Samsung Galaxy A8 Plus Price In India: Premium Look, Mid-Range Hardware

Samsung Galaxy A8 Plus price in India was Rs 32,990 when it was first launched in the country. The phone has a big screen, making it stand out from other phones in its price range. Its design is similar to that of the Galaxy S series but with a different camera and a mid-range chip. Let’s take a look at this Samsung Galaxy A8 Plus review.

Samsung Galaxy A8 Plus Price In India – Design

From afar, the design of the Galaxy A8+ 2018 is very similar to that of the Galaxy S9/S8 series with a metal frame, reflective glass back, camera setup and so on.

But once you take a closer look, you will notice a few differences. First of all, the phone feels a bit bigger and bulkier as it doesn’t have the elegant curves of the flagships. Considering the phone’s 6-inch display, it isn’t a giant phone. But it just doesn’t look elegant like the S9 or S8.

Fingerprint smudges can turn the glass back of the phone messy easily. And since the back is made of glass, it can break if you drop it. So it is better to use a phone case.

The volume keys are on the left side but without the Bixby button. The Bixby voice assistant is still there. There just isn’t a physical button dedicated to it. This isn’t a huge loss since compared to the Google Assistant, Bixby isn’t as useful.

On the bottom, there’s a headphone jack and a USB-C port for charging.

You can take the A8+ to a swimming pool with you as it has an IP68 water-resistant rating. It can go 5 feet underwater and withstand 30 minutes.

Samsung Galaxy A8 Plus Price In India – Fingerprint scanner position

You can find the fingerprint scanner on the back, just below the camera. Although it’s easy to reach, the scanner is a bit close to the camera. So chances are, you might smudge the lens accidentally with your fingers. Before using the camera, make sure you give it a wipe.

The fingerprint scanner is a bit small rounded rectangle. Compared to other phones, it isn’t as fast but still acceptable.

Besides the fingerprint scanner, there’s face identification as well. It does a decent job but most users still prefer using the fingerprint scanner.

Samsung Galaxy A8 Plus Price In India – Display

The 6-inch Super AMOLED display looks gorgeous with deep blacks and lush colors. Samsung markets this as “Infinity Display.” This term is used for a taller and narrower display with an aspect ratio of 18.5:9 and an edge-to-edge design that is almost bezel-less. However, the screen of the Galaxy A8 Plus isn’t curved like the screens of the S9 and S8. So with a flat design, the A8 Plus’ bezels look much bigger than the flagships. The “bezel-look” is kind of ruined because of this.

For all else, the screen is the smartphone’s biggest advantage over its rivals. It is bright and has rich colors so you can easily see everything outdoors easily.

However, color balance isn’t quite as refined compared to the flagship phones. The whites are slightly colder, meaning the overall colors aren’t perfectly blended. With all Samsung AMOLED displays, you can change the color modes in the Settings. With the default Adaptive mode, the colors look lively, lush and oversaturated. But if you prefer something else, you can change to other modes.

The A8 Plus also comes with the Always-on Display feature which will require some additional battery power. You can decide to use it or not. A good tip is that you can go to the Settings and set this feature to work at night.

Samsung Galaxy A8 Plus Price In India – Interface and Functionality

Although the user interface of all Samsung phones looks good, it doesn’t perform well enough. In general, Samsung phones still work well but there’s a bit of stutter. It isn’t enough to ruin the whole experience but when you compare it to a OnePlus or a Google Pixel, it is definitely noticeable. Another disappointment is that the Galaxy A8 Plus 2018 comes with the dated Android 7 Nougat.

And with all that aside, Samsung Experience is familiar to all Samsung users with the colorful squircle icons, the well-designed settings menu, the swipe-up app drawer, the customization options, and the themes customization and selection.

The smartphone also has KNOX security, split-screen multitasking, and Secure Folder.

Samsung Galaxy A8 Plus Price In India – Processor, Memory, and Performance

The Galaxy A8 Plus 2018 comes with the Samsung Exynos 7885 chip, which is an upper mid-range chip. It is far behind the Snapdragon 835 regarding performance. But it is still better than the typical mid-range chip such as the Snapdragon 625.

The Exynos 7885 chip is built via the 13nm LPP FinFET manufacturing process, ensuring it doesn’t consume too much power. It has 2x efficient Cortex A73 CPU at 2.2GHz along with 6x powerful Cortex A52 cores at 1.6GHz.

The phone does great if you only perform everyday tasks. But it isn’t a phone for gamers and those pushing the performance’s limits.

It has on-board storage of 32GB but you can expand the storage with a microSD card.

Samsung Galaxy A8 Plus Price In India – Camera

While A8 Plus might look similar to other expensive phones of Samsung, their cameras are different.

The camera on the back is a 17MP single camera with a lens of f/1.7. On the front, there is a dual-camera system with a 16MP cam and an 8MP cam to give your selfies a blurring effect.

The camera app is just like the one on other Samsung phones. You can double click the power button to quickly launch it. To switch between the front and back cameras, swipe up and down on the viewfinder. Swipe left for filters and swipe right for shooting modes. Dragging up and down the white shutter button for zooming in and out. The red button is for video recording. Holding that button to switch to the video aspect ratio.

During the day with plentiful of lights, the photos come out with pleasing, lively colors with great detail. However, some photos still look underexposed. For all else, everything looks fine and properly exposed.

At night, the photos aren’t that great. They look blurry and noisy.

The phone does well for selfies. The blurring effect looks cool and you can adjust the blurring level. The detail is sharp while the skin tone looks pleasant.

Samsung Galaxy A8 Plus price has now dropped quite a bit.

Samsung Galaxy A8 Plus Price In India – Battery

The phone has the same battery as the Galaxy S9+, a 3,500 mAh battery. Although the battery is good, it isn’t extraordinary. It can last around 9 hours and 24 minutes on one single full charge. Switching the Always On Display off will improve standby time significantly.

The A8 Plus doesn’t come with wireless charging. There’s only the USB-C port.

Samsung Galaxy A8 Plus Price In India – Verdict

The Galaxy A8 Plus is a mid-range smartphone with premium materials, big screen, Samsung Experience interface, IP water protection, and SIM experience.

However, the phone is a bit bulky. Its bezels are noticeable and its software is outdated. The camera isn’t as great. It can’t record 4K video.

Samsung Galaxy A8 Plus price in India has now dropped quite a bit. So if you’re someone who doesn’t care about updates and wants to have a beautiful AMOLED display, then this phone is for you.

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