Samsung Galaxy A80 review: Cool sliding camera fails to impress

It seems the endless barrage of Galaxy A series phones nosotros have seen this year has nigh come up to an end. Nigh of those phones are slight variations of each other, with Samsung wanting to provide an option for every kind of customer. If you accept a short checklist and want a smartphone for a low price, you lot can choose anything nether the Galaxy A50. If specs affair to you and you don't mind paying a scrap more, y'all can take a look at the options above the Galaxy A50.

The Galaxy A80, however, is a special case. It'southward an experiment for Samsung – the company came upwardly with the thought of a popular-up and sliding camera later seeing all the devices from competitors with similar camera setups, allowing a notch and cutout-free display. Samsung is rather belatedly to the party, of class, and today nosotros encounter if the Galaxy A80 is a device that'southward worth considering for your next smartphone purchase.

Galaxy A80 review: Design

When you run into the Galaxy A80 and start using it for the offset fourth dimension, as a long-time user of Galaxy phones, you'll have to become used to the device. I say that in a positive light, as the A80's front is adorned with a beautiful AMOLED screen without a cutout or notch and very thin bezels. The design on the back, however, differs a lot from what we're used to seeing on Galaxy devices, and the camera module always makes its presence felt.

The Galaxy A80 has a glass back like Samsung's flagship offerings, although it felt more like 1 of those "glasstic" backs from other A serial phones, like the Galaxy A50. I tested the Phantom Blackness version of the phone, and like the other colour options, this one has no slope consequence. The material is very cogitating, though, and you lot can literally apply it as a mirror to comb your hair in the morning. Combined with Samsung'southward subtle logo at the center, the Galaxy A80 looks classy and cute from the back.

The Galaxy A80 doesn't get a Bixby key, only the usual volume buttons (on the left side) and the power button (on the correct side). Thanks to the sliding camera mechanism, Samsung has shifted the SIM card slot to the lesser of the phone, adjacent to the USB Type-C port. Yeah, the SIM slot is in the spot where a 3.5mm headphone jack would be – in that location'south no headphone jack on this phone, nor a microSD slot. And Samsung isn't bundling a 3.5mm to USB Type-C converter in the box, so you'll accept to spend actress to get a converter for using your existing wired headphones.

Milky way A80 display

Together with the photographic camera, the screen is one of the main highlights of the Galaxy A80. It'south a beautiful AMOLED display with no cutouts or other interruptions, and it has a long, fancy name: Samsung calls it 'Full HD+ Super AMOLED New Infinity Brandish.' The display is worthy of that long name, though. Information technology has fantastic colors, and the 6.7 inches of uninterrupted screen manor get in a pleasance to use, specially for watching Netflix or YouTube videos. If there's ane Samsung phone that does justice to the Infinity Display branding, information technology's this one.

Nonetheless, at that place is ane disadvantage of the small bezels: unintended touches. I touched the screen by mistake quite ofttimes when I held it in landscape orientation. If you curl your fingers a petty too far, you can operate the screen and rewind YouTube, for instance. It might just be my hands that make this a problem, simply the small bezels do take a downside that y'all might want to proceed in listen, specially if you accept large easily.

The Galaxy A80's brandish hides two important features underneath: a fingerprint sensor and an earpiece for calls. The fingerprint sensor is an optical i – we were not pleased with the optical in-brandish fingerprint sensor on the Galaxy A70, and information technology's non much better on the Galaxy A80. All too frequently I had to put my finger downwards again to unlock the telephone, and 5 to 10 percent of the fourth dimension, I had to unlock using my Pin. I don't think the in-display fingerprint sensor tech is mature enough. I do know other brands have slightly improve implementations, so Samsung really needs to work on it.

The same goes for Sound On Display technology. It didn't work well on the Galaxy M40, and it's as bad on the Milky way A80. Offset off, yous take to get used to the placement of the speaker – the part of the screen that emits the audio during calls is a fleck lower than a traditional earpiece would be. Secondly, calls sound very dull and quiet, and you lot have to actually press the phone to your ear at times to hear what's being said or fifty-fifty switch to the loudspeaker. Sound On Brandish tech sounds exciting, but its real-world performance is mediocre at best.

Galaxy A80 performance and bombardment life

A Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 processor with eight cores does the heavy lifting on the Galaxy A80, accompanied by 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. I used the Milky way A70 before this phone, and I must say the A80 performs noticeably improve than its cheaper sibling, which uses a Snapdragon 675 SoC. The Snapdragon 730 enables a quick and polish user experience and does well with all kinds of games, and while some competing phones in the same price range utilize flagship processors, I would say the Snapdragon 730 is totally fine in existent-world functioning.

