Samsung Galaxy A80 review

Introduction

Update, June 26: We received a retail-grade Galaxy A80 a few days ago so we went over our tests and reexamined some of the issues we had with the earlier unit we had for review. You can find some updates scattered here and there, and to go with those, there's also a new score - a higher one, too.

Now that's really an Infinity display - not Infinity-O, not Infinity-U, not Infinity-something-else. The Samsung Galaxy A80 has an all-screen face made possible by a nifty camera mechanism that pops up and rotates so the same cameras serve double duty, front and back. This sort of thing has been done before, but not quite this way.

It doesn't end there - in addition to the two conventional cameras, one regular wide, one ultra wide, the Galaxy A80 boasts a time-of-flight module for depth mapping. So not only should you get selfies with the quality of photos taken on a main camera, you'd also have some advanced depth detection. Add to that Live Focus videos, not just photos, and we can see the A80's potential with a certain demographic.

Pretty much everyone is likely to enjoy the large 6.7-inch SuperAMOLED display - it's got FullHD+ resolution in an even taller than usual 20:9 aspect (watch out, Xperias), offering a ton of screen area. The Snapdragon 730 also looks promising - Qualcomm's latest that's just below the 800-series has power to spare and should be pretty efficient too.

Let's hope it is, in fact, because the battery inside the A80 isn't huge - capacity fell victim to having to fit the moving bits and at 3,700mAh it's less than what even some smaller-screened phones have. Good thing there's 25WUSB Power Delivery support, though it's not really the same as a big power pack.

We understand how Samsung couldn't have gone bigger, though - the A80 is already quite hefty at 220g. However, space was obviously at a premium as essentials have been scrapped - there's no headphone jack, and there's no microSD slot either. Boo.

Have a look at what's there and what isn't on the Galaxy A80.

Samsung Galaxy A80 specs

• Body: 165.2x76.5x9.3mm, 220g; Gorilla Glass 6 back, aluminum frame; Angel Gold, Ghost White, Phantom Black color schemes.
• Screen: 6.7" Super AMOLED, 1080x2400px resolution, 393 ppi, Gorilla Glass 3.
• Chipset: Snapdragon 730 chipset: octa-core (2x2.2 GHz Kryo 470 Gold & 6x1.8 GHz Kryo 470 Silver); Adreno 618 GPU.
• Memory: 8GB RAM, 128GB built-in storage; no microSD slot.
• OS: Android 9 Pie; Samsung One UI.
• Camera: Motorized pop-up camera assembly. Main module: 48MP, 1/2.0" SONY IMX586 Quad Bayer sensor, f/2.0 aperture, 80-degree FOV (26mm equiv. focal length), laser/PDAF. Ultra wide module: 8MP, f/2.2 aperture, 123-degree FOV (11mm equiv. focal length), fixed focus. Time-of-flight 3D Depth camera. LED flash.
• Battery: 3,700mAh; 25W fast charging.
• Connectivity: Dual-SIM; LTE Cat.11 (600Mbps/75Mbps), Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, GPS; Bluetooth 5.0, A2DP, LE, USB-C 2.0.
• Misc: Under-display fingerprint reader, down-firing loudspeaker, no3.5mm audio jack.

Samsung Galaxy A80 unboxing

It's one of those instances where we know what's in the box, but we don't have one to show you, not yet at least. Expect to find the same 25W adapter we saw on the Galaxy A70, rated at 5V/3A and 9V/2.77A. It's USB Power Delivery compliant so it comes with a USB-C output and the bundle includes a C-to-C cable as well.

With the headphone jack gone, Samsung's including a set of USB-C earbuds. There's no dongle in the box, so if you want to use third-party 3.5mm headphones, you'll need a third-party adapter as well. Some bundles will also include a protective case, but it may be worth checking with your retailer or carrier of choice what exactly is in the box.

Update, June 26: Here's a photo of the retail bundle with the contents matching what we detailed above.