THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
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The galaxy and its girlfriends

The galaxy and its girlfriends

Samsung issues a special BNK48 edition of its superb new J8 phone

THE GALAXY J8 is new affordable smartphone from Samsung that features a large display and good quality cameras.
The J8 is a new top model of Samsung’s mid-tier phones. And Samsung has recruited BNK48 as brand ambassadors for J8, so it’s also issued the Galaxy J8 BNK48 Edition.
I got to try the non-pop-idol edition in a sleek polycarbonate matte finish. Although the J8 is not powered by the flagship processor from Qualcomm, I didn’t feel the phone was slow during the test.
The J8 is instead powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 octa-core processor running at 1.8GHz. It has three gigabytes of working memory or RAM and 32GB of internal storage, which is expandable with a microSD card by up to 256GB. It’s good that the phone has an extra microSD slot apart from two nano SIM slots.

The galaxy and its girlfriends

The menus and the touch screen were responsive during the test and apps ran fine.
I tested the Internet connection on TrueMove H’s LTE 4G network. The connection was fast. I used Ookla Speedtest app to measure the connection speed and found that the J8 got the download speed of 45.4Mbps and upload speed of 31.9Mbps.
The J8 is also capable of playing High-Resolution Audio of FLAC 24bit/192kHz format smoothly and with good sound quality. I tested it on Sony MDR-1ABT Hi-Res Audio headphones and found that J8 played Hi-Res Audio songs with good music details and powerful bass.
The J8 comes with 6-inch Super AMOLED HD+ Infinity Display in 720x1480 pixels in 18.5:9 aspect ratio. Although the resolution is less than Full HD, the large size of the display makes it good for watching HD video clips. 
During the test, I enjoyed using the J8 to watch TrueID TV movies from TrueVisions. And the J8 comes with Dolby Atmos surround sound technology when used with headphones so watching movies with the Dolby Atmos function was really fun.
Although it is a mid-tier smartphone, the J8 comes with dual rear camera with good picture quality. The rear main camera has 16-megapixel resolution with f/1.7 aperture lens so it has good low-light performance. 
The dual real camera uses a second camera with 5MP resolution and f/1.9 aperture lens for creating Bokeh effect or professionally blurred background.

The galaxy and its girlfriends

To capture outstanding subjects with Bokeh background, you can use the Live Focus shooting mode. This mode will provide a slide bar for adjusting the blur level of the background on the preview screen. 
The effect is live, so you'll get what you’ll get. But you need to take into account that the background blur may not be applied properly if the phone or your subject is moving. 
It might not happen too if the subject is thin or transparent, if it has a similar colour or pattern to the background or if the subject or background is plain. During the test, I could get beautiful shots with blurred background easily.
And with the Live Focus mode, you can shoot first and adjust the blur background later. Best of all, when the background lighting appears in blurred points, you can change the shape of the background blur. You can select a shape, such as a heart, star or flower to decorate the photo while editing your Live Focus photos.
When you open a shot taken with the Live Focus mode, you can tap the button labelled Adjust Background Blur.
Then you will see a blur level bar for changing the level of blurred background. And to change the background blur shape, you can drag the effect list to the left or right and select the effect you want. The effect list will appear only when the photo has blur shape in the background.
You can also have fun taking photos with Live Stickers mode. You can select a live sticker from the list or have the app apply stickers randomly.
There are also other shooting modes, called Auto, Beauty, Pro, Panorama, Night and Continuous shot.
You can mostly choose the Auto mode so the camera evaluates the surroundings and determines the ideal scene mode for the photo. The Pro mode lets you manually adjust the shooting parameters, such as exposure value and ISO value. 
When in Auto and Pro modes, you can lock the focus or exposure of a selected area to prevent the camera from automatically adjusting based on changes to the subjects or light sources.

The galaxy and its girlfriends


And the J8 comes with 16MP front camera with f/1.7 aperture lens and adjustable LED flash. The front camera has Selfie Focus mode that focuses on your face by blurring the background.
There is also a normal selfie mode that you can apply beautification effect on your face. Sticker mode is also available for the front camera.
The J8 also has good security system, allowing you to unlock the phone with your face or with your fingerprint. The facial and fingerprint lock can also be used to activate Secure Folder storage for data protection.
The J8 comes with a 3,500mAh battery that can easily last a day.
The J8 is available in purple, gold or black with a suggested retail price at Bt9,490, while the Galaxy J8 BNK48 Premium Box Set with a limited edition case is Bt12,900, limited to only 20,000 sets, |available exclusively at www.JD.co.th.


>> Network: 2G GSM, 3G WCDMA, 4G LTE FDD, |4G LTE TDD
>> OS: Android 8.0
>> CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 oct-core| 1.8 GHz
>> Memory: 3GB
>> Storage: 32GB, expandable with microSD card by up to 256 GB
>> SIM slot: Dual nano SIM slots plust microSD slot
>> Display: 6-inch Super AMOLED with 720x1480 |pixels in 18.5:9 ratio
>> Cameras: Dual Rear Camera: 16MP (F1.7) +5 MP (F1.9); Front: 16MP (F1.7) 
>> Sensors: Accelerometer, Fingerprint Sensor, Hall Sensor, Proximity
>> Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n; Bluetooth 4.2
>> Location: GPS, Glonass, Beidou
>> Audio: 360-degree surround audio Dolby Atmos Technology
>> Battery: 3,500mAh
>> Dimensions: 159.2 x 75.7 x 8.2mm
>> Weight: 177g
 

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