Samsung's Galaxy A8 is its thinnest phone yet
Samsung has quietly launched its slimmest smartphone ever in China. The Galaxy A8 isn't a spec-monster, but it's certainly a design feat for a company that gets criticized a lot on that front. The all-metal body is just 5.9mm thin, weighs a mere 151 grams (5.3 oz) and has a bezel size that you can basically round down to zero. The internals are still good enough to fight any mid-range device: a 5.7-inch 1080p OLED display, 8-core Snapdragon 615 chip, a 16-megapixel f/2.2 rear/5-megapixel wide-angle f/1.9 front camera and 2GB of RAM. Despite the size, Samsung managed to squeeze in a generous 3,050mAh battery that's larger than the Galaxy S6's.
Samsung has also thrown in other tech like a fingerprint sensor and hand-wave detection that activates a photo timer. It's obviously betting that Asian buyers looking at a similar mid-range phone (like the HTC Desire 826) will go for the Galaxy A8 instead based on its premium metal body and extra features. And that brings us to the price -- it's rumored to start at 3,499 yuan (about $560), a price that's on the high-end for that class of device. There's no news on US or European availability, but we'd guess it'll come over here -- and even if it doesn't, you may see similar design language in the incoming Galaxy Note 5.
