Samsung took to its home country of South Korea to announce the Galaxy A8 (2016), the successor to last year’s effort that might look similar on the outside, but has been changed around quite a bit on the inside.
Beginning with the design, the most notable change seems to be the increased thickness, with the Galaxy A8 (2016) opting for a 7.2mm all-metal body. By comparison, the original Galaxy A8‘s 5.9mm profile made the phone the slimmest in Samsung’s handset portfolio, but the newer phone’s increased thickness allows Samsung to include a larger 3,300mAh battery than the 3,050mAh power pack found in the original.
Taking a peek under the hood, Samsung opts for its octa-core Exynos 7420 chipset and 3GB RAM, the same combination of chipset and RAM found in the Galaxy S6 family of phones. Performance was the least of our concerns on the Galaxy S6, so we expect the same to be true of the Galaxy A8 (2016).
Elsewhere, the phone features an 8-megapixel front-facing camera and 13MP rear sensor. Below that selfie shooter is a 5.7-inch, 1,920-by-1,080 resolution Super AMOLED display, with the Galaxy A8 (2016) supporting Samsung’s Always-On Display technology. This allows the phone’s display to display specific information, such as notifications and the time, when the phone is not being used.
Continuing our tour, the Galaxy A8 (2016) runs Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow under Samsung’s Grace UX, the same software found on the Galaxy Note 7. The phone also supports Samsung Pay, which means the home button under the display doubles as a fingerprint sensor. Finally, the 32GB of native storage can be expanded by up to an additional 256GB through the MicroSD card slot.
If there is enough here to pique your interest, you will need to be comfortable with importing, since the Galaxy A8 (2016) was only announced for release in South Korea so far. Furthermore, the phone carries a 640,000 won (around $590) price tag, so importing the phone will jack that price up a bit. Pre-orders have already started, with the phone going on sale sometime soon.
