Galaxy A8 spotted in catalog picture: could it be primed for launch?

For the past few weeks now, a slow-but-steady-stream of news has been leaking out about Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy A8 smartphone. The device, which has still yet to even be announced by the OEM, has piqued the attention of some for several reasons: it looks much closer to the Galaxy S6 than it does the Galaxy A-series, and it includes support for microSD. Thanks to an attentive reader at GSM Arena, we now have an even more proof of the product’s existence, this time from a product brochure:

As can be seen from the advertisement, the device is just 5.9mm thick, which makes it the thinnest smartphone Samsung has made so far. Also mentioned is the inclusion of a f/1.9 aperture 16-megapixel rear camera (complete with Real Time HDR) and a 3050mAh battery to power its 5.66-inch FHD Super AMOLED screen. Other specs listed are an unknown Octa-Core CPU, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of ROM, Category 6 LTE, VoLTE, a 5-megapixel front camera, and even support for Korea’s DMB digital television service. As with other members of the Galaxy A family, microSD support is included, with this device sporting a maximum of 128GB. Android 5.1 is also on-board.

The design language is quite reminiscent of the Galaxy S6 complete with the indentations along the side of the frame. The A8 also looks to retain the metal-frame build that the series made popular (a feature that, sadly, was not carried over to the Galaxy Tab A). The presence of two trays along the left side of the phone would indicate the microSD will be separate from the SIM as opposed to a stacked presentation. Rumors point to the existence of a Galaxy A6 and an A9 in the pipeline, and it would not be surprising the see the S6 design language carried over to them as well.

The fact that this advertisement is for the Korean market is interesting: the Galaxy A series was first released in China, and select other Asian territories at the end of last year. South Korea received two of the three devices somewhat later (the A3 was skipped entirely). It would appear that Samsung is eager to make this product more of a priority in its home market, though we could only begin to speculate as to why.

While the idea of an advertisement depicting a phone that hasn’t been announced might seem unusual, this would hardly be the first time a device has been spotted in print prior to its announcement. Assuming the same kind of thing is going on here, the Galaxy A8 might become official in a matter of days, if not sooner. Any takers?