Featured Review: ZUK Z1

ZUK is a new smartphone brand and company. It was established back in January of this year. It's actually a sort of strange company. You have a number of Chinese smartphone makers all working together with ZUK, including Lenovo, and Elephone. The Z1 is ZUK's first smartphone, and yes it does look a whole lot like the iPhone 6. The ZUK Z1 is going to be available outside of China running Cyanogen OS, while inside China we're looking at ZUI. Our model here is running ZUI and is the Chinese version. Cyanogen OS 12.1 should be available for it within a few weeks. And we'll revisit the phone once Cyanogen OS is available.

With the Z1, ZUK is starting to bring their "cheap" but decently specced devices outside of China. Something that others have tried, like Meizu and Xiaomi, but could never get them outside of China for the same price as they are selling inside China. That's largely due to distributor fees as well as taxes in other parts of the world. The ZUK Z1 is going to sell for right around $300, depending on the market you're in. But is it worth that $300 price tag? We'll find out in our full review.

Specs

Inside, the ZUK Z1 is running a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chipset, along with 3GB of RAM. There's also the 5.5-inch 1080p IPS LCD display, 4100mAh non-removable battery inside, along with a 13MP camera on the back and a 8MP front-facing camera. The most surprising spec to me is the 64GB of internal storage. Something you usually don't see on smartphones coming from China at this price-point. As mentioned earlier, the ZUK Z1 runs Cyanogen OS 12.1 which is based off of Android 5.1, but also ZUI which is also based off of Android 5.1. Throughout this review, we will be looking at ZUI, as Cyanogen OS 12.1 won't be available for a few more weeks.

Other specs include USB Type-C which is USB 3.0, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS with A-GPS and GLONASS, and unfortunately there is no NFC here. Something that's pretty common with handsets coming out of China lately.

Video Review Hardware

Looking at the ZUK Z1, you'd probably think it's close to an iPhone clone. Especially if you look at the bottom. This is quite common in China, actually. While the phone is a bit large, as it does have a 5.5-inch display, it doesn't feel overly large in the hand. You can easily use this phone one-handed. One of my complaints about the ZUK Z1 is actually the material on the back. ZUK has gone with a glossy plastic material for the back, and it doesn't feel as nice in the hand. ZUK have gone and added the volume rocker and power button both on the right side of the phone. Not really an issue, but if you take a lot of screenshots, it's going to make it a bit difficult when you are trying to take one with one hand. While on the left side you have your dual-SIM card slot.

In Asia, Africa and even South America, dual-SIM card slots are really popular. Actually there are a few devices out there now that have three SIM card slots. The advantage of having multiple slots is that you can have two networks at the same time. Instead of swapping out SIM cards. Typically one does 4G LTE as well as voice networks, while the other does EDGE data and voice.

One thing we'd like to mention is that the back of the device, if pressed in the right spot, you can hear it creak. Now we brought this up to ZUK's CEO after the event (we had a meeting with him and Vikram from Cyanogen, after the announcement), and he told us that it's "not final hardware". A bit strange seeing as they touted shipping 40,000 of these during their presentation. Over the past week or so, I've tried to make it creak, but it's pretty tough to do now. So not sure what was going on there, but it seems to be less of an issue now. Which is a good thing.

The back of the device seems pretty plain. It's basically a plain white back, with a ZUK logo at the bottom and the camera, and flash at the top. The camera looks quite small actually, but it's the same size as most other smartphones. However, I wouldn't mind seeing ZUK go with a bigger camera, like HTC's UltraPixel, as it'll make the camera even better in low-light scenarios. We'll talk more on that later on.

Fingerprint Sensor & Home Button

This seems to be a pretty popular topic as of late. When I was in Shenzhen at the ZUK Z1 event and I was talking with a few of ZUK's employees, they were touting how fast the fingerprint sensor was. I pulled out the Galaxy Note 5 and asked if it was faster than the Note 5. They didn't even hesitate to say that, yes it is faster. Now after using them both simultaneously, I have to agree. The Z1's fingerprint scanner is crazy fast. We have a video that you can take a look at and see just how fast it is. It'll be embedded down below.

