Samsung Galaxy A80 hits retail in several regions

[HEXUS]

Full screen sliding rotating camera smartphone priced at €649 in Europe.

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[cheesemp]

Wow that looks fragile. Not that i'm the target market for such things (to old and too cheap) but isn't this just likely to jam the first bit of grime that makes it into the mechanism? I'd rather have a small bezel and more reliability and cheaper cost thanks.

[3dcandy]

Wow that looks fragile. Not that i'm the target market for such things (to old and too cheap) but isn't this just likely to jam the first bit of grime that makes it into the mechanism? I'd rather have a small bezel and more reliability and cheaper cost thanks.

And you are in the minority (say everybody tells me)

[Syphadeus]

Wow that looks fragile. Not that i'm the target market for such things (to old and too cheap) but isn't this just likely to jam the first bit of grime that makes it into the mechanism? I'd rather have a small bezel and more reliability and cheaper cost thanks.

I guess you said it yourself. I'm not sure the criticism is valid given that Samsung has an enormous range of handsets at a number of price and spec levels. All you need to do is buy something other than this, which is super easy, Samsung or otherwise.

[Saracen999]

Wow that looks fragile. Not that i'm the target market for such things (to old and too cheap) but isn't this just likely to jam the first bit of grime that makes it into the mechanism? I'd rather have a small bezel and more reliability and cheaper cost thanks.

I'm right with you in not being their target market, but my reaction if I were would be the same, about grime, etc jamming it.

Now, where'd I leave my pipe and slippers?

Oh.

My slippers are on my feet, and I don't have a pipe.

[Xlucine]

Rules out any case, making it even more fragile. I like the design, but that's a steep price for an A-series sammy

[LSG501]

Yeah I wouldn't be going for that either, there are so many points of failure on that design that it's not even funny.

I don't even do selfies so I wouldn't be needing to rotate it or anything and even I'd be worried about it getting damaged lol.

[philehidiot]

Wow that looks fragile. Not that i'm the target market for such things (to old and too cheap) but isn't this just likely to jam the first bit of grime that makes it into the mechanism? I'd rather have a small bezel and more reliability and cheaper cost thanks.

I'm right with you in not being their target market, but my reaction if I were would be the same, about grime, etc jamming it.

Now, where'd I leave my pipe and slippers?

Oh.

My slippers are on my feet, and I don't have a pipe.

I have slippers on my feet and my pipe is in the garage. Bought only for effect.

That being said, I would buy this to never use the selfie mechanism. I just don't want a selfie camera getting in the way by them making a hole in the screen. I prefer a notch and just a black bar with a sensor array and speaker even more. I do doubt grit and grime will be a massive issue, I expect this mechanism will have been tested very robustly. I'd happily shove this in a case.

The problem I have is the size of the screen with lower resolution and likely a pentile array OLED display. Also that camera with the pixel binning is a marketing stunt for numbers and not a known quantity. We know what Samsung can do with a proper camera but I really do think this camera is there mostly for marketing wan.....executives to ji...... fawn over.

[big_hairy_rob]

ridiculous and the final nail in me even considering Samsung phones. All hype over substance and at a price/design that few will likely be interested in ...

[philehidiot]

ridiculous and the final nail in me even considering Samsung phones. All hype over substance and at a price/design that few will likely be interested in ...

Considering the price points of the higher end phones, this looks kinda reasonable... 8GB RAM, plenty of storage, giant screen, etc.... I don't think it's poorly priced relative to the market. I do think it'd be best to sit back and wait and see if it breaks a lot and for the price to come down as it inevitably will after a few months. It's also impossible to really judge a price on spec. If a company poorly optimises a flagship then it won't be worth the money but if another company does a cracking job on a mid range processor then it can be worth flagship money - see HTC M7.

Also this phone will live or die on its camera. If that's awesome then great. If it's mediocre or dire then we'll see quick price drops and it probably dying out fast.

What I'm trying to say is.... "calm down dear". Wait and see before judging.

[cheesemp]

I guess you said it yourself. I'm not sure the criticism is valid given that Samsung has an enormous range of handsets at a number of price and spec levels. All you need to do is buy something other than this, which is super easy, Samsung or otherwise.

