Samsung launches Galaxy A8 and A8+ phones with dual front-facing cameras

Borrowing the tall and immersive experience from the Galaxy S8, the less expensive Galaxy A-series for 2018 brings an 18.5:9 aspect ratio, bezel-free display and a heavy emphasis on cameras. A rear 16MP f/1.7 camera handles everyday shooting but things get much more interesting up front.

Opting for the standard size Galaxy A8 provides a 5.6 inch 1,080 x 2,220 AMOLED display and a 3,000mAh battery. Stepping up to the larger Galaxy A8+ offers the same display but at six inches alongside a 3,500mAh battery. The A8+ also receives 6GB of RAM in the 64GB capacity compared to the 4GB found in the standard A8 and 32GB A8+ model.

Samsung has opted to go with dual cameras on the front of the Galaxy A8 and A8+. Both are f/1.9 aperture but one is 16MP while the other is 8MP. For those interested in Portrait mode and taking lots of selfies, these phones certainly will be of interest. Live Focus will allow previewing of bokeh effects before snapping the perfect shot.

Similar to many other options, the Galaxy A8 is IP68 rated, making it resistant to water and small debris. Android 7.1.1 is the default operating system with no word on when Android 8 (Oreo) will be available. Both sizes of the Galaxy A8 offer a reasonable improvement over the previous generation. One notable improvement is the placement of the fingerprint sensor directly below the camera instead of off-center like on the Galaxy S8.

Neither the A8 nor A8+ are overtly impressive in their own right but that was never Samsung's goal with these devices. The A-series is targeted at consumers who want a smartphone that runs well and is almost as good as a flagship but without the high-end price tag to match. Pricing has not yet been announced but the A7-series have been selling for around $350.

Related Reads
Source: Samsung launches Galaxy A8 and A8+ phones with dual front-facing cameras

The iPhone was the camera of choice in 2017, but standalone cameras still have a loyal following

More Charts

 

Your smartphone's built-in camera can't match the photo quality and features offered by a standalone camera, but that's not stopping most people from using their phones to take pictures. According to recent data from photo-sharing site Flickr, charted for us by Statista, smartphones are far and away the most popular photographic device.

Half of the photos uploaded onto Flickr in 2017 were captured by phone cameras, while digital SLR cameras accounted for one third of the pictures. Point-and-shoot cameras, once the standard tool for amateurs to snap red-eyed photos of family dinners and birthday parties, are now a distant third place.

When it comes to smartphone cameras, Business Insider's Antonio Villas-Boas found the iPhone 8's camera to be the best of the pack. And Flickr users seem to agree: more than half of all photos uploaded to the service in 2017 were taken on an iPhone.

BI Graphics

EXCLUSIVE FREE SLIDE DECK: The Next Smartphone by the BI Intelligence Research Team.Get the Slide Deck Now » SEE ALSO: Americans love to buy toys, jewelry, and music on their smartphones NOW WATCH: A guy who reviews gadgets for a living spent a week with the iPhone X and the Pixel 2 — the winner was clear
Source: The iPhone was the camera of choice in 2017, but standalone cameras still have a loyal following

Sony's next generation flagship smartphone to offer a dual-camera setup

According to leaks, the phone will be powered by Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 845 SoC

New leaks have surfaced online suggesting that the next Sony flagship may feature a dual-camera setup. Alleged specifications of a Sony H8216 smartphone surfaced on Reddit two days ago suggesting that the phone will have two 12MP cameras at the rear. The front-facing camera is suggested to be a 15MP snapper using Sony's EXMOR RS sensor with f/2.0 aperture. It will have a 5.48-inch (5.5-inch) display with a 1920 x 1080p resolution. The leak also mentions that it will be using Sony's X-Reality engine and will cover 148% of the sRGB colour gamut in addition to supporting HDR. Earlier leaks suggested that the phone might have a 4K display with a resolution of 3840 x 2160p.