The fingerprint sensor is nice and all, especially with its speed, but it can only be used for unlocking the phone, unfortunately. With the Galaxy Note 5, you can also use it for logging into LastPass, PayPal, Samsung's Account and a few other things. Hopefully that can be worked on for the second generation ZUK. They've done a great job of implementing it and making it blazing fast, now we just need more reasons to use it.

The home button is a bit interesting here. It doesn't act like a traditional home button. Using a feature that ZUK has dubbed "U-Touch", you can perform all kinds of gestures on the home button. For example, just touching it will go back, you can swipe left/right to jump between apps. And a double tap takes you into recent apps. Of course, a regular press of the home button takes you home. It took about a day or two to get used too. But after using it, I actually kinda prefer it, over the capacitive buttons on the Galaxy Note 5.

Now what's interesting here is that the Cyanogen OS model, which is the exact same hardware, has capacitive buttons. So it appears that they are inactive when using ZUI but with Cyanogen OS they are active. We'll have to test that more when Cyanogen OS is available. If you take a look at our hands-on images from their event earlier this month, you'll see two dots on either side of the home button. Looks a lot like what ZTE has done with their AXON Pro smartphone.

Call Quality & Data Speeds

It's important to preface this section by stating that this is a Chinese smartphone. Which means it is not optimized for the US network. And in fact, I can't even get LTE here on T-Mobile or AT&T. I did use the ZUK Z1 on T-Mobile, and made a few calls. Those on the other end said that we sounded great. Although there is no HD Voice here since the phone is not made for T-Mobile. As far as data speeds go, they seemed about on par with other phones running on HSPA+ on T-Mobile. Which is about what I expected.

Storage

There's 64GB of storage here, and out of the box, we have about 53-54GB of storage to use. After installing all of my apps and taking some pictures and videos, I am currently sitting at around 51.24GB of free space left. So for most of us, this should be more than enough space. ZUK is not selling any other sizes of the Z1, at least not at this point. So there's no choice in storage, but 64GB should be enough for everyone.

Battery Life

With a 4100mAh battery inside, you'd expect pretty good battery life right? Right. I got through almost two full days of use here with over 7 hours on screen. And if I had been using it hardcore, I could have probably gotten close to 10 hours. That is both Mobile Data and WiFi as well. Now in China, because of the networks that China Mobile and China Unicom use, they consume more battery. So while in China, the battery life wasn't that good. That's also why you see plenty of phones with huge batteries.

A couple of gripes about the battery, well more about charging here. One, it doesn't have Quick Charge. I used Ampere to measure the speed of it charging, and it was charging at about the speed of other devices without Quick Charge. The other is the fact it has a USB Type-C port. So this means that if I have the USB Type-C cable plugged in at my desk and go to plug it in next to my bed, I can't. Also, I wasn't able to use it with Android Auto without bringing my charging cable to the car with me. I know these are first world problems, but it is also a glimpse into the near future with USB Type-C.

Software

As mentioned already, this is running ZUK's own UI, called ZUI. We'll be reviewing the Z1 again when Cyanogen 12.1 is available. ZUI looks a lot like the other UI's available on phones in China. First thing you'll notice is that there is no app drawer. Very common in China. So you have all of your apps on the home screens. One thing that ZUI has that a lot of other UI's from China doesn't have, is widgets. Long-press on the home screen and you are able to add widgets to your home screen. By default it has a nice transparent clock/weather widget on the default home screen. I actually really like it myself.

With ZUI being for China, there is no Google Play services installed and no Google apps either. But that's a simple fix. Just find the Google Play Store APK and sideload it. And you're all ready to go. Of course, you'll also need to then download all of the apps from the Play Store. ZUK has their own app store, simply named "AppCenter". I was unable to use it, as the store is all in Mandarin, and I wasn't able to find a way to switch languages. ZUI also has their own GameCenter, which from what I can tell appears to be like Google Play Games and iOS' GameCenter. But it was a bit tough to tell because, again it was all in Mandarin, except for a few parts. There's also a "UserCenter". Now this is where you can sign into ZUK's cloud service, which backs up your contacts, Photos and SMS. There's also ZUK Care inside, which you can purchase and get piece of mind in case your phone is stolen.

