.                                                                                                                                   

The buttons for home, back, and recent apps are integrated into the screen.

The smartphone is IP68 rated water and dust-resistant so you don’t need to worry if you accidently drop your phone in water.

The major highlight of Samsung Galaxy A8+ is its display, it features a 6.0-inch full HD (2220x1080) super AMOLED Infinity display with an 18.5:9 ratio, and 2.5D curved glass. However there is no protection for display.

The display is clearly the best you will get in any phone at this price. The display is vibrant and works perfectly even in the direct sunlight. Watching videos on this phone is a treat and its display is undoubtedly the best among its competitors.

The display of Samsung Galaxy A8+ is similar to that of Samsung Galaxy S8 and Google Pixel 2 XL. The display is great and offers extra space for you to use the phone. There is also Samsung’s Always-On Display feature which tells you date, time and notifications.

Performance

Samsung Galaxy A8+ is powered by an Octa-core Exynos 7885 processor coupled with 6GB RAM. The processor is based on ARM Cortex-A configuration with six 1.6GHz Cortex A-53 cores and two high-speed 2.2GHz Cortex A73 cores.

Samsung’s Exynos 7885 is not as fast as Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835, but it is not slow. There wasn’t any lag while using the phone. Multitasking, switching between apps or playing games, everything works smoothly without lagging. It has 64GB internal storage which is expandable up to 256GB through a MicroSD card.

Samsung Galaxy A8+ runs on Android 7.1.1 Nougat with Samsung Experience on top. This is 2018 and this handset should be installed with Android Oreo. Also, there is now news from Samsung that when this phone will get the Oreo update.

A8+ also supports dual messenger feature which lets you to clone apps like WhatsApp Messenger by creating second account on a same device.

By swiping down on the fingerprint sensor you can check the notifications and by swiping it up, the notification panel will be closed.

Connectivity options of Samsung Galaxy A8+ includes- Wi-Fi 2x2 MIMO, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth 5.0, 3.5mm audio-jack, NFC, USB 2.0, Type-C, GPS, GLONASS and BeiDou.

The smartphone is backed by a non-removable 3,500mAh battery which supports Samsung’s fast Charging. Battery backup was never an issue while using this phone, you will easily squeeze a day after single charge with some battery still left. It gets from zero to hundred per cent in less than one and half hour of charge.

Samsung also gives a lot of battery saving modes which can help you in conserving power.

Face Unlock Feature

A8+ has a face unlock feature with which you can unlock your phone by looking at it. The face unlock works most of the times but is very slow when compared to OnePlus 5T’s face unlock feature.

If you try to unlock the phone using face recognition while wearing glasses or shades, the phone won’t recognise you. Also, the face recognition feature struggles in dim lighting.

Someone can unlock your phone by just putting it in front of your face when you are sleeping (eyes closed). Same is not the case with OnePlus 5T, if your eyes are closed, the phone won’t be unlocked. So if you have very confidential stuff stored inside your phone, I advise you not to rely on face unlock- you’ll be easily hacked.

Camera

Samsung Galaxy A8+ sports a dual camera on the front with 16-megapixel+8-megapixel sensors with f/1.9 aperture which lets you click selfies in Portrait mode.

There’s also a Live Focus feature which lets you adjust bokeh effect. I tried clicking selfies using Samsung’s bokeh effect and the pictures were quite good. Obviously they were not as good as Google’s Pixel 2.

Though the Live Focus feature comes in handy but the dual-camera doesn’t make much difference.

Also, users can take selfies by showing their palm to the camera and it will be clicked after a few seconds.

On the rear is a 16-megapixel camera (not dual camera) with f/1.7 aperture and LED flash. In good lighting conditions, camera’s performance was up to the mark. The camera gives better results in daylight, colours are somehow oversaturated but the images look great.     

Clicking pictures in low-light was not up to the mark, images were noisy and details were missing.

There is a feature in the camera app called Bixby Vision which is pretty similar to Google Lens feature. When you click a picture, Bixby Vision identifies and gives information about the object in the picture like- telephone number, address, e-mail address, websites, monuments and much more.

There is video stabilisation to prevent shakiness while making videos but it isn’t available if you shoot in 18.5:9 resolution (2224x1080).

There is a voice control feature in the camera settings with which users can take pictures by saying ‘smile’, ‘cheese’, ‘capture’, or ‘shoot’, or record videos by saying ‘record video’.

Pros

Good battery life

Samsung’s flagship like premium design

Amazing Display

IP68 rated water and dust resistant

Cons

Slow face unlock and size of fingerprint sensor relatively smaller

No Android Oreo

Bulky

No 4k video recording

Verdict

The combination of its stunning display and flagship like design is what will make you buy this phone. The camera captures decent images, battery life is great and this phone won’t disappoint you when it comes to performance. I personally found the implementation of dual selfie cameras unnecessary and it rarely comes in handy. The face unlock feature is not as fast as its competition.  

If you are someone who prefer design over other features than Samsung Galaxy A8+ is the perfect device for you at this price. Overall, Samsung Galaxy A8+ is a good phone at the price of Rs 32,990. It is also IP68 rated water and dust resistant which OnePlus 5T isn’t.