Samsung’s latest mid-range device, the Galaxy A8 (2018) is now available for pre-order in South Korea. KT which is the country’s second largest carrier, is accepting pre-orders for the handset from today onwards, while customers may purchase the phone from Samsung beginning this Friday, the 5th of January. KT has mentioned that the Galaxy A8 (2018) can be purchased outright for 599,500 Won ($563), though it will be cheaper if customers purchase it together with a mobile plan. At the moment, the smartphone is available in three colors, including black, blue, and gold.
Samsung launched the Galaxy A8 (2018) a couple of weeks back alongside the larger Galaxy A8 Plus (2018). However, only the smaller Galaxy A8 (2018) is available for pre-order at the moment, with no date specified for the Galaxy A8 Plus (2018) yet. In terms of specs, the Galaxy A8 (2018) is a pretty capable device, and it happens to be the first handset from the South Korean firm to pack a dual-camera setup on the front. It also sports a 5.6-inch fullHD+ Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 2220 x 1080. Under the hood, it is powered by a Exynos 7885 64-bit octa-processor coupled with a Mali-G71 GPU. Memory wise, it comes with 4GB of RAM and either 32GB or 64GB of internal storage which can be expanded up to 256GB via a microSD card. For optics, the Galaxy A8 (2018) comes with a single 16-megapixel camera on the rear, assisted by Phase Detection Autofocus (PDAF) and a LED flash. Selfies are handled by a 16-megapixel and an 8-megapixel shooter placed on the front.
Keeping the lights on is a 3,000mAh non-removable battery with support fast charging. Samsung has also decided to include IP68 certification for this phone, making it dust and water resistant. Connectivity options available on the handset include 4G LTE with support for VoLTE, Bluetooth 5.0, and NFC. This dual-SIM device ships with Android 7.1.1 Nougat out of the box with Samsung’s custom UI laid on top of it. The Galaxy A8 (2018) also comes with support for many of Samsung’s services which are usually only available for its flagship smartphones. This includes Samsung Pay, a contactless payment service, and it is also capable of pairing to the Samsung Gear VR, a virtual reality headset developed by the company.