Samsung's 2018 Mid-Range Marvel Revisited

Looking back at the Samsung Galaxy A8 Star: a premium mid-ranger with Super AMOLED display, Snapdragon 660, and dual 24MP cameras.

Introduction: The 2018 Mid-Range Contender

Before Samsung's current A-series dominance, the Galaxy A8 Star (known as A9 Star in China) made waves in June 2018 as a premium mid-range offering. This device blended high-end features with sensible pricing, featuring a glass and metal construction, capable performance hardware, and an impressive camera system that challenged more expensive phones of its era.

Design & Display

The A8 Star featured a premium design with Gorilla Glass 5 on both front and back, sandwiched around an aluminum frame. At 191g and 7.6mm thickness, it had substantial heft that conveyed quality. The 6.3-inch Super AMOLED display was a standout feature, offering vibrant colors, deep blacks, and a Full HD+ resolution (1080 × 2220) with an 18.5:9 aspect ratio. With minimal bezels and an 80.6% screen-to-body ratio, it offered an immersive viewing experience for media consumption.

Performance & Hardware

Powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 chipset built on a 14nm process, the A8 Star delivered reliable performance for its time. The octa-core configuration (4x2.2 GHz Kryo 260 Gold & 4x1.8 GHz Kryo 260 Silver) paired with either 4GB or 6GB of LPDDR4X RAM handled multitasking and gaming competently. The Adreno 512 GPU provided adequate graphics performance for mobile games. Storage options included 64GB of eMMC 5.1 storage, expandable via microSD card.

Camera

Dual Rear Camera System

The camera setup was particularly notable, featuring a dual-lens arrangement with both sensors offering 24MP and 16MP resolutions, both with wide f/1.7 apertures for improved low-light performance. This configuration enabled features like depth sensing for portrait mode and detailed photography. The camera supported 4K video recording at 30fps, which was impressive for a mid-range device in 2018.

Selfie Camera

The front-facing camera also featured a 24MP sensor with f/2.0 aperture, making it one of the higher-resolution selfie cameras available at the time, capable of capturing detailed self-portraits and 1080p video.

Battery & Charging

The device was equipped with a 3,700mAh battery that provided all-day usage for most users. It supported 15W fast charging via USB-C, allowing for relatively quick top-ups. The combination of the efficient Snapdragon 660 processor and the sizable battery resulted in solid battery life for its generation.

Software & Features

The A8 Star launched with Android 8.0 Oreo with Samsung's Experience UI overlay and received an update to Android 9.0 Pie. It featured a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor for security, NFC for contactless payments, and retained the increasingly rare headphone jack. Connectivity options included dual-band Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.0, and comprehensive 4G LTE support with carrier aggregation for faster speeds.

Pros & Cons

• Pros:
  • Excellent Super AMOLED display with minimal bezels
  • Capable dual-camera system with good low-light performance
  • Premium glass and metal build quality
  • Solid performance from Snapdragon 660 chipset
  • Includes headphone jack and expandable storage
• Cons:
  • eMMC storage slower than UFS standard
  • No water resistance rating
  • Software now outdated with no security updates
  • Heavier than many contemporary devices

Tags: Samsung, Galaxy A8 Star, Android, smartphone, review, camera, specs, mid-range

Looking back at the Samsung Galaxy A8 Star: a premium mid-ranger with Super AMOLED display, Snapdragon 660, and dual 24MP cameras.