Gadget review: The perfect selfie every time

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Gadget review: The perfect selfie every time

By Paisal Chuenpraseang
The Nation

 

 

A sleek smartphone with front and back cameras of equal quality thanks to a clever rotating design, the Samsung Galaxy A80 is a must for anyone hooked on selfies. 

 

Instead of embedding the lower-quality performance camera into the front panel, the A80 uses a design that allows the main cameras to pop up and rotate, meaning that selfie shots will be equally as sharp as shots captured by the back cameras.

 

And A80’s main camera has a very high resolution of 48 megapixel, so you can take a selfie at an overkill resolution of 48MP for printing larger-than-life photos.

 

Performance-wise, the smartphone is fast despite not being powered by Qualcomm flagship processor but instead by Qualcomm’s mid-range octa-core processor, the Qualcomm Snapdragon SM6150. And it comes with a hefty amount of working memory or 8 gigabytes of RAM and 128 GB of internal storage. It runs on Android 9.0.

 

During my test, I found that A80 was fast. Its menu and touchscreen were responsive and apps and video clips ran fast. It also pumps out High-Resolution Audio files in FLAC 24bit/192kHz format but for some reason doesn’t provide a standard 3.5mm stereo jack for using with your premium headphones. The package does however comes with stereo headset that uses a USB-C connector to link with the A80’s USB-C port.

 

I played FLAC 24bit/192kHz files on the A80 by connecting to Audio-Technica ATH-ANC700BT phones and the sound quality was fine with good details and powerful bass. The A80 also comes with Dolby Atmos that provides 360-degree immersive audio experience when using earphones or Bluetooth stereo speakers.

 

The A80 also boasts Samsung’s new Infinity Display, which features a 6.7-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED screen with 1080x2400 pixel resolution. It’s great for viewing photos and watching video clips and during the test, I thoroughly enjoyed watching TrueID TV app and iflix app without feeling I was straining my eyes.

 

The A80 has fast Internet connection too. I tested it on TrueMove H’s LTE 4G network and was able to download applications fast and back up my snapshots w to my Google Photos cloud storage space in no time.

 

I used Ookla Speedtest app to measure the connection speed and the A80 achieved a download speed of 54.3 Mbps and upload speed of 23 Mbps.

 

The back cameras, which rotate to the front as well, are made of three cameras – s 48MP main camera with f/2.0 aperture lens, an 8MP ultra-wide camera with f/2.2 aperture 123-degree lens and a 3D Depth Camera.

 

The 3D Depth Camera adds depth data to the two other cameras and is used in Samsung’s Quick Measurement app. The app uses the depth camera to measure the distance between you and your subject in either inches or centimetres and you can also use it to measure dimensions of an object by pinning a starting point and dragging an imaginary line to the other side.

 

The ultra-wide camera is great. Wits 123-degree field of vision, it’s built to capture the same field of width as the human eye can see so you capture more in each frame.

 

During the test, I found that the Ultra Wide Camera was very good for capturing scenery as well as for group selfies.

 

The 48MP main camera is impressive too, taking beautiful shots with clarity and saturated colours in most lighting conditions.

 

I mostly used the auto exposure mode, which is called Photo mode, with the Scene Optimizer option turned on. The Scene Optimizer identifies and optimises shooting parameters based on 30 modes that the camera can recognize. These include Food, Beaches, Indoor, Mountain, Flowers, Face, Baby, Dog, Cat, Sunset, Sunrise, Waterfall, Watersides, Scenery, Stage, Vehicles, Flowers, Greenery and Animal.

 

The camera also comes with a Pro mode that lets you adjust ISO settings, White Balance settings and exposure value by yourself.

 

Another fun mode is the Live Focus. You can use this mode to capture shots with outstanding subjects and blurred background with depth data provided by the Depth Camera. This mode provides a slider bar for you to adjust the level of blurriness of the background and you can see the change in real time.

 

The A80 also supports Multi Window mode allowing you to do two tasks at the same time. For example, you can watch a video clip and chat at the same time.

 

Galaxy A80 has an on-screen fingerprint reader for securely unlocking the phone fused right into the glass where you can conveniently place your thumb. I found that it worked effectively and fast for unlocking the phone. The A80 uses Samsung Knox security technology that offers multi-layered security to defend your sensitive information from malware and malicious threats.

 

Galaxy A80's smooth curves are designed for ease of use and it comes with a glass and metal frame. It’s available in Phantom Black, Angel Gold, and Ghost White.

 

The 3,700 mAh battery that allowed me to survive a day with one charge. And the Galaxy A80 learns your daily routines and usage patterns while optimizing power by closing unused apps. The battery supports 25W Super Fast Charging technology so the battery can be replenished very fast.

 

Samsung Galaxy A80 has a suggested retail price of Bt21,990.

 

KEY SPECS 

 

Network: LTE Cat. 11

OS: Android 9.0

Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon SM6150 octa-core processor (2.2GHz dual + 1.8GHz Hexa)

Memory: 8GB RAM

Storage: 128GB internal without micro SD card slot

Cameras: 8MP Ultra Wide Camera f/2.2 lens, 48MP main camera f/2.0 lens, 3D Depth Camera f/1.2 lens

Video resolution: 4K UHD video recording at 30 fps (3840x2160)

Display: 6.7-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED (2400x1080 pixels) New Infinity Display

Wireless connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4/5GHz), VHT80 MIMO; Bluetooth v5.0

Location: GPS, Glonass, Beidou, Galileo

Sensors: Accelerometer, On-Screen Fingerprint Sensor, Gyro Sensor, Geomagnetic Sensor, RGB Light Sensor, Proximity Sensor, Hall Sensor

Battery: 3,700 mAh with Super Fast Charging

Dimensions: 165.2 x 76.5 x 9.3 mm

Weight: 220g

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/edandtech/30373236

 

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