Samsung Galaxy On8 is the newest addition to On series. This phone is priced at Rs. 15,999 and is available exclusively from Flipkart. Samsung and Flipkart both are promoting this phone, so we decided to give this phone a try. After using Samsung On8 phone for a long time, here is our final review of the phone.
Recently, Moto G5 Plus is launched at the same price range. Here is our Moto G5 Plus Review: A good all rounder in mid-range
Design
Galaxy On8 is the large device with the large 5.5-inch display. While most of the brands have already adopted metal unibody build, Samsung is still using the same design pattern with few small changes. The phone still looks like premium Samsung phones. It has a metal frame that holds the display. Silver line around the metal edge looks attractive.
Above the display, it has notification LED, front camera, and LED flash. Below the display, it has the physical home button and two capacitive keys on either side.
At the left side edge, it has volume rockers and right edge contains power button. The micro USB port, 3.5 mm audio port, and primary microphone are at the below side edge.
The Back panel of the phone contains 13 MP rear camera with speaker at the left side and dual LED flash at the right side. The back panel is also removable which houses removable large 3500 mAh battery, two SIM slots, and a micro SD card slot.
This phone is the bit heavy with 169 grams of weight. As the phone adopts the design pattern of high-end Samsung phones, it looks premium. In terms of design, it is solid and attractive. The only issue can be the display protection which is not there. So, one has to use tempered glass to avoid any issue.
Display
This is the most attractive thing we found during Samsung Galaxy On8 review. It features 5.5-inch Full HD Super AMOLED display which is awesome. It is bright but does not hurt eyes even on full brightness. The color reproduction is awesome and viewing angles are also very good. The only drawback is the lack of any scratch resistant protection.
The display shows consistent performance in different environment. Outdoor visibility is also impressive. You can also tweak display by changing the screen modes. In my opinion, Adaptive display mode works best.
Software
Galaxy On8 runs on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow with Samsung’s own UI at the top of it. You get an app drawer that lets you sort apps alphabetically and even search if you want.
This phone offers popular Samsung-branded features including S-bike mode, ultra-data saving mode, S-planner and more. It also comes with Microsoft’s productivity suit pre-installed.
There is also a theme store that lets you give this phone a personalized look and feel.
Overall software experience is good. I am not sure if this UI will become slower with the time, but after using it for a week, I couldn’t see any issue with the software experience.
Performance
Samsung Galaxy On8 comes with 1.6 GHz octa-core 64-bit Samsung Exynos 7 Octa 7580 processor with Mali-T720 MP2 GPU and 3 GB RAM. This combination performs well. I hardly saw any lag while performing different tasks on this phone. In terms of multi-tasking, heavy apps and performance, this phone shows no issues.
While I was expecting good gaming performance, this phone disappoints. It was running low-end games without any issue, but high-end games were not optimal. Asphalt and Dead trigger 2 like heavy games were not fine. These games were showing lag and frame drops. If you are a hardcore mobile gamer, this phone is not for you.
It has 16GB internal storage from which you get around 11 GB for free. Best thing is that the phone does not restrict you with Hybrid slot. So, you can expand storage up to 128 GB by adding a microSD card. It also supports USB OTG if you need more data on your phone.
Camera
This phone comes with 13 megapixels rear camera with BSI and LED flash. The camera offers various features like face detection, ISO control, HDR and touch to focus. It also has a 5 megapixels front camera with LED flash. Having front camera flash is an advantage and now you can even capture selfies in low-light.
The camera seems good and captures good photos in both outdoor and indoor. Low-light selfies with flash are also of good quality. See few camera samples below
Both front and rear cameras can record full HD videos.
Multimedia & Connectivity
Samsung Galaxy On8 impresses with its sound quality. Speaker is at the back and offers loud & clear sound. I have already praised the display. So, you will get good multimedia experience. Be it gaming or video, you will surely enjoy the experience on the phone with its Super AMOLED display and loud speaker.
Call quality is also excellent. It supports dual SIM and you are free to use both SIMs as there is a separate slot for microSD card. Both SIM slots support 4G (all Indian bands) and this phone also offers VoLTE. So, you will enjoy JIO’s network on this phone. It supports Wi-Fi 802.11, b/g/n, Bluetooth4.1, GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, and micro USB.
Battery
It is packed with 3300 mAh large battery that really performs well. With average usage, I was able to get more than 2 days of usage. With high usage, I got around 26 hours of backup. That seems impressive. It also comes with the ultra-power saving mode that optimizes your phone well to keep its power on for the longer time. While it boasts of having fast charging, the phone was still taking more than 2 hours in fully charging the phone.
Even if you can get phones boasting more battery capacity in this price segment, Galaxy On 8 gives all those phones tough competition even with lesser battery capacity.
Final Words
Samsung Galaxy On8 is the result of Samsung’s revised strategy for mid-range. While Samsung has always been criticized for offering high-priced phones as compared to other competitors, this time Samsung has priced this phone aggressively. Only the lack of fingerprint sensor can be a drawback, but Samsung’s brand value and excellent after sales support put it ahead.
This phone impresses with its awesome display, nice performance, and long lasting battery. Below is the Samsung On8 Review:
