Earlier this month, Samsung’s mini model of the S9 with model number SM-G8750 appeared in benchmarking website GeekBench while the SM-G8850 featuring dual rear cameras got certified by Tenaa. The smartphones were speculated to be S9 mini, and even a Twitter user claimed that the SM-G8750 would be called the S9 mini. Now the same Twitter user is claiming it would be launched as Galaxy S8 Lite and the SM-G8850 as Galaxy A8 Star in China. The recent Bluetooth certification also hints to the “Lite” tag.
The Samsung SM-G8750 or Galaxy S8 Lite will be powered by an Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 chipset coupled with 4 GB of RAM. It will run on Android 8.0 Oreo with Experience UI on top. The smartphone scored 1619 in the single-core test while maintaining a score of 5955 in the multi-core test.
As for the Samsung SM-G8850 or Galaxy A8 Star, it features a 5.8 inch Super AMOLED Infinity display with a resolution of QHD+ (2960 x 1440 pixels) and is powered by an Octa-core Samsung Exynos 9 Series 9810 chipset with Mali G72Mp18 GPU coupled with 4 or 6 GB of LPDDR4X RAM and expandable memory up to 400 GB with micro-SD card.
In the optics department, the smartphone sports a dual camera set up in the rear consisting of 12 MP + 12 MP camera sensors while offering an 8 MP camera sensor at the front with wide angle lens. It runs on Android 8.0 Oreo and is backed by a 3,000 mAh battery with Fast Charge support. Connectivity features include 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2.4/5 GHz), VHT80 MU-MIMO, GPS and GLONASS, Bluetooth 5 (LE up to 2 Mbps), NFC, Dual SIM (nano + nano/microSD). The smartphone measures 147.7 x 68.7 x 8.4 mm and weighs 163 g. The device is speculated to be available in Black and Blue colour variants and comes with IP68 rated water and dust protection.
The recent appearances and certification hints that the launch of both the devices is at the door. The initial launch will be China, but there is no guarantee it will be launched in other markets as well.