Released in January 2018, Samsung Galaxy A8+ 2018 is the Samsung device intended to please Samsung Galaxy S9 enthusiasts who cannot afford the flagships. According to Charles Kimari, Head of Internet and Mobile at Samsung Electronics East Africa, Samsung Galaxy A8+ 2018 has incorporated “high end features from the flagship family of Galaxy smartphones, such as the Infinity Display”. Included in the Galaxy A8+ 2018 is the dual selfie camera, and as opposed to other dual camera phones, the dual selfie camera on the A8+ 2018 are independent cameras where a selfie lover can chose to take snaps with either of the cameras, or combine the two into one for beautiful photography.
So basically the two aspects of Samsung Galaxy A8+ 2018 are the most important selling points; the fact that it incorporates selected features from the flagships, and the fact that the front facing selfie has two cameras, which, according to Mr. Karimi, “exemplifies Samsung’s continued dedication to meeting the needs of consumers by providing them with greater choice and convenience.”
The touted front facing cameras are a16 MP f1.9, 1/3.1”, 1.0 µm sensor and a second 8 MP f/1.9, 1/4.0”, 1.12 µm sensor that shoot HD 1080p videos. The cameras should allow the user to shoot any types of photos, from close-ups with a blurred background to portrait shots with a clear and crisp background. The cameras also have advanced Live Focus feature, which makes it easy to blur the background before or after taking the picture to create high-quality images. It would however be nice for us to first test just how good the cameras are at blurring the background before we pass judgement, as many smartphones that promise professional like DSLR quality portraits have mostly failed in this promise.
As a typical phone, Samsung Galaxy A8+ 2018 supports both GSM, HSPA and LTE networks. The screen is a 6 inch screen that offers more than full HD resolution; that is instead of it coming with the usual 1920 pixels vertical resolution, Samsung has added other 300 pixels to make the vertical resolution reach the 2K realm of 2220 pixels. We cannot however say that the phone is of 2K resolution as the horizontal resolution has been retained at 1080 pixels. You may compare that to the resolution on Samsung Galaxy S9 which clocks 1440 pixels by 2960 pixels. To give A8+ 2018 an S9 feel, both the front and back panels are Corning Gorilla Glass made, except for the frame that is aluminium built.
To enjoy viewing seamless content on the semi 2K screen, the Galaxy A8+ 2018 features a 6GB RAM and 64GB Internal storage for storing those video files, or if you want the lower version then you have the alternative of opting for the 4GB RAM and 32GB version. The processing power is handled by two processors; two cores 2.2 GHz Cortex-A73 and six cores 1.6 GHz Cortex-A5, making the total processing power an octa-core powerhouse. For graphic processing, the phone has a Mali-G71 GPU. All these thrive on a 3500mAh battery that promises to last for 23 hours on calls alone on 3G.
Although the focus of the phone are the two front facing cameras, the phone also has a 16MP rear camera sensor that features f/1.7, 1/2.8”, 1.12 µm. Both to the front facing cameras and the rear camera promise one to capture sharp images, even in low-light conditions. The new device has a camera app that allows the user to customize photos with fun options, from adding stickers to selfies or highlighting a culinary extravaganza with Food Mode. Those who want to buy the Samsung Galaxy A8+ 2018 for videography will enjoy the video digital image stabilisation (VDIS) technology, which according to Samsung makes shaky videos be a thing of the past. For those of us who love time lapse videos, we should be happy as the phone supports time lapse video recording.
And do not die of heart attack in case the phone falls in water – the device is IP68 water and dust resistant, meaning Samsung Galaxy A8+ 2018 can withstand the elements, including sweat, rain, sand and dust, making it suitable for nearly any activity or situation.
All those beautiful features comes to you at Kshs 60,000 ONLY, meaning for selected flagship features, you get to save some Kshs 30,000 if you are unable to cough that 90K needed for S9/S9+.