There is a bit more bloat pre-installed here compared to other phones I've used from China. Mainly Meizu's offerings. But we have Weibo, WeChat, and a few others as well. Now these are all very popular apps in China, basically replacing Twitter and WhatsApp here in the US. But on the bright side, all of these can be uninstalled or you can disable them.

One of the things users should pay attention to is the results of applying new wallpapers. Basically you crop your wallpaper and it shows up as a square on the lockscreen. Then it's stretched and blurred out on your home screens. It looks kinda cool, but if you don't want it to be blurred at all there's unfortunately no way to counteract it. So with the Z1, I'd recommend sticking with patterned wallpapers.

Camera

Does a 13-megapixel camera still go as far as it used too? Well, sorta. So ZUK gave us a 13MP camera here on the back. I got some really nice pictures out of the camera, and even in low-light it performed quite well. Video was also pretty impressive, however it only does 1080p and not 4K. Additionally the settings for the camera are not in the camera app, but in the settings app. The only settings in the camera app are for the flash, HDR, switching the cameras, and choosing between video and stills. The shutter is pretty fast, almost instant. Something that's becoming more and more popular these days with these phones.

The camera app is pretty barebones. That's actually a good thing. It means that you'll be focused on actually taking the picture rather than playing around with the settings. Which I like. Although I do wish there was a settings shortcut in the camera app. It would make it easier to change things, I think. You can find samples of photos from this camera down below.

The Good

Plenty of storage here. I'm starting to think that smartphones need to come standard with 64GB of storage. Especially with these cameras getting better and better

Speaking of the camera, while it doesn't hold a candle to the Galaxy Note 5's camera. It's still quite good. And I'd be okay with it as my daily driver. We'll see if that changes when Cyanogen is available.

With Cyanogen OS on the Z1, I believe that ZUK is going to get really popular, pretty quick.

The Bad

No word on US availability. No word on it supporting US bands either. Luckily Chinese bands are largely the same as Europeans.

The glossy plastic on the back isn't what I'd prefer, but that could be just me

The fingerprint sensor needs a bit more functionality. It's plenty fast, now we just need reasons to use it more often.

Final Thoughts

I was a bit skeptical of the ZUK Z1, yet still excited. With the specs of the Z1, and the fact it'll have Cyanogen OS, I was pretty excited. And ZUK did not let me down. Even their own ZUI, is pretty darn good. Although there are the occasional typos throughout the OS. That's likely due to the translation not being spot on. Overall it's a pretty impressive device. And if there is a model that comes out with support for US bands, I wouldn't hesitate in telling everyone to go pick one up.

I'm really excited for the Z2 next year. Which we were told by one of the company's SVP's that it'll be out in January with the Snapdragon 820. He also said it could be the 830, but I'd keep my money on the 820. And they could be launching in India. For those here in the U.S., the ZUK Z1 can already be purchased through GearBest for $339.89 which is quite a good price point considering everything you get.

Source: Featured Review: ZUK Z1

VHS Camcorder app is a retro delight

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shutterstock/globe staff illustration

By Michael Andor Brodeur Globe Correspondent  September 01, 2015

The now-viral footage that emerged last week of rapper Wiz Khalifa getting arrested at Los Angeles International Aiport while riding a hoverboard raised many questions: Why did they arrest him? Why did they keep telling him to "stop resisting" while he lay on the ground not resisting? Where did he get that hoverboard? (Actually, the thing was more like a hybrid of a skateboard and a Segway.)

And especially perplexing: Why did the footage look like it was shot in 1987?

That one we can answer. Wiz was one of thousands to download VHS Camcorder, a $4 app that took less than two weeks to surge to No. 2 on Apple's paid apps chart. Visual effects specialist Thomas Worth created the app, which uncannily mimics the look, feel, sound, and functionality of a clunky old VHS camera.

Every aspect is pitch-imperfect, from the lazy zoom lens to the jaggy tracking lines that mar the shot (and intensify when you tilt your device), the wan color palette, and the slight white noise that mucks up the audio. There's even an adjustable timestamp in that standard cheesy default camcorder font to boost the illusion (though you can't set it back beyond 1984, for purposes of historical accuracy).

