Today we're going to be durability testing the Samsung Galaxy A80 – a mid-range motorized
smartphone that both raises and flips at the same time. Things are getting pretty crazy.
This video is sponsored by RAID Shadow Legends RAID has sponsored a few of my durability
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a free epic champion and 50,000 silver – all part of the new player program. Huge thanks
once again to RAID Shadow Legends for sponsoring this video.
Now it's time to see if the Galaxy A80 can withstand my durability test. Let's get started.
[Intro]
Samsung says that the A80 is built for the Era of Live since it has that ability to raise
and flip the rear cameras over and around the front, which lets the user then use the
higher quality camera for selfie situations. The last rising camera phone I tested, the
Oppo Find X, snapped in half and died. So it'll be interesting to see if this rising
phone with what looks like the same mechanism will die as well. I have my doubts, but this
peachy colored Angel Gold A80 seems to be full of confidence.
[Phone] Let's get started.
[Zack] If you insist.
Right off the bat the phone feels pretty heavy, and even without activating the camera, the
top half of the phone can be manually slid up, but then retracts itself back into it's
shell automatically. We've seen quite a few mechanical pop up cameras. Most have just
a single lens that pops up like the One Plus 7 Pro. Some have a pizza slice like the Oppo
Reno, or a flip around camera like the Zenfone 6. This A80 though could be the most complex
version we've seen yet with both a rising feature and a spin around motion that both
activate simultaneously. It rotates all 3 rear cameras around to the front in one fluid
motion. Technology is pretty cool. Analyzing that little flip-a-roo mechanism from the
inside is going to be super interesting.
If I try to manually rotate the camera backwards while it's in the popped up position it auto
triggers a retract and brings the whole thing back down. I think it's a super unique contraption,
but it's only worthwhile if it's durable and can last, which is what we're going to find
out today.
If the camera's extended and I bump the top with my finger, it will automatically retract.
And then if I hold the camera shut while trying to extend the camera, it makes noises akin
to the dial up era. If you don't know what that means, you can ask your parents. [Dial
up sounds]
We'll bring the triple cameras up so they can watch us commence with the screen scratch
test. I have a set of Mohs mineral picks that tells us what different minerals are made
from by the different levels they scratch at. Level 3, as you can see, means the screen
is made from plastic. In this case, we're talking about the preinstalled screen protector.
We also discover at this point that the camera cannot retract itself when laying on a flat
surface. I assume it's because the flipping and rising motion are all attached to a singular
motor and if the camera can't do it's flippy thing, then the top can't retract. Interesting.
Trying to extend the camera on a flat surface and we get the same results. No flippy means
no extendy.
Continuing with the scratch test.
Now that the screen protector's removed, we know that since this phone is using tempered
Gorilla Glass 3, we shouldn't start seeing scratches until a level 6. And that is indeed
the case – scratches at a level 6 with deeper grooves at a level 7. Pretty normal. Keys,
coins, and razor blades won't do any damage to the surface of the screen. The display
does look pretty awesome though. No notch and barely any bezels. Even the earpiece looks
like it's completely gone, just like we saw with the Note 10. I'll pop up the mechanical
camera with it's 8 megapixel ultra wide camera on the left, the 48 megapixel main camera
in the center, and the 3D depth camera on the right side next to that single LED flash.
The surface of the camera is made from glass. No scratches are made with my razor blade.
The cool thing to do on a lot of phones these days is to add an under screen fingerprint
scanner, and the A80 is no different. With an onscreen fingerprint scanner down near
the bottom of the phone, I'll take my level 7 grooves and scratch up the surface of the
glass after my fingerprint is set to simulate years worth of heavy abuse. And it looks like
even with all that extra damage, the Galaxy A80 is still able to recognize that fingerprint
and unlock the phone pretty much every single time.
The sides of the phone are made from aluminum and have a thin protective piece of plastic
surrounding each of those sides. Extra protection is always a good thing. The volume buttons
are both made from metal, as well as the side of the pop up camera which is built into the
frame of the phone. The top of the camera unit and the bezel of the screen are also
both made from metal. Samsung is going all out with premium materials.
Cruising around to the bottom side of the phone we find no headphone jack. But we do
see a 25 watt fast charging cable USB C port, and a SIM card tray with no expandable memory.
This mid-range phone appears to be losing extra features, just like we see on the major
flagships.
Flipping the phone around to the back, we can see the same trio of cameras that we tested
on the front. And if we manually pull the camera upwards, we can see the rising shaft
of the camera is made from plastic. It took us a while but we found some. The back panel
also feels like plastic but is actually Gorilla Glass 6 and unscratchable by my razor blade.
It leaves the Samsung logo unscathed. Not too shabby. I mean personally, I think phones
should be tools with as many features as possible...like a Swiss army knife. Even if you don't use
every feature, it's still good to have it. So I feel like this Galaxy A80 is geared towards
techie people who care the most about the camera, but also like having a unique looking
conversation starting smartphone. Which I totally understand when most phones these
days look like they're all following the same cookie cutter design.
I held the lighter in place on the 6.7 inch 1080p AMOLED display for over 30 seconds with
no damage to the screen...which doesn't mean a whole lot of anything. I just started burning
phones 4 years ago and can't seem to stop. Speaking of not stopping, let's keep going
with this camera. Trying to pull the camera directly out of the top of the phone is pretty
fruitless. It's in there pretty tight. Banging it around on my desk doesn't do a whole lot
either. Even direct top down pile drives leaves the slider intact. Still in the tracts it
originally arrived in. No extra grinding or glitches...yet.
Some cellphone pop up cameras have a fall detection feature where if the camera detects
a fall while the camera is protruded, it'll auto retract in the air on it's way down.
And it looks like the A80 kind of does the same thing. It does a weird little half retract
and then stops. Kind of bracing for impact. I tried going a bit higher up for the last
drop and got the same result. Kind of strange.
One thing I thought of when I first saw this phone was a stencil. You know, when you can
push the letters of a stencil cut out? With this camera being only attached on either
side, I wanted to see if I could pop it out of the frame...like a stencil. But even when
pushed from both the back side and the front side, the spinney camera stays intact inside
of it's little housing. It's got some movement, but it's still very sturdy.
I imagine that other things on this phone will start breaking before the camera mechanism
does. Even after all this abuse being forced in and held out against it's will, the camera
is still moving strong with no grinding noises, complaints or other weird noises. I'm impressed.
Remember though that the Oppo Find X, which has the same slide up top design that this
phone does, completely died during my bend test. The frame of the Oppo Find X was too
flexi for the screen to handle and the screen broke completely. So let's hope this sliding
A80 is a bit stronger. With the first flex from the back we don't get a whole lot of
movement, just a very minor back panel separation. Bending from the front though is a whole different
story. The back panel is no where near contributing to the structural integrity. It leaves the
phone frame to fend for itself. Even with that major flex the display appears to be
intact still. The back panel is doing nothing to help the phone stay solid. But also, nothing
is permanently breaking. At least now we know where to start for that tear down video.
Overall I'm a fan of companies trying new things. So thumbs up to Samsung for coming
up with a unique motorized camera design all of their own, and making it sturdy enough
to survive my durability test. We'll be taking this Galaxy A80 apart to review it from the
inside. So hit that subscribe button and let me know in the comments what pop up camera,
if any, you like the most. We've reviewed quite a few.
Come hang out with me on Instagram and Twitter and thanks a ton for watching, I'll see you
around.