The era of futuristic cell phones has arrived. This is the message given by the Galaxy A80, Samsung's launch that landed in July 2019 and an unprecedented revolving camera that allows you to use the powerful photographic set for absolutely every situation of everyday life - including selfies. As with every product, it brings the pros and cons you know from now on in the A80 review.
The smartphone delivers a jaw-dropping look by having almost no edge around the screen. By the look of it, we're talking about an innovative phone with impeccable performance and great specs, but with a few minor bugs that can get in the way of everyday life.
Few edges and rotating camera
The great bait of the Galaxy A80 is the rotating camera. It is a retractable mechanism that automatically slides to hide the selfies sensors when not in use. Unlike mobile phones like OnePlus 7 Pro, Oppo Find X, Vivo Nex S, the set is unique, which means the triple camera changes position - goes forward or backward as needed.
And it all works like magic. Want to take out selfies? Open the camera application and touch a single button. In a matter of seconds, the engine will lift the base and the set will change sides. It all happens in a simple, convenient and fast way, and with any battery level - in our case, we test the feature with just a 3% charge.
The reflection of this ingenuity is seen directly on the screen. There is no notch or camera inside the display, much less thick edges at the top, with the exception of a small imperceptible protuberance in the lower portion. It is basically a 6.7 inch screen in the user's hands, without interference.
The display also guarantees high praise for quality. At all times, the screen has proven to be great for playing and watching movies and series. In addition to the high-definition images possible with Full HD+ resolution (2400 x 1080 pixels), the vivid colors stand out even in very bright environments.
All this, however, is reflected in the footprint. The Galaxy A80 isn't slippery when it's in your hands, but slides easily on any smooth surface, like books and glass tables, it comes out sliding easily. However, we are talking about a big, heavy cell phone, which makes it uncomfortable in many settings. No wonder, pressing something on the top of the screen is a challenge, as the thumb bumps into everything. In those cases, it's better to use both hands.
Besides, the Galaxy A80 is a cell phone that, for the whole work, leaves some fears. Not because the smartphone has a fragile feeling, but because the sliding camera requires some extra care, because if the mechanical part is damaged, it will be goodbye to the selfies.
It also lacks resistance to water and dust, a characteristic that is present in other cell phones in the same price range and old generations of the Galaxy A line. And the concern with dust is not exaggerated, since not a few times I noticed dirt accumulated inside the camera.
It gives you goose bumps when you imagine the long-term effects of that.
Triple camera (back and front)
The Galaxy A80 has a triple camera system that doesn't really impress, but it does a good job. In all, there are three possibilities: telephoto lens; ultra wide lens; and 3D sensor (also called ToF), just like the Huawei P30 Pro and Galaxy Note 10 Plus, a 3D (or ToF).
Let's start with the main camera. It's 48 megapixels with f/2.0 aperture, which enables photos rich in detail and vivid colors. The phone also allows digital zoom of up to eight times. The quality, however, is greatly affected if you zoom in on the images, despite the high resolution sensor.
At night, the quality is slightly reduced, but nothing striking. Despite the granulation, the colors remain vivid or true to reality - depending on the light of the environment - and the details do not suffer many breakdowns, as is recurrent in intermediate smartphones.
There is also a secondary sensor with 8 megapixel resolution and f/2.2 opening. With a wide-angle lens, it is capable of recording a larger portion of the environment with quality close to the main camera.
At night, however, the reduction in quality is quite visible: illuminated points are blown out and excessive granulation also marks presence.
The third sensor is responsible for capturing the depth of field, a good request for augmented reality features and for applying the popular Portrait Mode. In the case of photos with the bokeh effect, we can say that the 3D camera guarantees a very accurate result at any level of filter intensity.
The intensity of the bokeh effect can be adjusted both during the capture of the photo and in the gallery. In the app, there is also the possibility to apply custom filters to the image, such as leaving the background in black and white, for example.
Since the same set can be used for selfies, there are no differences when it comes to image quality. However, some particularities should be taken into account.
Unlike when the set is in the back, it is not possible to zoom in on the selfies. In any case, the app provides three fixed angles, from the most closed to the most open, which is very welcome as it can handle the most varied situations, like a photo with several friends together, for example.
In addition, the LED flash of the photo set is not triggered, as it is positioned at the rear. The cell phone, in case of selfies, uses the screen to illuminate the environment.
The camera application brings a modification that is quite confusing. Unlike Galaxy A8 2018, for example, there is no option to set how many megapixels the image will be made with. The buttons bring up conflicting data. After all, the best way to know the weight and resolution of the image is through the "Details" area of the photo, inside the Gallery.