Given the popularity of Instagram's array of nostalgic filters, and the many "vintage" camera apps currently available (like Spark and 8mm) it's not surprising that there's an audience hungry for tech that channels the past. But VHS Camcorder's faux-lo-fi quirks scratch a very particular itch, somewhere between the seedy and the sentimental. When it comes to revisiting the snow of yesteryear, it doesn't get much closer than this.

Michael Andor Brodeur can be reached at mbrodeur@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @MBrodeur.
Source: VHS Camcorder app is a retro delight

Motorola Updates Camera, Gallery Apps

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Friday, 3:39 PM   by Eric M. Zeman   @phonescooper

Motorola has in recent days updated its camera and gallery applications. The camera app brings QR and barcode scanning to some of Motorola's older handsets, such as the Moto X (2nd Gen.), Moto X Pro, DROID Turbo, and Moto Maxx/Turbo. The gallery app's primary new feature is the ability to move photo albums to microSD memory cards, which the newest Moto X and Moto G smartphones support. Both apps are free to download from the Google Play Store.

more info at Play Store (Camera) »more info at (Gallery) »

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Source: Motorola Updates Camera, Gallery Apps

Motorola updates Camera, Gallery apps for Android

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Motorola recently updated its camera and gallery applications, which are supported by various Motorola handsets and provide unique experiences. The updates are relatively minor, but may be of use to some readers.

First, Motorola Gallery was updated with a new option to save galleries to a microSD card. That's useful particularly in light of the new Motorola phones that are launching, so you can quickly organize your photos and easily move them right over to your new Motorola phone.

Motorola Camera was updated with bug fixes and with the automatic QR/barcode scanner function that wasn't initially available on older devices. It's officially supported by the second-generation Moto X, the Moto X Pro, the DROID Turbo, the and the Moto DROID MAXX.

Both app updates are available now, and we have links in the source below.

Source: Motorola updates Camera, Gallery apps for Android

OnePlus 2 camera tips and tricks

It's a simple camera app, but there are a few tricks to know.

There isn't much to be said about the Camera app on the OnePlus 2. That's not to say there isn't anything to be said about the camera itself, in fact it's one of the better cameras you can get on an Android phone today, but the user interface that powers this experience isn't much to look at and doesn't include a ton of features. It's a solid point and shoot app, with modes for video, panorama, slow motion, and timelapse — but several of these modes include no settings at all. What you see, in most cases, is what you get.

That having been said, there's a couple of things you should know about poking around in the few settings that do exist, and we've got them here for you.

Read now: OnePlus 2 Camera Tips and Tricks

1. The Brightness Slider doesn't work everywhere

If you tap to focus in any of the camera modes, you get a pair of circles to confirm the area you want to focus on. Included in those circles is a little sun, which is actually a round slider for brightness controls. It's a clever, quick way to adjust brightness for a photo that either works really well or not at all.

Even though you can move the slider around in the HDR and Clear Image mode, nothing happens to the brightness of the photo you are taking as you move the slider around. It only works in the auto mode, but the app never tells you this.

2. Panorama mode needs a constant, steady motion

The panorama mode in this camera does a great job stitching together photos, even when the subjects are moving a bit. OnePlus designed the interface so you've got a set of dots to follow to keep you on the right path, and as long as you follow the instructions you'll be able to grab decent pictures every time.

What the interface doesn't tell you is there needs to be constant motion once you've started taking photos. If you stop, there's a good chance you might accidentally shift backwards in to the photo, which will cause the app to cancel the panorama altogether and force you to start over. It's not the best design in the world, but if you keep moving and use the stop key the image results are impressive.

3. Clear Image mode works best with things at a distance

The few options you do have in the OnePlus camera app don't do a great job explaining what the features actually do, and while HDR and Beauty mode are fairly self explanatory if you've ever used a smartphone camera before, there's a good chance Clear Image is a fairly new option.

Essentially, this camera mode intelligently adjusts the sharpening in the photo to help other things stand out. This is great if you're taking photos of a huge landscape and want the things in the background to stand out a little more, but it isn't particularly helpful when taking photos of things up close.

