Which one is better?

Huawei’s never been shy about their open challenge to rival brand Samsung on their mid-range phone, the Galaxy A8. Well, today, we’re going to take them on their offer to pit their mid-range G8 against the offering of the Korean juggernaut. Both phones are targeting the same mid-range market, and are roughly equivalent to each other when it comes to specs and build quality. Before we continue, be sure to read our review of the Galaxy A8 and the G8 first.

Build:

Both the G8 and the Galaxy A8 are metal-bodied smartphones. The phones are part of the new breed of mid-range devices that sport hi-end bodies at lower pricepoints than their flagship brothers. Both feel extremely premium to the touch, though Samsung’s A8 is thinner, at 5.9mm compared to the G8’s 7.5mm. Because of its thinness, the Galaxy A8 is a little bit tougher to hold compared to the G8, which doesn’t dig into your palm like the A8 does.

One thing though about the A8 is that it’s only marginally taller compared to the G8, even though it has a bigger display. We’re not fans of the back-mounted speaker, because it gets covered when you set the phone flat on a table with the screen up which isn’t a problem with the G8.

Display:

While both phones are full HD resolution, the A8 has a bit of an edge compared to the G8 because of its bigger display. But in that regard, the G8 has a slight edge over the A8 since it has a higher pixel density – 400ppi vs. 386.

But in practice you’ll hardly see the difference. While the G8 has more accurate colors because of its IPS display, we prefer the Galaxy A8’s Super AMOLED display because of its vibrancy, contrast ratio and brightness. The Galaxy A8 also has thinner bezels compared to the G8, which is the reason why it’s not noticeably taller even though it has a bigger display compared to the G8.

Fingerprint scanner:

Both the G8 and the Galaxy A8 has fingerprint scanners built into their bodies. The Galaxy A8’s is embedded on the physical home key while the G8 is positioned at the back. While both scanners unlock their respective phones quickly, we found the G8 was noticeably faster than the Galaxy A8.

The G8’s fingerprint scanner also pulls double duty as the shutter button when you’re taking selfies, and to pull down the notification tray and clear it without touching the display.

Processor and Hardware:

The G8 is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor, while the Galaxy A8 is powered by Samsung’s own Exynos 5430 octa-core processor that came in the original Alpha (and the Note 4) last year. In terms of raw numbers in AnTuTu, The G8 loses out as the Galaxy A8 manages to score 47616 compared to the G8’s 36438 points.

Camera:

If there’s an area where the Galaxy A8 soars over the G8, it has to be the camera. Like we said in our Galaxy A8 review, the phone has the same 16-megapixel sensor as the one in the Galaxy S6 and the Note 5, albeit stripped down. You don’t get OIS, always-on HDR and a bunch of other features that made the camera experience on Samsung’s other flagships great.

The G8 on the other hand, has a 13-megapixel rear camera that’s capable of good snaps but isn’t up to snuff compared to the Galaxy A8. Like we mentioned in our review, it’s capable of taking decent snaps, but it’s very inconsistent, and consistency is what you want in a camera.

Battery life:

One thing about having a mid-range processor is that it doesn’t eat up a lot of juice. That’s certainly the case with the G8, as it managed to post a PCMark battery benchmark of 8 hours and 12 minutes.

The Galaxy A8 on the other hand, posted a score of 7 hours and 35 minutes.

Pricing:

Huawei is pricing the G8 at Php 17,990. That’s a bit high for a mid-range smartphone, but it’s still within the nominal price range for most manufacturers. Samsung on the other hand, is pricing the Galaxy A8 at Php 24,990 – around the same price as the high-end offerings of the Chinese company and other brands. That price point puts it at the same price as their previously released flagship, the S6. While Samsung maintains that the official price of the S6 is 35,990, the cold truth is that we don’t live in a vacuum – other stores list the S6 at a little over 25K, which makes the case for the Galaxy A8 a little harder to swallow.