2018 series Galaxy A8, A8+ will hit stores in Vietnam market first; when will new Samsung phones come to India?

Samsung had unveiled the new 2018 series Galaxy A8 and the A8+ mid-range phones earlier in the month and announced to release them in January in global regions, but in the press note, there was no specific time-frame nor country details. Now, the company has confirmed that the new mobiles will be rolled out in Vietnam in the first week of January.

Samsung hosted a local launch programme in Vietnam and confirmed to release Galaxy A8+ (2018) and Galaxy A8 (2018) on January 6 for VD (Vietnam Dong) 13,490,000 (approx.$592/€502/Rs 37,928) and VD 10,990,000 (roughly $482/€409/Rs 30,899), respectively, Tech Rum, a local blog reported.

The new Galaxy A8 series comes in two variants, one generic Galaxy A8 and another Galaxy A8+. They both share same design language and almost all internal features, but differ in two aspects such as display size and battery, while the rest of the specifications remain same. The generic Galaxy A8 sports a 5.6-inch full HD+ super AMOLED screen with 3,000mAh cell, whereas the A8+ flaunts 6.0-inch screen having 3,500mAh battery.

Interesting aspect of the new Galaxy A8 series is that it shares three key features of the flagship Galaxy S8 and the Note8: the Infinity Display, which offers immersive viewing experience, fast-charging capability and the Bluetooth v5.0 standard that allows users control of two different speakers simultaneously and cover wide data transfer area for up to 800 meters at speeds close to 2Mbps.

Furthermore, the new Galaxy A8 and the A8+ come with dual-cameras--16MP (with f/1.9 aperture + Fixed Focus) + 8MP (with f/1.9 aperture) having Live Focus. On the back, they house 16MP with f/1.7 aperture, LED flash, PDAF (Phase Detection Auto Focus), video digital image stabilisation (VDis) technology, and hyperlapse feature.

It's not only a huge upgrade over the previous Galaxy A series but also sets a new benchmark in the mid-range phone category.

Under-the-hood, they come with an octa-core processor, 4GB/6GB RAM and 32GB/64GB internal storage.

When will Samsung Galaxy A8 series come to India?

As of now, there is no official word from Samsung on when the company intends to release the Galaxy A8 (2018) series in India, but going by previous roll-out pattern, the new mid-range phones most probably hit stores in late January or early February.

Furthermore, Samsung, who has been ruling the Indian smartphone markets for several years, is facing stiff competition from Chinese companies particularly Xiaomi and OnePlus. The former is steadily increasing sales volume thanks to feature-rich budget phones such as Redmi (and Note) series is getting an overwhelming response from the public and is now the joint leader in the country. Whereas, the latter's OnePlus 5 series is giving stiff fight in Rs 30,000+ price-range category affecting Galaxy A series. We believe Samsung will not wait long to release the Galaxy A8 (2018) series and also keep the price low to match OnePlus 5T series price range.

Key specifications of Samsung's 2018-series Galaxy A8, A8+: