With the Galaxy J8, the company is bringing the Infinity Display popularised by its S series of smartphones to the masses. The Samsung Galaxy J8 sports a big display with narrow borders, dual cameras at the back, and face recognition technology. But did Samsung cut any corners when designing the Galaxy J8? We find out.
Samsung Galaxy J8 design
The Samsung Galaxy J8 is a good-looking smartphone. It has a big 6-inch display with an 18.5:9 aspect ratio which makes the body tall and narrow. The 16-megapixel selfie camera is positioned above the screen along with a metallic earpiece and a single-LED flash. The space below the screen is blank, as the phone makes use of onscreen navigation buttons instead. Though Samsung uses the Infinity Display trademark, the screen on this phone doesn’t have curved sides like the ones on the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus.
Samsung has opted for a polycarbonate body, and it feels well-built. The phone weighs 177g but the weight has been well distributed. There’s a vertically oriented dual-camera setup at the back consisting of a 16-megapixel primary camera and a 5-megapixel secondary one. The fingerprint scanner is positioned right under the camera module, where your finger rests naturally.
The Galaxy J8 looks like a Galaxy A6+ (Review) with a few components changed, as the positions of the buttons, cameras, and SIM trays are all identical. The power button is on the right, with the loudspeaker above it. We found that the speaker is easy to muffle while playing games or watching videos in landscape mode. The left side has the volume buttons, a single tray for Nano-SIM 1, and a second tray for Nano-SIM 2 and a dedicated microSD card slot. Samsung has opted for a Micro-USB port for charging, and we would have preferred a USB Type-C port. The 3.5mm headphone socket is positioned next to the charging port and you do get headphones in the box.
Samsung Galaxy J8 specifications, software, and features
The Korean smartphone maker has succeeded in making a good-looking device, but the hardware inside could've been better. This smartphone is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 processor clocked at 1.8GHz. We have seen the same processor powering the likes of the Xiaomi Redmi 5 which costs half as much as this phone. The Galaxy J8 has 4GB of RAM and a generous 64GB of storage, out of which around 51GB is available to the user.
Samsung’s much-advertised Infinity Display is an AMOLED panel with an HD+ resolution, which is lower than what competitors offer at this price point. Even less expensive smartphones such as the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 and RealMe 1 sport FHD+ panels. The AMOLED panel has a vivid output but the lower resolution does cause you to notice jagged edges. Samsung doesn’t offer any always-on display functionality, which would have been useful.
This smartphone misses out on an ambient light sensor, which is a shocking omission and forces you to change the screen’s brightness level manually all the time. It also lacks a magnetometer and a gyroscope. Without the magnetometer, it is impossible to determine your orientation, for example when using Google Maps for navigation. These omissions in the sub-Rs.20,000 segment put the Galaxy J8 at a major disadvantage compared to its competitors.
Connectivity options on the Galaxy J8 include Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, 4G, and VoLTE. The two Nano-SIM slots support 4G but only one can use it actively at a time, while the other is limited to 3G. There’s a call forwarding function that diverts calls to the active SIM automatically. Samsung has packed a 3500mAh battery into the Galaxy J8.
The Galaxy J8 runs Android Oreo with Samsung Experience UI on top, which brings a lot of customisation. This phone also comes loaded with a host of Google and Microsoft apps, which can only be disabled, not uninstalled. Samsung also has its own apps including Samsung Max, a data management app; Samsung Mall, which lets you search for products on e-commerce websites using image recognition; and Samsung Pay Mini, which helps with mobile payments. This smartphone also supports themes, letting you tweak its look as per your taste.
The Settings app has been rearranged and has multiple sub-menus. Thankfully there’s a search function to help you find the right settings. Some of the additions include finger sensor gestures that let you pull down the notification shade by swiping down on the fingerprint scanner. Smart Alert makes the phone vibrate when you pick it up if you have pending messages or missed calls. We tried this feature and found it to be useful since the display does not light up when you pick the smartphone up. Dual Messenger lets you run two instances of supported apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook.
| LAUNCH | |
|---|---|
| Announced | 2018, May |
| Status | Available. Released 2018, July |
| BODY | |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 159.2 x 75.7 x 8.2 mm (6.27 x 2.98 x 0.32 in) |
| Weight | 191 g (6.74 oz) |
| Build | Plastic body |
| SIM | Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by) |
| DISPLAY | |
|---|---|
| Type | Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors |
| Size | 6.0 inches, 91.4 cm2 (~75.8% screen-to-body ratio) |
| Resolution | 720 x 1480 pixels, 18.5:9 ratio (~274 ppi density) |
| Multitouch | Yes |
| PLATFORM | |
|---|---|
| OS | Android 8.0 (Oreo) |
| Chipset | Qualcomm SDM450 Snapdragon 450 |
| CPU | Octa-core 1.6 GHz Cortex-A53 |
| GPU | Adreno 506 |
| MEMORY | |
|---|---|
| Card slot | microSD, up to 256 GB (dedicated slot) |
| Internal | 64 GB, 4 GB RAM |
| MAIN CAMERA | |
|---|---|
| Dual | 16 MP, f/1.7, AF 5 MP, f/1.9, depth sensor |
| Features | LED flash, panorama, HDR |
| Video | 1080p@30fps |
| SELFIE CAMERA | |
|---|---|
| Single | 16 MP, f/1.9 |
| Features | LED flash |
| Video | |
| SOUND | |
|---|---|
| Alert types | Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones |
| Loudspeaker | Yes |
| 3.5mm jack | Yes |
| COMMS | |
|---|---|
| WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot |
| Bluetooth | 4.2, A2DP, LE |
| GPS | Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS |
| Radio | FM radio, recording |
| USB | microUSB 2.0, USB On-The-Go |
| FEATURES | |
|---|---|
| Sensors | Fingerprint (rear-mounted), accelerometer, proximity |
| Messaging | SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM |
| Browser | HTML5 |
| - MP4/H.264 player - MP3/WAV/eAAC+/FLAC player - Photo/video editor - Document viewer | |
| BATTERY | |
|---|---|
| Non-removable Li-Ion 3500 mAh battery | |
| MISC | |
|---|---|
| Colors | Black, Gold, Blue |
| Price | About 250 EUR |
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