Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018) hands-on review

Software

The Galaxy A8 (2018) runs Android 7.1.1 Nougat - no Oreo just yet, but it will come eventually. There's a healthy dose of Samsung Experience on top, version 8.5, so everyone who's seen an S8, Note8, or even a J7 (2017), should be right at home.

It's the same sky-blue-on-off-white color scheme for the settings and menus, and the 'Light and line' iconography introduced with the S8. Basically, there's no discernible difference in the UI between recent Samsungs.

User interface

Benchmarks

The Galaxy A8 (2018) is powered by Samsung's own Exynos 7885 chipset. At least that's what benchmarking apps report - Samsung hasn't gone official with such an SoC, and it's not listed in the spec sheets either.

What is listed is the CPU configuration and it's one we haven't seen before. The processor consists of two powerful cores clocked at up to 2.2GHz, and six more ticking at up to 1.6GHz. That would be two Cortex-A73 cores and six Cortex-A53 ones - color us (pleasantly) surprised.

We were eager to see how that setup performs, naturally, and ran a few benchmarks on the Galaxy A8 (2018) we have handy. It's not a final unit we're testing, strictly speaking, so the numbers churned out by retail units could potentially end up different, if at all.

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S8
  6656
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  6301
• Oppo R11s
  5907
• Oppo F3 Plus
  4695
• Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018)
  4418
• HTC U11 Life
  4140
• Motorola Moto X4
  4136
• Sony Xperia XA1 Plus
  3783
• Huawei Mate 10 Lite
  3603

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S8
  1991
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  1832
• Oppo R11s
  1614
• Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018)
  1532
• Oppo F3 Plus
  1438
• Huawei Mate 10 Lite
  913
• Sony Xperia XA1 Plus
  901
• HTC U11 Life
  873
• Motorola Moto X4
  866

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S8
  174435
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  168133
• Oppo R11s
  121638
• Oppo F3 Plus
  91458
• Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018)
  85389
• HTC U11 Life
  72854
• Motorola Moto X4
  71224
• Motorola Moto Z2 Play
  68322
• Oppo F5
  63889
• Huawei Mate 10 Lite
  63068
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017)
  60767
• Sony Xperia XA1 Plus
  55657

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S8
  42370
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  34951
• Oppo R11s
  20914
• Oppo F3 Plus
  16695
• Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018)
  15299
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017)
  14619
• Motorola Moto X4
  14479
• HTC U11 Life
  14286
• Motorola Moto Z2 Play
  10455
• Sony Xperia XA1 Plus
  9543
• Oppo F5
  9205
• Huawei Mate 10 Lite
  8721

Camera

The Galaxy A8 (2018) is equipped with a 16MP rear camera with an f/1.7 aperture lens - that's the same resolution as the previous generation, only with a brighter lens. It's got phase detection autofocus, but no optical stabilization. There's a trusty old single LED flash - it's how Samsung rolls.

Then again, in a Samsung-first, the Galaxy A8 (2018) comes with a dual front-facing camera. It's a 16MP+8MP pairing, each with an f/1.9 aperture, with a fixed focus plane. Not to be mistaken with the Live focus feature for variable blurring of backgrounds post-shot - that's really the dual camera's main reason for being here.

Thing is though, between the limited time we've had with the phone and the drab weather we've been having, we couldn't really take any nice test samples. At least not with the rear camera. Here are a couple of selfies to try and make up for that.

Selfie samples

That would be all for now. We'll probably try to shoot some more samples tomorrow if the weather is on our side.

First impressions

Bridging the gap between midrange and top tier, the A-series are getting closer to what was once the definition of a flagship. Samsung pulled its punches here and there to let the S8/S9 breathe more easily, but upon first glance the Galaxy A8 (2018) looks like a compelling package at a reasonable price point. Reasonable, that is, in the universe of ever-growing prices.

That said, the A8 (2018) still has a lot to prove - we're yet to test its battery life, promising as the specs may be, and those cameras need to be subjected to some thorough pixel peeping. Those are tasks for the in-depth review, however - stay tuned for that.