Samsung launches Galaxy S8 Active with bigger battery and shatterproof screen

After all the rumors circulating about the Samsung Galaxy S8 Active, the device has finally been launched. The big highlight of the Samsung Galaxy S8 Active would be its durability and ruggedness making it tougher in extreme environments, bigger battery life, and of course a shatterproof design.

The smartphone will be available in meteor grey and titanium gold color variants with its unique military grade shielding. The Samsung Galaxy S8 Active has a shatterproof display (a drop from up to 5 feet onto a flat surface), is dust and water-resistant, and has a metal frame and bumper to protect against shock, abrasion, tilting or twisting. The back cover also has a rugged, tough texture for a secure grip.

The South Korean company claims that the device has passed military specification (MIL-STD-810G) testing against a subset of 21 specific environmental conditions, including extreme temperature, dust, shock/vibration, and low pressure/high altitude.

The battery pack goes up to 4000mAh with 32 hours of talk time, 5 days on standby time, and 113 hours of audio playback time on speaker. The device runs on Android 7.0 Nougat, has a single Nano-SIM support, features a 5.8-inch QHD+(1440x2560 pixels) Super AMOLED display, and is powered by the Snapdragon 835 SoC with 4GB of RAM. The smartphone offers 64GB of inbuilt storage with the option to expand further via a microSD slot (up to 256GB).

Optics include a 12-megapixel rear camera with autofocus, optical image stabilization (OIS), 8x digital zoom, and LED flash. At the front, there is an 8-megapixel sensor with autofocus.

“Our new Samsung Galaxy S8 Active is designed with tested durability and strength to address the needs of consumers who need a more rugged device for their lifestyle,” said Tim Baxter, president, and CEO of Samsung Electronics, North America.

The S8 Active will initially be exclusive to the US market and AT&T as the carrier, Samsung said. It costs $850, $100 more than the standard S8.