Samsung Galaxy A8s launched: World's first smartphone with a in-display camera-hole

South Korea-based technology giant Samsung has launched the Galaxy A8s, the world's first smartphone with an in-display camera hole. Called the Infinity-O by Samsung, the design was unveiled earlier this year at the company's annual developer summit.

Samsung has reduced the size of its bezels, but has so far consciously stayed away from the notch look - a signature Apple design that was later copied wholeheartedly by other Android device makers.

It seems to have found its answers with Infinity-O.

Apart from being innovative and different, the technology is important because Samsung is expected to launch its upcoming flagship smartphones the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy Note 10 with the Infinity-O display.

The device has been launched in 6GB and 8GB RAM variants with 128GB storage, which can be further expanded by up to 512GB via dedicated microSD card slot. The device is currently available on pre-order in China until December 21, but there is no information about when actual sales would commence.

Samsung is also tight-lipped about the price of the device, however one can assume premium pricing, considering its specifications.

Galaxy A8s sports a 6.4-inch IPS LCD display with resolution of 1080*2340p and 19.5:9 aspect ratio. The screen-to-body ratio of the phone stands at 84.7 percent with a 6.7mm wide display hole housing the front camera. The device measures 158.4mm x 74.9mm x 7.4mm and weighs 173 grams.

At heart, Galaxy A8s is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 SoC with 10nm technology backed by Adreno 616 GPU for graphics crunching. The device comes in 6/8GB RAM along with 128GB internal storage and can be expanded by another 512GB via microSD. On the software side, it runs on the Android 8.1 Oreo out-of-the-box with Samsung's homebred UI skin loaded on top.

In optics, it sports a triple-camera setup consisting a 24MP main sensor, a secondary 10MP telephoto lens and 5MP depth sensor. The sensors come with aperture of f/1.7, f/2.4 and f/2.2, respectively. At the front, it is equipped with 24MP under display sensor with f/2.0 aperture. The cameras are equipped with features such as HDR and can capture 1080p videos at 30 frames-per-second (fps).

The phone is fuelled by a 3,400 mAh battery which supports adaptive fast charging. Connectivity features such as dual band Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 5.0, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, Type-C 1.0 USB, accelerometer, proximity sensor and compass are present on the phone. The device ships in three colour variants – blue, grey and green.