As expected, the device is suggested to be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC, which was announced recently. Xiaomi has already confirmed that its next flagship smartphone will be powered by the new SoC. Snapdragon 845, which is a new Octa-core SoC is claimed to have a 30% better GPU performance and is more power efficient as well. The chip will also bring enable the phones powered to produce better images and videos. The SoC is also claimed to provide better FaceID, faster data speeds, and improved VR experience.

Besides the newer SoC, the leaked specifications reveal that Sony's upcoming smartphone will sport 4GB of RAM and 64GB of on-board storage. The device will come with a 3130mAh battery and will support Qualcomm's quick charge functionality. It will also be running on Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box. 

A previous report suggest that Sony will unveil this phone along with half a dozen other H8XXX series smartphones at MWC Barcelona 2018. We are yet to see any leaked images of the device/s from Sony for the year of 2018.

Digit NewsDesk  news@digit.in

The guy who answered the question 'What are you doing?' with 'Nothing'.

Other Popular Deals

Coolpad Cool 1 (Gold, 4GB RAM +...

Lenovo Z2 Plus (Black, 32 GB)(3...

Honor 6X (Grey, 64GB)

Interesting Galleries Best camera phones under Rs....

Best smartphones to buy under Rs. 7,000 in India right now

14 upcoming mobile phones you should expect in India in 2016

10 smartphone sequels to look forward to in 2015

10 best smartphones between Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 20,000...

Best smartphones under Rs. 15,000 with great battery backup

26 upcoming & latest smartphones to check-out

Slimmest phones you can buy in India [November 2015]

The best upgrade options for 10 classic smartphones

Huawei P8: First Look

Xiaomi Mi4i vs Asus Zenfone 2 (2GB): Quick Comparison

LG G4: First Look

Asus Zenfone 2 and Zenfone Selfie: In Pictures

Sony's current & upcoming Xperia phones: An Overview

Micromax Canvas Sliver 5: First Look

Sony Xperia C4: First Look

Coolpad Dazen X7 and Dazen 1: In pictures

​
Source: Sony's next generation flagship smartphone to offer a dual-camera setup

Huawei P11 may have Camera Technology to Rival Apple iPhone X’s Face ID and Animoji

2017 is coming to an end, which means the technology media is turning their attention towards the Consumer Electronics Show in the beginning of January and Mobile World Congress in the beginning of March to see what's coming in 2018. Observers of Chinese tech giant Huawei expect the company to unveil the Huawei P11 at Mobile World Congress. The P11 is expected to have a radically different design compared to its predecessor, with an Apple iPhone X style notch. The upcoming Huawei flagship may share more than just a notch with the iPhone X, however, since it may also feature camera technology that rivals Apple's Face ID.

A writer from Italian technology website NotebookItalia reached out to me with some pretty solid reasoning behind why the Huawei P11's notch may be used to hold a camera bar with enhanced technology to compete with the iPhone X. At the global launch event for the Honor 7X and Honor View 10, the company unveiled new 3D camera technology it is calling the "Point Cloud Depth Camera." The purpose of this Point Cloud Depth Camera is to provide facial recognition accurate enough for biometrics and 3D facial mapping for animation purposes.

Huawei's Point Cloud Depth Camera

The Point Cloud Depth Camera is made up of multiple sensors. It uses a structured light near-infrared projector to project a lattice of light onto an object to determine its shape based on how the light deforms. There's also an IR camera, RGB camera, and a near-infrared illuminator all of which is enclosed between two RGB LEDs. All of these sensors are packed into an external accessory that connects to a Huawei smartphone via the USB C port, but it's possible that the Huawei P11 may be the first smartphone to integrate this Point Cloud Depth Camera into the device's frame. If the Huawei P11 does have an iPhone X style notch, then it's likely that the notch area is where Huawei will pack these sensors.