I get that - that's just my reaction to this phone (As covered in the article). If we want to talk about the Samsung range I'm happy to do so. The s10/s10e are way overpriced. I considered the A40/A50 for my wife but concluded from reviews the a40 had potential camera issues and the a50 overpriced and had finger print scanner issues (despite both having very good trade in and interest free deal from Samsung direct). I don't think the J series are good enough for my wife (and again over priced for what are basically budget devices). Samsung make some decent hardware but I in general consider them overpriced and with mediocre software (I'd rather have updates and stability over buxby/pointless OS customisations) so hopeful that covers it?

[philehidiot]

Samsung make some decent hardware but I in general consider them overpriced and with mediocre software (I'd rather have updates and stability over buxby/pointless OS customisations) so hopeful that covers it?

Is the new mid range Pixel phone something for you?

[AGTDenton]

Next generation front facing cameras are going to be behind the LCD or 'under display', completely invisible. So I would just wait for that, rather than some popup or motorised up & down mechanism.

They're just filling the gap until then.

[Smudger]

Is £650 a mid-range phone these days?

That price puts it up against the OP 7 Pro. As an owner of the OP, this isn't giving me buyer's regret...

[big_hairy_rob]

Considering the price points of the higher end phones, this looks kinda reasonable...

And this is probably my largest problem. Somehow people are being brainwashed to believe that £900+ is acceptable for a phone. That way when you see a lower spec'd and more affordable model for £600+, you actually believe this to be good value... It's not.

What I'm trying to say is.... "calm down dear". Wait and see before judging.

What I'm trying to say is we're witnessing disproportionate increases in price compared to the technological/reliability advances. Feel free to accept it. I wont and great reviews still won't make it good value. Plus having lived through a variety of slide, folding, moving phones, these were rarely great and the phone companies know it.

[philehidiot]

And this is probably my largest problem. Somehow people are being brainwashed to believe that £900+ is acceptable for a phone. That way when you see a lower spec'd and more affordable model for £600+, you actually believe this to be good value... It's not.



What I'm trying to say is we're witnessing disproportionate increases in price compared to the technological/reliability advances. Feel free to accept it. I wont and great reviews still won't make it good value. Plus having lived through a variety of slide, folding, moving phones, these were rarely great and the phone companies know it.

I agree with you that the prices are silly. To the point where I, having had a new phone every upgrade time probably won't be upgrading. It's daft and they may be trying to offset their lower sales with higher costs but equally, they may learn a hard lesson when people hang onto their phones come upgrade time. Especially given 5G phones being the size of a small jet liner and people waiting for more 5G options before plunging.

The issue is that this is the state of the market and they're all at it. The problem then becomes one of "if you want a phone, you have to pay the price" and there are enough idiots out there blinded by contract prices being easier to stomach who will pay. So you can moan all you like (and boy do you have cause to moan) but if you want a phone these days, this is the going rate.

I've had many a slider / movable phone. I've never had any problems with them, I've had a HTC TYTN II, a Sony Xperia pro, a Palm Pre, a Sony Ericsson P990i... the list goes on. I've never had a problem with any of the slider mechanisms. You can design these things to be reliable and robust. But if you do this often you pay a price in weight, heft, etc (TYTN II!). So it'll be interesting to see what compromises have been made.

Also, just to play devil's advocate, consider this. Your phone may have a 1440P OLED HDR screen, be a minature PC which can do almost anything your laptop can, has a decent camera which has meant compact camera manufacturers have had to up their game to stay relevant and so on. They can be plugged into a keyboard, mouse and screen and used as a fully blown PC. Now if that was a laptop with just the quality of screen, you'd be thinking "this is gonna be expensive". And you'd be right. If you don't want or need that kind of poke in your pocket, fine. But when you consider you'd be paying one helluva lot for a laptop that was fanless, could play games and had a decent sized, fast SSD as well as every connectivity option and GPS.... and the laptop doesn't have a camera. You might consider just comparing it to the ultraportable laptop market.