“The Galaxy A80 is the world’s first phone with a sliding-rotating camera setup and Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 730G SoC”

Late last year, Samsung made a huge claim that it will begin infusing its mid-range devices with lots of new innovations instead of reserving them for its flagship handsets. The company is keeping that promise alive, and that’s evident from the Samsung Galaxy A80 that has just been announced in Bangkok, Thailand. Among the flurry of different methods that are being tried to eliminate the need for a notch, this smartphone tries yet another – a pop-up camera that also rotates. This really is a bold design choice, and might just turn out to be something you’ll see on the other Galaxy handsets that will be launched in the coming months. But for now, if you’re interested in the A80, we’ve got a list of 5 top features that this phone comes equipped with.

A sliding panel with a rotating camera module

Remember those age-old OPPO phones with rotating cameras? The Galaxy A80’s camera module is very similar, with the major difference being that this assembly slides out of the body whenever summoned. The spring-loaded rotate mechanism spins the module depending on whether you wish to capture a regular photograph or a selfie. Moreover, this action is quick and swift. With no additional space required for a selfie camera, the fascia is occupied almost entirely by the phone’s 6.7-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1,080 x 2,400 pixels.

Powered by Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 730G processor 

Recently. Qualcomm has announced a trio of new mobile platforms, among which is the Snapdragon 730G, wherein ‘G’ stands for gaming. This is the very chipset that rests at the heart of the Samsung Galaxy A80. The SoC has been created with the aim of improving gaming performance on the upper mid-range smartphones. It of course comes integrated with Snapdragon Elite Gaming goodies like the Vulkan 1.1 Graphics Driver, stutter remover, True HDR10 rendering and much more. Built with the 8nm process, it comes integrated with the Adreno 618 GPU that’s 15 percent faster than its predecessor. The SoC comes equipped with a 2.2GHz octa-core CPU, and to complement it, there’s 8GB worth of RAM as well.

3700mAh battery + 25W fast-charging 

With so much stuff to power on the handset, having a large battery was a necessity. And although a 3,700mAh power pack is falling slightly behind on the 4,000mAh trend, it’s indeed a good capacity for a mid-range smartphone to have. Furthermore, the phone has been blessed with 25W fast charging support. Samsung calls the Galaxy A80’s battery ‘intelligent’ with reference to its ability to analyse your daily usage patterns to optimise the phone’s power consumption.

Triple rear cameras 

Despite being mounted on a rotating pop-up mechanism, the phone’s camera module still finds space for three sensors. The primary one among them is a 48MP unit that’s accompanied by an f/2.0 lens. While this sensor will be used for clicking regular photographs, the secondary 8MP camera will be reserved for ultra-wide shots, offering a 123-degree field of view. And then there’s the third TOF 3D camera, which enables live bokeh effects for photos as well as videos. Samsung has laid much focus on the A80 having been built to share live interactions in the form of livestreaming and spontaneous photo sharing. It has hence granted the device a Super Steady video mode that helps in easily capturing content by reducing shake while capturing videos.

In-display fingerprint sensor 

Although this isn’t the advanced ultrasonic fingerprint reader that the Galaxy S10 models possess, there’s still reason to be pleased about its existence on the Galaxy A80. That’s because its presence underneath the display ensures that the front surface delivers a seamless full-screen experience. And the back of the phone too looks gorgeous, thanks to a curved glass design, which doesn’t have to be blemished by the presence of a traditional fingerprint reader.

Some of the other cool features about the Samsung Galaxy A80 that are worth mentioning are its adoption of Android 9.0 Pie with the all-new One UI, 128GB of storage and its three exquisite colour options, Angel Gold, Ghost White and Phantom Black. While there’s no confirmation as to when the A80 will be launching in India, we’re hoping that it’d be sooner than later.