Fast, choke-free performance
One of the most impressive features of the Galaxy A80 is its performance. Even being a mid-range phone, thanks to a data sheet made up of an octa-core processor up to 2.2 GHz and 8 GB of RAM, the launch presents performance worthy of a premium smartphone. In other words, it does not leave anything to be desired at any time.
Let's start with the day-to-day tasks: it has had enough firepower to run without choking the main productivity applications (Evernote, Todoist, iA Writer, ProtonMail, GadgetGuide.in ), social networks (WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Instagram and LinkedIn) and entertainment (Globoplay, GloboNews Play, YouTube and Netflix).
When it comes to games, the results are even more exciting. Titles like PUBG ran in high quality and without slowness during loading. The phone is also compatible with Fortnite, but the graphics did not exceed the average option.
Generous storage includes 128 GB. However, the Galaxy A80 brings a rare feature in Samsung mobile phones: the lack of support for microSD cards. Therefore, it is not possible to expand the space to store files.
Long battery life
The Galaxy A80 is a 3,700 mAh battery phone that promises to spend an entire day away from the outlet. After a test started at 6h50 with intense use, the smartphone arrived at 10pm still with 15% charge, which gives 15 hours and ten minutes of autonomy. In addition to the productivity and social networking apps, the analysis also included 3h20 of music streaming, video playback for 55 minutes, five minutes of Subway Surfers, 55 minutes of PUBG and ten minutes of connection.
The brand is interesting, especially for those who have a busy day. However, the cell phone rarely surpasses the mark of a full day away from the outlets, even with moderate use.
Quick recharge requires only about an hour to complete the full capacity of the smartphone. The charger, however, repeats the Moto G7 Plus recipe with the end-to-end USB-C cable, which prevents the Galaxy A80 from connecting to older computers and cars.
The Galaxy A80 also abandons another Samsung tradition: the headphone output called P2. This way, the user must use a USB-C standard headset (present in the box), resort to a Bluetooth headset or adhere to an adapter.
Android 9 (Pie) factory
The Galaxy A80 reaches the consumer with the latest version of Android, Android 9 (Pie). Like other branded smartphones, the release brings system modifications ranging from interface design to the addition of extra features such as Dual Messenger, which allows the use of two WhatsApp accounts simultaneously.
The fingerprint reader is positioned below the display, just like premium smartphones like Xiaomi Mi 9. The biometrics fail hard, regardless of whether the finger is clean, dirty, dry or wet. It's a less than expected result, since other cell phones like Galaxy S10 Plus and Huawei P30 Pro were more agile.
Another nuisance is the time to make calls: the cell phone uses vibration to emit sounds, instead of choosing the classic speaker in the front. The result is very low or very high calls. Also, the approach sensor seems to be missing. It is not always the case that the screen switches off when you touch the phone to your ear. Listening to audios in WhatsApp, for example, is not a very pleasant experience if you do not use the speakerphone or headphones.
Still on the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note line, the Galaxy A80 brings the Bixby virtual assistant. With it, you can open apps, the camera, and trigger other functions through voice command. Too bad you don't understand Portuguese. That is, it's better to stay with Google Assistant.
So, is it worth buying the Galaxy A80?
There's no other way to define it: the Galaxy A80 is impressive. Even in the second week of testing, the spinning camera impressed me. Similarly, there were only a few times when the launch didn't get people's attention around. Among other factors related to the technology that deserve to be exalted is the big screen that makes the smartphone shine in the eyes.
However, it is not without flaws, as in the fingerprint reader worthy of rendering impatient episodes. Problems during phone calls are also quite annoying. No wonder, I've made a habit of always answering them with my headset.
You still have the dust. Now, it only took a few hours for the dirt to become visible again, even with the base retracted.
Pros: Triple camera with 3D sensor (ToF), gigantic and high quality screen, impeccable performance and battery for a whole day.
Cons: Fingerprint reader with many failures, accumulation of dust, calls too high or too low and Bixby without understanding Portuguese.
Galaxy A80 Datasheet
Screen size: 6.7 inches
Screen resolution: Full HD+ (2400 x 1080 pixels)
Screen Panel: Super AMOLED
Camera (rotating): triple, 48 MP, 8 MP and 3D (ToF)
System: Android 9 (Pie)
Processor: octa-core up to 2.2 GHz
RAM memory: 8 GB
Storage (internal memory): 128 GB
Memory card: no support
Battery capacity: 3,700 mAh
Dual YES: yes
Weight: 220 grams
Colors: black and pink