After announcing the SM-G9298 or Leadership 8 flip smartphone in the South Korean market, South Korean electronics giant Samsung on Monday launched the “Active” version of its premium Galaxy S8 smartphone, called the “Galaxy S8 Active” in US tech market. Carried a price tag of $849.99 (approximately Rs. 54,200), the new Samsung Galaxy S8 Active will be available in the US exclusively via online Mobile carrier AT&T in Meteor Gray and Tungsten Gold body colour options. For qualified customers (AT&T subscribers), AT&T has listed the Galaxy S8 Active smartphone on its website for $0 down payment with $28.34 (approximately Rs. 1,800) per month for two and half years or 30 months. The Samsung Galaxy S8 Active will be up for Pre-orders/ Registration starting today via AT&T and the same will be made available for purchase starting August 11 (Friday) exclusively from said mobile carrier.
The “Active” in the product name stands for special rugged edition as the smartphone comes equipped with military-grade materials and tough texture for a secure grip. It has a shatter resistant display (for drops from 5 feet or less on a flat surface), metal frame and a protective bumper around the edges to protect against shock, abrasion, tilting or twisting. Samsung called the Galaxy S8 Active as its “toughest Galaxy smartphone yet.” The company also claims that the Galaxy S8 Active has passed the “US Military Standard (MIL-STD) 810G testing against a subset of 21 specific environmental conditions, including extreme temperature, dust, shock/vibration, and low pressure/high altitude.” The Galaxy S8 Active is also IP68 certified for water and dust resistance. The device can survive in up to 5 feet of water for 30 minutes or less.
“Our new Samsung Galaxy S8 Active is designed with tested durability and strength to address the needs of consumers who need a more rugged device for their lifestyle,” Samsung Electronics North America President and CEO, Mr. Tim Baxter said in a statement.
The Galaxy S8 Active variant packs the perfect blend of glass and metal design, durability, ruggedness and performance, which are all associated with the Samsung and Galaxy brand. However, apart from its display and battery job, the rest specifications and features are same to same as we have seen in the other existing Galaxy S8 models. The new Galaxy S8 Active model loses the full-blown Infinity Display curves or edge-to-edge screen design of the standard models, instead of this, the new model sports a shatter-resistant 5.8-inch QHD super AMOLED display with an 18.5:9 aspect ratio.
Galaxy S8 Active Specifications and Features:
Technically speaking, the Galaxy S8 Active comes equipped with a shatter-resistant 5.8-inch Quad HD Super AMOLED display (1440×2960 pixels) with an 18.5:9 aspect ratio and offers a pixel density of 570ppi. Further, the display is protected by a scratch resistance Corning Gorilla Glass 5 and certified by the UHD Alliance as Mobile HDR Premium. Under the hood, the Galaxy S8 Active is powered by a 2.35GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 octa-core processor clubbed with Adreno 540 GPU to handle the graphics. In terms of memory, the smartphone is backed up by a 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 64GB of internal storage, which can be further expanded up to 256GB via microSD card. Talking about its software fronts, the Galaxy S8 Active runs Samsung’s proprietary TouchWiz custom UI skin, based on Google’s Android 7.0 Nougat operating system.
In terms of photography, the Galaxy S8 Active houses a 12-megapixel rear camera with Dual Pixel technology, autofocus, optical image stabilization (OIS), 1.4µm pixel size, 8x digital zoom, an f/1.7 aperture and an LED flash module. On the front, the device features an 8-megapixel front-facing camera with smart autofocus, 80-degree wide-angle lens and an f/1.7 aperture. The rear camera also is capable of recording 4K UHD videos at 30 fps, 1080p Full-HD videos at 30 fps or 60 fps. The camera features also include Pro Mode, Panorama, Selective focus, Virtual shot, Wide selfie, Hyperlapse, Food and Slow motion.
On the connectivity front, the Galaxy S8 Active is a single SIM smartphone that accepts one Nano-SIM. Apart from this, the smartphone also offers various connectivity options including 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4GHz, 5GHz), Bluetooth v5.1, GPS, GLONASS, NFC, and a USB 3.1 Type-C port for super-fast data transfer and charging. Sensors on the device include an Ambient light sensor, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Proximity sensor, Heart rate sensor, Barometer, Geomagnetic sensor, Fingerprint (rear-mounted), Hall Sensor, Iris sensor and a Pressure sensor. The smartphone also supports Samsung Pay and MST connectivity and comes with a fingerprint scanner, iris scanner and facial recognition for high-grade biometric security.
On the battery front, the Galaxy S8 Active comes packed with a high-density 4,000mAh battery with fast charging support as well as wireless charging. The company claims that the battery is rated to deliver up to 32 hrs of talk time, up to 113 hrs of audio playback on speaker, and up to 5 days of standby time. Apart from these high-end specs, the device also features a dedicated button for the company’s Bixby personal AI assistant. Dimensionally, the Galaxy S8 Active measures 151.8 x 74.9 x 9.9 mm and weighs 208 grams.