With such a large screen, you lot need a big battery to ensure you lot get through to the terminate of the 24-hour interval on a single charge. The Galaxy A80 has a iii,700 mAh battery and it falls simply a flake brusque of providing a full mean solar day of juice. I didn't succeed very often – it could just accomplish the end of the day with mild to moderate utilize. Heavy use volition require the phone to be charged by eight PM, especially if you lot travel a lot and work on mobile information like me. Thankfully, the A80 supports 25W super fast charging, and the non-so-large bombardment goes from 0 to 100 percent in effectually 80 minutes.

Galaxy A80 software

The Galaxy A80 comes running Android 9 Pie with Samsung One UI, and it's a great software experience overall. One UI is cute, and you become version 1.one of information technology on the A80, with features like Bixby Routines and Digital Wellbeing. In that location's no option to fire upwards Bixby Voice using the ability button, but we're sure Samsung will add together that with a software update subsequently on, as the Milky way A50 and Milky way A70 both support it. You too get features like a blue light filter, one-handed way, a system-wide Night style, Always On Brandish, and navigation bar gestures.

Many of those features accept been around for a long time, while others — similar Night mode — come up courtesy of One UI. The Galaxy A80, like all other Samsung devices, should become two major Android OS updates. Every bit far as security updates are concerned, the A80 is scheduled to become them quarterly, non monthly. That's disappointing for a device as pricey equally the A80 (it costs 649 euros in Europe), and also when yous consider some older mid-range phones (similar the Galaxy A5 (2017) and Milky way A8 (2018)) still get monthly updates.

Galaxy A80 audio quality

The audio from the single loudspeaker on the Galaxy A80 is pretty good. There's noticeable oomph to the low frequencies (bass) for a unmarried speaker, and it'south besides quite loud and clear. Many volition exist disappointed by the absence of a iii.5mm headphone jack, though. To compensate for that, Samsung has added USB Blazon-C earphones in the box. These earphones have decent quality and are suitable for daily use, particularly with Dolby Atmos enabled. As mentioned earlier, there's no 3.5mm to USB Type-C converter in the box, and then y'all will have to get one yourself to use all your existing wired headphones and audio gear.

Milky way A80 cameras

Finally, we come to the photographic camera, the most important and standout feature of the Galaxy A80. The A80's photographic camera organization is revolutionary, to say the least, especially for Samsung. We've seen similar systems earlier, just Samsung has fabricated it more complicated. When you actuate the selfie photographic camera, the photographic camera unit slides up from the dorsum. And every bit it extends, it rotates the camera modules 180 degrees, letting you use the aforementioned sensors that yous utilise for photos of the world for capturing selfies.

Being able to use the same photographic camera setup for both landscapes and selfies is a good thing, but the process of sliding out and rotating the camera unit isn't very fast. In addition, it makes an audible racket – in a quiet room, that'southward a problem. Just imagine yourself in an bad-mannered pose in your gym's yoga class, taking out your phone and switching to the front camera, making everyone else in the room stare at you. The unabridged sliding and rotating process is fully mechanical, with likely a spring making the camera modules flip frontwards and backwards.

I mention this to point that the Galaxy A80 has a lot of moving parts when it comes to its cameras, then there's a greater chance something volition break. There are also many ways the rotating camera can fail. Information technology's a complex arrangement with plenty of places where dust and other potentially harmful materials such as sand grains can settle. Especially worrisome are the large holes created on both sides of the phone when the photographic camera assembly has slid upward to allow yous to take selfies. There's no manner these gaps won't exist filled with junk in a few months, and I certainly don't want to think most dropping the phone in the sand while taking a selfie at the beach.

In the brusk fourth dimension nosotros had the handset, I couldn't test the beach scenario, so we will have to trust Samsung engineers have done their homework well, right? Sadly, they don't seem to have done a solid job. We've already seen the rotating camera mechanism become stuck from time to time while trying to switch to selfie style and back to rear camera manner. If such niggles are showing up with simply a few weeks of apply, what kind of long-term durability can we look?

The Galaxy A80 has a safety mechanism to protect the camera organisation when the phone falls. When the sensors annals the phone is falling downwards, the camera is retracted. I tested this on the couch and it worked, but it's far from perfect. Commencement of all, the safety mechanism is and then slow that you definitely have to make sure the telephone falls from at least a height of 1.5 meters. Y'all normally take photos at chest level and then that's not a major concern, simply the phone does something incredibly stupidafterit lands on the footing.

