After marveling at the world with its Galaxy S10 range, Samsung has announced new smartphones less than two months later, although the new Galaxy A80 has in mind another type of audience.
The Galaxy A80 is designed for young consumers who are passionate about recording videos and making direct on networks. It includes a rotating camera system that stands out in the industry and seems to be leaning more towards hidden cameras inside the device.
We tested the Samsung Galaxy A80 in the event that the company organized in Milan to launch the new Galaxy A series of phones. These are our first impressions on this new mid-range phone.
Samsung introduced the Galaxy A80 in a triple event organized in Milan, Bangkok and São Paulo, which makes us think that the smartphone will be aimed at the European, Asian and Latin American public as a mid-range alternative to the Galaxy S10.
The great claim of the Galaxy A80 is its reversible and rotating camera. When this system is closed, the device has a 6.7-inch AMOLED screen and three cameras in the back. When you want to use the front camera, this triple rear camera will slide up and rotate so that they are looking at you. It is an intelligent system but the truth is that we are worried that it may be too fragile and break easily.
The same happens with the 3D glass used in the back. It is beautiful and attractive and gives a sophisticated air to the phone, but you will need to protect it with a case. But at least it has the manufacturing quality that we would expect from a more expensive mobile. The triple camera has a 48 MP main lens, an 8 MP wide-angle and a 3D depth sensor.
The 3D depth sensor allows Live Focus video recording, i.e. the bokeh effect. Samsung justifies that its target audience is digital natives who tend to upload videos on platforms such as Instagram or TikTok.
Samsung has not deliberately included a zoom lens of x2 in favor of a 3D depth sensor. We think it is a good decision and more considering that it is a mid-range smartphone. The Galaxy A80 is a big device when you try to hold it with one hand. It has larger dimensions than the Galaxy S10 Plus. It is not surprising that it has a thickness of 9.3 mm considering that it has to house the rotating mechanism.
We can not complain about the design of the A80. It has a more premium and sophisticated air than you would expect from a mid-range mobile phone and the screen is much more attractive than usual in the Galaxy A series.
In addition to being a large device, it also has high specifications: 8 GB RAM, 128 GB storage and a Snapdragon 730 processor. We are surprised that Samsung has not included a micro SD card slot.
Unlike the Galaxy S10 range, the A80 does not have a headphone jack port. In fact, it is Samsung’s first main phone that does not include one. It might be that the company thinks that young people do not need it anymore.
Galaxy A80 has a fingerprint sensor integrated into the screen, as we saw in the Galaxy S10. For now, Samsung has not confirmed if it also uses the ultrasonic technology of the S10, but surely not to keep the price down.
We found the Android 9 Pie OS with the Samsung One UI interface installed in terms of software. We think it works just as well as the S10 and that most users will not need the higher resolution that the latter has.
It also comes with a fast charge of 25 W and a battery with a capacity of 3700 mAh. We hope that the battery’s autonomy is better than in the S10 models, but we will have to check it with the benchmarking tests.
On the other hand, the Galaxy A80 has no wireless charge nor is it water-resistant, although these Samsung decisions are not surprising and should look good if you want to pay half that for the S10.
OnePlus 6T or the Honor View 20 smartphones may have more power than the Galaxy A80, but its new camera system, the non-presence of the notch and a fantastic AMOLED screen place it above all in the mid-range.