Source: OnePlus 2 camera tips and tricks

Sony Xperia C4 review: A decent upgrade

NEW DELHI: The Sony Xperia C4 is the company's new selfie-focused smartphone. Successor to the Xperia C3, the smartphone features an upgraded full-HD display and is powered by an octa-core MediaTek processor.The internal storage capacity and RAM has also been bumped up compared to the C3. The major highlight of the phone though is still its 5MP wide-angled front camera targeting the selfie-crazy. We used the phone for a few weeks to see where it stands in the increasingly competitive mid-range segment...

Trusted OmniBalance designSony Xperia C4 doesn't look very different from other members of the Sony Xperia family and follows the same OmniBalance design language. However, it's not very angular and features rounded corners and edges. It has a slightly curved back that sports a soft matte finish and feels good to hold. Since it's a mid-range device, Sony has predominantly used plastic in the construction of the phone. You also see the bumper corners seen in theXperia Z+.

The Xperia C4 doesn't feel too big or heavy despite its 5.5-inch display because of the excellent screen to body ratio. While not exactly made for one hand use, Sony has tried its best to make it less unwieldy thanks to the positioning of the hardware buttons and software features. The plastic volume rocker is located at the right edge with the typical Sony watch crown-shaped, metallic power button.

The same edge also houses a flap that hides two slots for nano sim cards and one slot for a microSD card. Sony has got rid of the plastic sim card tray and you can now simply plug in the sim cards. The other edge features the micro-USB port, which is slightly unconventional. The 3.5mm headset jack sits at the top edge.

Since it's a unibody design, the back is non-removable. Y ou'll see a camera lens, LED flash, a speaker grille and some Sony and Xperia branding at the back. The front panel features the large full-HD display, the camera lens and a front flash. The phone is well built and exudes a feeling of durability though the design is not very new.

Full-HD displayThe Xperia C4 sports a 5.5-inch full-HD (1080x1280p) IPS display, mobile BRAVIA Engine and has a super Vivid mode that enhances the colour brightness and saturation of photos and videos on the phone screen. We found the display to be bright and vivid and viewing angles were sufficiently wide. Colours looked accurate and graphics appeared sharp and crisp.

It's slightly reflective so sunlight legibility wasn't that great. Touch response was great but it's not clear if the screen comes with Gorilla Glass protection. Overall, its an upgrade from the Xperia C3's 720p display.

B alanced software experience In terms of software experience, the Xperia C4 comes with Android 5.0 (Lollipop) out of the box with Sony's own UI and apps for music, videos and gallery. Sony's UI skin is not very heavy and doesn't hog on system resources. The experience of navigating across the UI was smooth but not as swift as it is on high-end devices such as the Xperia Z3+.

The phone also has some content marketplace apps and a What's New apps, which show curated content (such as apps, music, games) that users can buy. We feel that Sony has stuffed the phone with a lot of bloatware including third party apps like Line, Kobo, AVG antivirus. Thankfully, most of these apps can be removed.

The UI elements, including the notifications tray, app launcher and settings menu have been skinned but also borrow elements from the new Android 5.0 UI. System apps feature Material Des ign with a blue theme being omnipresent. The transition effects visible during launching and minimizing apps are also pleasant to look at. The app-switcher is also borrowed from Android 5.0 Lollipop but features the launcher for small apps which can float on top of other running apps.

The phone ships with some small apps,including a browser, timer, calculator and screen grabber. One can download additional small apps from the Play Store, or even turn a widget into a small app. Sony has also included software optimizations for one hand use including the ability to position certain UI elements on the left or right side of the display.

At the cost of repeating ourselves, we have to say that Sony's UI skin looks less intrusive and is well-balanced.

Front camera is not extraordinaryThe Sony Xperia C4 sports a a 13MP autofocus rear camera with LED flash and 5MP front camera with Exmor R sensor and front flash.

The camera app offers a large number of settings in add ition to Sony's Superior Auto mode that chooses the optimal settings as per the ambient light. You also get different scene options and the ability to switch the resolution of the pictures. Scene modes also include night mode and backlight correction HDR, among others.