NotebookItalia was able to record a demonstration of the Point Cloud Depth Camera in action. In the video, a Huawei employee shows off 3D facial reconstruction via the external accessory. It's clear that this technology can be used to mimic the animoji on the Apple iPhone X, as Huawei demonstrated on stage. Further, Huawei claims that their technology is more accurate and secure than Apple's. They claim that their facial recognition will be suitable for payment authentication, that their face unlock works in 400ms, and that their facial reconstruction works with less than one millimeter of accuracy.

These are bold claims that will need to be evaluated once a commercial device with this technology is released. We believe that the Huawei P11 may be the first device with this technology, though we can't confirm that in the firmware files we obtained. Roland Quandt from WinFuture points out that the P11 may launch in Q1 2018 as a Huawei executive promised "exciting new products" in Q1 with a focus on camera and AI. Thus, it would make sense for the "exciting new product" to be the Huawei P11 with the Point Cloud Depth Camera. Given the success of the Apple iPhone X, we can't imagine that Huawei isn't already working on a direct competitor with its own version of Apple's Face ID and animoji.

Source: Huawei P11 may have Camera Technology to Rival Apple iPhone X's Face ID and Animoji

Your smartphone camera could one day be your new pin code

Researchers recently conducted a study that allowed them to identify which smartphone took a picture

It was able to identify the correct smartphone 99.5% of the time and only needed one picture to do so

The method relies around on identifying the defects in a phone's camera sensor

The cameras in smartphones today are the best they've ever been. That's not to say you'll be tossing your DSLR out of the window anytime soon, but the improvements over time have certainly been noticeable.

Editor's Pick

Best of Android 2017: Which camera IS the best?

One of the most important areas for every smartphone is how good its camera is, but there are two ways to judge a camera: by whether it is technically good, or whether it looks good. …

But, what you may not realize is that there are still flaws in your pictures. These defects are called photo-response non-uniformity (PRNU). The flaws show up due to imperfections in your camera that happen during the manufacturing process. These are the tiniest of variations that are imperceptible to the human eye and are the focus of a new study.

Researchers at the University of Buffalo conducted the study. The researchers studied over 10,000 pictures from 30 Apple iPhone 6s and ten Samsung Galaxy Note 5 smartphones. It usually takes about 50 photos identify which standalone camera took a photo. The researchers were able to use just one picture and get a 99.5 percent accurate result when testing smartphones.

The study's lead author, Kui Ren, shared this in this paper:

Like snowflakes, no two smartphones are the same. Each device, regardless of the manufacturer or make, can be identified through a pattern of microscopic imaging flaws that are present in every picture they take. It's kind of like matching bullets to a gun, only we're matching photos to a smartphone camera.

The study identified the variations in each camera's sensor to correctly identify them. Factors that researchers looked at included the smartphone cameras projecting colors brighter or darker than average. This is called pattern noise. It's too subtle for the human eye to pick up, but special filters can identify it and each camera has its own pattern.

Researchers say that the process of identifying this pattern could lead to a new form of authentication. They envision a system where a customer supplies a bank or a retailer with a reference photograph of a QR code. The picture is analyzed to find the specific imperfections in their camera. Then, when the customer wants to withdraw money or make a purchase, they just take another picture of the QR code. If the flaws in the picture match, the transaction continues.

See also

How smartphone cameras work – Gary explains

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q7fM_Isq7U Now that smartphones have mostly replaced the point and shoot camera, mobile companies are scrambling to compete where the old imaging giants reigned supreme. In fact, smartphones have completely dethroned the most popular camera companies in …

There is always the threat of a hack, but the researchers say that this method may prevent them. Hackers can remove the PRNU from a picture, but doing so would damage the embedded probe signal in the QR code.

This seems promising, but we see some issues that could arise from it. Phones are stolen every day. Relying on just this form of authentication alone could lead to some pretty nasty issues. Combining it with fingerprints, iris scans, or pin codes could be the way to go. It also seems like you'd need to have your phone with you at all times and set this security up every time you got a new one.