You meet, when the phone is in mid-air, the cameras flip back to rear camera mode and then slide downwards, but as before long as the telephone hits the ground and detects no further motion, it tries to slide the photographic camera back out! Imagine the device sliding out the camera assembly as information technology lies on the ground with its front side up. And that'southward not the worst part – if you were taking selfies before the phone slipped out of your grasp, it will also try to rotate the cameras dorsum to selfie way afterwards it hits the footing. You can positively hear the camera motor scream as it tries to consummate the rotation but is unable to overcome the ground's resistance. It'due south an oversight I simply cannot wrap my head around, although it should be fixable with a software update.

In that location are also some peculiarities in the camera app. Well, it's more than about how Samsung isn't using the full opportunities a sliding and rotating camera mechanism makes possible. For example, if you change a photographic camera setting in 1 mode, it does not deport over when you switch to the other mode – basically, both rear camera and selfie mode save settings separately. And so at that place's the fact that Scene Optimizer or the LED flash don't piece of work in selfie manner. I empathise you don't always need a bright LED flash for taking selfies, but couldn't Samsung have at to the lowest degree given the user the option to use information technology for selfies if he so chooses, with perchance an pick to reduce the intensity of the flash?

Okay, at present let's talk nigh camera quality. The A80 has three cameras: A 3D depth photographic camera (a ToF sensor), the chief 48MP camera, and the 8MP ultra-broad photographic camera. The 3D depth photographic camera scans the altitude to an object by calculating the time information technology takes for a beam of low-cal to be reflected back from the object, and it enables the use of background mistiness — Live Focus, as Samsung calls it – in videos. The feature is merely called Live focus video and works pretty well, although the sharpness of the object in focus can exist defective compared to all the same bokeh pictures.

Speaking of still pictures, the chief 48MP camera with its F2.0 aperture takes fantabulous photos in daylight, with enough of item and true-to-life colors. What I wanted to know is whether the F2.0 aperture makes low-light conditions tougher for the A80 compared to the F1.7 aperture of the A70's 32MP camera, and I institute it doesn't make a whole lot of difference. Detail in the groundwork can be lacking in depression-light scenes, but otherwise, I didn't call up the narrower discontinuity was a problem overall.

Last but not least, you lot can apply the ultra-wide cameras to accept wider pictures of landscapes and yourself. Having an ultra-wide photographic camera for selfies is very useful when you lot're with a group of friends, although the 8MP sensor can't resolve also much detail (encounter the comparison shot below) nor does it handle tough lighting situations well, thanks to the F2.2 aperture. The ultra-wide photographic camera also comes handy for the Super Steady video recording feature, which enables activeness camera-like stability in videos you record and works near besides every bit it does on the Galaxy S10 lineup.

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We likewise observe plenty of useful features in the camera. You get Scene Optimizer, which can optimize colors for 30 different types of scenes. Flaw Detection is great for finding out if you demand to accept a picture again considering someone moved or blinked in the last one. At that place's a dedicated Nighttime mode, although this doesn't really piece of work likewise as the Galaxy S10'south Night style. You as well get a basic Pro mode so you can modify some camera parameters before taking a shot. There'southward no shutter speed command, which is a limitation on all non-flagship Galaxy phones.

Milky way A80 verdict

The Milky way A80 may be a telephone with a cute screen that'south almost as big as the device itself cheers to the very small bezels, only it'south let down past its camera system. The Milky way A80 is smoother and faster than the Galaxy A70 thanks to the Snapdragon 730, but if it weren't for that fancy rotating photographic camera, the A80 would merely have been a Galaxy A70 Plus.

The A80 requires you to put down almost twice as much coin every bit a Milky way A70. You get the rotating and sliding camera, a faster processor, and a no-notch screen, but y'all have to compromise with a smaller battery (3,700 mAh on the A80 vs 4,500 mAh on the A70). And sacrifice the microSD slot and a headphone jack. All that would accept been fine if the photographic camera implementation was awesome, but it leaves a lot to exist desired, especially on the immovability front.

If you are looking for the absolute top cameras for your selfies and desire to capture bokeh videos, then the Milky way A80 might be something for you. If you're but looking for a adept smartphone, there are other Galaxies that tin can provide a similar experience for less coin.

Pros	Cons
Beautiful AMOLED screen with no cutouts or notches	Vulnerable camera mechanism, odd limitations in camera software
Excellent performance with Snapdragon 730 processor	Bigger battery would accept been prissy
High-quality triple camera setup for selfies	No microSD slot or headphone jack
Can shoot Live Focus videos thanks to 3D depth camera	In-display fingerprint sensor isn't bully
25W fast charging	Sound On Brandish applied science for calls is a downright bad idea

Source: https://www.sammobile.com/samsung/galaxy-a80/review

Posted by: carlislewithating.blogspot.com

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