The other modes that the app offers include Style portrait, Multi-camera, Sweep Panorama, AR Effect, Creative effect, and Face in picture Effect. There's no time shift video mode. The Multi-camera mode lets you hook other Xperia devices (phones or tablets) or a Sony Wi-Fi/NFC camera and record the same scene with multiple cameras.

While the front camera takes good quality selfies in day light, we found it to be a little underwhelming for indoor selfies in artificial light. The latter missed out on detail and looked slightly grainy. Of course the real hero is the front flash which does a good job of filli ng light when you're snapping a selfie in a dimly lit club. The camera has a wide-angled lens so you ca fit in more people in selfies.

The rear camera takes good quality pictures in most conditions including in low-light. We did find the Superior Auto mode a little inconsistent; it has a tendency to produce saturated colours. HDR mode photos had better contrast.

Decent performerSony Xperia C4 is powered by a 1.7GHz octa-core (Cortex-A53) MediaTek MT6752 processor coupled with 2GB RAM. The phone comes with 16GB internal storage expandable up to 128GB via microSD card or by using a USB On-the-Go drive (or adapter plus USB drive).

While we did not notice any major lag while navigating through the phone's menu, launching apps and switching between them, the experience is not as smooth as it is on high-end devices and even some competing mid-range ones. Having said th at, you may not really notice it while performing everyday tasks.

We were able to play games like subway Temple Run 2, Leo's Fortune without encountering lag or freezes or heating issues but we did notice some minor frame drops while playing Asphalt 8.

We were able to play most popular video and audio file formats on the phone.

The phone supports NFC, Bluetooth, WiFi and GPS connectivity options an has an FM radio tuner.

It offers excellent call quality and signal reception and we did not encounter problems while making calls even in areas where cell signal is relatively weaker. The phone was able to lock to GPS without any hiccups. We also used 4G data on Airtel's Delhi network and were able to get a good signal with 25Mbps+ speeds.

The sound output through the phone's speaker grille was loud and clear but sound gets muffled when the phone lies on it s back.

The phone is backed by a 2600mAh battery and will last you a full day even if you put the screen brightness at the highest level and use a mix of 4G and Wi-Fi. The phone lasted us more than 14-15 hours with 2.5 hours of screen-on time.

You'll be able to make about 2-3 hours of phone calls, play some casual games and browse the web in this time period. The phone can play video continuously for 6 hours.

You can boost the battery backup by using Sony's Stamina mode that shuts down battery-draining apps and data transfer when the screen is turned off and starts them again when it is turned on.

Final VerdictSony Xperia C4 is a good upgrade to the C3 and a well-rounded device that offers a full-HD screen, good rear camera and balanced software experience. However, at Rs 29,490, we feel it's a bit expensive compared to other offerings available in the market (you can buy it at a discounted price online though). Also, the enhanced selfie camera, which is the highlight feature of the phone, is not as uncommon as it used to be in the past and the results were not extraordinary.

Of course you pay the premium for the brand but you can also look at mid-range options from established ones such as the Samsung Galaxy A7 and HTC Desire Eye. The Gionee Elife S7 and Huawei Honor 6 Plus are better specd and offer great performance. The OnePlus 2 is certainly the best option among mid-range phones but the invite system and limited production make it very difficult to acquire one.

Source: Sony Xperia C4 review: A decent upgrade

Samsung Galaxy A8 Review: Elegant phone, good battery and camera; will face-off with OnePlus 2

Samsung is on a phone-releasing spree. It has just released its latest A-series handset called the Galaxy A8 in the Indian market for Rs 32,500 and this announcement came in with the launch of its Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy 6 Edge+ devices. Launched in China last month, the A8 will be the top of the line phone in Samsung's A-series of metal frame phones. Samsung had launched the Galaxy A3 and Galaxy A5 earlier this year. Let us see what it has to offer.

Build and Design: 8/10

The Galaxy A8 is the slimmest phone from the Korean giant. Measuring just 5.9mm, it is indeed quite slim. However it is not the slimmest smartphone around as Oppo, Micromax, Gionee have phones slimmer that that. But the metal frame and some thoughtful tapering design on the sides, not only makes the phone look elegant but also helps with the grip. There are no sharp edges that will bother you when you hold the phone in your hand.

