Crazy Phones: Samsung Galaxy S8 Active leak reveals a chunky phone with a big battery

Monday, 24 July 2017

Samsung Galaxy S8 Active leak reveals a chunky phone with a big battery

Aside from a single leaked image we didn’t know a whole lot about the Samsung Galaxy S8 Active until now, but that’s all changed, as a fairly complete specs list has leaked, along with several photos of the rugged phone.

And rugged is the key word, because if you were expecting a phone that looks like the standard Samsung Galaxy S8 you’re going to be sorely disappointed. The images, shared on Reddit and Android Central, show a handset with bezels around the screen rather than an edge-to-edge display.

It also doesn’t have a curved screen and the Samsung Galaxy S8 Active is supposedly half as thick again as the standard 8mm Galaxy S8. While the frame is apparently metal, the back looks to be plastic rather than glass.

It’s not much of a looker then, but still has a more premium design than most rugged phones and, importantly, should be a lot more durable than the standard S8.

High-end specs and missing features

But it apparently still has the Samsung Galaxy S8’s super-widescreen 18.5:9 aspect ratio, and shares most of that phone’s specs, including a Snapdragon 835 chipset, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage and a 12MP rear camera.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 Active also seemingly betters the Galaxy S8 in one key way, other than its durability, as it supposedly has a 4,000mAh battery. That’s the same size as the Samsung Galaxy S7 Active’s juice pack and far bigger than the 3,000mAh one in the S8 or even the 3,500mAh one in the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus.

Although, disappointingly, the Galaxy S8 Active looks to be a step back from the S7 Active in one way, as while that phone has a remappable hardware button that you can use to launch an app or function of your choice, the S8 Active has replaced it with a Bixby button, which isn’t remappable.

Still, aside from that, and the fact that it’s apparently exclusive to AT&T in the US, this looks on paper like a decent handset if you’re after something tough with a big battery and flagship specs.