Following the user manual leak last week, Samsung has formally announced the Galaxy A8 (2018) and A8+ (2018) as part of their midrange lineup for 2018. The new mid-rangers use the same design language as the Galaxy S8 and S8+, as well as pack in a dual front-facing camera, support for Samsung Pay, and is available in black, orchid grey, gold, and blue.

Surprisingly, the 2018 version of the A8 and A8+ also supports Samsung VR, making it the first midrange phone from the company to do so. Samsung's official specifications make no mention of either a microSD card or 3.5mm headphone jack, though both of these are mentioned in the user manual.

While Samsung is noted for using somewhat peculiar 18.5:9 displays (see note), the pair are apparently the first phones anywhere to have a 1080x2220 resolution. Unfortunately, the larger A8+ does not get a resolution bump to match the increased size, though there is an additional 6GB version.

Pricing information is not yet available, though the phones are expected to be available in "early January 2018."

SPECS

Display

5.6-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED, 1080×2220 (6.0-inch for A8+)
Screen measured diagonally as a full rectangle without accounting for the rounded corners

Camera

Front: Dual Camera 16MP FF (F1.9) + 8MP (F1.9)

Rear

16MP PDAF (F1.7)

CPU

Samsung Exynos 8-core (2.2GHz Dual + 1.6GHz Hexa)

Memory

4GB RAM, 32/64GB (A8+: 4/6GB RAM)

Battery

3000mAh (A8+: 3500mAh)

OS

Android 7.1.1

Dimension

149.2 x 70.6 x 8.4 mm, 172g (A8+: 159.9 x 75.7 x 8.3 mm, 191g)

Network

LTE Cat. 11

Payment

NFC, MST

Connectivity

Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4/5GHz), VHT80, 256QAM, Bluetooth® 5.0 (LE up to 2Mbps), ANT+, USB Type-C with Fast Charging, NFC, Location (GPS, Glonass, BeiDou)
BeiDou coverage may be limited.

Sensors

Accelerometer, Barometer, Fingerprint Sensor, Gyro Sensor, Geomagnetic Sensor, Hall Sensor, Proximity Sensor, RGB Light Sensor

Audio

MP3, M4A, 3GA, AAC, OGG, OGA, WAV, WMA, AMR, AWB, FLAC, MID, MIDI, XMF, MXMF, IMY, RTTTL, RTX, OTA

Video

MP4, M4V, 3GP, 3G2, WMV, ASF, AVI, FLV, MKV, WEBM

PRESS RELEASE

Note: Yes, that is what they are called. I am neither the king of math nor the emperor of press releases, so I am powerless to stop this.