Although the press statement says that it is a metal unibody, we noticed that the non-removable rear-cover is plastic, although the transition from metallic frame to the plastic cover is really unnoticeable. On the front, you have the 5.7-inch display with a decent screen-to-body ratio.

The base has a physical button which also houses the finger-print sensor. This is surrounded by the back and multi-tasking soft buttons. On the right hand side, you have a power/standby button whereas on the left hand side you have two distinct volume buttons. The top edge is clean and at the base you get the microUSB charging/data transfer port along with the 3.5mm audio jack. Overall the A8 has an elegant design and will surely attract a second glance.

Features: 8/10

The Samsung Galaxy A8 features a 5.7-inch full HD Super AMOLED display which makes sure that the display looks vibrant. It comes with Android 5.1.1 OS along with the TouchWiz UI atop it. Along with Samsung's proprietary UI, you also get some pre-installed apps such as Galaxy Apps, Smart Manager, WeChat and so on. On the left most home page, you have the Flipboard app.

Samsung uses its own chipset – the Exynos 5430 – for the Galaxy A8. It has an octa-core processor with one quad-core processor cluster clocked at 1.8GHz and the other cluster clocked at 1.3GHz. This is paired with 2GB of RAM and you get 32GB of storage. One of the SIM card slots can also house a microSD card which lets you expand the storage to 128GB.

The phone comes with a dual-nano SIM card slots on the left hand side. It can take in one 4G SIM card and one 3G SIM card. You can either have both SIM cards, or have one SIM card and use a microSD card on the other slot in case you want to increase the storage. The phone supports Wi-fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS and sensors such as fingerprint sensor, proximity sensor and so on.

Software: 7.5/10

Samsung Galaxy A8, just like its predecessors, comes with the TouchWiz UI atop the Android 5.1.1 OS. The TouchWiz UI brings its own flourishes such as a redesigned settings screen, Flipboard app as part of the homescreen, its own set of widgets and so on. TouchWiz UI has been notorious for adding in unncessary bloatware on your phones, but since the Galaxy Note 4, things have slimmed down. Of course, the stock Android experience may still be considered better than the TouchWiz.

The Galaxy A8 features a finger-print scanner on the home button, which is functional. There wasn't any random freezing of the phone when trying to unlock it via the fingerprint sensor. It is not the quickest finger print scanner around, which can be attributed to the fact that the button is more wider than taller. You have an app called Galaxy Apps, which is like Samsung's proprietary app store. The camera app gives you access to a lot of camera specific apps which you can download such as Animated selfie, Sports shot and so on. But you will need to have a Samsung ID for downloading. The Smart Manager app lets you manage your phone's storage and RAM among other things.

Display: 7.5/10

The Samsung Galaxy A8 comes with 5.7-inch full HD SuperAMOLED display. Thanks to the SuperAMOLED display, things are quite vibrant with a slight warm tinge. However, while using it we noticed a slight tinge of colour when you tilt the phone slightly along both the horizontal as well as vertical planes. While you will not be using the phone at those angles and the colour shift is not dramatic, it is still noticeable. The display has Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection. Watching movies on the display is a joy thanks to the deep blacks.

Performance: 7.5/10

The phone is quite responsive and there were barely any instances where we were left twiddling our thumbs as we waited for the apps to startup or animations to complete. The Exynos 5430 paired with 2GB of RAM ensures that things run smooth. Regular tasks such as surfing the web, calling, messaging, gaming, video streaming run without any hitches.

From L to R: Quadrant: 21887; Geekbench 3: 910 (single core), 3223 (multiple core); AnTuTu: 47841

The heating issue does crop up while using heavy apps though. Gaming or browsing image heavy websites or watching high bit-rate videos for longer periods of time makes the phone warm. When you are outdoors on a sunny day, the heat is particularly noticeable. However, it does not get as hot as the Sony Xperia Z3+, but the heating issue is present.