Source: Your smartphone camera could one day be your new pin code

Again, Nubia Phone Renders With Unique Front Camera Appears

Recently, we came in contact with the renders and schematics of a bezel-less Nubia smartphone with some uniqueness in its design. Another render of the Nubia bezel-less phone has appeared online with the special highlight focused on the full-screen design and the unique selfie camera design.

The bezel-less Nubia smartphone render gives a close up shot of the front camera notch which is similar to that of the Essential phone. Apart from the notch, the upper aspect is completely bezel-less as well as the chin. The bottom edge has a very narrow bezel. At the rear, there is a dual camera setup aligned in a vertical direction with the rear-mounted fingerprint sensor sitting under the camera.

Read Also: Renders & Schematics Of Nubia Full Screen Phone Leaked Online

We don't know how authentic the renders are but if at all Nubia is working on a full-screen phone just as the earlier leaked schematics and these renders are suggesting, then it may likely drop next year. There are rumours that the smartphone will be known as Nubia Z19 but that has also not been confirmed. The device is also expected to pack the recently announced Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor which would find its way into flagship models in Q1 2018.

(source)

Source: Again, Nubia Phone Renders With Unique Front Camera Appears

LG V30+ with 6-inch FullVision display, dual rear cameras launched at Rs 44,990

The smartphone is powered by a Snapdragon 835 SoC and features 16MP + 13MP dual rear camera setup with f/1.6 aperture

LG has launched its V30\+ flagship smartphone priced at Rs 44,990. It will be up for sale exclusively on Amazon.in from December 18. The USP of the device is its curved slim-bezel design and a taller 18:9 display. It also sports a dual rear camera setup with PDAF and laser detection autofocus. The handset comes with high-end headphone out-of-the-box and early customers will get a one-time free screen replacement guarantee along with a wireless charger. It will be available in Aurora Black and Cloud Silver colour models.

Coming to the specifications, The LG V30+ sports a 6-inch QHD+ P-OLED FullVision display with 81 percent screen to body ratio and supports HDR10. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 platform coupled with 4GB of RAM. The smartphone comes in a 128GB storage variant, which can be further expanded up to 2TB using a microSD card. It sports a 6-inch QHD+ OLED FullVision display with an 18:9 aspect ratio and runs on Android 7.1.2 Nougat with LG UX 6.0+ on top, which can be upgraded to Android 8.0 Oreo.

The LG V30+ features a dual rear camera setup with one 16MP sensor with f/1.6 aperture lens and another 13MP sensor with a 120-degree wide-angle lens and an aperture of  f/1.9. The main camera comes with EIS and OIS both PDAF and LDAF. It sports a 5MP front-facing camera with f/2.2 aperture and a wide-angle lens. 

Additionally, the LG flagship smartphone is equipped with a 32-bit Hi-Fi Quad DAC by B&O PLAY and is capable of recording lossless audio. It is powered by a 3300mAh battery and supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 and Wireless charging as well. The device comes with a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor and is IP68 water and dust resistant. 

Other Popular Deals

Moto C Plus (Starry Black, 16...

Lenovo Z2 Plus (Black, 32GB)

Honor 6X (Grey, 64GB)

Interesting Galleries Best camera phones under Rs....

Best smartphones to buy under Rs. 7,000 in India right now

14 upcoming mobile phones you should expect in India in 2016

10 smartphone sequels to look forward to in 2015

10 best smartphones between Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 20,000...

Best smartphones under Rs. 15,000 with great battery backup

26 upcoming & latest smartphones to check-out

Slimmest phones you can buy in India [November 2015]

The best upgrade options for 10 classic smartphones

Huawei P8: First Look

Xiaomi Mi4i vs Asus Zenfone 2 (2GB): Quick Comparison

LG G4: First Look

Asus Zenfone 2 and Zenfone Selfie: In Pictures

Sony's current & upcoming Xperia phones: An Overview

Micromax Canvas Sliver 5: First Look

Sony Xperia C4: First Look

Coolpad Dazen X7 and Dazen 1: In pictures

​
Source: LG V30+ with 6-inch FullVision display, dual rear cameras launched at Rs 44,990