In the last couple of years, Samsung has been dominating the market when it comes to the alphabet segment. The company’s Galaxy Note series phones are among some of the bestselling alphabets in India. Samsung released the first three Note phones with regular plastic bodies, but redesigned the Note 4 from scratch and offered a metal frame around it. Now recently, the vendor added a new alphabet in its portfolio, but not in the Note series. The new device is called the Samsung Galaxy A8, which is the company’s slimmest smartphone till date, out throwing the Galaxy A7 from its throne.
The Samsung Galaxy A8 goes hand in hand with the 2013’s Samsung Galaxy Note 3. Both are the excellent phablets available on the market at the moment. If you are finding it hard to choose among these, let’s compare their features.
Samsung Galaxy A8 vs Samsung Galaxy Note 3: comparison of flagship Android tablets from Samsung
Design and Display
Talking about the design first, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 offers a plastic body, measures 8.3mm around the waist and weigh 145 grams. The Samsung Galaxy A8, on the other hand, looks much more appealing than the Note 3 as it offers a metallic build that offers durability. The Galaxy A8 is the Korean tech giant’s slimmest offering till date featuring a waistline of just 5.9mm. So looks-wise, the Galaxy A8 certainly looks better than the Note 3. Coming to the display, both smartphones offer 5.7-inch full HD Super AMBLED displays bearing a pixel density of 386ppi.
Configuration
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy A8, both are powered by the same Samsung Exynos 5 chipset. However, the Galaxy Note 3 is equipped with the octa-core Exynos 5 5420 chipsets, while the Galaxy A8 is loaded with a next-gen Exynos 5 octa-core 5430 CPU. The Galaxy Note 3 offers 3GB of RAM and Galaxy A8 comes with 2GB of RAM. On the paper, both devices offer similar performance. For storage, the Samsung Galaxy A8 and Galaxy Note 3, both are equipped with 32GB of internal memory. For further storage expansion, the Galaxy Note 3 can accept memory cards up to 64GB, while the Galaxy A8 is able to take in a much higher 128GB of microSD cards.
The Note 3 was released running Android Jelly Bean but had received its Lollipop update a couple of weeks ago. The Galaxy A8, on the other hand, runs Android 5.1 Lollipop out of the box with the brand’s latest version of TouchWiz UI on top. So on the performance front, both offer an almost similar experience, but software and storage-wise, the A8 has better features.
Camera
Coming to the camera, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is equipped with a 13-megapixel rear camera that offers autofocus, an LED flash, and full HD video recording. For selfies, the Note 3 comes with a mediocre 2-megapixel front snapper. The Samsung Galaxy A8, on the other hand, offers much better camera specifications including a 16-megapixel autofocus rear snapper with an LED flash, and a 5-megapixel front snapper. Overall, even the Galaxy A8 offers better self-portraits, but its main photography experience is almost similar to the Note 3, even after packing a new rear sensor.
Connectivity and Battery
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is a 3G-only single-SIM offering. The Galaxy A8, on the other hand, is a future-ready device with support for Indian 4G LTE bands and dual-SIM slots. Other connectivity options of these phones are almost similar including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, A-GPS, and NFC. The Note 3 is fuelled by a 3,200mAh battery, while the Galaxy A8 utilizes a slightly smaller 3,050mAh unit. Overall, the Galaxy A8 is better in terms of connectivity, and the Note 3 is better when it comes to battery life.
Conclusion
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is one of the best phablets available on the market at the moment. The phone offers an excellent display, a stylus pen to take notes, draw and more, decent camera specs, decent performance, and a huge battery. However, the Samsung Galaxy A8 doesn’t come with a stylus, but still offers a much more appealing premium metallic body than the Note 3, and offers 4G LTE support, better selfies and storage options, and the latest software experience out of the box. Coming to the prices, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is being offered on the online stores for around Rs 25,000 in India. However, since the Samsung Galaxy A8 offers a premium build, it has been priced a bit higher at Rs 32,500.