In terms of benchmark scores, the Galaxy A8 certainly gives scores higher than the ones we have seen with Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 SoC sporting phones such as Xiaomi Mi4i, Oppo R5, Canvas Knight 2 and so on. In some instances, it gave scores at par with the Snapdragon 801 SoC sporting OnePlus One as well.

From L to R: PC Mark: 4506; 3D Mark Ice Storm Extreme: 6371; GFX Benchmark: 30FPS

Call quality is good with the earpiece speaker being loud enough. But the placement of the audio speaker on the rear side is strange. Unless you hold the phone such that your palm is directly opposite the speaker, the audio gets lost in the air. We found ourselves turning up the volume to maximum levels on several occasions. There wasn't any sound distortion, but the placement towards the lower portion, where you naturally hold the phone would have been much helpful. Speaker placement is a major irritant if you don't have earphones on you.

Gaming was smooth and playing heavy games such as Dead Trigger 2, Modern Combat 5 on medium settings did not give any issues. Maximum settings does slow things down a bit on both games.

Camera: 8/10

It houses a 16MP rear camera with an f/1.9 aperture which is quite impressive. On the front, you have a 5MP camera. Apart from the Auto mode, you get the Pro mode, Panorama mode, Continuous shot, HDR mode and night mode. You can also download many other camera specific features such as Sports shot, sound and shot, and so on. The 5MP front camera comes with the Beauty mode and also lets you shoot using gestures.

PS: Please click on images below to see them in full resolution

Outdoor shots were packed with details and the AF speed is quick. The f/1.9 aperture gives you good shallow depth of field. The chromatic aberrations were under control. The HDR mode isn't as impressive as we had seen with the Xiaomi Mi 4 / Mi 4i although you do get a lot of manual control options. We shot a couple of indoor shots and although the noise is noticeable, it is well controlled. Low light photographs came out surprisingly well. Sure, not as impressive as the iPhone 6 or the Huawei Honor 6 Plus, but certainly better than the others. The low light AF speed isn't that great and in terms of quality one can say that the OnePlus 2 and the Galaxy A8 are at par. The video camera lets you shoot full HD videos which are decent enough for casual use.

Battery Life: 8/10

The Samsung Galaxy A8 houses a non-removable 3,050mAh battery. Just like its siblings from the Galaxy S series, the Galaxy A8 also has an ultra-power saving mode which only gives you access to phone, messaging, internet and apps such as calculator, clock, memo and voice recorder.

In our daily use case scenarios, the Samsung Galaxy A8 lasted easily over a day on usage involving surfing the web, messaging, uploading pictures, watching videos apart from calling and messaging. In the PC Mark for Android test, it gave a good score of 10 hours 2 mins. Turn on the ultra power saving mode and you could easily go over a day and a half on a single charge. 

Verdict and Price in India

This slimmest phone from Samsung manages to impress on most fronts, specially the build quality, camera and battery performance. For a 5.7-inch phone, the Galaxy A8 does not feel that bulky thanks to the slim form factor, light weight and thinner bezels. It certainly performs faster than competing Snapdragon 615 SoC sporting phones we have seen in the past. The option to expand the storage will certainly appeal to a lot of users. But heating issues do crop up once in a while, although we did not notice apps randomly shut down due to overheating. 

But at Rs 32,500, the phone's biggest competitor is the OnePlus 2 which is almost Rs 7,000 lower, while offering a superior feature set. The Samsung Galaxy A8 is a great mid-range phone, no doubt about that. But we felt the price should have reflected that. Something closer to Rs 25,000 rather than over Rs 30,000 would be preferable. The only advantage Galaxy A8 has over the OnePlus 2 is the fact that you do not have to wait for invites to buy the A8. Going by the price point experience of Samsung devices, we wouldn't be surprised if the price indeed comes down within a couple of months. So right now we would suggest you wait it out, till the price drops, if you are really keen on getting this elegant large-screen phone.

Tags: Samsung Galaxy A8, Samsung Galaxy A8 battery, Samsung Galaxy A8 camera, Samsung Galaxy A8 features, Samsung Galaxy A8 price India, Samsung Galaxy A8 review

Source: Samsung Galaxy A8 Review: Elegant phone, good battery and camera; will face-off with OnePlus 2