Aug 24, 2016 04:21 PM
3326 Views
Well Samsung really is a big galaxy in the cellphone space. They already have some suns there like S6, S7, S7edge, Note 5, Note 7 etc. And what about Note 3, Note 4, A7, A8?.they are planets of course. And their moons and meteors are countless. Trust me I am confident that the biggest Memory game will be to memorize the numerous mobile models Samsung has produced year after year. Among all these models, what is special about A8? Lets take a look while avoiding just mentioning the raw specs rather discussing the day to day usage experience. I should mention that I have A800i variant, matte black color.
Design and Form factor: It is slick and well built. Metal is every where. Home, Volume and Power Buttons are very tactile. But keep in mind, without any flip or back cover, the back of the fone is slippery. I dont like the placement of 3.5mm headphone jack at bottom. Touch sensitive Back and Multi-task button do lit up in white. One handed operation is still not easy but there is an'One Handed mode' for better handling.
Display: It is the 5.7" Full HD Super Amoled screen with 386ppi. No mention about Gorilla Glass but some scratch protection is definitely there. Screen is very bright, legible in bright sunny day, color saturation is excellent, touch is butter smooth. Viewing angles are also very good.
Sound & Multimedia: A tiny Speaker is at the back and it is not at all dependable. Sound is crisp but volume level is low. In city traffic, without vibration, u are bound to miss some calls. VIbra is ok though. Earpiece sound for voice calling is sufficient and good. The supplied earphone is in-ear type and very good quality-wise. Music Player and FM Radio sounds pretty well, FM recording is supported. Do use Poweramp for better music experience. Video player supports almost every codec except AC3 as of now. Playback is smooth and viewing experience is great.
Software and overall performance: It has Exynos Octacore processor with 2 GB RAM and 32GB of internal storage. It has hybrid SIM slot and u can expand the storage via micro sd card up to 128GB, as far my knowledge goes. Mali T760 GPU is there for taking care of heavy gaming or graphic intensive jobs. Day to day performance is good, no major lags. I played Asphalt 8 and Sky Force Reloaded extensively and tjhose ran smoothly with negligible or no lag. Shifting between apps is ok, nothing extra-ordinary. 2 GB RAM sounds insufficient but actually it does its job very well. Samsung touchwiz now a days is almost devoid of any bloatware or useless preloaded apps. Overall the fone is smooth to operate and I repeat again, touch experience is amazing. Wi-fi, bluetooth, GPS etc. works fine.
Fingerprint Reader: The front Home button is the fingerprint reader. Registering fingerprint is easy. It works 85-90% of the time throughout a day. I have added 3 fingerprints as of now. However, u can not lock apps with fingerprint without using third party software.
Camera: Rear is a 16mp shooter with LED flash. Front is 8 mp. Full HD 1920x1080p video recording is supported. Camera interface is good with some preloaded presets and there are some which u have to download separately. Taking and saving pictures are fast but not blazing fast. Images can be stored in the micro sd card. Some included modes are Pro, Panorama, Continuous Shot, HDR, Night etc. Some'Effects' are there too like Posterize, Greyscale, Sepia, Negative etc. Prior to taking shots, u can activate voice control.
Image quality through back camera in daylight is nothing but excellent. Focus is mostly accurate, pictures are very sharp but colors come out slightly dull to my liking. Dynamic range is good and some moderate'bokeh' effects can be made in case of macro shots. Macro images also come out nice. In low light the camera struggles like any other cellphone camera but images produced are usable. There is a'PRO' mode to adjust ISO, White Balance, Exposure etc which is handy for indoor shooting. Front camera is also nice and takes very good pics in daylight. Beauty effect is there for smoother skin tone. Video recording is very nice too with 30fps and sounds also come crisp.However, here also my complain is about the color saturation. Focus shifting is somewhat quick though. All I can say is that in camera department A8 delivers well(mean to say it is at par with other cellphone cameras in this price range, if not better).
Battery: For a 5.7" full HD screen, 3050mah capacity does not sound enough. Well, for mediocre usage(like 10-15 minutes of call, some sms, 30-40 minutes of net surfing and mild gaming) u can have 5-5.30hrs of SOT. Not bad huh? Keep in mind battery back up reduces with the increasign number of downloaded apps. The supplied charger charges it quickly too(though it does not support fast charging). But there is a glitch too which I will mention in the Cons section. Do keep in mind I never use'Auto Brightness' and I usually keep the screen brightness to 75%. For heavy gamers battery will wear out in 4-4.15hrs.
Main Cons:
i) After using so many samsung fones(be it smartphone or normal feature fones) till date, I have to admit it that this is the very first time I am facing severe Heating issue. I dont know whether the main culprit is the metal back cover or not, but the fone heats up while charging, heats up while gaming and even sometimes heats up too much under direct sunlight(without any activity). I am a bit disappointed but do note here that it does not behave erratically while heating up.
ii) Network coverage is slightly below average in my case.
iii) Marshmallow upgrade ruined some good parts. Now I cant change the'display color balance' like before, ti became inactive. Notification Centre theme has been changed to white which I hate. Most irritating thing is sometimes my fone is refusing to go for fingerprint unlock simply, it compels me to enter the pin(i dont know why). Marshmallow also has extensive'Permission Control' which is not always necessary.
iv) Loudspeaker volume is low.
v) INR 25900/- is on the higher side, 21-22k would be a justifiable price.
Do I recommend A8? Yes of course. But please keep in mind the heating issue. Apart from this, there is no major flaw. This fone excels in many areas particularly u will love the display and camera(if u dont nitpick about punchy colors).
